February of 2025

Archives

Ask Mr Bhutan

The rise in youth crimes in Bhutan stems from various causes, requiring a multifaceted solution. My experiences living in high-crime nations like India and Senegal, as well as low-crime countries like Bhutan, and very low crime countries like Switzerland and Finland, have shaped my understanding. Having personally transitioned from a violent life to a non-violent one, I offer my thoughts and solut

Feb 08, 2025 1 mins read 16,236 views
RMA lowers minimum lending rate, but borrowers see no relief

The central bank, the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA), revised the minimum lending rate (MLR) to 6.38 percent in D...

Feb 28, 2025 2 mins read 3,246 views
Phamai Doonghing: Parents’ network fighting childhood cancer

When faced with the devastating reality of childhood cancer, Bhutanese families are often left to navigate...

Feb 28, 2025 2 mins read 4,760 views
Make tax payment easy, not painful

A  nation’s progress is not just about big infrastructure or economic growth; it is also about how efficiently systems function for its people. Today, in our country, despite efforts to modernise governance, some basic services remain frustratingly difficult. Tax payment is one of them.

Feb 28, 2025 2 mins read 3,918 views
More than 200 register for 2025 Bhutan International Marathon

More than 200 runners, including over 50 international participants, have signed up for the 11th Bhutan Intern...

Feb 28, 2025 2 mins read 4,925 views
Farmers in Darla swap cash crops for dairy farming

Chukha-For many years, farmers in Darla gewog, Chukha, relied on cash crops like cardamom and citrus—crops that once brought prosperity but hav...

Feb 28, 2025 3 mins read 5,497 views
ཨ་སམ་གུ་ཧ་ཊི་ལུ་སྦེ་ ཨེཌི་བཱན་ཊེཇི་ཨ་སམ་༢.༠ གྲོས་འཛོམས།

༉ སྤྱི་ཟླ་༢ པའི་ཚེས་༢༥ དང་༢༦ ལུ་ རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་མངའ་སྡ...

Feb 28, 2025 1 mins read 739 views
གཞུང་གྲྭ་ཚང་གི་ རྡོ་རྗེ་སློབ་དཔོན་མཆོག་ལུ་ པཎྲིཏ་ཝ་ན་རཏྣ་ཞི་བའི་ གསེར་གྱི་རྟགས་མ་ཕུལ་ཡོདཔ།

༉ སྤྱི་ཟླ་༢ པའི་ཚེས་༢༣ ལུ་ བང་ལ་དེཤ་གི་རྒྱལ་ས་ ཌ་ཀ་ལུ་སྦེ་ བང་ལ་དེཤ་ནང་པའི་རིག་གཞུང་དར་སྤེལ་ཚོགས་པ་གིས་ གཞུང་གྲྭ་ཚང་གི་ རྡོ་རྗེ་སློབ་དཔོན་མཆོག་ལུ་ པཎྲིཏ་ཝ་ན་རཏྣ་ཞི་བའི་ གསེར་གྱི་རྟགས་མ་ཕུལ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

Feb 28, 2025 1 mins read 822 views
གྲུབ་འབྲས་ལག་ཁྱེར་གནང་ཡོདཔ་།

༉ སྤྱི་ཟླ་༢ པའི་ཚེས་༢༥ ལུ་ གཞུང་གྲྭ་ཚང་གི་ གཙུག་ལག...

Feb 28, 2025 1 mins read 721 views
Bhutan in Focus: The Call of the Mountains at the Kolkata French Film Festival 2025

Last year, a French film, ”La Tresse” (The Braid),...

Feb 28, 2025 5 mins read 4,543 views
གནས་ཚུལ་མདོར་བསྡུས།

༉ ད་རིས་ འབྲུག་དང་ སིངྒ་པོར་གྱིས་ ནག་རྫས་ཀར་བཱོན་ཚོང་ལས་མཉམ་འབྲེལ་གྱི་ ཆིངས་ཡིག་ལག་ལེན་གུ་ མཚན་རྟགས་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས། ཆིངས་ཡིག་...

