BIZstyle VOL 03 | ISSUE 02| NOV 2020 by BizStyle Magazine

A few words…...

These past few months from the inception of the idea to launch an e-magazine amidst the pandemic itself to the final day of the online issue has been a surreal experience and one we all have learned valuable lessons from. From finding the right sponsors to getting writers and running virtual interviews, have each grown to appreciate the value of teamwork and hard work. And we put in a lot of that. But even so, sweat and toil would not have been enough to get here without the overwhelming amount of support from the entire LA family, especially our LACM team who guided us all the way. You’ve helped us make the right choices and your input has made ours so much better. We would like to take a moment to thank founders of LA education group, administration, management, faculties, guest editors, previous & current batch mates, advertisers, content contributors and readers for their support and confidence in us. We, as a team have taken every effort to ensure that the quality and content of this issue will meet everybody’s taste and standards. BIZstyle is boundless thankful for the generosity and support of the contributors, sponsors and wellwishers. We look forward to years of association to come. Finally, to our readers who have taken the time to read our work, you humble and encourage us. You have welcomed us in life and we can’t thank you enough for that. We have made every effort to make your experience with us memorable and we hope that we can persevere along for many more years for a collaborative education. Have a delightful reading! BIZstyle Team.

TABLE OF

CONTENTS 01 BIZcorp · Bennevis: Serving Unforgettable Taste 02 BIZkickstart · Idea Behind Bikram Sambat · Pawan Sweets · Tyre Treasure 03 BIZshot · Sneha for Animals 04 BIZpersonality · Discover What Inspires You 05 BIZbold · Males Involved in Flesh Trade · Exploring the Gender Gap 06 BIZtech · DroNepal 07 BIZanalysis · Packaged Food Industry; the Backbone of Big Pharmaceuticals · COVID and Lockdown Creating Market for Vaccine · Corporate Governance: A Cross-Continential Analysis 08 BIZofeverything · Emergence of iflix BIZ vocal about local - Century Bank Limited - Bajeko Sekuwa - The Factory Team

· Traditionally Avant Garde · Living with the Himalayan Masters

Managing Director: - AASHISH WAGLE Chief Executive Officer: - ANUSHA KARKI Chief Operating Officer: - DIPTI SHRESTHA Chief Editors: - AKHIL SHRESTHA, SALEENA SHARMA ACHARYA Chief Financial Officer: - RAUNAK AGARWAL Public Relation Director: - ROHIT NAKARMI Layout Design Director: - PRIYANKA SINGH Creative Director: - AASTHA KAYASTHA Style Director: - SHREYA AGRAWAL Digital Marketing Manager: - JENIS PRASAIN Event Managers: - PRAMOD ACHARYA, PRABESH RAJ BASNET Guest Editors: - LACM (SHILPA DHAKAL, SHWETA PANDEY, NAMITA SUBEDI, AVIJEET THAPA), PAVIMA JAJODIA (NCELL) COVER PAGE/ BIZshot Social Entrepreneur: - SNEHA SHRESTHA, SHEHA'S CARE Photographer: - RAJIV DUWAL Location: Hattiban, Lalitpur SUPPORTING MEMBERS

HARSH AGRAWAL,INTAF AALAM ANSARI, ANISH BADAL, REECHA BAJRACHARYA, RUCHI BAJRACHARYA, AKASH BARAL, VEDANT BASNYAT, SUMAN CHAUDHARY, JELINA CHUDAL, ASMITA DAS, KAWACH DHAKAL, SURYAMSH DHEWAJU, PRAYUSH DULAL, ABISHA GURUNG, KSHITIZ GYAWALI, SHIJAL JAYAKAM, SANJIV KUMAR JAYSWAL, RAJAN JHA, REJEEN PRATAP K C, LUNA KHADGEE, HEMANT KHAREL, SHRISTI KONDA, ASHMI KUMARI, SUSHIL KUNWAR, SAMANATA KURUMBANG, ANGEL MAHARJAN, NIKKI MAHARJAN, PALISTHA MANANDHAR, NURHASSAN MANSOOR, SONAL OLI, RAHUL PUNIYA, AASHISH RAJ RAI, BIDHAN RAJTHALA, POOJA SARU, PRASILA SHAKYA, ASHISH SHARMA, ANKUR THAIBA SHRESTHA, BINISHA SHRESTHA, BISHAL SHRESTHA, DIKSHYA SHRESTHA, NASANA SHRESTHA, POOJA SHRESTHA, RUSHA SHRESTHA, SAMIMA SHRESTHA, AMISH SIWAKOTI, ANUBHAV SUBBA, SAMRISTI SUWAL, PRIYA THAKUR, LAHANA TULADHAR, NIKITAUPADHYAY, ABHISHEK YADAV, RAMITA KUMARI YADAV, BIBEK UPRETY, RABINA KHADGI, NIKITA MUNDHRA, SHAILA PARAJULI

DIGITAL MEDIA PRODUCTION: SAURAV MALLA THAKURI, Projectile Creations Contact: 9851246119, E-mail: info@projectilecreations.com CONCEPT, DESIGN AND LAYOUT: RAKESH TWANABASU, Hyupa Studio Contact: 9851117969, E-mail: support@hyupastudio.com All rights reserved in resepect of all articles, illustration, photography etc. published in BIZstyle magazine. The content of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in any form without the written consent of the publisher. The opinion expressed in contributor are not necessarily those of the publisher who canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t accept responsibility for any errors or omissions. All editorial inquiries and submission to BIZstyle Magazine must be added to bizstylenepal@gmail.com BIZstylemagazine, Hattiban, Lalitpur Volume 3| Issue 2| November 2020 01-5250123 6

