February of 2025

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Finance ministry to clamp down on misuse of govt. pool vehicles

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has issued a stern directive to all government agencies, warning against the misuse of pool vehicles and reinforcing strict accountability measures.

Feb 22, 2025 2 mins read 6,788 views
Bhutan aims for 10X economic growth by 2050

Bhutan aims to achieve developed-economy by 2050 by increasing its real GDP tenfold, following His Majesty’s vision outlined on the 112th National Day.

Feb 22, 2025 5 mins read 5,407 views
MoAL rolls out One-Child, One-Egg initiative

The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MoAL) officially launched the One-Child, One-Egg initiative at Zunglen Primary School in Drepong gewog, Mongar yesterd...

Feb 22, 2025 2 mins read 4,656 views
Tackling waste and promoting sustainability in Thimphu and Paro

A four-month initiative to improve waste management and promote sustainable practices in Thimphu and Par...

Feb 22, 2025 2 mins read 3,933 views
Cracking down on drug smugglers

The vigilance of customs officials at Paro International Airport have once again proven instrumental in busting a series of drug smuggling attempts. In a span of just three months—December, January, and February—three major heroin smuggling attempts were foiled, leading to the seizure of 31.5 kilogrammes (kg) of the illicit drug.

Feb 22, 2025 2 mins read 2,151 views
Reforming Bhutan’s Legal Stamp Act

As we celebrate His Majesty’s 45th Birth Anniversary, Bhutan’s commitment to the Diamond Strategy’s “one country, two systems” framework marks a pivotal moment in our nation’s developme...

Feb 22, 2025 3 mins read 2,769 views
Two men detained over alleged census fraud in Trashigang

The Trashigang police have arrested two men from Radhi Gewog in connection with fraudulent activities related to census regis...

Feb 22, 2025 2 mins read 57,626 views
RCID to strengthen Bhutan’s health security

The Royal Centre for Infectious Diseases (RCID), a facility dedicated to combating infectious diseases, is steadily taking shape with the support of the Gover...

Feb 22, 2025 3 mins read 3,364 views
Bhutanese youth to represent Bhutan at AYIMUN

Sixteen-year-old Khenrab Norbu Tobgden, a Class XII Science student at Ugyen Academy in Punakha, will represent Bhutan at the Asian Youth International Model United Nations (AYIMUN), which will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from May 2 to 5.

Feb 22, 2025 1 mins read 2,564 views
USD 20 million project to enhance climate resilience in Thimphu-Paro region

Bhutan launched a USD 20 million project to boost climate resilience...

Feb 22, 2025 3 mins read 3,844 views
Pachu eco-tourism site: A retreat for visitors

Phuentsholing—The winding road leading to Phuentsholing gewog offers breathtaking views of the Amochu township development project below. A roadside wat...

Feb 22, 2025 3 mins read 9,038 views
Asia-Pacific faces slow SDG progress amid data gaps and climate action failures

Bhutan and the Asia-Pacific region’s progress towards Su...

Feb 22, 2025 3 mins read 3,494 views
Bridging the digital divide in schools

In an effort to enhance digital literacy and bridge the technological gap in the education system, the Volunteers-Teachers of Bhutan (V-TOB) foundation, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Skill Development (MoESD), has been working to equip primary school teachers with the necessary skills and tools to integrate Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Feb 22, 2025 2 mins read 4,990 views
བཟའ་སྤྱོད་ཉེན་སྲུང་གི་ཐབས་ལམ།

༉ འབྲུག་གིས་ སྤྱི་ལོ་༢༠༢༢ ལུ་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ཐེར་འབུམ་༣....

Feb 21, 2025 5 mins read 1,644 views
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...

Feb 08, 2025 1 mins read 14,485 views
Is Bhutan becoming a smuggling conduit for heroin?

In a major crackdown on drug trafficking, customs officials at Paro International Airport have intercepted three heroin smuggling attempts in r...

Feb 21, 2025 4 mins read 3,565 views
Bhutan targets 30% women’s representation by 2029

Bhutan aims to increase women’s representation in decision-making roles within the civil service to 30 percent by 2029, according to a recen...

Feb 21, 2025 3 mins read 2,306 views
Fighting the vaping epidemic

The rapid rise of vaping in the country, particularly among the youth, has reached an alarming level. Despite increasing global awareness of its severe health risks, Bhutan is yet to implement stringent regulations to curb the sale and use of e-cigarettes, which are widely available across the country.

Feb 21, 2025 3 mins read 9,235 views
A moment to rededicate ourselves

Today, the people of Bhutan celebrate the 45th Birth Anniversary of His Majesty the King. This is not just an occasion for festivity but a moment for deep reflection and gratitude for a leader who...

