June of 2025

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School rationalisation aims to improve education, not deny access: Sherig Lyonpo

Rationalisation of schools is not about denying students access to education, but about improving quality and ensuring the efficient use of financial, human, and physical resources, according to the Minister for Education and Skills Development (MoESD), Yeezang De Thapa.

Jun 21, 2025 2 mins read 2,483 views
Watershed restoration project brings hope to water-strapped Drujeygang

Dagana— With water sources rapidly drying up and threatening the livelihoods of ove...

Jun 21, 2025 2 mins read 1,345 views
Drinchengang’s Maephu tradition at a crossroads

Wangdue— For generations, the families of Drinchengang (formerly Rinchengang) in Thedtsho gewog, Wangdue, have lived in tightly clustered adobe ho...

Jun 21, 2025 2 mins read 3,992 views
MPs press health minister to address staffing shortage in remote BHUs

Members of Parliament (MP) yesterday called on the health ministry to prioritise the d...

Jun 21, 2025 3 mins read 1,837 views
Mainstreaming high conservation values in national land use zoning

As climate change continues to reshape Bhutan’s mountainous terrain, entire communities are being displaced.

Jun 21, 2025 5 mins read 9,848 views
གནས་ཚུལ་མདོར་བསྡུས།

གནས་ཚུལ་མདོར་བསྡུས།

Jun 21, 2025 0 mins read 519 views
གཟའ་སྐར།

གཟའ་སྐར།

Jun 21, 2025 0 mins read 496 views
སྐད་ཡིག་དང་ལམ་སྲོལ།

སྐད་ཡིག་དང་ལམ་སྲོལ།

Jun 21, 2025 0 mins read 623 views
གནམ་སྐམ་དང་ ནད་འབུབ་ལུ་བརྟེན་ རྡོག་མ་ཤིང་གི་ ཐོན་སྐྱེད་ལུ་ཐོ་ཕོག་དོ་ཡོདཔ།

༉ འབྲུག་ལུ་ འདས་པའི་ལོ་གསུམ་གྱི་ནང་འཁོད་ལུ་ རྡོག་མ་གི་ཐོན་སྐྱེད་དེ་ རྒྱ་ཆེཝ་སྦེ་ར་ མར་བབས་སོང་ཡོདཔ་ད་ རྡོག་མ་ཤིང་འཛུགས་སྐྱོང་འབད་མིའི་གྱངས་ཁ་ ཡར་སེང་སོང་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

Jun 21, 2025 8 mins read 883 views
Operationalising GNH: From village wisdom to global solutions

Her Majesty Gyalyum Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, Patron of the Tarayana Foundation, graced the opening of a two-day...

Jun 20, 2025 3 mins read 3,455 views
Bhutanese citizens in Middle East safe amid Iran-Israel conflict

As the armed confrontation between Iran and Israel enters its second week, the Ministry of Foreign Af...

Jun 20, 2025 2 mins read 4,231 views
Govt. to lose Nu 5.57 billion in revenue under proposed Tax Bill

The tax reform proposed in the Income Tax Bill 2025 is expected to cost the government up to Nu 5.57...

Jun 20, 2025 2 mins read 4,615 views
Dry spell and pests affect areca nut yield

Samtse—The areca nut production in Bhutan has sharply declined over the past three years despite an increase in the number of trees planted.

Jun 20, 2025 2 mins read 2,437 views
The sacred and the soiled

Two spiritual events. Two vastly different outcomes. What separates the squalor left behind at the recent oral transmission from the orderly conclusion of the menlam chenmo gathering is not money, not manpower, but pla...

Jun 20, 2025 2 mins read 3,856 views
A bond beyond words: The heartwarming tale of Karma Raygye

Jomotsangkha — In the quiet corners of Jomotsangkha Wildlife Sanctuary (JWS), a touching story of companionship and car...

Jun 20, 2025 2 mins read 3,549 views
Desecration at Uluru: When devotion becomes disrespect

The incident involving two Bhutanese individuals defacing a 30,000-year-old sacred Uluru rock in Australia in August last year  has...