Mr. NIKESH SHRESTHA - Marketing & Brand Manager, Bennevis

BIZcorp BENNEVIS: SERVING UNFORGETTABLE TASTE

protocols. Why not fulfill your cravings, ordering it via an app or just a call when social distancing is a must. It shall soon expand within other cities of Nepal. Moreover, by collaborations with Miss Nepal International 2017 Niti Shah, actress Priyanka n a hot summer day when you want to cool Karki, food vloggers, and evergreen Nepali band down, what do you feel like having? When Kutumba, Bennevis has shown its presence well in you want to relish something sweet but don’t want the Nepalese market. What’s more interesting is, it to spend a crazy amount of money on it, what do comes up with various events from a social event you wish for? Let me give you a hint, It’s cold. It’s like collaborating with the Khushi foundation where sweet. It’s creamy. And that burst of fruit-filled, they fed the hungry, to the programs where they nutty, or chocolate-chunky flavor can be incredibly get engaged with its customers; it organizes tasting refreshing when the steamy heat of midday starts programs time and again, recently it launched to weigh you down. You might have guessed it giveaway campaigns to engage with its customers. Why not test your luck? Who knows you might get right......yes it’s ice-cream!!! But strangely, people have the concept of ice cream a handful of gifts from Bennevis. only as something white, sweet, and cold. By this Bennevis’s creativity has also led it to realize that definition, ice-cream seems nothing more than people now are looking to shop with ease and having a frozen dessert. All ice-cream may be a frozen every product under one roof is the key, so, focusing dessert, but all frozen desserts are not ice-creams. on what shall be instead of what was ‘Bennevis IceAnd yes, not all ice cream, however, is a perfect cream’ is sold at supermarkets and marts as opposed ice cream. Ice-creams are made from milk fat, to local retailers ergo Bhatbhateni, Bigmart, DG conversely, frozen desserts are made from pure mart and other marts such that it reaches as many plant oil fat making ice-cream richer and creamier consumers as possible. Mr. Nikesh Shrestha, Marketing & Brand Manager in flavor than frozen desserts. To make this difference more apparent, Bennevis for Bennevis Ice-cream who has been highly presents you with one of a kind Scottish delight ice- dedicated to serving Nepalese customers from cream brand developed in our own Nepal. The core being involved in research to introduce new flavors idea for its manifestation was the fact that even to fulfill the gap in the ice-cream industry. Mr. though there are many local ice-cream brands, most Shrestha adds "Bennevis is the first Scottish delight of them contain vegetable oil and there is nothing ice-cream here in Nepal. Bennevis has positioned of sorts that gives as a premium essence, so with itself as a western touch in their looks and taste. the belief that even Nepal is capable of developing It also has positioned itself as a premium category premium caliber ice-creams, Bennevis entered the in terms of quality and taste of its flavors. It's USP has been it's flavors, rich taste and it's quality. Icemarket. Staying true to its strategy, Bennevis has taken a cream lovers should choose Bennevis as it offers value price proposition to complement its premium varieties of flavors, it's richness, taste, and value for essence. Nevertheless, it delivers with novel flavors money. Also, we value our customers and believe; such as ‘strawberry cheesecake’, ‘coffee almond "one should get what s/he pays for'' so we are fudge’, ‘peanut butter’ and ‘chocolate chip and cake’; continually working to update our taste and quality yes, they are available in Nepal too! Amazing right? to meet your taste." Along with new flavors in its line, it shall definitely Hence, with this belief, Bennevis won’t let your craving go unfulfilled. Now enjoy international make you crave for ice-cream more. Even the Covid lockdown didn’t stop Bennevis from grade ice-cream to the heart’s content in Nepal." serving their customers, with creative ideas such as Life is like an ice cream, enjoy it before it melts." collaborations with food delivery companies like And yes, be vocal for local !! Argo organic, Bhoj Deal, Bhojmandu, Foodmandu, - Aashish Wagle, Priyanka Singh Khaanpin, UG cakes, Thulo.com for delivery in Little Angels' College of Management Butwal, Chitwan, Kathmandu, and Pokhara. It has proved that its customers are always on its top priority along with following all the government

SOME CHOICES ARE LIFE CHANGING

w w w . l a c m . e d u .n p

BIZkickstart Upadhyay, MD (Bikram Sambat) who shared us his inspirational Journey towards his goal that made him run his own Company. 1) What was the driving forces behind denim business? How it all started? Being a Management student since my intermediate level to Bachelors level, I was always into Entrepreneurship. I was studying and exploring different places in India. In between this tenure, I had an opportunity to learn many things and that is when I knew that I wanted to become my own boss. I rejected plenty of jobs with good pay. Since I was into pursuing my own business, I went to UK. Before leaving Nepal, I did a little shopping. I used to wear jeans since my childhood. So while buying jeans, I felt the price rate was xhigh with no quality at all. It was not worth the pay. I was disappointed. Relating with my personal experience, the very day I Mr. SHOVIT RAJ UPADHYAY started my research on denim MD-Bikram Sambat jeans in Nepal. I came to know about LVD jeans which ‘Idea behind was recently started. When I BIKRAM SAMBAT’ searched for denim brand in Nepal, I found none. So that iving up Traditional Approach, growing and creating to inspire at is where I saw ‘Opportunity’. internal and external environment, Bikram Sambat is building its While doing research, I came empire on the basis of present. to know that people don’t buy your product or services but the brand. I did my research on FUTURE is our PRESENT clothing brand and then shifted (we grow & create to inspire). in denim jeans focusing more - Bikram Sambat on niche market. Established in 2074 B.S., Bikram Sambat is the first authentic denim/ The major aspect for me was ‘Quality’. I wanted my Jeans brand in Nepal. The main objective is to provide high quality jeans customers to pay worth the and satisfy customers with the maximum effort of team work. Among the quality. Therefore, focusing faces of Bikram Sambat we had an opportunity to interview Mr. Shovit Raj more on quality and brand I

decided to start my business with the amount of 2 lakhs. Mr.Upadhyay adds, Production is the major aspect to know before marketing and 2) branding. Until and unless you don’t have a product, how would you brand? M y cousin brother, who was one of the Garment Specialist, helped me to focus more on Product and quality sides. There actually was no specific business mentor. I am not a denim designer nor am I a Fashion designer but, You do it; You try. You make mistakes; You learn and still move ahead. With this mentality I started

my Journey and I am still learning. Along with the Idea, people and Concept you started the business, How did you introduce your product and services in the market? What was your advertisement Strategy? In the initial stage, I didn’t have any experience regarding Branding, Marketing, Human Resources Management or Corporate Level Segregation. I had knowledge but I didn’t have the chance to work physically on the field. Before we launched our product, we faced several problems regarding ‘Production’. Production is very difficult in the country like Nepal. We even hired Fashion Designer. Before launching our brand, we made 50-60 samples and failed multiple products. After several lengthy attempts, we were able to produce a quality denim. We decided to choose social media as one of the platform to introduce our product. We started from our own website which was not that satisfactory. Later, we shifted to Facebook and Instagram through freelancers which was still not effective. Again we shifted to the agency who used to design and handle our social media. From this shift we went a little ahead than before. It took us as while. But then again, we had to stop working with them because of the difference in idea and execution of our company and the agency. And that is when I hired a Graphic Designer and now, she is doing great at her work. Since all our Marketing Campaign got delayed due to Covid-19, our advertisement strategy till now is going all Online through social media which is still not enough. Regarding future, we have decided to go both Online and Offline. It’s been almost 3 years since its establishment, but still many of the youths are unknown about this brand. Whenever

