August of 2025

Archives

Ask Mr Bhutan

In a world that constantly advertises, applauds, and sells consumption, acquisition and growth at all costs, cultivating a mindset of gratitude is not only challenging but absolutely necessary for our well-being.

Aug 18, 2025 2 mins read 6,728 views
Reclaiming our agricultural heritage

Not long ago, villagers-turned-landlords from Chang and Barp in South Thimphu returned to their ancestral lands in Punakha after urban expansion devoured their paddy fields. Some reclai...

Aug 30, 2025 2 mins read 6,161 views
Vehicle dealers stop taking vehicle quota orders amid tax overhaul uncertainty

Automobile dealers in the country have stopped accepting ne...

Aug 30, 2025 3 mins read 4,917 views
Gelephu Airport recruitment draws over 5,100 applicants

Gelephu—Rigsar-Vajra Joint Venture (RVJV) Private Limited, undertaking earth-filling works at Gelephu International Airport, rec...

Aug 30, 2025 3 mins read 8,081 views
Local leaders seek solutions for cross-border meat smuggling in Samtse

Samtse—Local leaders in Samtse say the illegal import of meat from across the border is threatening consumer health, possibly contributing to livestock disease outbreaks, and destabilising the local market.

Aug 30, 2025 2 mins read 6,654 views
Bhutan, India in talks on air traffic pact for Gelephu International Airport

Bhutan and India are in advanced talks over the air traffic servi...

Aug 30, 2025 2 mins read 8,485 views
Govt. revises taxes on alcohol and tobacco to curb NCDs

Amid a growing health crisis fueled by a rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the government is implementing a new taxation...

Aug 30, 2025 2 mins read 12,149 views
Government unveils strategy to tackle youth unemployment

The government has set out a strengthened strategy to curb youth unemployment rate and reduce outmigration by enhancing job c...

Aug 30, 2025 2 mins read 5,969 views
Catching up with cybercrime reality

Bhutan faces an escalating digital security crisis. The Royal Bhutan Police documented 56 cybercrime cases and 960 cyberbullying incidents in 2023 alone, with numbers continuing to climb.

Aug 30, 2025 3 mins read 6,964 views
Managing monsoon stormwater in Bhutan’s urban landscapes: A sustainable perspective

Urbanisation increases impervious surfaces by tran...

Aug 30, 2025 4 mins read 7,971 views
New cohort graduates from JSW Law School

This year’s graduating cohort comprised 24 students from the five-year LL.B/PGDNL programme and 11 from the one-year Post Graduate Diploma in National Law programme

Aug 30, 2025 3 mins read 4,026 views
MoH revises medical referral rules to ease burden on patients

The Ministry of Health is finalising new rules for medical referrals abroad, which is expected to strengthen p...

Aug 30, 2025 2 mins read 6,306 views
Digital health platform to help improve care and policy in Bhutan

A nationwide digital health platform is being developed by the government in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), with the aim of improving healthcare services, promoting preventive care, and equipping policymakers with better data for decision-making.

Aug 30, 2025 2 mins read 3,646 views
Education ministry clarifies ECCD admissions are open to all

When a mother in Punakha was denied a seat for her daughter at an Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) cen...

Aug 30, 2025 2 mins read 4,430 views
‘Our partnership has been agile in responding to the needs of the time’

As your tenure as Ambassador of India to Bhutan comes to an end, how...

Aug 30, 2025 6 mins read 5,092 views
Finance ministry to soft launch GST system on November 11 this year

The finance ministry will soft launch the goods and services tax (GST) system on November 11...

Aug 30, 2025 2 mins read 3,354 views
Ageing well must be Bhutan’s next big goal

The opening of the 9th International Conference on Medical and Health Sciences in Thimphu this week could not have come at a more crucial time.

Aug 29, 2025 2 mins read 5,853 views
Bhutan’s social protection system covers just 8% of population

A new report has warned that Bhutan’s social protection system is fragmented and underfunded, leaving...

Aug 29, 2025 3 mins read 5,424 views
ICMH 2025 focuses on ageing and emerging health challenges

The three-day 9th International Conference on Medical and Health Sciences (ICMH 2025) opened yesterday in Thimphu with...

Aug 29, 2025 2 mins read 5,010 views
Paro court sentences Indian national to 20 years for heroin smuggling

The Paro District Court yesterday sentenced Indian national Aamir Rasul Shikalgar, 35,...

Aug 29, 2025 2 mins read 3,125 views
Bhutan, India expand agricultural cooperation

Bhutanese farmers are set to benefit from a new five-year agreement with India that promises support in improving productivity, expanding market access, and strengthening rural livelihoods.