Feb 28, 2025 1 mins read 831 views
གནས་ཚུལ་མདོར་བསྡུས།

༉ ཁ་ཙ་ རང་ཟླ་༡༢ པའི་ཚེས་༢༩ ལས་འགོ་བཙུགས་ རང་ཟླ་དང་པའི་ཚེས་༤ ཚུན་ ཉིན་གྲངས་ལྔའི་རིང་ གཞུང་གྲྭ་ཚང་གི་ རྡོ་རྗེ་སློབ་མཆོག་གིས་ དབུ་བཞུགས་ཐོག་ལས་ སྤུ་ན་ཁ་ དཀར་སྦིས་མཆོད་རྟེན་རྙིང་པོ་ འབྲུག་མི་འགྱུར་ལྷུན་པོའི་ དགོན་འཛིན་གྲྭ་ཚང་ནང་ དགེ་འདུན་པ་ཞལ་གྲངས་༡༠༠ ལྷགཔ་ཅིག་གིས་ ལོ་བསྟར་བཞིན་དུ་གནང་སྲོལ་ཡོད་པའི་ རྒྱལ་ཁམས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་རིམ་ རྒྱལ་བ་བྱམས་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་འབུམ་ཐེར་ཐེངས་༦ པ་ འགོ་བཙུགས་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ།

Feb 28, 2025 1 mins read 714 views
ཆུ་ཁའི་རྒེད་འོག་ཚུ་ནང་ ས་སྣུམ་མ་ལང་པའི་ དཀའ་ངལ་བྱུང་དོ་ཡོདཔ།

ས་གནས་ཀྱི་མི་སེར་ཚུ་གིས་ གནད་དོན་སེལ་ཐབས་དོན་ལུ་ འ...

Feb 28, 2025 6 mins read 1,287 views
རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་བུ་ལོན་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ཐེར་འབུམ་༢༩༣ ལུ་ ཡར་འཕར།

༉ སྤྱི་ལོ་༢༠༢༤ ཟླ་༡༢ པ་ མཇུག་བསྡུ་བའི་སྐབས་ འབྲུག་...

Feb 27, 2025 6 mins read 1,266 views
གནས་ཚུལ་མདོར་བསྡུས།

༉ སྤྱི་ཟླ་༢ པའི་ཚེས་༢༥ ལུ་ སྤ་རོ་དང་ བཀྲིས་གཡང་རྩེ་ལུ་སྦེ་ རང་བཞིན་སྲུང་སྐྱོབ་སྡེ་ཚན་དང་ འཛམ་གླིང་རི་དྭགས་མ་དངུལ་གྱིས་ གངས་གཟིག་དང་ ཨ་ཅོ་གདོང་དཀར་ཚུ་ སྲུང་སྐྱོབ་འབད་ནིའི་དོན་ལུ་ ལས་འགུལ་ཅིག་ འགོ་འབྱེད་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ད་ སྤ་རོ་ལུ་ གངས་གཟིག་༡༡ ཡོད་མི་དེ་ གྱངས་ཁ་མཐོ་ཤོས་ཨིནམ་བཞིན་དུ་ རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ནང་ ཨ་ཅོ་གདོང་དཀར་༣༠༨ ཡོད་པའི་གྲས་ལས་ བཀྲིས་གཡང་རྩེ་ལུ་༢༦ ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ།

Feb 27, 2025 0 mins read 665 views
Gewogs in Chukha struggle with fuel shortage

Chukha-Residents of Bongo, Darla, and Getana gewogs in Chukha continue to face fuel crisis as the lone fuel depot in Gedu frequently runs dry, sometimes up to a...

Feb 27, 2025 2 mins read 6,466 views
National debt touches Nu 293 billion

Bhutan’s national debt climbed to Nu 292.74 billion by the end of December 2024, which is equivalent to 97.1 percent of the country’s estimated gross domestic product (GDP), according t...

Feb 27, 2025 2 mins read 3,099 views
Need for clarity to forge ahead

Our glaciers are melting at an alarming rate—threatening not just the 700,000 and more people who depend on them, but also the 1.6 billion people downstream who rely on Himalayan water sources.

