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May of 2025

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སང་ཕོད་ལས་ ཅ་ཆས་དང་ཞབས་ཏོག་ཁྲལ་ འགོ་བཙུགས་ནི།

༉ ཡུན་རིང་བསྒུགས་སྡོད་མི་ ཅ་ཆས་དང་ཞབས་ཏོག་ཁྲལ་དེ་...

May 28, 2025 3 mins read
འོད་གསལ་རྩེ་དང་ བསམ་རང་༢ གནམ་གྲུ་ཐང་རྐྱབ་ནིའི་ ས་གོ་གསརཔ་ཅིག་སྦེ་ངོས་འཛིན།

གཞུང་གིས་ ཤར་དང་ ལྷོ་ཕྱོགས་ལུང་ཕྱོགས་ནང་ མཁའ་འགྲུལ...

May 28, 2025 6 mins read
A bold tax reform

Even before the Economic and Finance Committee could review the Excise Tax Bill and Income Tax Bill 2025 presented by the finance minister on the first day of Parliament’s ongoing session, discussions—both online and offline—have erupted, lar...

May 28, 2025 2 mins read
GST set to rollout beginning next year

The long-awaited goods and services tax (GST) will be implemented beginning next year as part of the move to modernise the country’s taxation system.

May 28, 2025 5 mins read
Bhutan’s emigration dilemma: Will they return?

Despite a record wave of emigration, many Bhutanese living abroad are not closing the door on home. A new World Bank survey reveals that a majority o...

May 28, 2025 3 mins read
2800 MW Kuri-Gongri project gets priority, but no clear timeline yet

Although the 2,800-megawatt (MW) Kuri-Gongri hydropower project in Mongar, one of the lar...

May 28, 2025 2 mins read
Govt. reviews support options as hotel loan deferral nears end

With the loan deferment scheme for the hotel industry set to expire on June 30, the government has held two...

May 28, 2025 2 mins read
Yoeseltse and Samrang identified for new airstrip development

In keeping with the government’s pledge to explore air connectivity in east and south regions, Yoeseltse in Samtse and Samrang in Samdrupjongkhar have been identified as the most suitable sites for new airstrips.

May 28, 2025 3 mins read
Govt. to expand EV charging network as adoption accelerates

As Bhutan accelerates its transition to electric vehicles (EV), the government has approved a nationwide rollout of...

May 28, 2025 2 mins read
Beskop Tshechu: A new voice of Bhutanese cinema

The curtain on the sixth edition of Beskop Tshechu closed on May 26 with a clear message: Bhutanese cinema is evolving, and it is doing so with bold con...

May 28, 2025 2 mins read
NA reviews key BIMSTEC Maritime Agreement and Mutual Legal Assistance

The National Assembly (NA) yesterday introduced the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi...

May 28, 2025 2 mins read
Livestock Bill 2025 aims to reform animal welfare and biosecurity

The Livestock Bill of Bhutan 2025, tabled in the National Assembly on May 26, seeks to overhaul the country’s livestock sector by prioritising animal welfare, strengthening veterinary services, ensuring food safety, and aligning Bhutan’s biosecurity practices with both national and international standards.

May 28, 2025 3 mins read
རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་སྡེ་གིས་ གྲོང་གསེབ་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཉེན་བཅོལ་ལས་འཆར་གྱི་ཐོག་ལུ་ གསལ་ཞུ་འབད་དོ་ཡོདཔ།

༉ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་སྡེ་གིས་ གྲོང་གསེབ་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཉེན་བཅ...

May 27, 2025 9 mins read
གསོ་བ་དང་ ཤེས་རིག་ལུ་ གཙོ་རིམ་བཟུང་སྟེ་ འཆར་དངུལ་ཚུ་བགོ་བཀྲམ།

རྩིས་ལོ་༢༠༢༥-༢༦ ལུ་ཡང་ ལས་སྡེ་ཚུ་གི་གྲས་ལས་ མི་སྡེ...