Aug 29, 2025 2 mins read 4,708 views
WWF Bhutan launches project to save endangered musk deer

The country’s rich forests are home to the musk deer, locally called Lachum, but its survival is under threat. Male Lachum ca...

Aug 29, 2025 2 mins read 5,712 views
First cricket academy gaining momentum with young players

The country’s first private cricket academy, founded by national cricket icon Ranjung Mikyo Dorji in the capital in 2023,...

Aug 29, 2025 2 mins read 2,753 views
དགེ་ལེགས་ཕུག་དྲན་ཤེས་ཁྲོམ་ཚོགས་ ཉེན་སྲུང་དང་ལྡནམ་སྦེ་བཞག་ཐབས་ལུ་ པར་ཆས་བཙུགས་སྒྲིག་འབད་ཡོདཔ།

༉ གསར་སྤང་དང་ དགེ་ལེགས་ཕུག་ལུ་ ཁྲིམས་འགལ་ཐོག་ལས་ ཕ...

Aug 28, 2025 8 mins read 1,146 views
ཨམ་སྲུ་དང་ ཨ་ལུ་ཕྱེད་ཀ་དེ་ཅིག་ ཁྲག་ནད་ཡོད་པའི་གསལ་སྟོན།

༉ གསོ་བའི་གནས་སྟངས་ལེགས་ཤོམ་མེད་མི་ལུ་བརྟེན་ རྒྱལ་...

Aug 28, 2025 5 mins read 1,026 views
སྤུ་ན་གཙང་ཆུ་གློག་མེ་ལས་འགུལ་༢ པ་དེ་ ཧྲིལ་བུམ་སྦེ་ ལག་ལེན་འཐབ་ནི་ འགོ་བཙུགས་ཡོདཔ།

ལས་འགུལ་དེ་ཡང་ ཟད་འགྲོ་དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ཐེར་འབུམ་༨༨.༥ བཏང་...

Aug 28, 2025 6 mins read 1,033 views
འཕེལ་ཚད་བཅུ་ལྟབ་ཀྱི་འཆར་སྣང་དེ་ སོ་ནམ་སྡེ་ཚན་ནང་ ཁ་སྒྱུར་འབད་དོ་ཡོདཔ།

༉ སྒེར་གྱི་སྡེ་ཚན་གྱིས་ བཅའ་མར་གཏོགས་ཐོག་ལས་ རྒྱལ་...

Aug 28, 2025 7 mins read 950 views
དམིགས་བསལ་སྐྱིན་འགྲུལ་ལས་རིམ་གྱིས་ སྐྱིན་ཚབ་དུས་ཚོད་ཁར་ བཏབ་མ་ཚུགས་མི་ལུ་ ལྷན་ཐབས་འབད་ཚུགས་ནི།

ལོ་ངོ་དག་པ་ཅིག་གི་ཧེ་མར་ ནད་ཡམས་ཀོ་བིཌ་-༡༩ ལུ་བརྟེ...

Aug 28, 2025 5 mins read 855 views
Saving the troubled hotel industry

The hotel industry is in deep trouble. Nearly three years since the pandemic, occupancy rates are at rock-bottom, while debts have piled up. The overall occupancy currently hovers around 20 p...

Aug 28, 2025 2 mins read 6,280 views
Punatsangchhu-II hydropower fully commissioned

After nearly 14 years in the making, the Punatsangchhu–II Hydroelectric Project has been fully commissioned, with its final Unit-6 (170MW) successfully syn...

Aug 28, 2025 2 mins read 6,251 views
MoAL aligns with 10X vision to transform Bhutan’s agriculture sector

The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MoAL) is working under a comprehensive s...

Aug 28, 2025 3 mins read 5,327 views
Police step up surveillance operations in Gelephu

Gelephu—Criminal activities, traffic violations, and other unlawful acts, including illegal waste dumping in Gelephu and Sarpang, are now being raided under real-time monitoring to encourage law-abiding residents in the Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC).

Aug 28, 2025 2 mins read 3,126 views
Royal Thimphu College celebrates global academic collaborations

Royal Thimphu College (RTC) celebrated its international partnerships yesterday, honouring its long-term...

Aug 28, 2025 2 mins read 3,090 views
First-ever Bhutan Fashion Week to launch creative industry into global spotlight

Bhutan is preparing to host its first-ever Bhutan Fas...

Aug 28, 2025 3 mins read 5,774 views
Govt. launches climate-resilient urban development pilot projects in Thimphu and Paro

In a joint effort to combat the growing impacts of...

