November of 2025

Archives

The Dharma King

I have known about the existence of Dharma Kings in ancient India, ancient Tibet and beyond, when society was characterised by virtue and Dharm, and spirituality was at the core of humankind. Unfortunately, today we may not be able to say the same.

Nov 24, 2025 2 mins read 3,606 views
When rising corruption reports tell a deeper story

The growing number of corruption reports in the past year forces the nation to confront a hard truth: something in our systems is not working a...

Nov 29, 2025 2 mins read 2,396 views
Millions paid to hotels for quarantine use spark questions on relief requests

While many hoteliers continue to report low occupancy and seve...

Nov 29, 2025 2 mins read 3,792 views
Fuel stations to adopt UPI payment gateway for Indian customers

Gelephu—Despite decades of cross-border trade between Bhutan and India, most transactions along the bord...

Nov 29, 2025 4 mins read 2,351 views
DRC crackdowns on arbitrary price hikes

The Department of Revenue and Customs (DRC) is preparing to impose penalties on retailers and suppliers who raised prices on cigarettes, pan masala, and beer without justification, following a nationwide inspection prompted by growing public unease over sudden price spikes.

Nov 29, 2025 2 mins read 4,183 views
Small farmers dominate ESP loans as fairness questions surface

The Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) loan scheme has largely benefited smallholder farmers, with 1,864 loa...

Nov 29, 2025 3 mins read 2,855 views
Survey finds teacher surplus in core subjects, shortage in SEN and ICT

The recent Teacher Requirement Exercise conducted by the Ministry of Education and...

Nov 29, 2025 3 mins read 2,336 views
NC’s Good Governance Committee reports rise in corruption cases, highlights systemic gaps

The National Council’s Good Governance Committee r...

Nov 29, 2025 3 mins read 2,914 views
Health ministry launches traditional medicine reform with three major initiatives

The health ministry launched three landmark initiatives for traditional medicine yesterday, marked by the inauguration of the National Center for Traditional Medicine Services (NCTMS), the launch of the National Traditional Medicine Strategy and Action Plan (NTMSAP 2025–2034), and the signing of a Nu 44 million grant agreement with the Bhutan Foundation.

Nov 29, 2025 2 mins read 2,004 views
National Day celebrations go digital with crowdsourced jackpot worth millions

This year’s National Day is headed for a major digital upgrade...

Nov 29, 2025 2 mins read 8,665 views
Custodial death and doctor shortages expose deeper systemic decay

The recent tragic incident in Samtse, involving the death of a five-year-old and the death of a pe...

Nov 29, 2025 2 mins read 3,402 views
Global Peace Prayer Festival 2025: A strategic triumph of soft power and spiritual diplomacy

Introduction: When peace becomes strategy In Novem...

Nov 29, 2025 6 mins read 1,893 views
Hope abroad, anxiety at home

Yesterday morning, I came across an anonymous Facebook post that read: “It is either abroad or Chamgang (jail) for youth in Bhutan. Laws are draconian, especially towards poor and humble ones.”

Nov 29, 2025 4 mins read 10,458 views
Bhutan moves to join International Big Cat Alliance

The Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Gem Tshering, introduced a framework agreement to the National Assembly yesterday for Bhutan t...

Nov 29, 2025 1 mins read 1,688 views
No bypass alignment documented for Damphu: MoIT Minister

The Minister for Infrastructure and Transport (MoIT), Chandra Bdr Gurung, confirmed that no documentation exists regarding th...

Nov 29, 2025 2 mins read 2,515 views
The silent caregivers

Kolkata, India—In the bustling corridors of Kolkata’s private hospitals, a community moves almost invisibly. They do not appear on rosters, yet their presence is indispensable. They arrive quietly, blending into the long lines of...

Nov 29, 2025 5 mins read 2,925 views
Her Majesty Gyalyum Tshering Yangdoen Wangchuck graces Nobgang’s sertog ceremony

Punakha—Her Majesty Gyalyum Tshering Yangdoen Wangchuck graced the Tashi Rabney (consecration) and Sertog (Golden Pinnacle) installation ceremony for the Utse (central tower) of Pelri Dorji Din (Wongma) and Zimchu (Gongma) in Nobgang, Punakha, yesterday. The ceremony was presided over by Dorji Lopen.