May 27, 2025 24 mins read
གཞུང་གིས་ ཁྲལ་གཞི་སྒྱུར་གྱི་གྲོས་འཆར།

༉ ཁ་ཙ་ དངུལ་རྩིས་བློན་པོ་ ལས་སྐྱིད་རྡོ་རྗེ་གིས་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་འདུའི་ནང་ སྤྱི་ལོ་༢༠༢༥ འི་ འོང་འབབ་ཁྲལ་གྱི་དཔྱད་ཡིག་ ངོ་སྤྲོད་ཕུལ་ཡོདཔ་ད་ ཁྲལ་གྱི་ལམ་ལུགས་གཞི་སྒྱུར་དེ་གིས་ གཞུང་ལུ་ ལོ་བསྟར་བཞིན་དུ་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ཐེར་འབུམ་༥.༥༧ གནས་ནི་ཨིནམ་ལས་ འོང་འབབ་ལུ་ ཐོ་ཕོག་ནི་ཨིན་པས།

May 27, 2025 6 mins read
Complacency is a luxury we cannot afford

The recent surge of Covid-19 sub-variants in India—LF.7 and NB.1.8—serves as a warning that the pandemic, while quieter, is far from over. We must resist the tempting lull o...

May 27, 2025 2 mins read
Nu 138.5 billion allocated for fiscal year 2025-26

Bhutan’s 13th Plan’s second year gains serious traction as Nu 138.5 billion is allocated for the fiscal year 2025-26, accounting for 27 percent...

May 27, 2025 10 mins read
Govt. proposes sweeping tax reforms

Finance Minister Lekey Dorji introduced the Income Tax Bill 2025 in the National Assembly yesterday, outlining a bold restructuring of the tax system that could cost the government up to Nu 5.57 billion annually in lost revenue.

May 27, 2025 3 mins read
NC to deliberate on increasing premium for Rural Life Insurance Scheme

The National Council (NC) will deliberate on the Rural Life Insurance Scheme (RLIS)...

May 27, 2025 4 mins read
NC demands accountability for inaction on key resolutions

National Council (NC) members yesterday expressed frustration over the poor implementation of resolutions passed during th...

May 27, 2025 3 mins read
MoH vigilant as new Covid-19 variants emerge in the region

As neighbouring India sees a rise in Covid-19 cases linked to two emerging variant—LF.7 and NB.1.8—the Ministry of Heal...

May 27, 2025 2 mins read
Agro-meteorology holds promise but remains underused

Most farmers in Bhutan still rely on traditional knowledge and signs from nature while making farming decisions, as access to accurate and localised weather forecasts is limited.

May 27, 2025 2 mins read
NA’s Legislative Committee to review ADR Bill of Bhutan 2024

The Legislative Committee (LC) of the National Assembly (NA) will review and present the Alternative Disput...

May 27, 2025 3 mins read
DoMCIIP introduces Nu 10 million grant to take Bhutanese cinema global

In a move to elevate the country’s film industry onto the global stage, the governm...

May 27, 2025 2 mins read
ཀུན་ལེགས་ཚེ་རིང་གིས་ ཨིན་ཅིཨཱོན་མདའ་རྩེད་འགྲན་བསྡུར་ནང་ལས་ གསེར་གྱི་རྟགས་མ་ཐོབ་ཡོདཔ།

༉ ཁ་ཙ་ ལྷོ་ཀོ་རི་ཡ་ ཨིན་ཅིཨཱོན་ལུ་ གི་ཡང་ཨོ་པཱན་མད...