we recall jeans, People are familiar with Levis, Diesel, Lee jeans etc. 3) What do you think is the reason behind people still not being aware of the Nepali jeans brand? Back in times, very few people were aware of the word ‘Brand’ in Nepal. People even didn’t know what it entail to. Whenever we think of doing a business, we look for the sustainability of business. ‘Manufacturing and selling’ products doesn’t give you sustainability but ‘Branding and selling’ does. Whereas in the country like Nepal, people used to establish business in a traditional approach. They lack the mentality of Sustainability. Today, a lot has changed. We are the generation to explore more, we are the generation to think of doing something unique and great. We are the generation for Innovation. People nowadays are aware of the brand, but they are not giving emphasis. Branding is not about today; it’s about tomorrow. It has stages and it takes time for a brand to build. It is not possible for a brand to get renowned by the time of 1 or 2 years. So, what we need to understand is, brand like Levis, Lee Jeans or Tommy Hilfiger are 100 of years ahead than us. Mr. Upadhyay adds, Brand is not just about marketing exposure, but you equally need to know if your product has the value and is qualified to be in that market. You basically need to know all the sets of business from Production, Branding, Marketing to Sales. For these set to be equally good, it takes time. You need to know your actual weightage first because you are sharing values and knowledge with the people while selling your brand. It was difficult for all top brands like Zara and Dulla as well. I believe in ‘One Step at a time’. Going step wise, hopefully one day ‘Bikram Sambat’ will leave a good mark as a Nepalese brand around the globe for 100 of years. In a country like Nepal, almost every little aspect of product needs to be imported. From needles to Fabric. 4) How has this made an impact on the price of final product that you manufacture every day? People in Nepal have the concept of price to be cheaper if it is a Nepali product, which is wrong. In a country like Nepal, where every aspect of product is imported it’s very hard to sell cheaper

yet branded product. We always seek for quality, which results to high production cost because we usually don’t focus on the quantity. Just to manufacture a pair of jeans, we have to focus on the quality of fabric, thread, quality of other materials etc.; with all that going cost goes up. Even though we feel it we cannot reduce the price of our product. Branding is not about price. We need to know our target market and people are willing to pay worth the quality. But we need to know that Quality does not come cheaper. Bikram Sambat is the Nepal’s first Jeans brand. Since you have seen Opportunities, faced challenges, overcome difficulties and failures along your Journey, 5) Do you suggest a youth like us to come in this line? This question often comes from the youngsters like you, but I personally don’t think I have an actual answer for this because I feel, Opportunity in a country like Nepal is huge for any sector. Fashion Industry of Nepal is still untouched. It has never been completely touched by any brands or designers. There is still a place to come and do something differently. You should never be afraid to face challenges. Challenges differs from business to business. It is all up to you because until and unless you don’t work on the field you never will feel the real challenge. Upadhyay adds, I have always admired Nike iconic tagline ‘Just Do It’. You do it; you learn, you fail; you get up and do it anyway. This is an ongoing process. With that, it is important to have a vision because if you don’t know your destination, you are not going to reach there; you might return from half a way. Vision leads to motivation. Whether there is a chance or not, you should never be afraid to move ahead for whatever the change you want to create. So, take a deep breathe, calm down and step ahead. It is not necessary to have international or national vision, all you need to have is “VISION”. - Deepti Shrestha Little Angels' College of Management 13

BIZkickstart

PAWA N S W E E T S “where the traditional flavor meets the modern taste”

he drive to bring the customers. The venture taste of Bhairahawa experiments with to Kathmandu, different ingredients and led towards the provides products that are establishment of unique to the customers, Pawan Sweets. Being with the customization inspired from Pawan of sweets as per the Misthan Bhandar of preference of its clients, Bhairahawa, Pawan while maintaining taste Sweets has been able along with quality. to establish itself “Covid-19 has severely as one of the most affected the production”, popular eateries when says Mr. Pandey (Owner it comes to Peda. of Pawan Sweets), as the Initially, the company company is fully based on started off through service, the consumption online medium, in 2018, rate of the products acting as a mediator in are down, the markets fulfilling the demand too has been receiving of Pedas from Pawan fluctuation in the price Misthan Bhandar to of the ingredients. Pawan the customers, here Sweets has been relying in Kathmandu Valley. C o - f o u n d e r , P a w a n S w e e t s on take away and delivery “With the rise in demand system, during this period along with receiving positive of Pandemic. The delivery system response from the public”, is available from the venture itself motivated Mr. Ishan Pandey, in and through other sources like implanting “Pawan Sweets” in Foodmandu and Merotarkari. Kathmandu. It established its first Pawan Sweets believes in outlet in Durbar Marg, known to adopting itself as per the situation be the heart of Kathmandu, and of the environment, therefore this its factory located in Lagankhel, with the aim of thing has enabled the company in producing providing hygienic sweets with a reliable price immunity boosting Laddu. Similary, the venture to the customers, having no compromise in has launched different items like baked Rasbari, taste and quality. fruit stuffed Khulfi and other unique items. Their Iconic Peda has been grabbing the attention Pawan sweets have also been mediator to serve of people around the valley. The company has the customized chocolate of Swiffles and is been successful in shipping their Peda abroad looking forward in bringing Bakery items within and is looking forward in expanding their outlets its service. both domestically as well as globally. - Aastha Kayastha Along with sweets, Pawan Sweets provides Little Angels' College of Management various kinds of snacks and namkeens to their

Mr. ISHAN PANDEY

Ms. OJASHWI BAIDYA 16 Co-founder, Tyre Treasure

TYRE TREASURE “REDUCE. REUSE. RECYCLE”

hat happens when you mix art with trash? The outcome will be treasure. This has been evidently proven by Tyre treasure. Moving ahead with the motto, “reduce, reuse, recycle” Tyre treasure has become a unique enterprise that aims to lower the pollution caused by nonbiodegradable waste, especially tires. The main product that they work on is tires, as we can figure out by the name of this business. Tyre treasure officially started in 2017 and their office is located at Kupondole. We had the chance to interview the co-founder, Ms. Ojashwi Baidya. Here are some snippets. 1. What made you start this business? In 2016, we participated and won in the Greenovation start up challenge which was organized by WWF and The Nepal Entrepreneur Hub. The grant that we got from this, gave us the opportunity to closely research about the environmental market. This led us into realizing that old tires were not being used properly and there were very less who recycled them. However, old tires were sold to brick kilns where they used it as fuel which will only produce polluting gases. By understanding this, we came up with Tyre treasure. We collected old and unused tires to create furniture and stuffs. 2. What challenges did you face in the initial days and now? Problem that we faced in our initial days was to acquire tires. The tires that we went to purchase in the local automobile shops in Patan area were hard to get because the brick factories used to buy it in bigger prices than us. Now we partner with some of the auto workshops who provide us tires in reasonable price and also we get donations from number of organizations whom we recognize as ‘Green partners’ of Tyre treasure.