Jun 20, 2025 3 mins read 9,569 views
རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་འདུ་གིས་ འོང་འབབ་ཁྲལ་གྱི་དཔྱད་ཡིག་ཆ་འཇོག།

༉ ཁ་ཙ་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་འདུ་གིས་ འོང་འབབ་ཁྲལ་གྱི་དཔྱད་ཡིག་༢༠༢༥ ཅན་མ་ཆ་འཇོག་གནང་ཡོདཔ་བཞིན་དུ་ གཞི་སྒྱུར་སྦོམ་སྦེ་ར་འབད་མི་ དཔྱད་ཡིག་དེ་ ད་ལྟོ་ཡོད་པའི་ འོང་འབབ་ཁྲལ་གྱི་དཔྱད་ཡིག་༢༠༠༡ ཅན་མ་དེ་ ཆ་མེད་འགྱོཝ་ཨིན་པས།

Jun 19, 2025 14 mins read 1,089 views
དགེ་ལེགས་ཕུག་ལུ་ མ་འོངས་པའི་མཐའ་དོན་ལུ་ ཆུ་རུད་བཀག་ཐབས་ལས་འགུལ་གྲ་སྒྲིག་འབད་ཡོདཔ།

༉ དགེ་ལེགས་ཕུག་གི་ གཙང་ཆུའི་མཐའམ་བདའ་སྟེ་ གཙང་ཆུ་ས...

Jun 19, 2025 7 mins read 898 views
What the tax reforms mean

In recent days, the National Assembly has passed some major tax reforms. From introducing a flat 5 percent Goods and Services Tax (GST) and increasing excise duties on harmful products to taxing high-value fixed deposi...

Jun 19, 2025 2 mins read 3,451 views
National Assembly adopts Income Tax Bill

The National Assembly yesterday unanimously adopted the Income Tax Bill of Bhutan 2025, a comprehensive tax reform to replace the existing 2001 Income Tax Act, which now moves to the National Council for further deliberation.

Jun 19, 2025 4 mins read 3,419 views
Bhutan-Thailand FTA set for implementation by 2026

The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the Kingdom of Bhutan and the Kingdom of Thailand is expected to be implemented by January 2026.

Jun 19, 2025 3 mins read 3,447 views
Flood protection project prepares Gelephu for future threats

Gelephu—With the implementation of extensive flood control measures along major riverbanks in Gelephu, residents...

Jun 19, 2025 2 mins read 2,427 views
NC supports removal of Nu 45 million international school project allocation

A majority of the Members of Parliament (MP) in National Council...

Jun 19, 2025 2 mins read 4,780 views
Young filmmakers rise through ‘Art for People’

In a quiet yet powerful culmination, 35 young Bhutanese creatives came together to screen their short films at the closing event of “Art for People” programme, a two-week filmmaking course.

Jun 19, 2025 3 mins read 6,780 views
Dairy cooperative in Gomdar gains strength with solar power and CARLEP support

Samdrupjongkhar—Tshomo, a 60-year-old farmer from Tsangchil...

Jun 19, 2025 2 mins read 2,124 views
BFF and BCCB recognised for sports development

The Bhutan Football Federation (BFF) and the Bhutan Cricket Council Board (BCCB) have recently received recognition from international sports bodies for...

Jun 19, 2025 2 mins read 3,377 views
དར་ཤིང་གི་དོན་ལུ་ ཤིང་མངམ་བཅད་མི་གིས་ གནོད་སྐྱོན་བྱུང་དོ་ཡོདཔ་ལས་ ཐབས་ལམ་བཏོན་དགོཔ།

༉ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་ཁང་ནང་ དྲི་བ་དྲིས་ལན་གྱི་ ཚོགས་རི...

Jun 18, 2025 6 mins read 1,029 views
བསྐྱར་ཞིབ་ཚོགས་ཁང་གིས་ ཇི་ཨེསི་ཊེ་དཔྱད་ཡིག་ འགོ་བཙུགས་ཚེས་གྲངས་ཀྱི་ ཁྲིམས་མཐུན་དྲི་དཔྱད།

ཁ་ཙ་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་སྡེའི་ འཐུས་མི་ཚུ་གིས་ ཅ་ཆས་དང་ཞབས་ཏོག་(ཇི་ཨེསི་ཊི)ཁྲལ་གྱི་ འཕྲི་སྣོན་དཔྱད་ཡིག་༢༠༢༥ ཅན་མ་ ཆ་འཇོག་དང་ དཔྱད་ཡིག་འགོ་བཙུགས་ཚེས་གྲངས་ གྲོས་འདེབས་ཕུལ་མི་གི་ ཁྲིམས་མཐུན་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་ ཚ་གྱང་ཡོད་ལུགས་ཚུ་བཤད་ནུག།

Jun 18, 2025 8 mins read 1,403 views
གཞུང་གིས་ ན་གཞོན་ལཱ་གཡོག་མེད་པའི་ དཀའ་ངལ་སེལ་ཐབས་ལུ་ ལཱ་འབད་དོ་ཡོདཔ།

༉ གཞུང་གིས་ རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ནང་ ན་གཞོན་ལཱ་གཡོག་མ་ཐོབ་པའི་...