May 26, 2025 3 mins read
རྩིས་ལོ་༢༠༢༥-༢༦ ལུ་ འཆར་དངུལ་ཡོངས་བསྡོམས་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ཐེར་འབུམ་༡༣༨.༥ བགོ་བཀྲམ།

དཔལ་འབྱོར་ཡར་དྲག་གཏང་ནིའི་དོན་ལས་ གསར་སྒྲུབ་འཆར་དངུལ་ བརྒྱ་ཆ་༥༨.༨ ཡར་སེང་འབད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

May 26, 2025 11 mins read
རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་བུ་ལོན་ དངུལ་ཀྲམ་ཐེར་འབུམ་༣༠༠ ལུ་ ལྷོད་དོ་ཡོདཔ།

དངུལ་རྩིས་ལྷན་ཁག་གིས་ འཕྲལ་ཁམས་ཅིག་ཁར་ གསར་བཏོན་འབ...

May 26, 2025 9 mins read
ཐིམ་ཕུག་ལུ་ ཕྱགས་སྙིགས་བླུག་ཁང་ལྟེ་བ་༢ འགོ་འབྱེད་འབད་ཡོདཔ།

༉ སྒེར་སྡེ་གཉིས་དང་གཅིག་ཁར་ མཉམ་འབྲེལ་ཐོག་ལས་ སྤྱི...

May 26, 2025 6 mins read
ཉེན་བཅོལ་བརྒྱུད་དེ་ ངེས་བརྟན་བཟོ་ནི།

༉ གཞུང་གིས་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ལོ་ཐོག་དང་སྒོ་ནོར་གྱི་ ཉེན་བ...

May 26, 2025 5 mins read
Don't let consultancy firms exploit our youth

As traditional education destinations like Australia and Canada tighten student visa regulations, Germany and other European countries have rapidly emerged as an attractive alternative for Bhutanese students seeking higher education abroad. However, the reality may not be as rosy as it is packaged.

May 26, 2025 2 mins read
Kinley Tshering wins gold for Bhutan at Incheon archery championship

Bhutanese archer Kinley Tshering claimed gold medal in the foreign individual recurve cat...

May 26, 2025 2 mins read
National debt nears Nu 300 billion, driven by external borrowing

The country’s national debt has reached Nu 298.18 billion, constituting 99.1 percent of the gross dom...

May 26, 2025 3 mins read
Thimphu gets two new waste drop-off centres to boost circular economy push

A collaborative public-private partnership has resulted in the inaugura...

May 26, 2025 2 mins read
Economic growth forecast revised down to 8.31 percent in 2025

Bhutan’s economic growth for 2025 is projected at 8.31 percent, according to the third quarter Macroeconomic Situation Report released by the Ministry of Finance.

May 26, 2025 2 mins read
Weavers gain global market access through Mountain Partnership Products Initiative

Weavers of Yathra in Dorji Bi, Bumthang, and Kishu...

May 26, 2025 3 mins read
Bypass construction for Gelephu International Airport tests local contractors’ capacity

Gelephu—For the contractors working on the road di...

May 26, 2025 2 mins read
HRH Princess Eeuphelma Choden Wangchuck graces 6th Paralympic Festival

Her Royal Highness (HRH) Princess Eeuphelma Choden Wangchuck, President of the Bhut...

May 26, 2025 2 mins read
ལྷ་ཁང་མེ་མཆོད་བཞེས་ཡོདཔ།

༉ ད་རིས་ དྲོ་པ་ཁམས་ཅིག་ཁར་ སྤུ་ན་ཁ་ འཛོམས་མི་རྒེད་འོག་ལུ་ཡོད་མ་ི་ ཚོགས་བདག་གླང་པོ་གནས་ཀྱི་ ལྷ་ཁང་དེ་ མེ་མཆོད་བཞེས་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

May 24, 2025 1 mins read
སྐད་ཡིག་དང་ལམ་སྲོལ།

སྐད་ཡིག་དང་ལམ་སྲོལ།

May 24, 2025 0 mins read
སྤུ་ན་ཁ་ལུ་ ཚོང་འབྲེལ་གྱི་གནས་སྟངས་དང་བསྟུན་ སའི་གོང་ཚད་ ཡར་སེང་འགྱོ་དོ་ཡོདཔ།

༉ ཧེ་མ་འབད་བ་ཅིན་ སྤུ་ན་ཁའི་གཡུས་ཚན་དེ་ ལུང་གཤོང་ས...