BIZkickstart 3. What are your products? Is it customizable? We have three base products, which we have named ‘Dhukuti’, a small circular table with hollow space inside to keep various goods in it, another is ‘Sarjayanti’, a set of low level cylindrical stools and a table, and outdoor stools. And yes, it is customizable. People will not know what they want until they see it. So, we have got samples of customized products so that customers can get idea from it. Customers as well as us mostly prefer customization. 4. Do you guys only work on tires or there are some other things you added later? Initially we started with tires but now we work on bottles and cans. The products that are made from these are ‘Vatika Gamala’, which is a vase, and ‘twinkle light’, which is kept for decoration. 5. Didn’t you guys have a second thought of people not buying it? Initially, this thing came to our mind, as this was entirely new product in Nepalese market. The term “up-cycling” was unknown by people so we were unsure about how people would perceive our product. It has been difficult to capture the market as furniture are available in wide range, there are a lot of options in the market however people who are conscious about the environment are our target segment and this segment is growing now. So, until now we are positive about it. 6. How did you promote your product in the market? In the beginning, we promoted our products through social media. Eventually, our customers started increasing and more people started knowing about our products and how we make them. Later, more people visited our website for inquiries. Since, there was increasing awareness about our up-cycled products, we got call from different places like Dharan, Pokhara, Butwal etc for inquiry. In this way many people started showing interest in our products. - Rohit Nakarmi Little Angels' College of Management 17

BIZshot

Ms. SNEHA SHRESTHA - Founder, Sneha's Care

Sneha for Animals

n the wake of a new century, the new generations have become more aware of the suffering of others, especially animals. Nepal’s street animals are in a pitiful condition and most do not die a natural death. The empathy towards the voiceless has led some individuals to commit themselves to the welfare of street animals, evident in the existence of many non-profit organizations for animal welfare. The founder of Sneha’s Care, Mrs. Sneha Shrestha is another such individual who has chosen to walk on this path. She states that from childhood all of us are taught what we get from animals, for instance, eggs from chicken, milk from cows, protein from goats, etc. but we are never taught what to give to the animals, we were never taught to love them. So, growing up with these ideals she was never an animal lover until Zara. After much persuasion of her husband when she was left with only one of the 2 pups she brought home, she brought another dog, Zara, into her life to accompany the remaining pup.

Zara used to escort Mrs. Sneha from the gate back to their home, and as the heroines of romance movies say, “I don’t know when I started to fall in love!”, Mrs. Sneha too never knew when Zara had stolen her heart and she became an animal lover. But one day Zara didn’t come to receive Mrs. Sneha at the get and she could feel that something was wrong. Unfortunately, Zara had been poisoned which lead to her untimely demise. Zara wasn’t a pet, she was a member of the family so Mrs. Sneha mourned for Zara as they mourn for people. This series of events led Mrs. Sneha to depression, she had stopped eating, she has stopped working. However, it also led Mrs. Sneha to realized that when the dogs living under her roof aren’t safe, what about those dogs that didn’t have a roof above their head. She felt that she had a responsibility towards the street dogs, thus, what was started as feeding turned into taking care of them. Finally, she decided to become the voice of the voiceless and to encourage and motivate people to love street animals by

establishing Sneha’s Care in 2015. Q. Have you gotten any kind of help from the government? Ans: Animals aren’t a priority for the government of Nepal and there isn’t any budget allocated specifically for animal welfare in Nepal, any help is directed towards farm animals that are more useful relative to stray animals. The work conducted by Sneha’s care and similar organization should be the responsibility of the government and for that reason, there is zero percent support from the government Q. What are your thoughts on Kathmandu Metropolitan city’s Mayor thinking about dog owners having to register their pets? Ans: I take this positively because the outcome of registering is having a record of who the animal belongs to and create a sense of accountability. People won't be able to abandon dogs when they get sick after haphazardly adopting them, more specifically “buying” them. Even breed dogs, not native to Nepal are found on the street because of a lack of responsibility and accountability. Q. Revenue source of Sneha’s Care? Ans: We have helped more than 15,000 dogs. We currently have 160 dogs, 7 pigs, 26 cattle abandoned on streets because they were deemed not useful anymore, 10 Khasi, rescued from the slaughterhouse, in our shelter. Moreover, we treat animals in the community through mobile service and for more serious cases we bring them to the shelter. So, for the first 2 years, cases like these and the shelter were supported by my business. When we talk about foreign support, because Sneha’s care harbors paralyzed dogs they believe that time and money are being wasted, and in one aspect that is true as we can help 10 more dogs with the time and money spent on one paralyzed dog. But I can’t turn my back on them. My father was paralyzed too. We were able to make him comfortable because he could speak and express when he is hurting or about the things he wanted to do but mostly he used to tell us that he wanted to live. So, there is no reason for me to think otherwise in the case of paralyzed dogs it just that they can’t speak to us. We tried to make wheelchairs for the dogs in Nepal but sadly couldn’t so we brought it from abroad. These dogs in their wheelchair can outrun normal dogs when given the opportunity so why should we put them down? And, I must admit though I love all the dogs, I have more feelings toward the disabled dogs because I’ve experienced what it’s like for the paralyzed. And this also the reason I don’t get much support from foreign donors and I will never put dogs down to get donations from them. I’m proud to say that 95% of donations are from Nepalese people. Nepalese inside and outside Nepal, College and

school students help out a lot too. I get money donations, food donations, dog shampoos, etc. and those who can’t donate the money they can come and volunteer too, it will also help us save a lot of costs. Q. What goes into taking care of these animals? Ans: As I said before, I have lots of animals from dogs to cows and pigs. So, it takes 10 to 12 Lakhs monthly to take care of them which includes Salary, Food, Cleaning material, medicine which takes a lot, expenses of the ambulance, etc. Q. Can you explain to us about your team? Ans: There are a total of 22 staff. The majority is the technical team i.e. doctors, vet technicians. It would be really hard for us to take care of the animals without them. Moreover, we have dog catchers, and people who look after the cows, people who look after the pigs, ambulance drivers, cleaners, etc. all of them are important for Sneha’s care. Q. What kind of problem do you face the most frequently? Ans: Ironically, the problem I face the most are my fellow animal lovers when they don’t understand that Sneha’s care has limited resources and capacity, many animal lovers message us asking for help for the animals but, unfortunately, we can’t rescue all of them. If one case is from Lalitpur the other we get from Bhaktapur, if it’s a large animal we need to collect 10 people to get the animals into the vehicle, if its dogs we need to catch them. So, with limited resources, it’s really hard for us to address every plea. In such cases, we get criticized, cursed, and even blamed by the same animal lovers. I have to change my mobile number 6-7 time a month because I get so much hate it’s hard to handle.