Nov 29, 2025 1 mins read 1,333 views
A glimpse of Saturn

Under a clear November sky, the first batch of Pelsups lined up behind a Celestron CPC800 telescope and waited their turn. When their eyes met the eyepiece, Saturn rose into view – pale, luminous, and ringed like a tiny, suspended jewel...

Nov 29, 2025 2 mins read 1,437 views
Regulatory reforms must be matched with a mindset shift

The government’s commitment to address regulatory barriers that have choked business growth deserves recognition and support. Fo...

Nov 28, 2025 2 mins read 9,797 views
Fourth Session of Fourth Parliament begins

His Majesty the King graced the opening ceremony of the Fourth Session of the Fourth Parliament yesterday. On behalf of the Parliament, Speaker Lungten Dorji expressed...

Nov 28, 2025 4 mins read 2,006 views
Paro Airport goes green with hybrid solar-battery system

Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay inaugurated a 1,500 kilowatt (kW) rooftop solar power plant with a hybrid solar-battery system at Paro International Airport yesterday.

Nov 28, 2025 2 mins read 1,610 views
His Holiness the Je Khenpo consecrates newly constructed Nyekhang at Chukha

His Holiness the Je Khenpo consecrated the newly constructed Nyekhan...

Nov 28, 2025 1 mins read 1,350 views
The only wheel that turns in Soe

Soe, Thimphu—Around 10 am on October 13, the sun at the Soe Gewog Centre was bright but not yet warm when a group of men gathered inside the garage where the red machine rested, small but loud enou...

Nov 28, 2025 3 mins read 1,993 views
New Pilatus PC-24 jet joins Drukair fleet

Paro– Drukair welcomed the airline’s new Pilatus PC-24 aircraft at Paro International Airport yesterday with a traditional ceremonial reception.

Nov 28, 2025 2 mins read 2,093 views
འབྲུག་ལུ་ཌི་ཇི་ཊལ་རྩུབ་སྤྱོད་ཀྱི་ ངོས་ལེན་འབད་དོ་ཡོདཔ།

༉ དུས་ཅི་གི་ལོ་ལུ་ འབྲུག་ལུ་ཨམ་སྲུ་ཚུ་ལུ་ རྩུབ་སྤྱོད་རྩ་མེད་ཀྱི་ རྒྱལ་སྤྱིའི་ཉིནམ་བརྩི་སྲུང་དེ་ཡང་ མི་དབང་འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་བཞི་པ་ དགུང་ལོ་༧༠ བཞེས་པའི་འཁྲུངས་སྐར་གྱི་ཉིནམ་དང་བསྟུན་ འགོ་འདྲེན་འཐབ་ཡོདཔ་ད་ མི་དབང་མཆོག་གི་ དབུ་ཁྲིད་བཟང་པོའི་འོག་ལུ་ ཕོ་མོ་འདྲ་མཉམ་དང་ ཨམ་སྲུ་དང་ བུམོ་ཚུ་ལུ་གོ་སྐབས་ཟེར་བའི་ གཞི་འགྱམ་ཐོག་ལུ་ འབད་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན་པས།

Nov 27, 2025 7 mins read 506 views
The classic egg and chicken situation

The price of an egg in the capital has soared to a staggering Nu 20, pushing a standard tray of 30 to Nu 520. While it feels like a crisis, there's no pandemic to blame this time and...

Nov 27, 2025 2 mins read 2,308 views
Digital violence gains attention as Bhutan marks IDEVAW

This year, Bhutan observed the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (IDEVAW) with special significanc...

Nov 27, 2025 3 mins read 2,198 views
Defunct Tama school to reopen as vocational secondary school

The Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) has approved the establishment of Tama Vocational Second...