Feb 27, 2025 2 mins read 1,951 views
Paradox of Bhutan’s water crisis

Bhutan, a country with one of the world’s richest freshwater resources, is paradoxically grappling with severe water shortages in many regions. Despite an estimated 80 billion cubic meters of available water, some communities face chronic scarcity.

Feb 27, 2025 3 mins read 2,813 views
Govt. eases environmental restoration bond for mines to boost business

The government aims to increase the mining and quarrying sector’s GDP contribution...

Feb 27, 2025 2 mins read 2,405 views
ཨའི་དང་ཨ་ལུ་མཐའ་སྐྱོང་ལས་རིམ་གྱིས་ ཁེ་ཕན་ཚུ་འཐོབ་ནི་ཨིནམ།

༉ གསོ་བ་ལྷན་ཁག་གིས་ སྤྱི་ཟླ་༢ པའི་ཚེས་༢༡ ལུ་ ཨ་ལུ་...

Feb 26, 2025 5 mins read 1,307 views
ཚལ་ལུ་རྒྱ་ཆེ་དྲགས་སྦེ་ ཕྱིར་ཚོང་འཐབ་ཚུགས་ཡོདཔ།

༉ ད་རེས་ཀྱི་ ཚལ་ལུའི་དུས་ཚོད་སྐབས་ རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱིས་ ཚ...

Feb 26, 2025 3 mins read 1,132 views
སྤུ་ན་ཁ་དང་ མགར་སའི་བར་ན་ འཁོར་ལམ་ཉམས་བཅོས་འབད་དགོཔ།

༉ ལོ་ངོ་བཅུ་ཕྲག་གི་རྒྱབ་ལས་ ཀི་ལོ་མི་ཊར་༧༤ འབད་མི་ སྤུ་ན་ཁ་དང་ མགར་སའི་གཞུང་ལམ་དེ་ རྫོང་ཁག་གཞན་དང་གཅིག་ཁར་ མཐུད་སྦྲེལ་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ད་ སྤྱིར་བཏང་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ རྟ་གུ་ཁུར་ཆ་བཀལ་ཏེ་ ཉིན་ལམ་༢ ཀྱི་རིང་ རྐང་འགྲུལ་འབད་དེ་ མགར་ས་རྫོང་ཁག་ནང་ འགྱོ་དགོཔ་ཨིན་རུང་ སྤྱི་ལོ་༢༠༡༢ ལས་ གཞུང་ལམ་དེ་ དུས་ཡུན་ཆུ་ཚོད་༣ གྱི་ནང་འཁོད་ལུ་ སྣུམ་འཁོར་ནང་སྦེ་ ལྷོད་ཚུགསཔ་སོང་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

Feb 26, 2025 6 mins read 933 views
གཞུང་གི་ལས་སྡེ་ཚུ་གིས་ གསར་སྒྲུབ་འཆར་དངུལ་ ཚ་ངེར་བཏོན་ཏེ་ ལག་ལེན་འཐབ་དགོཔ།

༉ སྤྱི་ཟླ་༢ པའི་ཚེས་༡༩ ལུ་ དངུལ་རྩིས་ལྷན་ཁག་གིས་ ག...

Feb 26, 2025 5 mins read 749 views
མི་རློབས་ས་ཡ་ལས་བཅད་མི་ཚུ་ལུ་ འཐུང་ཆུའི་དཀའ་ངལ་བྱུང་སྟེ་ཡོདཔ།

༉ འབྲུག་གི་ ཁྱེགས་རི་དང་ ཆུ་རྐ་ཚུ་ལུ་ གནམ་གཤིས་འགྱ...

Feb 26, 2025 6 mins read 1,345 views
Looming water crisis for millions?

Bhutan’s glaciers and water sources are under threat from climate change, endangering 240 million people in the Himalayas and 1.6 billion downstream, Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay warned at...