Another problem, that we are facing right now is the funding problem, cause my tourism business is shut down right now but still we get cases as much as before. In taking

care of the animals in the shelter and of the street funding becomes a great issue. Q. What kinds of campaigns does Sneha’s Care run? Ans: One of them is banning long-distance live animal transportation, we filed a case in the supreme court and won. There is no proper animal welfare act in Nepal. So, people abuse animals and do not have to face accountability. For this too we filed a case in the supreme court and won. We give a 45min session in schools to educated children to be kind towards the animals. We’ve taken this in many schools. We are doing vaccination for rabies program and spaying and nurturing campaigns. Also, we see cows on the streets dying from not getting food or water, even though the states do proportion a huge amount of money for preserving them. So, we file a case for this too and won in 2018. The court ordered for the proper management and preservation of cows. But its implementation is taking time. Q. What kind of problems do the dogs that come to you have faced? Ans: most of them have been abused by animals. For example, hit and run cases, there are laws when you hit a person so people tend to hit the break for people, but they don’t stop for the dogs. They just hit them, pour tar over them, they come after the dogs with khukuri this results in them getting scared all people even the one who wants to help them, they cut the cow’s tail, etc. Q. What is the procedure of a rescue? Ans: In severe cases, we bring them to the shelter like on the hit the bit and run cases after treating them we bring them back to the community, after spaying or nurturing them, that it was living in and request the informant to give it food and to contact again if there is any problem. But if the dog has severe injury say broken backbone and need special care, in those cases, we keep them in the shelter. For small injuries, we treat them in the community and do follow up according to the situation. Q. What is the public’s reaction to your initial days of establishment and the campaigns you ran? Ans: It was hard, on the basis that I had to do everything myself. I had to fight everyone. But afterward, when they understood and saw my work I was able to change them. I hard to realize it the hard way that no one can so anything individually, yes it may begin with one person but in the end, we need everyone’s support. Similarly, when I used to drive around feeding biscuits to dogs, people used to say that I’ve gone mad for giving

dogs biscuits. But now, there is a vast difference, because I see other people feeding the dogs biscuits. And I see the younger generation of people forming groups and feeding the animals of their locality. For example, during this lockdown, many people came to feed the dogs, it wasn’t just us. Now I see that there are more mad people like me. Animal lovers are growing and so is the positive feedback we get from them. Q. What are the plans for Sneha’s Care? Ans: I plan to close down Sneha’s care shelter and focus on my business. If you think how that is possible, if all of us love and take care of animals in our community there would be no need for any kind of organization. I wish that people not just celebrate Kukur Tihar and Gai Tihar for one day rather celebrate it the whole year-round. And if that happens Sneha’s Care wouldn’t need to exist. Q. Any message for the readers? Ans: First of all, I would like to request all of you to love the animals, they are voiceless so let’s become a voice for them. And please, ADOPT, don’t shop. Do not make the mistakes that I did. And even if you don’t love animals please don’t harm them Sneha’s Care has made the world a better place. So, let’s all do our part in helping organizations like these in changing the world and perspective of the people by donating money or sweat. And let’s aim for a future where organizations like Sneha’s Care need not exist. - Priyanka Singh , Saleena Sharma Acharya, Little Angels' College of Management

BIZpersonality

Discover what inspires you Evana Manandhar is a Nepalese business woman, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Nepal 2015 World on 18 April 2015.

Evana Manandhar M I S S N E PA L WO R L D 2 0 1 5

Here are some snippets of the conversation we had with her as she talks about her journey so far.

1. What difference did you find in yourself before entering and after grooming in Miss Nepal?

I was always ready to welcome changes in my life. As a person there is not a huge change in myself but yes as a representative of our country, there are a lot of responsibilities and duties and it did change me in that perspective. I also became a high-risk taker. I’ve understood that challenges come with a price and a tag. Grooming as a person I have also become more confident to understand myself better.

2. How do you deal with multitudinous comments?

The very first thing I do is ignore. I never comment back, and I never Follow-up to what is happening. When different type of multitudinous comments comes, most of the time I just smile and say if you think so, if u say so then be it, but if I want to clarify something then I always clarify.

3. What motivated you to join MBA in KUSOM?

I was not planning to study here but everyone had this preconceived notion that studying in KUSOM is a very big thing. I wanted to try it. I didn’t know about KUSOM but I knew Kathmandu University was ahead in Nepal. So, there wasn’t a better choice than KUSOM in Nepal.

4. How do you utilize your free time?

I am a 'peace of mind' kind of person who loves taking long drives uphill, where there is no people, where there is just nature, animals and farms. I love trekking and hiking. If I get a free time the next thing I will do is travel. I love to do yoga. I watch movies that are about life, podcast. In general I give my time to myself and my family.

5. What do you do to keep yourself physically and mentally fit in this crucial time of COVID-19?

wake up. I avoid bad news like depression, suicide, bomb blast etc. which happened over the time. These news conflict your mind negatively. I keep up with the news but I don’t keep going back to the same news again and again. 6. What are your hobbies?

There are a lot of hobbies, but my priority is travelling, Vlogging, meeting new people, discovering new places and culture. Another of my hobby is giving personal and professional development training to students which I have been doing from the last year.