Feb 21, 2025 2 mins read 1,668 views
Prioritising children’s well-being in Bhutan’s development agenda

Together with the Royal Government of Bhutan, UNICEF has made significant strides in e...

Feb 21, 2025 5 mins read 4,044 views
Trongsa sees dramatic decline in STI cases after a decade

Trongsa—For the first time in more than a decade, Trongsa Dzongkhag has recorded a sharp decline in sexually transmitted i...

Feb 21, 2025 2 mins read 4,806 views
རྒྱ་གར་དང་ བང་ལ་དེཤ་གཅིག་ཁར་ ཚོང་འབྲེལ་ཡར་དྲག་གཏང་ནིའི་དོན་ལུ་ ནང་འཁོད་ཆུ་ལམ་ས་ཁོངས་གསརཔ།

༉ འབྲུག་གིས་ རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་མངའ་སྡེ་ ཨ་སམ་ལུ་ བར་མ་པུ་ཏ་ར་གཙང་ཆུའི་ མཐའ་མར་ཡོད་པའི་ ཇོ་གི་གོ་པ་ ཆུ་ལམ་སྐྱེལ་འདྲེན་ས་ཁོངས་(ཨའེ་ཌབ་ལུ་ཊི་) འགོ་འབྱེད་འབདཝ་དང་འབྲེལ་ དགེ་ལེགས་ཕུག་ལས་ ཀི་ལོ་མི་ཊར་༩༡ དེ་ཅིག་ལུ་ཡོད་པའི་ གཙང་ཆུའི་ཚོང་འབྲེལ་ལྟེ་བ་དེ་དང་ མཐུད་སྦྲེལ་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

Feb 20, 2025 6 mins read 890 views
New inland waterway terminal to boost trade with Bangladesh and India

Assam, India—Bhutan has now access to its closest riverine trade hub with the inaugura...

Feb 20, 2025 3 mins read 2,196 views
BDBL receives almost 4,000 loan applications under ESP Window-I

Bhutan Development Bank Limited (BDBL) has received 3,969 loan applications across its 35 branches natio...

Feb 20, 2025 2 mins read 8,911 views
Two dead, one injured in fatal collision

Punakha—Two men were killed and another critically injured in a head-on collision between an Alto car and a tipper truck at Lamperi yesterday.

Feb 20, 2025 1 mins read 1,962 views
Card payment and SWIFT transfers drive international transactions

Bhutan’s international payment systems showed mixed trends in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2024, recording a sharp increase in transaction value despite a decline in overall payment volume, according to the latest report from the Royal Monetary Authority.

Feb 20, 2025 2 mins read 9,155 views
Hydropower generation spikes by 11 percent in 2024

The country’s total hydropower generation increased by 11 percent, reaching 11, 699.68 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity in 2024, up from 10,...

Feb 20, 2025 2 mins read 8,178 views
A crucial step towards food security?

Bhutan’s growing dependence on imported rice is a pressing concern that demands urgent attention. With rice imports soaring to Nu 3.6 billion in 2022 and continuing to rise, the nati...

Feb 20, 2025 2 mins read 2,231 views
Drukpas of Lepchakha - A community of Bhutanese heritage in India

Lepchakha village, situated within the Buxa Tiger Reserve in the foothills south of the border, ov...

Feb 19, 2025 0 mins read 41,859 views
དགའ་སྐྱིད་ར་ཡེཌ་མཉེན་ཆས་ཨེཔ་ལུ་བརྟེན་ མི་མང་སྐྱེལ་འདྲེན་གྱི་ཞབས་ཏོག་ ལེགས་ལྡན་འབྱུང་ཚུགས་ནི།

༉ ཁྲོམ་སྡེ་འགྲུལ་སྐྱེལ་ཞབས་ཏོག་གིས་ ལོ་གཉིས་ཀྱི་རྒྱབ་ལས་ ད་རུང་ དགའ་སྐྱིད་ར་ཡེཌ་Gakyid Ride ཟེར་མི་མཉེན་ཆས་དེ་ སྤྱི་ཟླ་༢ པའི་ཚེས་༡༤ ལུ་ ལོག་འགོ་འབྱེད་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ད་ དེ་ཡང་ ཁྲོམ་སྡེ་ནང་ འགྲོ་འགྲུལ་ཚུ་ དུས་མཐུན་ཐོག་ལུ་ ལེགས་ལྡན་སྦེ་ འབད་ཚུགས་ཐབས་ལུ་ཨིན་པས།

Feb 19, 2025 6 mins read 883 views
རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་སྡེ་གིས་ ཁྲིམས་གཞི་སྒྱུར་གྱི་ གྲ་སྒྲིག་འབད་དོ་ཡོདཔ།

༉ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་སྡེ་གིས་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་འཆར་སྣང་འགྲུབ་...