May 24, 2025 7 mins read
མི་སྡེ་ཚུ་གིས་ ཉིན་མའི་ལྟ་བཤལ་པའི་ལམ་ལུགས་ བསྐྱར་འཛུགས་འབད་དགོ་པའི་ཞུ་བ།

༉ ལྷོ་ཕྱོགས་ས་མཚམས་ཀྱི་མི་སྡེ་ བསམ་རྩེ་དང་ ཕུན་ཚོག...

May 24, 2025 7 mins read
སྣུམ་འཁོར་རྦོབ་རིལ་མིའི་ནང་ མི་༡ ལུ་ཤི་རྐྱེན་དང་ གཞན་མི་༤ ལུ་རྨ་སྐྱོན་བྱུང་ཡོདཔ།

༉ སྤྱི་ཟླ་༥ པའི་ཚེས་༢༡ གི་ ཉིན་དགུང་འཚམས་ཅིག་ཁར་ སྣུམ་འཁོར་བོ་ལི་རོ་ཅིག་ རྦོབ་རིལ་མིའི་ནང་ སྐྱེས་ལོ་༨༩ ལང་མི་ ཨང་རྒས་ཅིག་ལུུ་ ཤི་རྐྱེན་བྱུང་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

May 24, 2025 2 mins read
The stick should work where the carrot failed

Finally, we are on the right path toward a lasting solution to keep our surroundings clean and green. If the Clean Thimphu City Initiative garners public supp...

May 24, 2025 2 mins read
Sarpang land prices tumble as buyers wait for clarity

Gelephu—Land prices in Sarpang are declining due to low demand, following the introduction of the new land ownership model, tokenisati...

May 24, 2025 4 mins read
His Majesty graces opening of Third Session of Fourth Parliament

His Majesty the King graced the opening ceremony of the third session of the fourth Parliament yester...

May 24, 2025 3 mins read
Consensual but criminal

Punakha—Bhutan’s strict child protection laws, intended to shield minors from sexual abuse, are inadvertently imprisoning young men under statutory rape charges in cases where no coercion or abuse occurred.

May 24, 2025 4 mins read
Nine agencies allocated Nu 9.6 billion under ESP

The Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP), with a total allocation of Nu 9.6 billion distributed across nine implementing agencies, has recorded a utilisation of Nu 1.27 billion as of April 30 this year. These agencies span crucial sectors including tourism, creative industries, agriculture, and employment, aiming to revitalise the economy.

May 24, 2025 4 mins read
Browse Archives
Gedu Hospital refers complex pregnancy cases to Phuentsholing: Health Minister

The critical absence of a dedicated gynecologist at Gedu Hospital, a facility serving thousands across multiple gewogs, schools, colleges, and various agencies, has been brought to the forefront by the Member of Parliament for Bongo-Chapcha, Pempa, during the National Assembly’s question-and-answer session yesterday.

Jun 11, 2025 2 mins read
Karuna Foundation grants USD 1M to Tarayana Foundation for disaster-resilient homes

The United States-based Karuna Foundation has awarded a USD 1 million grant to the Tarayana Foundation to support the co...

Jun 11, 2025 2 mins read
School budgets fairly allocated: MoESD Minister

The Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) ensures that budget allocation for all schools, whether central...

Jun 11, 2025 2 mins read
NA undecided on arbitral tribunal jurisdiction in ADR Bill

Debate continues in the National Assembly (NA) over a critical clause in the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) (Amend...

Jun 11, 2025 2 mins read
Game-changer for Bhutanese films

The Department of Media, Creative Industry and Intellectual Property (DoMCIIP), under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Employment, has awarded Nu 5 million each to two film production teams as part of the count...