7. How do you handle personal and professional life?

I prioritize my time wisely, using the opportunity cost that I get whether from personal, professional or social life. I give an equal amount of time to personal and professional life. Imbalance of social life is not a problem for me, I can manage it. 8. What are your future plans? First things first, to continue my family business. It’s been more than 30 years that we have been doing family business (CE construction private limited). After my MBA I would go back and take part in my family business which is going to be in marketing and branding itself. Beside this I would be reflecting on my own projects too. I would like to continue my beauty with purpose project and I want to open a startup after completing my MBA. 9. Anything you want to say to our reader? My favorite quote in life is “Success is the ability to learn from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm “by Wilson Churchill, which I followed throughout in my life till this date. Another of my own personal mantra in life is, “You don’t keep inspiring or be inspired by others. Rather try to discover what inspires you. Whatever you do in life never ever think that you will fail, even if you fail the important thing is that you participated with your whole heart. Participation is key to success rather than winning”. -Anusha Karki Little Angels' College of Management

I do yoga and I drink a lot of water as soon as I

Males

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Flesh

Trade MALE PROSTITUTION

n the past century, sex work has represented the archetypal form of gendered deviance in modernity, being variously problematized as a criminal activity and a source of contagion. Male prostitution is the sale of sexual services by a male prostitute with either male or female clients. The gender of a male prostitute's sexual partner or the sexual act that he and the client participate in may not indicate a prostitute's sexual orientation; a male prostitute may be heterosexual, bisexual, or homosexual regardless of his client's gender. Commercial male sex workers are usually termed with many variations, namely: escorts, man whores/man sluts, rent boys, hustlers, working boys, and call boys (Brents & Hausbeck, 2005). These terms are different for each country. In European countries and the United States, for example, men who become prostitutes are called male prostitution, man whores/man sluts (Bimbi, 2007). In Asian countries such as Japan, men who become prostitutes are called Kagema (Andersson, 2000). In Indonesia, men who become prostitutes are usually called â&#x20AC;&#x153;gigoloâ&#x20AC;&#x; (Kartono, 2007).Male prostitution is characterized 22

BIZbold

by three major taboos. First, receiving money for sex is not generally accepted (from either male or female clients). Second, homosexuality is still stigmatized. And third, men are not “supposed” to be the victims of prostitution or sexual abuse, which often leads to their not seeking professional help when they need it (Repetur, 2011). Male Sex Workers (MSW) also presents challenges to class and generational boundaries, as seen through the ideas of ‘rough trade’ and ‘kept boys’/’sugar daddies’. It is important to recognize that sex work among men is not a new phenomenon. Friedman, for example, reviewed the cultural conditions of MSW as it existed in ancient Greece and Rome, premodern and Renaissance Europe, and Japan in the days of the samurais. MSW, by definition, presents the male body as a commodity and in doing so may confront expressions of masculinity that rely on agency or aggression. Research shows that globally there were 324,852 male escort profiles online. The United States of America (USA), Mexico, Brazil, Spain, and the United Kingdom (UK) were the countries with the highest number of profiles, comprising about 93% of the total male escort profiles (Victor Minichiello and John Scott, 2017). It is estimated there are as many 100,000 sex workers across the UK, and about 20% of them are Notably, more and more research and journalism has rightly recognized that MSW is not an exclusively Western phenomenon. Peter Aggleton’s collection of essays, Men who Sell Sex, was the first serious attempt to present a global account of MSW and featured research from South America, South Asia and Southeast Asia and .Others have also sought to highlight the global nature of MSW. Alcano, for example, provided one of the first contemporary accounts of MSW markets in Indonesia through a vivid account of how masculinity is uniquely constructed, enacted and reproduced in a South East Asian setting. Globalizations and MSW has also been explored with respect to ‘sex tourism’, which is typically thought of as the use of the tourism sector to

facilitate commercial sexual relationships with local residents.

Image: Victor Minichiello and John Scott, 2017

This systematic review shows there is a—possibly growing and diversifying—female consumer demand for male sexual services. Female buyers of male sexual services have likely existed throughout history, but the phenomenon has received scant empirical attention. The perspective of women has largely remained invisible. Yet, the current body of evidence seems sufficient to say that commerce and inequalities of power and socioeconomics are strongly influential in transactional sex where women form the demand and men the supply. (Rigmor C Berg, Sol-Britt Molin & Julie Nanavati, 2020). Further, many researchers have focused on typologies of MSWs, reporting respective associated characteristics. However, the knowledge gained by past research was often a product of the places MSWs were sampled; social scientists relied heavily on street MSWs. although other places and venues for sex work existed. What has been learned through this narrow focus has often been generalized to all men engaged in sex work resulting in stigmatization, stereotyping, and demonization. - Aashish Wagle Little Angels' College of Management

BIZbold

EXPLORING

lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, LGBT organizations, and subcultures, united by a common culture and social movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality. The term pride or sometimes gay pride is used to express the LGBT community's identity and collective strength; pride parades provide both a prime example of the use and a demonstration of the general meaning of the term. Globally, most legal jurisdictions recognize the two traditional gender identities and social roles, man and woman, but tend to exclude any other gender identities and expressions. However, there are some countries which recognize, by law, a third gender. In eighteenthand nineteenth-century, same-sex sexual behavior and cross-dressing were widely considered to be socially unacceptable and were serious crime. However things has changed over the decade for the better. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) social movements that

THE

GENDER GAP

Early/middle adulthood, defined roughly as the period of life from the 20s to the 60s, is ushered in by a transition from adolescence generally thought to involve a number of physiological, work, family, and social life milestones. The journey through adulthood is often characterized by the physical manifestations of midlife, career achievements and transitions, relationship and family development, and changes in interpersonal ties and community participation. These same domains and issues characterize the experiences of LGBT adults, though often in different forms. The LGBT community, or LGBTQ community also referred to as the gay community, is a loosely defined grouping of

advocate for LGBT people in society has been focusing on equal rights, such as for marriage equality, the gay liberation, earlier movements focused on self-help and self-acceptance. A commonly stated goal among these movements is social equality for LGBT people, but there is still denial of full LGBT rights. Some have also focused on building LGBT communities or worked towards liberation for the broader society, still there is a struggle for LGBT rights today. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in Nepal are among the most progressive in Asia. The Nepalese Constitution recognizes LGBT rights as fundamental rights. One of the first cases to determine the shift in legislation regarding LGBTQ rights in Nepal was Mr. Sunil Babu Pant, an leading and among the first politicians from the LGBTQ community from not just Nepal but throughout South Asia. Despite all the legislations and laws made for the community, the changes can't actually be implemented until and unless it is accepted by the general people. While the Nepalese political landscape has also rapidly changed in the past decade, much of the progressive legislation has not been implemented at the community level. Traditional Nepalese gender roles stem from rigid ideals based on biological sex that ostracize anyone failing to conform. These norms may stigmatize any LGBT Nepalese who choose to operate outside of the gender roles, but affect LGBT women in particular, as women, more than men, are expected to conform to societal expectations. As in other South Asian societies, including Nepal, men are also much more visible in streets and public spaces than women who are pressured to limit public exposure and remain in private spaces. This framework makes it harder for women to come out as lesbians than for men to come out as gay. Nepal is still burdened by a rigid and hierarchical caste system. In this context, family and society are the most important influence on LGBT people in Nepal. Despite official recognition on paper and some political advances, it is family pressure and social expectations that force most LGBT people to stay firmly in the closet. There is little discussion of why this happens and the harm is caused both to the LGBT people and to the opposite sex partners they may marry. Coming out as an LGBT individual to family, friends and society is uncommon. Gender-based violence against transgender people is a severe issue in Nepal where they often find themselves susceptible to both public and domestic violence, abuse in the workplace and at home, and elsewhere. Reasons for gender-based violence are largely attributed to social taboos and superstitions as well as deeply entrenched beliefs that propagate derogatory attitudes towards sexual and gender minorities. Members of the community have still been denied equal right, rights to marriage, property