Feb 26, 2025 4 mins read 5,397 views
Finance ministry urges govt. agencies to expedite capital budget use

The Ministry of Finance issued a directive on February 19 urging all government agencies to accelerate capital project implementation, citing serious concerns over slow budget utilisation in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Feb 26, 2025 2 mins read 2,913 views
Mandarin exports rebound

Mandarin exports recorded a strong recovery this season, with the country exporting 35,674.96 metric tonnes (MT) and earning Nu 1.43 billion in revenue.

Feb 26, 2025 1 mins read 4,605 views
Mother and child healthcare gets a boost

The Ministry of Health (MoH) launched the ‘Accelerating Maternal and Child Health Programme’ (AMCHP) on February 21 to improve the health and well-being of mothers and child...

Feb 26, 2025 2 mins read 3,144 views
Punakha-Gasa highway in need of repair

Punakha—For more than a decade, the 74-kilometre Punakha-Gasa highway has been the district’s vital link to the rest of the country.  Once an arduous two-day trek by horseback, th...

Feb 26, 2025 1 mins read 5,040 views
Bridging skills and opportunity

After years of striving to build a skilled workforce through the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) initiative, the labour ministry this week unveiled the Community for Skilled Workers (C4SW) programme launched with a website, constitution and bylaws.

Feb 26, 2025 2 mins read 1,867 views
Jampeling Central School wins National Space Challenge

Two students from Jampeling Central School in Trashigang won the National Space Challenge 2025. The week-long competition, which st...

Feb 26, 2025 2 mins read 3,175 views
དྲང་ཁྲིམས་དོན་ལུ་ ལྟེ་བ་གསརཔ་ཅིག་ འགོ་འབྱེད་མཛད་གནང་ཡོདཔ།

༉ སྤྱི་ཟླ་༢ པའི་ཚེས་༢༢ ལུ་ འཇིགས་མེད་སེངྒེ་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་སློབ་གྲྭ་དང་ འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཁྲིམས་དོན་སྤེལ་ཁང་ དེ་ལས་ འབྲུག་གི་རྒྱབ་མི་ཚོགས་སྡེའི་ གཙོ་འཛིན་ཨིན་མི་ མི་དབང་རྒྱལ་པོའི་སྲསམོ་ བསོད་ནམས་བདེ་ཆེན་དབང་ཕྱུག་མཆོག་གིས་ སྤ་རོའི་གྲོས་འཛོམས་སྐབས་ དྲང་ཁྲིམས་དོན་ལུ་ ལྟེ་བ་གསརཔ་ཅིག་ འགོ་འབྱེད་མཛད་གནང་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

Feb 25, 2025 4 mins read 1,319 views
Wisdom Centre ushers in new era of justice

Fostering co-ordination among justice sectors and ensuring an agile, responsive, and effective legal system in the country has become more critical than ever.

Feb 25, 2025 3 mins read 7,618 views
Super -speciality hospital to transform healthcare

Bhutan is set to witness a groundbreaking transformation in its healthcare system with the construction of a Multi-Disciplinary Super-Specialit...

Feb 25, 2025 3 mins read 4,094 views
Powering homes, empowering locals

Homeowners and builders can now hire local electricians and plumbers at affordable rates, with assured quality, reliability, and service guarantees under the Community for Skilled Workers (C4SW), according to its newly launched website, constitution, and bylaws released by the Department of Labour (DoL).

Feb 25, 2025 3 mins read 4,794 views
Making the 10X vision a reality

The government has set an ambitious target to increase real GDP tenfold by 2050, catapulting the country into the ranks of developed economies. The "21st Century Economic Roadmap–A 10X National Econom...

Feb 25, 2025 2 mins read 2,068 views
Biometric system to ease border crossing in Phuentsholing

Phuentsholing—The Department of Immigration (DoI) launched the Automated Immigration Clearance System (AICS) at the Phuent...

Feb 25, 2025 1 mins read 5,238 views
Paro FC Coach Puspalal Sharma to lead Butwal Lumbini FC in Nepal’s top league

Paro FC’s 41-year-old technical director, Puspalal Sharm...

Feb 25, 2025 2 mins read 5,668 views
Strategic roadmap to transform civil service by 2035

Inspired by His Majesty the King’s vision, the Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) unveiled its Strategic Roadmap 2025-2035 on February 21 to transform the civil service into an Enlightened Entrepreneurial Bureaucracy (E²B) by 2035.