Feb 19, 2025 7 mins read 857 views
སོ་ནམ་འཕྲུལ་ཆས་ལས་འཛིན་གྱིས་ ནང་འཁོད་རེད་ཀྱི་ཐོན་སྐྱེད་ འགོ་འབྱེད་འབད་ཡོདཔ།

༉ ནང་འཁོད་ལས་ཐོན་མི་ རེད་ཀྱི་ཐོན་སྐྱེད་ཡར་སེང་འགྱོ...

Feb 19, 2025 5 mins read 842 views
ཁྲོམ་སྡེའི་གློག་ཤུགས་བཱསི་ ལོ་ལྷགཔ་ཅིག་ ལག་ལེན་འཐབ་པའི་ཤུལ་ལས་ མེདཔ་ཐལ་ཡོདཔ།

༉ ཐིམ་ཕུག་གི་ ཁྲོམ་སྡེའི་གློག་ཤུགས་བཱསི་དེ་ འཕྲུལ་...

Feb 19, 2025 5 mins read 808 views
གནས་ཚུལ་མདོར་བསྡུས།

ཁ་ཙ་ འབྲུག་ལུ་ རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་གཞུང་ཚབ་ སུ་ད་ཀར་ ད་ལི་ལ་གིས་ ཐིམ་ཕུག་ལུ་སྦེ་ དཔལ་འབྱོར་ལྷན་ཐབས་ལས་རིམ་གྱི་ ཆ་ཤས་༣ པ་སྦེ་ དངུལ་རྩིས་བློན་པོ་ ལས་སྐྱིད་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལུ་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ཐེར་འབུམ་༢.༥ གི་ དངུལ་འཛིན་ཅེག་ རྩིས་སྤྲོད་འབད་ཡོད་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ།

Feb 19, 2025 0 mins read 512 views
First electric bus off the road after a year

Thimphu’s only electric city bus has been out of service for months now due to technical issues and lack of capacity within the country to fix the problem.

Feb 19, 2025 3 mins read 2,106 views
National Council prepares for major legal reforms

The National Council (NC) is gearing towards ensuring effective laws and regulations in the country to realise the national vision and also to ali...

Feb 19, 2025 2 mins read 1,749 views
Prime Minister publishes his maiden book “Enlightened leadership”

Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay’s highly anticipated book, “Enlightened Leadership: Ins...

Feb 19, 2025 1 mins read 1,941 views
FMCL launches local rice production initiative

In a bid to revitalise rice production and reduce dependence on imports, the Farm Machinery Corporation Limited (FMCL) has launched a nationwide initiative, working with farmers in 20 dzongkhags to cultivate 20 different  rice varieties.

Feb 19, 2025 1 mins read 1,870 views
Art United

In Bhutan where artistic tradition is deeply woven into its cultural fabric, Art United is redefining the country’s creative landscape. This collective of 13 Bhutanese artists is pioneering a movement that fuses centuries-old artistic heritage with contemporary e...

Feb 19, 2025 3 mins read 1,676 views
City Bus Service relaunches Gakyid Ride app to make public transport smarter

After a two-year hiatus, the City Bus Services (CBS) relaunched i...

Feb 19, 2025 2 mins read 1,797 views
Earning the dollar

Bhutan’s foreign exchange reserves surged by 15.39 percent year-over-year, reaching USD 700.51 million by December 2024, according to the National Statistics Bureau’s (NSB) socioeconomic fourth-quarter update.

Feb 19, 2025 2 mins read 1,397 views
རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱི་ ཕྱི་དངུལ་གསོག་འཇོག་ ཡུ་ཨེསི་ཌོ་ལར་ས་ཡ་༧༠༠ ལུ་ལྷོད་ཡོདཔ།

༉ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་མི་སྡེ་དཔལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་ བཞི་དཔྱ་༤ པའི་ ད...

Feb 18, 2025 6 mins read 756 views
ཇ་པཱན་གཞུང་གིས་ གློག་མེ་ལས་འགུལ་ཆུང་བ་༣ བཟོ་སྐྲུན་དོན་ལུ་ སྐྱིན་འགྲུལ་བྱིན་ནི།

༉ ཇ་པཱན་གཞུང་གིས་ གློག་མེ་ལས་འགུལ་བཟོ་སྐྲུན་གྱི་དོ...

