India lends a helping hand to Mahatma’s Nepali disciple

September 14th, 2009 KATHMANDU - As new Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao Monday began her two-day visit to Nepal, 500 Indian teachers are hoping the senior official's consultations with Nepali authorities would take them closer to their dues, for which some of them have been fighting for nearly three decades. When the first schools started in Nepal, due to the lack of trained teachers, the country recruited teachers from India.

September 11th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Air connectivity between India and Nepal is poised for a tremendous leap with the two neighbours inking an air pact that boosts weekly flight seats five-fold and opens 10 new destinations. India and Nepal have revised their Air Services Agreement (ASA) after 12 years to keep pace with the rapid developments in the aviation industry since then, consenting to allow each other to operate 30,000 seats every week instead of the previous 6,000 seats.

September 4th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Nepal's former Crown Prince Paras Shah has refuted the Indian media reports that suggest that he is involved in a Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN) racket. In a press statement, Paras, who was in Singapore recently, has condemned the reports as' false and malicious.' Paras said he was seriously concerned about these fictitious reports that were published in Indian media against him, which was 'spreading illusions inside the minds of Nepali people.

August 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Nepali nationals caught by the Madhya Pradesh ATS in connection with fake currency racket have revealed Nepal's former prince Paras's link to India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim. Paras is the son of the former Nepal king Gyanendra, who has now taken refuge in Singapore.

August 26th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Nepal Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala has said that she failed to accompany Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal in his maiden visit to India purely due to health reasons. At the Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party office where she was summoned to furnish clarification as to why she dropped out of Prime Minister's visit to India, Koirala, said that there were no other intentions behind it other than the sudden illness she developed on the eve of departure.

August 13th, 2009 KATHMANDU - The use of the Hindi language for official work was dealt a second blow by the Nepal government Thursday with most of the ruling parties saying that Vice President Paramananda Jha, who triggered a controversy by taking his oath of office in Hindi, should be sworn in again in the Nepali language. Ahead of his five-day visit to India starting from Aug 18, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal had Thursday called a meeting of the 22 parties in the coalition government to discuss political developments.

August 1st, 2009 KATHMANDU - Almost three months after he was sworn in as republican Nepal's second prime minister, veteran communist leader Madhav Kumar Nepal will begin his much-awaited visit to India on Aug 18, his foreign affairs advisor said Saturday. The 56-year-old, whose childhood was spent in the Indian border town Sitamarhi, will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, president of the ruling Congress party Sonia Gandhi and other Indian ministers and senior officials.

June 16th, 2009 KATHMANDU - The election of the Nepali Congress parliamentary board will take place on Saturday. The last date for the filing of nominations for the post of parliamentary party leader and other positions has been fixed for Friday, a statement released by Ananda Prasad Dhungana, the coordinator of the committee conducting the election, said.

June 6th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Even as Nepal's lawmakers Saturday decided to send a team to the western region, where there are growing claims of attacks on villagers by India's border security force - the Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB), the Indian embassy here denied the allegations. In a statement issued here, the embassy said it had "cross-checked the factual situation with relevant Indian authorities" who clarified that "there has been no violation of international border or any attacks upon Nepali nationals by Indian border guard forces".

May 8th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Nepal caretaker Prime Minister and Maoist party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda met Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala to discuss the political scenario in the aftermath of his resignation. According to Nepali Congress vice president Ram Chandra Poudel who was present during hour-long meeting, Koirala asked Prachanda to cooperate in forming a government of national consensus.

April 24th, 2009 KATHMANDU - An 18-year-old girl from India's Sikkim state has suffered for over two years after being duped by a Nepali tout, a report said. Januka Sharma, who dreamt of becoming rich by working in Lebanon, is now under sedation in a shelter in Kathmandu run by an NGO that works to prevent trafficking of women and children.

March 17th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Indian Ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood met Prime Minister Prachanda at latter's official residence in Baluwatar on Tuesday. According to Prachanda's press advisor Om Sharma, they discussed army integration,onstitution drafting process and the present political situation.

February 22nd, 2009 KATHMANDU - The driver of a foreign diplomatic mission in New Delhi has been named in a complaint to the Nepal police as being involved in duping a Nepali schoolgirl and trying to obtain her kidneys. Kesh Kumari Rawat, a sixth grader in western Nepal's remote Surkhet district, and her father Khadka Bahadur Rawat, have lodged a police complaint against a fellow Nepali, Bishnu Dhakal, who reportedly works as a driver in the Saudi Arabian embassy in New Delhi.

January 17th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Indian author Aravind Adiga's debut novel 'The White Tiger' that went on to win the prestigious Booker prize in 2008, has raised hackles in Nepal over what is being regarded as the belittling stereotyping of Nepalis. 'Many English-educated urban Indians have a distorted view of Nepalis,' said an article in the Kathmandu Post daily Sunday, calling the novel 'shocking' and 'blatantly representing Nepalis'.

January 6th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Though the growing dispute over the ouster of Indian priests at Nepal's revered Pashupatinath temple has saddened some Indians, it would however not hurt India-Nepal ties, India's top envoy in Nepal has said. Rakesh Sood, India's ambassador to Nepal, said that Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda has pledged that his government would obey the orders of the Supreme Court in this regard.