From Renunciation to Nirvana and Beatitude: What Is Common in Buddha and Christ?

This article explores the confluence in the ideas that Buddha postulated in the Dhammapada and Christ in the gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament. In spite of the differences in their context, arena, and even in trends and tenets, they both project that the renouncement in action lead the worldly affairs to the realm of spiritual illumination. Both the Dhammapada and the four gospels from the New Testament clearly proclaim that subtraction of the ego along with the pursuit of wisdom eventually open the path of inner evolution for redemption—Nirvana and Beatitude. Likewise, the concepts of Bodhisattva and Messiah have similar mission to redeem the humanity. All these concepts invite a new revisiting to qualify them, adding a new in-depth insight. This fresh revisit widens new dimensions to view the meeting points between the seemingly diverse religious philosophies. Therefore, this paper has applied the qualitative approach to the ideas from the divine creations—the Dhammapada and the gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John from the New Testament.

Micro-credit for the Small Enterprises Development: A Case of Kaski District, Nepal

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of micro-credit on the small or micro-enterprises development with reference to Kaski district of Nepal. The descriptive and analytical research design is used and the research is based on the primary sources of data collected through structured questionnaires. During the study, the researchers selected 170 respondents, who were involved in the micro-credit programme in the last five or more years in the microfinance institutions, using the purposive sampling technique. The study finds that the majority of the clients are involved in agriculture and livestock and the rest are involved in the micro-business and enterprises related to service industry (such as tailoring, beauty parlor, hotel or restaurant), trade or business and small-scale manufacturing sectors. Micro-credit has a positive correlation with initial investment, revenue generation, employment generation, expansion of business and profit generation. The study also finds that micro-credit has encouraged clients to engage in the micro-business and enterprise development activities. The study recommends that it is necessary to adopt an effective utilization policy of micro-credit that may benefit both microfinance institutions for its sustainability and clients for their living standard improvement.

Impact of Firm Specific Factors on Financial Performance: A Comparative Study of Life and Non-Life Insurance Companies in Nepal

The empirical research has been carried out to examine the firm specific factors composition and its impact on financial performance of life and non-life insurance companies in Nepal. This paper employs the descriptive as well as causal-comparative research design. The study comprises of a panel data set of 14 insurance companies listed in Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) with 140 observations covering a period of 10 years from 2009/10 to 2018/19. The result exhibits that the insurance companies having a high debt ratio have better financial performance. It also reveals that a higher proportion of debt ratio and tangible assets increases return in assets. On the other side, a lesser proportion of equity, firm size and liquidity decreases the return on assets of the insurance companies in Nepal. The study raises understanding of impacts of firm specific factors on financial performance and provides an empirical evidence that the total debt ratio, equity to the total assets ratio, leverage, firm size, liquidity and tangibility are the significant factors in determining the financial performance of Nepal’s insurance companies. The non-life insurance companies tend to perform better in term of financial performance measured by earning per share and return on assets. The study leads to practical implications for insurance companies and regulatory bodies. The insurance companies of Nepal interested to improve their financial performance should focus on increasing their leverage and long-term investment and decreasing the proportion of equity, firm size and liquidity.

Students’ Awareness towards Climate Change: A Study of Climate Change Effects on Human Health in Nepal

Climate change and its impact on human health and awareness constitute a set of complex and serious consequences to be tackled by an individual country. It is not merely an environmental issue, but it is also a threat that goes beyond the national borders. The purpose of this study is to assess the awareness on effect of climate change on human health among the secondary level students of Biratnagar. The research design was descriptive cross-sectional and data was collected from 110 samples through the census method using the semi-structured self-administered questionnaire. Among the respondents, 84.5% knew that climate change can be prevented. Moreover, 50.9% perceived that climate change is an unbreakable process; 77.3% of them perceived climate change is the cause of new disease; and 81.8% of them are concerned about preventing the effects of climate change on human health. Among the respondents, 10% had adequate awareness. The study concluded that half of the secondary level students have inadequate level of awareness on effects of climate change on human health in Biratnagar. It is recommended that awareness should be increased by involving them in the project work activities and reinforcing the component of curriculum.

Can the Gandharvas Speak?: A Study of Gandharva Songs

In the social context of Nepal, Gandharvas are regarded as Dalits, the people who are suppressed and silenced by the society. Such subaltern groups are thought to have no voice. They are considered ‘muted’ or ‘inarticulate’ without any agency, consciousness and power of resistance. However, breaking such boundaries, the present research aims at exploring the voices of Gandharvas expressed through their folk songs, which express their real subaltern condition and a sense of dissatisfaction towards the mechanism of society constructed and controlled by the elites. For this, some of the representative folk songs are taken and viewed from the perspective of subaltern voice, consciousness, resistance and agency developed by Antonio Gramsci, Ranjit Guha, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Partha Chatterjee and Gautam Bhadra. With the thorough analysis of their songs, it is inferred that although they are deprived of any rank and recognition in the mainstream Nepali society, they have clearly expressed their voices as well as manifested consciousness, reflecting their real life experiences marked by domination, marginalization and suppression. The manifestation of such consciousness and expression of inner voice is also used as an instrument to subvert the hegemony constructed by the complacent upper class of the society.