Nov 27, 2025 3 mins read 2,200 views
Damchu–Chukha bypass restoration in full swing

Chukha—Restoration work on the Damchu–Chukha bypass is progressing after heavy rainfall in October damaged several sections of the road. The major damage was a collapse at the 19.9 kilometre point, which now requires realignment.

Nov 27, 2025 1 mins read 2,133 views
SAARC convenes 61st session of Programming Committee

The 61st session of the Programming Committee of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) commenced yesterday. The me...

Nov 27, 2025 1 mins read 4,020 views
Government-led review resolves more than half of business regulatory hurdles

A government-led review has resolved more than half of the regula...

Nov 27, 2025 3 mins read 1,551 views
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (IDEVAW)

This year, Bhutan observes IDEVAW 2025 with special significance as the natio...

Nov 27, 2025 3 mins read 1,389 views
A new paradigm for climate multilateralism in South Asia

With the conclusion of COP30 in Brazil, the message emerging from global negotiations is unmistakable: the world has now slip...

Nov 27, 2025 6 mins read 1,829 views
Gyalyum Tseyring Pem Wangchuck inaugurates restored Thimphu Basketball Centre

Her Majesty Gyalyum Tseyring Pem Wangchuck, Co-Chair of the Bh...

Nov 27, 2025 2 mins read 1,361 views
རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ནང་ སྒོང་རྡོག་ལང་མ་ཚུགས་མི་གིས་ གོང་ཚད་ཡར་སེང་སྦོམ་སྦེ་ར་ སོང་ཡོདཔ།

༉ དུས་ཅི་ལོ་ལུ་ རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ནང་ སྒོང་རྡོག་གི་གོང་ཚད་དེ...

Nov 26, 2025 9 mins read 587 views
Internalising our deeper values

The return of the Buddha’s sacred Piprahwa relics to India yesterday was more than a ceremonial farewell. It was a lesson in how nations should conduct themselves at a time when the world seems determ...

Nov 26, 2025 2 mins read 1,371 views
Egg prices hit record high amid nationwide shortage

Sarpang—The country is facing the sharpest spike in egg prices in years, as a nationwide shortage and increasing demand push costs to record highs, squeezing both consumers and farmers.

Nov 26, 2025 4 mins read 3,809 views
Holy Piprahwa relics return to India after 17-day display in Bhutan

His Majesty the King graced the special prayers at the kuenrey of the Tashichhodzong yesterd...

Nov 26, 2025 2 mins read 1,982 views
RCSC forges ahead with plan to build future-ready civil service

The Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) reports steady progress in implementing the ambitious 10-year...

Nov 26, 2025 3 mins read 3,594 views
Happiness cut short for The Happiness Farm

Punakha—Not long ago, a retired civil servant from Phongmey, Trashigang, Dorji, invested his entire life savings into a dream. He founded “The Happiness Farm” in Paro...

Nov 26, 2025 1 mins read 4,766 views
New Integrated Checkpost opens at Nganglam to streamline border security

The new Integrated Checkpost (ICP) at Gasharibaley in Nganglam was formally inaugurated yesterday and handed over to the Integrated Check Post Management Division under the Nganglam ICP Unit by the Department of Law and Order.

Nov 26, 2025 1 mins read 1,877 views
HKH nations unite in call for urgent adoption of nature-based solutions

The third Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) Science-Policy-Finance dialogue opened in Pa...

Nov 26, 2025 3 mins read 2,237 views
རང་རྩེ་གནས་ཀྱི་ ཚེས་བཅུ་འགོ་འདྲེན་འཐབ་ནི།

༉ ཧཱ་ དགའ་སྐྱིད་གླིང་གི་ ནགས་ཚལ་ནང་ཡོད་པའི་ རང་རྩེ...

Nov 25, 2025 6 mins read 581 views
Leveraging our carbon-negative status

Bhutan’s environmental stewardship, which has resulted in the country's rich biodiversity, is finally translating into concrete economic gains. The first-of-its-kind carbon credit ag...

