Several political quakes aside, Nepal faced a major physical earthquake recently. Although the jolt measured 6.9 in the Richter at its epicentre, very nominal damage was caused in terms of casualty across the country. Even after a week, the people living in remote parts of Nepal are yet to get the relief. Despite increasing capability to handle disasters like quake, Nepal needs to enhance its capability further. This is what the message of the quake .


In a course of prolonged economic difficulties, Nepalese are celebrating their great festival Dashain and Dipawali. The rising market prices and scarcity of essential items have already created troubles among many. Along with this, people are facing difficulty to go home due to lack of commuters. At a time when the country has been passing through unstable political situation, nobody seems to have time to look at the people. Although Prime Minister Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai repeatedly claimed that he will conclude the peace process and constitution writing within three months, there is no sign for early conclusion of the peace process. The minister is facing tough challenges within his party in settling the peace process and two major opposition parties hasve already made it clear that they will not allow to move the constitution making process smoothly without completion of peace process.


Despite dismal performance in many other sectors, tourism gives a sign of hope this year. With the announcement of Nepal Tourism Year 2011, Nepal started aggressive marketing globally, the wrok resulting in the drastic increase in the arrival of the tourists. From diversity of culture to nature, Nepal has many thins to boast. Although Nepal remained isolated till 1950, tourism helped to link’s Nepalese unique cultures with the rest of the world. One of the important aspects of this year’s slogan of World Tourism Day Tourism Linking Cultures is very much appropriate for Nepal. As tourism is a back bone of Nepal’s economy which provides employment for larger portion of population, any changes in the state of tourism can make a lot of differences. As Nepal celebrated World Tourism Day, we also decided to look at different aspects of tourism in Nepal as a cover story. As Nepalese are celebrating Dashain festival, we would like to wish all our readers, patrons and well wisher Happy Dashain.


Keshab Poudel
Editor