Feb 25, 2025 3 mins read 9,836 views
Trongsa Viewpoint Resort conundrum: Who is accountable?

Trongsa—The Viewpoint Resort in Trongsa, once a star-rated luxury property, has been left in a state of disrepair, with no clear plans for redevelopment, even after the long legal dispute ended three years ago.

Feb 22, 2025 4 mins read 10,135 views
Browse Archives
Journalists urge to dig deeper into Bhutan’s climate realities

Bhutan’s carefully cultivated image as a green success story needs journalism that is willing to look beyond slogans and into lived realities, participants were told at the opening of a two-day training on climate change, environmental reporting and long-form narrative journalism in Punakha today.

Jan 12, 2026 3 mins read 852 views
Lower taxes, stubborn prices: What GST means for car buyers

Vehicle prices in Bhutan continue to be a point of contention, especially when compared with those in neighbouring India...

Jan 10, 2026 4 mins read 3,453 views
New income tax law puts more money in taxpayers’ pockets

When the Goods and Services Tax (GST) came into force on January 1, public attention largely centred on prices, complian...

Jan 10, 2026 2 mins read 2,223 views
GST projected to raise govt. revenue by 47% to Nu 14.18 billion by 2027

The Ministry of Finance projects that revenue from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will reach Nu 14.18 billion in the f...

Jan 10, 2026 2 mins read 3,101 views
GST raises everyday service costs, spares education and healthcare

For Phuntsho Wangdi, a corporate employee, the impact of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is felt in the monthly househo...

Jan 10, 2026 3 mins read 2,245 views
Only registered GST businesses can charge GST

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) should prevent retailers from facing a cascading price effect by allowing them to claim...

Jan 10, 2026 2 mins read 1,856 views
GST hits farmers as feed and fertiliser costs ripple across food chain

The impact of Goods and Services Tax (GST) is being felt most immediately and viscerally in the agriculture and livestoc...

Jan 10, 2026 3 mins read 38,092 views
Where five percent hurts most

Prices in most shops have jumped five percent overnight. In Changzamtog, a couple sits at their tiny wooden table, counting what little money they have left. The husband, the sole breadwinner, earns Nu 17,0...

Jan 10, 2026 3 mins read 7,094 views
How excise tax reshapes prices of sin goods

The new excise tax (ET) framework, effective from January 1, has led to price increases for alcohol, tobacco, carbonated...

Jan 10, 2026 2 mins read 1,682 views
New income tax law widens relief for families and households

The government has introduced a range of tax relief measures for individuals under a new income tax framework rolled out...

Jan 10, 2026 2 mins read 3,018 views
New FDI regime offers wider access to foreign investors in agriculture

The agriculture and livestock sector is seeing an increased investor interest following major reforms in foreign direct investment (FDI) policy that liberalised ownership rules and eased approvals.

Jan 03, 2026 3 mins read 2,080 views
BCCI submits 35 business ideas to govt. for private sector engagement

The Bhutan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) has submitted 35 business proposals from 12 sector associations to th...

Dec 20, 2025 2 mins read 2,489 views
Bhutan attracts major impact finance commitments at SDG forum

During the two-day Bhutan SDG Impact Finance Forum held last week in Thimphu, international and high-level participants...

Dec 20, 2025 3 mins read 1,194 views
Businesses propose action oriented public-private forum to address private sector woes

The Bhutan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) has proposed the government to re-establish the high-level Private Se...

Dec 20, 2025 2 mins read 1,415 views
Taxes our forefathers paid

Jan 13, 2026 2 mins read 427 views
Gym that asks you to grow, not just train

Jan 10, 2026 2 mins read 270 views
Happiness with Mr Bhutan

Happiness can be described in countless ways, yet it is always experienced as one. Even if we fail to put it into words, we still recognise it. Sometimes, only when old words fade from the ton...

Dec 18, 2025 4 mins read 1,050 views
Happiness with Mr Bhutan

Happiness can be described in countless ways, yet it is always experienced as one. Even if we fail to put it into words, we still recognise it. Sometimes, only when old words fade from the ton...