Jun 18, 2025 7 mins read 935 views
Taxes alone cannot control alcohol or tobacco

Alcohol, tobacco, carbonated drinks, and other non-essential or harmful products will become more expensive starting January 2026, with the National Assembly...

Jun 18, 2025 2 mins read 4,114 views
National Council questions legality of GST Bill’s commencement date

The Members of Parliament (MPs) in National Council (NC) yesterday raised concerns on...

Jun 18, 2025 3 mins read 3,700 views
Govt. working on tackling youth unemployment: MoICE Minister

The government is accelerating efforts to address the pressing issue of rising youth unemployment in the country through a range of initiatives aimed at creating jobs and equipping young people with the skills needed for long-term careers.

Jun 18, 2025 2 mins read 5,222 views
MP raises alarm over Bhutan’s sharp decline in global press freedom ranking

During the National Assembly’s Question Hour yesterday, Menbi-...

Jun 18, 2025 3 mins read 2,595 views
MP questions uneven enforcement of attic ban

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Lamgong-Wangchang called for a revision of the country’s building regulations after raising concerns about the inconsistent enf...

Jun 18, 2025 2 mins read 2,567 views
MP for Nganglam pushes iron poles to halt forest loss from prayer flag tradition

Concerned over the large-scale felling of trees for p...

Jun 18, 2025 2 mins read 2,445 views
Living with wildlife: Bhutan tries new path to coexistence

At daybreak in Berti village, 65-year-old Wangpo walks the perimeter of his maize field, searching for signs of fresh damage. The evidence is unmistakable—flattened stalks and circular impressions pressed into the damp soil.

Jun 18, 2025 5 mins read 3,318 views
Chukha–Dagana road gets priority in 13th Plan, bridge at Badina not listed

Chukha—After years of delays and repeated appeals from local comm...

Jun 18, 2025 2 mins read 2,705 views
From devotion to disarray: Kuenselphodrang left reeking after major religious gathering

What lingers in Kuenselphodrang these days isn’t j...

Jun 18, 2025 2 mins read 5,161 views
མཐའ་ཟུར་གྱི་རྫོང་ཁག་ཚུ་ནང་ སྨན་ཚོང་ཁང་མེད་པའི་ གདོང་ལེན་བྱུང་དོ་ཡོདཔ།

༉ དོ་འགྲན་དང་ཉོ་སྤྱོད་དབང་འཛིན་དང་འཁྲིལཝ་ད་ མཐའ་ཟུ...

Jun 17, 2025 6 mins read 962 views
གཞུང་གིས་ ཆུ་ཁ་དང་ དར་དཀར་ནང་ལུ་ འཁོར་ལམ་བསལ་ནིའི་གཙོ་རིམ།

༉ སྦོང་སྒོར་-སྐྱབས་ཆའི་འཐུས་མི་ སྤེན་པ་གིས་ གཞུང་ལ...

Jun 17, 2025 6 mins read 959 views
རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་འདུ་གིས་ ཅ་ཆས་དང་ཞབས་ཏོག་ཁྲལ་ བརྒྱ་ཆ་༥ ཆ་འཇོག།

ཆུམ་དང་ བཟའ་སྤྱོད་ཀྱི་མར་ཁུ་ ཚྭ་ གཙང་རས་ དེ་ལས་ གླ...

Jun 17, 2025 9 mins read 1,762 views
དགའ་སྤྲོ་ཅན་གྱི་སོ་ནམ་དེ་ གཞན་དང་མ་འདྲ་བའི་ སྤྲོ་སེང་གྱི་ཐབས་ལམ་ཨིནམ།

༉ སྤ་རོ་ཆུ་འཛོམས་ལས་ ཀི་ལོ་མི་ཊར་༦ དེ་ཅིག་ ལམ་འགྲུ...