rights, and education. Although many gay and lesbian couples have married through social acceptance throughout various places of Nepal, the marriage still has little of legal acceptance despite all the advancements made by the law for the LGBTQ community. We still can't deny the fact that they still continue to face constant harassment and attacks, sometimes even culminating in murder. Among all LGBT people, an indigenous female transgender identity known as "metis" is usually most visible and dominant in the public awareness and discourse. Other LGBT issues and identities are frequently conflated with or confused for being one and the same as metis issues and identities. Due to this connotation, the public is largely unaware about the vast diversity of sexual and gender identities within the LGBT community. The community of people of diverse SOGI began to organize themselves in a non-governmental organization called Blue Diamond Society (BDS) led by activists including Sunil Babu Pant, Manisha Dhakal, Pinky Gurung, Dolly Maharjan, Niruta Panday, Malaika Lama, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Alexâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and Zora Bai. A few activists such as Krishna Maharjan and Umesh Panday had been active in the informal social organizing of gay men in the 1990s prior to the establishment of BDS. BDS was remarkable in the Nepalese context as it represented the first time that a NGO working specifically for LGBT rights and with well-defined human rights and health goals had been established. Such several NGOs and other volunteering organizations have been formed through time in Nepal following the road paved by BDS because of which the people from the community have received much freedom of expression coming out of the closet. Still, despite all the social activities, legal acceptance and universal equality efforts are still being made to update the education system about the gender values and roles in the text books of schools, and to reduce the rates of domination, discrimination and downright bullying in the educational institutes based on the sexual orientation of the students or their parents or family. Although the Hindu and Buddhist families, the two major religions of Nepal have somewhat higher rate acceptance to the transgender community and some families having neutral perspective to homosexuality than the Christian, Islam and other religions throughout the world, still the community strive and fight every day to be seen as equal to everyone else. The social and spiritual awareness programmes are being done frequently to make the citizens of the country to accept the community. And it might not take many years for the community to stand as equal among everyone else, especially in the peace loving country like Nepal. - Chandani Thapa MBBS Student

BIZtech further. Moreover, with more than 70% of its land being topographically challenged, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s high time we move to time and cost effective approaches for obtaining better data for any topography, better visualization and analytics and better planning such that development can be achieved at exponential rate and sustainable. DroNepal with the use of drone technology and latest IT infrastructure and tools, they plan on achieving this vision. They take care of everything from legal procedures, information management, and real time progress tracking to timely reporting of construction progress with government authorities. Recently, Nepal Flying Labs with their project called DrOTS in collaboration with DroNepal and BNMT won the AUVSI Excellence Awards in Humanitarian category and $5000 along with it. Here we present you a short interview with cofounder of DroNepal Mr. PravinLamsal. 1. Tell us about DroNEPAL. How was it started?

Mr. PRAVIN LAMSAL Co-founder, DroNepal

DroNepal B

etween two of the most powerful rising economies, India and China lies a developing country, Nepal. Despite being so rich in natural resources, political instability, natural calamities, emigration of the majority of youths, have been pushing its development of infrastructure decades 26

- Back then we were students of engineering having four team members, two from geomatics engineering, one from electronics engineering who used to look after components of drones and one from electrical engineering who used to focus on hydropower. With our planning in 2017 we were creating impact in a market with more than 920 hydropower companies requiring more than 2,500 surveys with an estimated budget of 17 million USD also with our array of after sales services data storage server, construction progress monitoring, consultancy and rental services; initial per annum 20,000 USD revenue. We saw a huge market of clients looking for better services and there were a lot of innovative tools and technologies available in the market. But with the huge gap in between

our highly motivated team of experts we aimed to bridge that gap to ensure accelerated development of Nepal. We also won a competition organized by WeRobotics back in 2017 where we got 8,000 USD as a prize which was a source of seed money for us. We dream of “Transforming Development Sustaining Future”.

4. Could you explain to us how you are using drones for medical purposes in Pyuthan? What are the other uses of drones?

- In Pyuthan we have used the Direct Observed Therapy System (DOTS) with the help of drones now known as Drone Optimized Treatment system for identifying tuberculosis patients. We are 2. Into how many categories can we classify using this system in two municipalities (Pyuthan municipality and swargadwari municipality). We drones? - “Drones” can be classified on a different basis are using a DJI, (world leading drone manufacturer – say based on ‘usage‘like Drones for Photography, company) drone and then we customized it as a Drones for aerial Mapping, Drones for Surveillance medical drone, we also built an user friendly app etc. However, the best classification of ‘Drones’ so that the local drone pilot could handle it easily. can be made on the basis of aerial platforms. Based The drone flies to the different collection centers in on the type of aerial platform used, there are four planned health posts where the sputum is collected major types of drones; Multi Rotor Drones, Fixed and the trained staff load them inside the medical Wing Drones, Single Rotor Helicopter and Fixed box which is received by the district health office, the procedure which used to take 2-3 days is now Wing Hybrid VTOL. completed in less than 30 minutes. 3. It’s a perception of people that drones are used just to spy, launch missiles which has made negative perception in the mindset of Nepal; what have you found? - As per our experience we haven’t found such in the general public, they’re excited, they don’t ask questions rather a crowd is gathered having curiosity around their faces. But police, army, ministry and other military and security bodies along with authorities with national parks are more concerned regarding this aspect. They think that drones are used to drop missiles and spy which is not the case. They have a concern that drones if used can even hype their frequency, can carry weight up to 6 kg which is enough to drop a bomb. Recently while launching medical drones at Pyuthan we coordinated with all the local bodies and authorities and along with army and police personnel due to which we didn’t face a problem and they were also clear that drones can be used for good cause as well.