Aug 28, 2025 1 mins read 5,986 views
Two Bhutanese trail runners debut at UTMB World Finals in France

Bhutan will be represented for the first time at the world’s most prestigious trail running event, the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) World Series Finals, as Rigzin Chodra, 44, from Thimphu, and Jigme Tenzin, 38, from Samtse, take to the starting line today in Chamonix, France.

Aug 28, 2025 3 mins read 9,546 views
Fix the health workforce now

Bhutan’s greatest national achievement since the introduction of planned development has been the delivery of free healthcare for every citizen. It is a policy rooted in compassion and equity, and even today,...

Aug 27, 2025 2 mins read 6,262 views
Gyalyum Sangay Choden Wangchuck launches institute to empower women

To commemorate the 70th Birth Anniversary of His Majesty the Fourth King, Edith Cowan Univer...

Aug 27, 2025 2 mins read 5,890 views
Hoteliers to push banks to cut interest rates, ease repayments

The hotel industry in the country, battered by sluggish tourist arrivals and mounting debt, is preparing to...

Aug 27, 2025 2 mins read 6,129 views
Special loan rebate scheme to help borrowers clear NPLs

The Royal Insurance Corporation of Bhutan Limited (RICB) has launched a special loan rebate scheme to help borrowers recover from the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Aug 27, 2025 2 mins read 4,835 views
More than 70,000 students to benefit from FIFA digital programme

Children in the country will soon have greater opportunities to learn through technology, programming...

Aug 27, 2025 1 mins read 2,756 views
Frequent blackouts affect residents and public services in Dorokha

Samtse—Residents of Dorokha in Samtse are struggling with frequent power fluctuations that have...

Aug 27, 2025 2 mins read 6,325 views
Restoration of Changyuel Galem’s house to begin with joint funding

Punakha—Changyuel Galem’s house in Punakha, recognised as a heritage building for its cul...

Aug 27, 2025 2 mins read 3,786 views
Ask Mr Bhutan

Aug 26, 2025 2 mins read 9,310 views
གཞུང་གིས་ ཚོང་འབྲེལ་ཁྱད་པར་བསུབ་ནི་ལུ་ ནང་འཁོད་ལས་ ཤའི་ཐོན་སྐྱེད་འབད་ནི།

གཞུང་གིས་ ཚོང་འབྲེལ་གྱི་ ཁྱད་པར་བསུབ་ནི་དང་ ནང་འདྲ...

Aug 26, 2025 10 mins read 921 views
ལུང་ནག་ན་གི་སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཚུ་ འཕྲལ་མགྱོགས་ར་ སློབ་ཁང་གསརཔ་ནང་ སྤོ་ཚུགས་ནི།

༉ ལུང་ནག་ན་ བསྟན་ཆོས་སློབ་གྲྭའི་སློབ་ཕྲུག་དང་ སློབ...

Aug 26, 2025 7 mins read 1,019 views
ངན་ལྷད་བཀག་སྡོམ་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ནང་ ལས་བྱེདཔ་དགོངས་ཞུ་འབད་མི་ ལེ་ཤ་ཡོད་རུང་ ངན་ལྷད་ཀྱི་གདོང་ལེན་ཡོདཔ།

འདས་པའི་རྩིས་ལོ་ནང་ དགོངས་ཞུའི་ཚད་གཞི་ བརྒྱ་ཆ་༨.༣...

Aug 26, 2025 8 mins read 1,001 views
བསམ་རྩེ་ལུ་ ཌོག་ཊར་མ་ལང་པའི་དཀར་ངལ་ཡོདཔ།

༉ བསམ་རྩེ་ལུ་ མཐའ་ཟུར་གྱི་སྨན་ཁང་གཉིས་ནང་ ཌོག་ཊར་མེད་པའི་དཀའ་ངལ་ཐོན་ཡོདཔ་ད་ རྡོ་རོ་ཁ་དང་ སྒོམ་ཀྲུ་གི་མི་སེར་ཚུ་ གསོ་བའི་མཐུན་རྐྱེན་འཐོབ་ནི་ལུ་ ལཱ་ཁག་བཏང་དོ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

Aug 26, 2025 6 mins read 910 views
Nation cannot thrive on half its blood

Anaemia is not a distant health statistic. It is one of the most pressing health problems in the country today, and it is silently weakening the foundation of our society.

Aug 26, 2025 2 mins read 5,983 views
Browse Archives
ESP creates over 11,130 jobs, supports 329 new businesses

The Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) has generated more than 11,130 jobs and supported the creation of 329 new businesses nationwide since its launch in 2024, according to the ESP Secretariat.

