All you wanted to know.....
Modern Nepal is a federal secular parliamentary republic. It has seven states. Nepal is a developing nation, ranking 144th on the Human Development Index (HDI) in 2016. The country struggles with the transition from a monarchy to a republic. It also suffers from high levels of hunger and poverty. Despite these challenges, Nepal is making steady progress, with the government declaring its commitment to elevate the nation from least developed country status by 2022.Nepal also has a vast potential to generate hydropower for export.
THE ECONOMY
Nepal's gross domestic product (GDP) for 2012 was estimated at over $17.921 billion (adjusted to nominal GDP). In 2010, agriculture accounted for 36.1%, services comprised 48.5%, and industry 15.4% of Nepal's GDP. While agriculture and industry are contracting, the contribution by the service sector is increasing.
Agriculture employs 76% of the workforce, services 18% and manufacturing and craft-based industry 6%. Agricultural produce mostly grown in the Terai region bordering India includes tea, rice, corn, wheat, sugarcane, root crops, milk, and water buffalo meat. Industry mainly involves the processing of agricultural produce, including jute, sugarcane, tobacco, and grain. Its workforce of about 10 million suffers from a severe shortage of skilled labour.
Nepal's economic growth continues to be adversely affected by the political uncertainty. Nevertheless, real GDP growth was estimated to increase to almost 5 percent for 2011 to 2012. This is an improvement from the 3.5 percent GDP growth in 2010 to 2011 and would be the second-highest growth rate in the post-conflict era. Sources of growth include agriculture, construction, financial and other services. The contribution of growth by consumption fuelled by remittances has declined since 2010/2011. While remittance growth slowed to 11 percent (in Nepali Rupee terms) in 2010/2011, it has since increased to 37 percent. Remittances are estimated to be equivalent to 25 to 30 percent of GDP. Inflation has been reduced to a three-year low of 7 percent.
Nepal is a one-stop spiritual destination. Every activity here revolves around finding yourself, seeking your roots, whether it be practicing yoga or going on a mighty trek or just visiting a temple.
The spaces are endless subalpine forested hills, eight of the world's ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth and temples to transport you to divine ecstasy.
Kathmandu is the nation's capital and largest city. with Nepali as the official language.
Today Nepal is a multiethnic nation in the lap of Nirvana serenity ready to embrace the modern luxuries.
INFRASTRUCTURE AND INVESTMENT
The tiny, landlocked nation of Nepal lies sandwiched between two of the world's largest countries, China and India and maintains good relations with both. Politically Nepal has strong links with China, while culturally its ties are close with India and these relationships work both ways. Despite being tiny in comparison, Nepal is an important trading partner for China and India and provides a vital transport connection across the continent for these much larger nations.
Although Nepal's recent political happenings has been tumultuous, with a series of changes in governments, the leaders of all the major parties have agreed upon the need for better transportation.
ROADS
Road transportation has been widely recognized as being crucial to the country's development.
Nepal's road network is growing but there is an enormous need for more investment. A study in 2007 revealed that the country had 10,142km in all of surfaced roads and a further 7,140km of unsurfaced roads. Nepal has 75 District Headquarters and up to 15 have no direct connection by road, while 33% of the population live at least two hours.
The hilly and mountainous terrain in the northern two-thirds of the country has made the building of roads and other infrastructure difficult and expensive. In 2007 there were just over 10,142 km (6,302 mi) of paved roads, and 7,140 km (4,437 mi) of unpaved road, and one 59 km (37 mi) railway line in the south.
Transport
Nepal remains isolated from the world's major land, air and sea transport routes although, within the country, aviation is in a better state, with 47 airports, 11 of them with paved
More than one-third of its people live at least a two hour walk from the nearest all-season road; 15 out of 75 district headquarters are not connected by road. In addition, around 60% of the road network and most rural roads are not operable during the rainy season. The only practical seaport of entry for goods bound for Kathmandu is Kolkata in West Bengal state of India. Internally, the poor state of development of the road system makes access to markets, schools, and health clinics a challenge.
Airports
Air travel is well-developed and Nepal has 47 airports, 11 of which have proper surfaced runways. However, Nepal's air safety record is not good due to many of the airports being located at high altitudes where weather conditions can be subject to rapid change. The country has airport facilities noted to be amongst the highest and most challenging for pilots, while aircraft condition is not always optimal and crashes are not infrequent.
Telecommunications and mass media
According to the Nepal Telecommunication Authority MIS May 2012 report, there are seven operators and the total voice telephony subscribers including fixed and mobile are 16,350,946 which gives a penetration rate of 61.42%. The fixed telephone service account for 9.37%, mobile for 64.63%, and other services (LM, GMPCS) for 3.76% of the total penetration rate. Similarly, the numbers of subscribers to data/internet services are 4,667,536 which represents 17.53% penetration rate. Most of the data service is accounted by GPRS users. Twelve months earlier the data/internet penetration was 10.05%, thus this represents a growth rate of 74.77%.
Energy
The bulk of the energy in Nepal comes from fuel wood (68%), agricultural waste (15%), animal dung (8%), and imported fossil fuels (8%).Except for some lignite deposits, Nepal has no known oil, gas or coal deposits. All commercial fossil fuels (mainly oil and coal) are either imported from India or from international markets routed through India and China. Fuel imports absorb over one-fourth of Nepal's foreign exchange earnings.
Middle Marshyandi Hydroelectricity Dam. Nepal has significant potential to generate hydropower, which it plans to export across South Asia
Only about 1% energy need is fulfilled by electricity
Current Issue
02-2026