Jun 11, 2025 3 mins read
NC recommends stronger measure to protect youth from drug risks

The National Council’s Social and Cultural Affairs Committee (SCAC) yesterday presented a comprehensive set of recommend...

Jun 10, 2025 4 mins read
NA scrutinises Council’s amendments to Arbitration Bill

The National Assembly (NA) yesterday reviewed and cleared 47 out of the 182 sections of the Alternative Dispute Resoluti...

Jun 10, 2025 2 mins read
User-friendly mini-tillers to boost yields

Pemagatshel—Sangay Norzom, a 65-year-old farmer from Chokorling gewog in Nganglam, Pemagatshel, is a proud owner of a us...

Jun 10, 2025 3 mins read
NA adopts BIMSTEC Agreement on Maritime Cooperation

The National Assembly (NA) yesterday unanimously adopted the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and E...

Jun 10, 2025 2 mins read
GCIT students showcase industry-driven tech innovations

The final year students of Gyalpozhing College of Information Technology (GCIT), Kabesa, showcased 16 innovative real-li...

Jun 10, 2025 2 mins read
US tariff policy and supply chain shift: Limited direct impact

The ongoing United States–China trade war is redrawing global supply chains, prompting companies to shift operations from China to countries such as India, Mexico, and those in Southeast Asia. This realignment, while aimed at larger economies, could present new openings for smaller, emerging economies like Bhutan.

May 12, 2025 3 mins read
Happiness with Mr Bhutan

In a world that first instills fear in us, only to sell us a product or service to eliminate that fear, we find ourselves trapped in a never ending cycle of anxiety and temporary relief. At a time when humanity is addicted to economic growth at all costs, it is easy to lose sight of the deeper question, the mother of why we do what we do: our pursuit of happiness.

May 10, 2025 3 mins read
A big problem for a small airport

There is another record, one we would rather not be associated with. In just the first five months of 2025, nearly 29 kilograms of brown sugar (heroin), a highly addictive and dangerous drug, have been seized by customs and police. This is the largest amount ever intercepted.

Jun 13, 2025 2 mins read
Plastic ban: Why it’s failing

Consider this: of the 172 metric tonnes of waste generated daily in Bhutan, plastics constitute roughly 36 percent, with over 13 percent of plastic waste contaminating riparian soils along the Wangchhu. The conseq...

Jun 11, 2025 2 mins read
Why taxing fixed deposit interest makes sense

A fierce public debate has erupted over the proposed introduction of a 10 percent withholding tax on fixed deposit (FD)...

Jun 10, 2025 2 mins read
Managing our mess: A real test of commitment?

Waste has always been Bhutan’s quiet embarrassment—a problem we have seen, smelled, and stepped around, yet never truly...

Jun 09, 2025 2 mins read
Govt. can make home ownership possible

When the Changjiji low-income housing project began over two decades ago, there was a hopeful rumour: tenants might eventually own the flats after years of rent payment. This gave many, especially low-income government employees, a gl...

Jun 07, 2025 2 mins read
The silent crisis consuming our youth

More than 3,600 young people were arrested for drug-related offences between 2023 and 2024, accounting for over 50 percent of total drug arrests in the country. Most of those detained are young men, either unemployed or students -...

Jun 06, 2025 2 mins read
Another populist gamble?

Even as we decry traffic jams, vehicular pollution, parking shortages and the fossil fuel import bill, elected leaders are championing, on behalf of the “common man”,  to reduce tax on import...

Jun 05, 2025 2 mins read
Crime solved, but questions remain

The recent arrest of five young men linked to a series of burglaries across Thimphu comes as a welcome relief. The police acted swiftly, followed up on community reports, analysed CCTV footage, and apprehended the suspects...

Jun 04, 2025 2 mins read
Authorities must crack down on fronting

Fronting in business, where Bhutanese citizens lend their names and licences to foreign nationals to operate businesses illegally, has become a rampant and disturbingly normalised practice in Phuentsholing and other border towns. This is...