Feb 18, 2025 4 mins read 810 views
བཟོ་སྐྲུན་བཀག་ཆ་འབད་མི་ལུ་བརྟེན་ དགེ་ལེགས་ཕུག་གི་ སྲ་ཆས་ཚོང་འབྲེལ་ལུ་ ཐོ་ཕོག་ཡོདཔ།

༉ དགེ་ལེགས་ཕུག་ལུ་ ཀརྨ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་ སྲ་ཆས་ཚོང་འབ...

Feb 18, 2025 7 mins read 822 views
Construction moratorium strangles Gelephu’s hardware business

Gelephu—For nearly a year, Karma Tshetem’s once-thriving hardware business in Gelephu has been in freefa...

Feb 18, 2025 3 mins read 917 views
Forex reserves reach USD 700 million, up by 15 percent

The country’s foreign exchange reserves grew by 15.39 percent year-over-year, reaching USD 700.51 million as of December 2024, an increase  of USD 93.48 million, according to the National Statistics Bureau’s socio-economic fourth-quarter update.

Feb 18, 2025 2 mins read 5,373 views
Black-necked crane population increases but key habitats see decline

The number of black-necked cranes (BNC) wintering in the country has nearly doubled since the first survey in 1987, reaching a record 709 birds in the 2024–2025 count—up from 370 nearly four decades ago.

Feb 18, 2025 2 mins read 989 views
Browse Archives
Ugyen Norlha Choeten: First sacred landmark rises in Gelephu Mindfulness City

Gelephu—The consecration of Ugyen Norlha Choeten, the first completed spiritual structure in Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), marks the foundational moment in the city’s aspiration to become a global centre of Vajrayana Buddhism.

Feb 25, 2026 2 mins read 1,976 views
Govt. targets 15,220 acres for sustainable land management in 13th Plan

The government aims to bring 15,220 acres of farmland under sustainable land management (SLM) by the end of the 13th Pla...

Feb 25, 2026 4 mins read 1,748 views
BBPL factory fuels local business boom in Darla

Chukha—Nearly 40 years after its commissioning in 1988, the Bhutan Board Products Limited (BBPL) factory in Darla contin...

Feb 25, 2026 2 mins read 2,527 views
His Majesty confers Druk Thuksey on Thai philanthropists

Gelephu—His Majesty the King conferred the Druk Thuksey Medal on Thippaporn Ahriyavraromp and Dr Nathawat Ahriyavraromp...

Feb 25, 2026 2 mins read 1,653 views
King and citizens work side by side in Gelephu Mindfulness City

Gelephu—More than 16,000 registered volunteers gathered in Gelephu from February 21 to 25 for the fifth round of volunta...

Feb 25, 2026 3 mins read 2,854 views
Nansen to establish presence in Gelephu Mindfulness City

Feb 24, 2026 2 mins read 2,796 views
DoT bets on ‘star attractions’ to drive year-round tourism across districts

The Department of Tourism (DoT) has identified signature attractions for each dzongkhag, introducing a nationwide calend...

Feb 21, 2026 3 mins read 2,236 views
Single lab delays food safety clearance

The country’s food safety system rests on a single accredited laboratory, raising concerns over delays in food testing and clearance.

Feb 21, 2026 3 mins read 1,898 views
Govt. steps up efforts to improve livelihood of highlanders

The government has intensified programmes to protect and promote yak-based livelihoods across the country’s highland com...

Feb 21, 2026 4 mins read 1,621 views
Nu 200 million plan to build central government district for all ministries

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport has begun the process of outsourcing the design of a Nu 200-million governm...

Feb 21, 2026 2 mins read 3,317 views
Will our education transformation be equitable?

The government’s allocation of Nu 30 billion for education transformation in the 13th Plan, second only to the economic...

Dec 11, 2025 2 mins read 2,408 views
The never-ending tourism debate

The discussion on tourism policy is like Atsara Phentho’s chham. In other words, a lot of motion without progress. On Mo...

Dec 10, 2025 2 mins read 2,967 views
Ready to take off from GMC

The launch of the Gelephu–Kolkata international air route marks far more than the addition of a new flight on the countr...

Dec 09, 2025 2 mins read 2,060 views
Why we must invest in Research & Development

Bhutan is not short of ideas, intellect or institutions. What it lacks is a strong, working bridge between research, pol...

Dec 08, 2025 2 mins read 2,205 views
To eat meat or not!

In passing the Livestock Bill of Bhutan,  2025, National Assembly members engaged in a good debate, a meaty one, even if...

Dec 06, 2025 2 mins read 2,593 views

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