Opinions of Investors on Nepal Stock Exchange Limited (NEPSE) Online Trading System

Nepal Stock Exchange Limited (NEPSE) is only a secondary market in Nepal. After almost three decades of its establishment, the NEPSE trading system turned fully automated on January 17, 2021. The new system is named NEPSE Online Trading System (NOTS), which was launched on November 6, 2018. After the breakout of the COVID-19, the NOTS users using NEPSE online Trade Management System (TMS) and Uniform Resource Locator (URL) increased due to the nation-wide lockdown as well as the compulsion from the governing body. Hence, the paper attempts to get opinions from the NOTS users about its features and performance. The paper has taken 300 NOTS users as samples for the survey purpose. The online survey was conducted for the study. A 5–points Likert scale-based questionnaire was forwarded to the potential online traders (investors) through an online platform such as messenger and email. The study has followed descriptive statistics and a one-sample t-test to interpret the collected data from the NOTS users. The study found that there is an issue of the market data display in the NOTS platform, which needs to be addressed as soon as possible. At the same time, the respondents stated that the best parts of NOTS were that it has helped them to specify and customize the securities, price, and volume that one would like to trade on a real-time basis.

Assessment of Microbial Qualities of Some Cough Syrups and Multivitamins Marketed in Pokhara, Nepal

Recently, the manufacturers of pharmaceuticals have improved the quality of non-sterile pharmaceuticals in such a way that such products contain only minimal bioburden. However, the production of sub-standard cough syrups and multivitamin syrups may cause non-therapeutic effect in patients, particularly in children. For this reason, this study was conducted to evaluate the microbiological quality of cough syrup and multivitamin syrups marketed in Pokhara, Nepal. Different brands of 15 cough syrups and 15 multivitamin syrups were collected from different vendors of Pokhara and the spread plate technique was performed to enumerate the microbial contaminant from the collected samples. Among 15 cough syrups, 12 samples were found to be contaminated with bacteria and nine samples were found to be contaminated with fungi. Similarly, among 15 multivitamin syrups, 10 were found to be contaminated with bacteria whereas 12 were found to be contaminated with fungi. Escherichia coli was not isolated in any samples. Overall, 14(93.33%) of cough syrup and 13(86.67%) of multivitamin syrups were found to be contaminated by either bacteria, fungi, or by both which exceeded the acceptance limit of International Pharmacopeia. The prevalence of these microorganisms in pharmaceutical products such as syrups samples may indicate the unhygienic condition, defect in production, poor adoption of Good Manufacturing Practice, ineffective preservatives and inadequate quality control. Though these products fall under non-sterile pharmaceutical products, so they need not require sterility but these drugs must conform to the microbiological purity criteria set in the appropriate pharmacopeial standard. These contaminated syrups explain the poor treatment and complicacy of the uncompromised people and the sick children.

The Relationship of Behavioral Factors with Investment Performance of Individual Investors in the Nepali Stock Market

In recent years, the market anomalies and irrational behavior of investors have influenced the stock market worldwide. The impact of investor behavior on the stock market is more prominent in small and less efficient capital markets. The study is based on the questionnaire survey of 203 investors from Kathmandu and Pokhara. The study uses Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to explore the underlying dimensions of investor behavior employing Principal Component Analysis and Varimax rotation. The suitability of the data for the factor analysis has been examined using KMO and Barlett’s Test of Sphericity. The EFA extracted four factors of investor behavioral dimensions categorized as: heuristics, prospects, market factors and herding effect. The factor scores obtained from the EFA was used to examine the correlation of these behavioral factors with investment performance. The results reveal that behavioral biases like heuristics, prospects, market factor and herding effect are present among individual investors in Nepal. Among the factors, the investment performance of investors is found to be influenced by heuristics and market factors. The heuristic behaviors are found to have the highest and positive influence on the investment performance. Finally, the results depict that following the herd behavior in the market and prospects does not result in the improved investor performance. The findings are helpful to understand the role of investor behavior in the stock market and formulation of appropriate policies that limit the possibility of behavioral biases affecting the stock market adversely.

Integrating Technology into English Language Teaching in Nepal: Student and Teacher Perspectives

Integrating technology into language teaching and learning is getting popularity in Nepal. Many educational institutions claim that they are adapting to technology in their curricular activities. This study aims to find out the secondary students’ and teachers’ perspectives on the integration of technology in English language teaching (ELT). As a qualitative research, it employs the semi-structured interview to investigate the participants’ experiences of technology integrated language teaching in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. The findings of the study reported that technology integrated teaching promotes teachers’ and students’ performances, enriches student-centred teaching strategies, develops learning opportunities and brings pedagogical changes. Technology also supports both teachers and students to be productive in language teaching. Technology integrated language teaching and learning advances coordination, cooperation, and collaboration among teachers and students. Various Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools support both teachers and students to search and use different online materials relevant to their text. However, insufficient ICT infrastructures, poor bandwidth of internet and limited skill of ICT among teachers and students have become the obstacles to incorporate technology in the Nepali education system. To develop students’ and teachers’ skill of adapting to ICT in their language classroom, the concerned authority needs to provide a minimum ICT infrastructure to achieve the educational goals in Nepal.

Editor's Note Vol.4

No abstract available.