Dec 16, 2025 4 mins read 739 views
Making GST work past early hiccups

The introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a major fiscal reform in recent years. These new reforms are part of a broader effort to modernise the country’s tax system to make taxation fairer, more efficient, and more business-friendly, while also increasing the tax base.

Jan 10, 2026 2 mins read 777 views
The cost of delay

Jan 07, 2026 2 mins read 1,151 views
A new chapter for Kuensel

Two decades ago, in February 2005, Kuensel increased its publication frequency to twice a week. This move was a direct response to our readers’ growing needs and a conscious preparation for the n...

Jan 03, 2026 2 mins read 887 views
Strengthening the third sector

Over the years, the civil society sector has quietly assumed a critical role in bridging policy and people. Often referred to as the third sector, CSOs have emerged as indispensable partners in Bhutan’s pursuit...

Dec 31, 2025 2 mins read 1,163 views
Why selective privatisation in healthcare makes sense

The debate on private sector participation in healthcare has reached an unhelpful impasse. This is mainly because it is...

Dec 30, 2025 2 mins read 1,524 views
Agencies must be held accountable for financial irregularities

The Royal Audit Authority’s (RAA) latest annual report is disturbing, to say the least. Financial irregularities reached...

Dec 29, 2025 2 mins read 2,997 views
What about moral and ethical accountability?

The Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) investigation into the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) loan was meant to settle...

Dec 27, 2025 2 mins read 1,903 views
Citizens building a nation’s future

The fourth round of the Gelephu Mindfulness City volunteer programme, which drew a record 10,000 participants, pushing total participation beyond 22,500, must be celebrated as a national moment. The overwhelming number of volunteer...

Dec 26, 2025 2 mins read 1,554 views
The promise of Bhutan-Thailand Free Trade Agreement

The parliamentary endorsement of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Thailand marks a watershed moment in Bhutan’s econo...

Dec 25, 2025 2 mins read 1,478 views
Time to open farms to foreign labour

The shortage of farm labour is a real problem faced by farming households across the country.  Over the years, this has undermined productivity, escalated food prices, and led to a steady increase in fallow land. Against this ba...

Dec 24, 2025 2 mins read 900 views
Amochu quarriers call for flood walls after millions in losses

Phuentsholing—Businesses involved in extracting and exporting boulders, gravel, and sand along the Amochu river are call...

Oct 16, 2025 2 mins read 2,519 views
Sir, your advice to the younger generation?

Choose your environment Your environment is the invisible hand that constantly shapes the way you think, feel, and act....

Nov 19, 2025 1 mins read 850 views
Happiness with Mr Bhutan

Our global culture has conditioned us to spend the best of ourselves in the pursuit of a “decent living” whatever that m...

Sep 22, 2025 4 mins read 3,738 views
Ask Mr Bhutan

In a world that constantly advertises, applauds, and sells consumption, acquisition and growth at all costs, cultivating...

Aug 18, 2025 2 mins read 5,125 views
Building inclusive sports

For 15-year-old Nima Dema, a student from Tendruk Central School in Samtse, the opportunity to take part in the ongoing...

Dec 23, 2025 2 mins read 1,115 views
Punatsangchhu-I restarts, but at a heavy price

The resumption of works on the 1,200-megawatt Punatsangchhu Hydropower Project I offers a flicker of hope. After all, th...

Dec 22, 2025 2 mins read 1,800 views
Cost of complacent breathing

Bhutan’s clean air is becoming a comforting myth—pleasant to repeat, dangerous to believe. For years, we have worn the r...

Dec 20, 2025 2 mins read 1,111 views
Entrepreneurs need support, not slogans

We love to talk about innovation, entrepreneurship, and self-reliance. In fact, we use these words in excess in policy d...

Dec 19, 2025 2 mins read 1,147 views
A common destiny, a collective future

The 118th National Day of Bhutan, celebrated in the sacred Bumthang Valley at the historic Wangduechoeling Palace ground...

Dec 18, 2025 3 mins read 1,576 views

Recents

No data available