Jun 03, 2025 2 mins read
Let the forests grow our economy

Our forests have long stood as icons of our environmental philosophy and guardians of our national identity. With nearly 70 percent of the country under forest cover, we have earned international praise for our conse...

Jun 02, 2025 2 mins read
Bhutan’s trade with Thailand hits record high

Bhutan’s imports from Thailand surged to Nu 2.67 billion in 2024, making the Southeast Asian country the third-largest s...

Apr 23, 2025 2 mins read
New vegetable market under construction in Samtse

Samtse—For many years, farmers in Samtse have sold vegetables from under makeshift tents, battling monsoon rains and bla...

Apr 17, 2025 2 mins read
Organic vegetables provide new livelihoods for Kochin farmers

Tashichoeling, Samtse — For 78-year-old Kamala Tamang of Kochin in Tendruk, saving money in a bank had been unimaginable...

Apr 16, 2025 2 mins read
Major financial sector reforms crucial to realising 13th Plan goals

Sweeping reforms in the financial sector are essential for the country to achieve the ambitious goals of its 13th Plan,...

Apr 14, 2025 3 mins read
AmA by Deki Natural Dyes

In an age dominated by fast fashion and synthetic dyes, a Bhutanese entrepreneur is turning to the past to craft a more...

Apr 09, 2025 3 mins read
Ask Mr Bhutan

As a collective, humanity has never been richer, more connected, more informed, and more protected from all cause diseas...

Apr 12, 2025 2 mins read
Ask Mr Bhutan

A significant portion of our youth’s challenges stems from our shortcomings as responsible, patient, and mindful elders....

Mar 22, 2025 1 mins read
Happiness with Mr Bhutan

Mar 15, 2025 4 mins read
Ask Mr Bhutan

The rise in youth crimes in Bhutan stems from various causes, requiring a multifaceted solution. My experiences living i...

Feb 08, 2025 1 mins read
Ask Mr Bhutan

The rise in youth crimes in Bhutan stems from various causes, requiring a multifaceted solution. My experiences living i...

Feb 08, 2025 1 mins read
MaX(imum) Pressure?

There is a growing consensus among elected leaders to undo the Royal Civil Service Commission’s (RCSC) initiative—planne...

May 31, 2025 2 mins read
Outmigration: Bhutan’s existential dilemma

The sharp rise in Bhutanese outmigration since the Covid-19 pandemic is no longer just a trend; it has become a full-blo...

May 30, 2025 2 mins read
Our human development rank deserves a closer look

Our global brand—Gross National Happiness—is envied and admired. Yet our ranking in the Human Development Index (HDI) te...

May 29, 2025 2 mins read
A bold tax reform

Even before the Economic and Finance Committee could review the Excise Tax Bill and Income Tax Bill 2025 presented by th...

May 28, 2025 2 mins read
Complacency is a luxury we cannot afford

The recent surge of Covid-19 sub-variants in India—LF.7 and NB.1.8—serves as a warning that the pandemic, while quieter,...

May 27, 2025 2 mins read

Recents

A big problem for a small airport

There is another record, one we would rather not be associated with. In just the first five months of 2025, nearly 29 kilograms of brown sugar (heroin), a highly addictive and dangerous drug, have been seized by customs and police. This is the largest amount ever intercepted.

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Agripreneur experiments with trout farming in Gedu Chu

Chukha—Thirty-three-year old Kumar remembers the first fish he ever caught. He was a schoolboy in Gongtsakha, a remote village in Jigmecholing in Sarpang, trailing the riverbanks with his father. Together they dried their haul and sold it in the nearest market, cash that put food on the table and paid his school fees.

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Bhutan hosts regional training on soil information systems

Amid growing recognition of the critical role of reliable soil data in sustainable land management, 40 participants from 13 member countries of the Asian Food and Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (AFACI) are attending a regional training workshop on National Soil Information Systems (NSIS) in Thimphu.

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