At 138 pages the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Manifesto was by far the longest and most detailed of the five competing political parties. By comparison the Opposition Bhutan Tendrel Party (BTP) which had the shortest manifesto, had only 63 pages. At one level the PDP manifesto arose from experience in …
Read More »A pledge delivered on Teacher’s Day
Since the Peoples’ Democratic Party’s victory in the parliamentary election, there has been a great anticipation amongst the people that the government honor its pledge to keep Saturdays as a holiday in schools. The government had to carefully consider the pledge from various perspectives, leading to extensive research and resulting …
Read More »Nu 10,000 for third child to cost Govt Nu 6 bn in 5 years
One of the current government’s most popular and discussed pledges is the offer to give Nu 10,000 per month for the birth of a third child till the age of three. A study done on the matter based its projection on the number of third child born in the last …
Read More »Nu 150,000 life insurance to cost Nu 3.261 billion in 5 years in premium costs
The current government had made a pledge to increase the Rural Life Insurance (RLI) sum from Nu 30,000 to Nu 150,000. However, this means that the insurance premium to be paid will increase from the current Nu 121.15 million (mn) a year to Nu 652.36 mn a year, which is …
Read More »GovTech working on Govt pledge to lower data rates
One of the pledges of PDP is to ‘Initiate reduction of telecom charges, such as data charges to 50 percent of the current rate or equivalent to the rates in India.’ The GovTech Agency is working on this pledge of the government, to reduce data charges, and while there are …
Read More »Her Majesty graces Tiger Conference
Her Majesty The Gyaltsuen graced the opening of the Sustainable Finance for Tiger Landscapes Conference, a globally significant summit co-organised by the Royal Government of Bhutan and the Tiger Conservation Coalition, at Dungkar Dzong in Pangbisa, Paro on 22nd April. In the Inaugural Address, Her Majesty, under whose patronage the …
Read More »Govt Secretaries term can be extended depending on performance
Government Secretaries until recently have had a fixed tenure of five years after which they retire, provided they don’t retire earlier due to the retirement age. However, a closer look at the Bhutan Civil Service Rules (BCSR) 2023 released in December 2023 by the Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) shows …
Read More »Govt considering Bangladesh request for SDF discount
Recently the Bangladesh Embassy issued a press release on the visit of the Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen. Buried in the press release was an important line which said that the Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh raised the issue of Sustainable Development Fees (SDF) for tourists and requested to reduce …
Read More »Australia announces 35 and below age limit for work visa after graduation
In the latest move to tighten rules around students visas the Australian Government announced more changes to the Temporary Graduate visa programs or 485 visa which will take effect from 1st July 2024. The first big change is that from 1st July onwards students graduating from vocational, diploma, bachelors, masters …
Read More »Migration and fertility rate impacting enrollment rate in Bhutanese schools and colleges
The enrollment numbers in pre-primary education (PP) and tertiary education is on a downward trend. Earlier, since the revision of the official enrollment age for PP in 2020, which lowered the age limit to 5 years and above, there has been a notable increase in enrollment. However, the Annual Education …
Read More »
The Bhutanese Leading the way.