EDITORIAL

Once upon a time, the government thought a tough Tobacco Law banning import of tobacco will discourage smoking, but what we got was a lot of people getting locked up, legislative backtracking, an elaborate smuggling network that helped bring in COVID-19 and the smokers still continued to smoke. We appear …

With the second dose being given to around 65 percent of the population there is now increasing pressure on the government from various quarters for relaxations. There are nudges and pushes and pulls from many sectors. This in the backdrop of the government on the verge of completing its third …

Bhutan has once again achieved an impressive task of vaccinating more than 90 percent of its eligible adult population within one week, drawing global acclaim once again. If that was not enough, the country has now started vaccinating those between 12 and 17 which has the potential to push us …

The recent third phase of monetary measures gives loan deferral for all sectors to June 2022. This is an important relief measure for an economy hit by COVID-19. The banks initially wanted to give relief to only certain affected sectors like hotels, manufacturing etc but the government led by the …

As of Friday evening Phuentsholing has had a total of 498 cases since the recent outbreak with cases growing daily despite multiple lockdowns and restrictions since the first two cases were detected on 16th April 2021. Samtse also has had 399 cases in a relatively short period of time despite …

As India went through a massive second wave and stopped the export of its vaccines, there were doubts in Bhutan about where it could get its second dose from. The prognosis did not look good as many countries around the world were desperately competing for vaccines. However, now Bhutan not …

Last week the Parliament learnt that around 9,000 students who have passed from class 12 are unable to find colleges or higher education. The reason is due to the COVID-19 pandemic and given that the majority of these students would have normally gone to India and other COVID hit countries …

The real story in the Mining Bill is not just the deferral of the Mining Bill or the debate between the National Council and National Assembly members, but it is something more complex and fundamental. When we talk of mines we are essentially talking of Dolomite, Gypsum and Coal. Despite …

The verdict of Bench 1 of the Thimphu district court dismissing the OAG’s sedition case against Penjore outlines four important reasons for the dismissal and each of them are important. The first point tackles the OAG’s wild swing of the case from a defamation case to that of sedition when …

So far, the focus of the ‘Penjore Penjore’ case has been on the OAG and to an extent the government, but as the case gets filed in court, the focus will shift to the judiciary. This case has put the judiciary in an unenviable position as the proclamations of the …