Jun 17, 2025 7 mins read 914 views
ཆོས་འབྲེལ་ལས་འགུལ་སྦོམ་ཚུ་ལུ་ རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་འབད་ནིའི་དོན་ལས་ དགེ་ལེགས་ཕུག་དང་ ཕུ་ལ་ཧ་རི་གི་འཁོར་ལམ་ ལེགས་བཅོས་འབད་དོ་ཡོདཔ།

༉ ད་རེས་ནངས་པར་ དགེ་ལེགས་ཕུག་དང་ ཕུ་ལ་ཧ་རི་གི་བར་ན་ ཀི་ལོ་མི་ཊར་༦ འབད་མི་ འཁོར་ལམ་དེ་ ལེགས་བཅོས་འབད་བའི་བསྒང་ཡོདཔ་ད་ དེ་ཡང་ དགེ་ལེགས་ཕུག་ལུ་ ཆོས་འབྲེལ་ལས་འགུལ་སྦོམ་ དགེ་ལེགས་ཕུག་རྫོང་(བཱཇ་ར་ཡ་ན་ལྟེ་བ་)དང་ དགེ་བསྙེན་གནས་ཁང་གཉིས་ནང་ འགྲོ་འགྲུལ་འབད་ཚུགསཔ་བཟོ་ནིའི་དོན་ལུ་ཨིན་པས།

Jun 17, 2025 7 mins read 2,412 views
Going beyond third child incentive to reverse our declining population

Bhutan’s fertility rate has dropped from over six children per woman in the 1980s t...

Jun 17, 2025 2 mins read 4,392 views
National Assembly passes 5 percent Goods and Service Tax

The National Assembly (NA) yesterday adopted the Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, reducing the applicable GST rate to...

Jun 17, 2025 3 mins read 3,524 views
Higher prices for tobacco, alcohol, soft drinks, cars to be cheaper

The National Assembly yesterday deliberated on the 207 sections of the Excise Tax Bill of Bh...

Jun 17, 2025 2 mins read 5,711 views
Pharmacy shortages in rural areas hinder access to medicines

Limited pharmacy services in several remote districts, including Zhemgang, Gasa, and Samdrupjongkhar, are restricting access to essential medicines and pushing residents to obtain drugs from across the border, raising concerns about safety and regulatory compliance, according to the Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (CCAA).

Jun 17, 2025 3 mins read 2,573 views
Bhutan embarks on second joint external evaluation to strengthen health security

Bhutan has officially embarked on its second Joint External Evaluation (JEE) of core capacities under the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005), reaffirming its commitment to national and global health security.

Jun 17, 2025 3 mins read 4,905 views
Browse Archives
Over 1,900 commodities set to become cheaper under GST

Jan 14, 2026 2 mins read 3,389 views
Opposition demands govt. action on GST double taxation

Jan 14, 2026 2 mins read 2,447 views
AI ambitions hinge on data access and ethical governance

Jan 14, 2026 2 mins read 1,731 views
DPR work for Serpang–Autsho road begins

Farmers in remote Jaray Gewog are a step closer to gaining crucial market access, as work on the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Serpang–Autsho inter-dzongkhag road officially commenced yesterday in Yumchhey,Lhuentse.

Jan 14, 2026 3 mins read 2,836 views
City farms grow, but support stalls

Jan 14, 2026 3 mins read 1,698 views
RBP warns of "spoofing" scam

Jan 13, 2026 1 mins read 4,617 views
RMA extends hotel loan repayment relief by one month

Jan 12, 2026 1 mins read 2,078 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 2,443 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 2,899 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 1,569 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 1,801 views
Taxes our forefathers paid

Jan 13, 2026 2 mins read 1,500 views
Gym that asks you to grow, not just train

Jan 10, 2026 2 mins read 1,140 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 1,475 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 1,073 views
Tying the loose ends of GST reform

Jan 17, 2026 2 mins read 791 views
GST transition pains need urgent fixes

Jan 14, 2026 2 mins read 920 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 1,166 views
The cost of delay

Jan 07, 2026 2 mins read 1,606 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 1,250 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 1,570 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 1,947 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 3,450 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 2,272 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 1,961 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 2,920 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 1,186 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 4,196 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 5,587 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 1,910 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...

Dec 24, 2025 2 mins read 1,277 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 1,486 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 2,150 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 1,463 views

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