Nov 25, 2025 2 mins read 1,736 views
Urban wildlife corridors to improve co-existence in GMC

Gelephu—The Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) is breaking new ground in urban planning by embedding wildlife corridors into its design, aiming to preserve ecological connectivity and foster safe coexistence between humans and wildlife.

Nov 25, 2025 3 mins read 2,589 views
Winter session of NC to commence on November 27

The 36th Session of the National Council (NC) will commence from November 27 to December 26. During this period, the House will deliberate on and adopt...

Nov 25, 2025 1 mins read 2,358 views
RENEW reintegrates 18 survivors with families through support services

The Respect, Educate, Nurture, and Empower Women (RENEW) has successfully reintegra...

Nov 25, 2025 2 mins read 1,413 views
Bhutanese in flooded Hat Yai city, Thailand safe but struggling

Some 15 Bhutanese nationals are stranded in the severely flooded Thai city of Hat Yai, Thailand, facing...

Nov 25, 2025 3 mins read 2,572 views
Bhutan’s democracy, in its own image

When I began writing Democracy’s Heartland: Inside the Battle for Power in South Asia, I expected to find familiar stories: mass movements toppling rulers, constitutions drafted a...

Nov 25, 2025 4 mins read 1,976 views
Rangtse Nye Tshechu and Festival set to illuminate rural Haa

Deep within the forests of Gakiling in Haa, the sacred Rangtse Tshechu is set to unfold once more, drawing devotees and visitors.

Nov 25, 2025 2 mins read 1,564 views
Browse Archives
GMCA invites public feedback on six draft legislations

The GMCA has opened a two-week public consultation on six draft corporate and commercial laws to refine policies in the Special Administrative Region.

Apr 08, 2026 3 mins read 75,791 views
RAA suspends audit clearance certificates amid huge unresolved issues worth billions

The Royal Audit Authority (RAA) has suspended the issuance of Audit Clearance Certificates (ACC) to enforce resolution o...

Apr 08, 2026 2 mins read 5,319 views
Connectivity and infrastructure challenges hamper digital learning in schools

The Ministry of Education and Skills Development plans to reinstate ICT exams for Class XII from 2026 to strengthen digi...

Apr 08, 2026 2 mins read 1,512 views
Forex reserves reach USD 1.15B in February

Foreign exchange reserves reached USD 1.15 billion in February 2026, up 33.64 percent year-on-year, and are sufficient t...

Apr 08, 2026 3 mins read 2,300 views
Bags that carry Bhutan

Starting with a simple sewing machine and a curiosity for the craft, Wesel gradually developed her skills, combining Bhutanese tradition with global design trends.

Apr 08, 2026 3 mins read 2,799 views
Rain and hail in south, snow in north as pre-monsoon systems dominate skies

Southern Bhutan faces heavy rain and storms, while northern highlands get light snow, driven by pre-monsoon weather syst...

Apr 08, 2026 3 mins read 1,962 views
Draktsho East launches unit to bridge gap between training and employment

The Beyond Graduation Production and Empowerment-supported unit might be an answer to how persons with disabilities can...

Apr 08, 2026 2 mins read 2,159 views
Four districts, three commodities

By 2030, BRECSA aims to boost resilient commercial agriculture by 30 percent across the four districts, improve food and nutrition security, and connect scattered producer groups into a coordinated agri-food system.

Apr 08, 2026 4 mins read 2,099 views
Roads, power, and connectivity transform Merak

Electricity and improved roads have enabled residents of Merak to upgrade homes, switch from traditional fire stoves to...

Apr 08, 2026 2 mins read 1,640 views
BOC launches major reforms to upgrade national sports ecosystem

With Bhutan aiming for His Majesty’s Gelephu Mindfulness City and a tenfold GDP boost, the BOC says sports must evolve t...

Apr 08, 2026 2 mins read 3,321 views

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Train Smart, Not Hard

Jan 26, 2026 1 mins read 3,952 views
Punishment is not prevention

Jan 26, 2026 4 mins read 4,305 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 4,461 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 5,427 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 5,000 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 4,812 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 3,883 views

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