Feb 11, 2026 1 mins read 1,615 views
ESP Secretariat reports tangible impact across key sectors

The Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) continues to deliver support across the country’s economy, driving growth in agric...

Feb 11, 2026 4 mins read 1,607 views
CCAA reviews consumer law amid surge in e-commerce fraud

The Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (CCAA) plans to submit a modernised Consumer Protection Bill to the Cabin...

Feb 11, 2026 3 mins read 1,374 views
Nu 245 million ESP funds drive growth in creative sector

A targeted fund injection of Nu 245.03 million under the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) has fueled a surge in the cou...

Feb 11, 2026 2 mins read 1,516 views
Advance payments leave mandarin suppliers facing losses

Mandarin suppliers across the country are facing financial risks as advance-payment-based orchard booking arrangements c...

Feb 11, 2026 3 mins read 1,245 views
Criminal convictions drop sharply in 2025

Bhutan recorded a sharp decline in criminal convictions in 2025, with the number of individuals found guilty falling by nearly a quarter compared with the previous year.

Feb 11, 2026 2 mins read 1,009 views
Top hazelnut growers honoured for productivity gains

Trashignag-Hazelnut growers from across the country were recognised in the agricultural sector at the National Growers’...

Feb 11, 2026 2 mins read 1,083 views
Drukair carries 64 passengers on Gelephu-Kolkata flights

Feb 11, 2026 1 mins read 3,453 views
Teacher who stayed

Punakha—In Lunana, one of Bhutan’s most remote and physically exacting regions, education is less a public service than a tenuous lifeline. Snowbound passes sever the valley...

Feb 11, 2026 4 mins read 2,559 views
Government, telecos at odds over 50% data price cut

Jan 31, 2026 2 mins read 8,106 views
Dorjilung hydropower to raise GDP by 2.4%, generate 5,000 jobs

The 1,125MW Dorjilung Hydroelectric Power Project (DHPP) is expected to boost the country’s economy, raising gross domes...

Jan 31, 2026 3 mins read 3,878 views
ESP Steering Committee to review Nu 575 million in unspent, recovered funds

The Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) Steering Committee will review how to reallocate Nu 574.73 million in unspent and...

Jan 31, 2026 2 mins read 3,405 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...

Jan 03, 2026 3 mins read 4,419 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 4,946 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 3,479 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 3,783 views
Ask Mr Bhutan

Feb 02, 2026 2 mins read 1,471 views
Fitness is not defined by body size or age

Feb 02, 2026 1 mins read 1,478 views
Movie Review: Lights, Camera, Action!

Feb 02, 2026 1 mins read 2,301 views
The Hamptons, born from the love of cooking

Feb 02, 2026 1 mins read 1,830 views
Yarn roses, tiny dolls, and business of careful hands

Crochet, the meticulous art of creating fabric from interlocked loops of yarn, was once associated with a domestic hobby...

Feb 02, 2026 2 mins read 1,686 views
Turning bridal hairstyling into a trend

Jan 26, 2026 2 mins read 2,686 views
Birbi and the art of taking your time

Jan 26, 2026 1 mins read 2,259 views
Jangchub Puen Nye

Jan 26, 2026 1 mins read 2,416 views
Projecting growth

Feb 14, 2026 2 mins read 412 views
Builders or buyers?

The latest trade figures reveal a story written not just in ledgers, but in our daily choices.

Feb 11, 2026 2 mins read 1,044 views
The burden of cancer

Feb 07, 2026 2 mins read 1,362 views
Inconvenience caused is highly not appreciated

The capital city is, once again, under excavation. From Motithang to Babesa, roads and drains are being dug out severing...

Jan 31, 2026 2 mins read 2,037 views
The tourism paradox

Jan 28, 2026 2 mins read 2,003 views
A relief for the hotel industry

Jan 24, 2026 2 mins read 2,331 views
High-value tourism, low-value jobs?

Jan 21, 2026 2 mins read 2,664 views
Tying the loose ends of GST reform

Jan 17, 2026 2 mins read 2,901 views
GST transition pains need urgent fixes

Jan 14, 2026 2 mins read 2,840 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, a...

Jan 10, 2026 2 mins read 3,017 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 5,360 views
Train Smart, Not Hard

Jan 26, 2026 1 mins read 1,857 views
Punishment is not prevention

Jan 26, 2026 4 mins read 2,371 views
The cost of delay

Jan 07, 2026 2 mins read 3,795 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 r...

Jan 03, 2026 2 mins read 3,215 views
Strengthening the third sector

Over the years, the civil society sector has quietly assumed a critical role in bridging policy and people. Often referr...

Dec 31, 2025 2 mins read 3,538 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 3,870 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 5,375 views

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