Medical Drone Drones can be used for multiple purposes not limited to surveying and mapping only. It can be used for Agriculture, we can use drones for precision farming from which we can get crops yield, monitoring crop health, spraying drones can be used to spray pesticides in a more organized way. In mines, using different sensor drones can be used to extract the precise volume of stockpiles or 27

areas to be excavated which could help in monthly taken to keep the drones in check: starting with the reconciliations or year-end audits of mines. capturing of drones being operated. Government It can also be used for environmental monitoring, then realized the essence of a strict policy regarding disaster risk assessment, early preparedness,. For the regulations of drones and drafted the first of instance, if there is a landslide or flood there might its kind. The following ministries and government be casualties not visible by human eyes stuck agencies are specifically concerned with the drones and their regulated usage: somewhere we can identify such areas. 5. How do you make drones? What are your a. Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) plans for manufacturing drones here itself? b. Ministry of Information and Communication - For now, we are using DJI and other commercial drones as we are focused on providing services rather than manufacturing. But in near future we have the plan to manufacture drones in Nepal. 6. How can we secure drone permission in Nepal? How are its regulating policies? - Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), more popular among general mass as Drones, generally refer to uninhabited flying vehicles remotely piloted by an operator, on the basis of a pre-entered flight path through any sort of program or on its own recognition of the surroundings. They could hence be either remotely controlled, or semi-autonomous, or autonomous, or a combination of these operation modes. While undocumented uses of drones were present in Nepal even before 2015, the April Earthquake of 2015 in Nepal saw the rise of drones and put them into spotlight. An unprecedented number of small and lightweight UAVs were flown over highly damaged areas and heritage sites by journalists and humanitarian responders to assist in immediate rescue, relief, and reconstruction efforts. However, risks to national security by the unregulated and haphazard use of drones was realized by the Government of Nepal and immediate actions were

c. Ministry of Home Affairs While a regulating policy is crucial for ensuring safe and ethical practices of drones, the policy at the same time also is required to be friendly enough to motivate good usages of the technology. Thankfully, in recognition of this very significance of drone technology, there have been few revisions of the policies, slow and still far from ideal yet there have been revisions. Only recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs published a directive titled as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Drone Related Flight Work Plan 2075 B.Sâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. The new rule related to drone operation has categorized the following regions as the restricted area for drone operations: Airport area (up to 5 km) must be kept clear of all drone activity, International boundary within the area of 5 km horizontal distance, Religious, heritage, sacred sites, up to the radius of 1 km, President, Vice-President, PM, VVIP office and resident up to 1 km aerial radius distance, Military and safety office up to 1 km and other safety department up to 500m, Conservation areas, ores, Areas with conflicts and war and Other restriction areas as stated by the provincial or local governments. To take a permission for a drone is quite confined. - Aashish Wagle Little Angels' College of Management

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BIZanalyisis PACKAGED FOOD INDUSTRY; THE BACKBONE OF BIG PHARMACEUTICALS.

n the modern world, it is quite transparent that industries are guided by the profit-making motive. The pursuit of profit is also what makes different industries allies in their processes and jeopardize the consumer. Taking this forward, there seems to be no apparent connection between the food packaging industry and the pharmaceutical industry. However, in the past few years, there have been several controversies regarding toxic materials in food packaging and how food safety is traded-off for profit and convenience. As a result of poor safety standards and regulations, the consumer's health is compromised. This is where the pharmaceutical companies step in; as population health is compromised, the companies are responsible for research and development and eventual manufacturing and selling of medicine for the said ill people. This relation seems rather convoluted, but in reality, the two industries work in a really complex way. It may seem preposterous to assume this relation between the two, but it is a fact that a lot of FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) especially packaged food, require cost efficiency at the manufacturing level for maximizing profits. How exactly these industries feed each other, albeit indirectly, can be illustrated through the scandals around the American corporation-Johnson and Johnson. J&J is known to produce various pharmaceutical and consumer goods. The company has been sued for having toxic substances in its products throughout the past century. The latest case was in 2018, where J&J was sued for 4.7 Billion USD to 22 women, who were detected with ovarian cancer due to continued usage of J&J talcum powder. The powder was found to have elements which were in fact carcinogenic. It is foreseeable that in the everyday, the patients consume specific drugs and prescribed goods which are highly likely to be

manufactured by a certain company. While it is a grand thought experiment, it is not stretching the imagination too far when there are instances from daily life of specific food brands prescribed by pediatricians for children, or specific nutrition supplements for the elderly. These all brands are all probably under the same parent company or have shared profits of some sort, just like J&J is a parent company for several brands. The general relation between the food packaging industry and pharmaceutical company is cyclical- they create consumers for each other. Undoubtedly, food safety during packaging is a public health concern. While the concept of food packaging can be dated back to the stone age (there is evidence of storing food for later use, for travel etc.) but the way in which it is done in today’s world is very much in sync with the current world capitalist system, the core of which is to generate more and more profit. Simply looking at the dynamics of the packaging industry in the manufacturing process, the statistics of increased health concerns in the modern world and the growth in medicalization of human life in the past two centuries, the enemy becomes evident. According to IBEF, the turnover of the pharmaceutical industry only in India itself in 2019 was a whopping 20.03 Billion USD and the FMCG industry with 103.7 Billion USD; such mammoth figures reflect the kind of profit these industries generate across the globe. This profit is not necessarily and always from above the table means. The food packaging industry and pharmaceutical industry both play a role in determining public health. Food safety procedures are often shortened or made lighter to be able to reduce the cost of production, which in turn increases the health risk of the consumer. Simultaneously, the pharmaceutical industry is churning out nutrition supplements, more efficient medical drugs, among other uncountable other products, which are really to fill the gaps intentionally created by other industries. It is high time that the average human has to suffer due to the profit seeking motive in today’s world and it is really crucial to redirect the moral compass as a society. - Raunak Agarwal Little Angels' College of Management

BIZanalyisis

COVID and Lockdown creating market for Vaccine The whole world is now suffering from the corona virus outbreak, leading to the death of millions of the people worldwide. The world economy is in dismount, especially the least developed countries and developing nations facing the huge trouble. In order to save their citizens every country is going through and has gone through lockdown, leading to the unemployment and financial crisis in the economy. As COVID-19 leads to the lockdown, now lockdown is further creating demand for the vaccine, experts agree that there will a chance to bring the vaccine to the market in next four to eight months, an effective COVID-19 that can create an outsized value for world citizens, economies and national health system. Vaccine plays a vital role in today's world, serving more as insurance policies for society, but some would consider protection against more severe outbreak. The demand of vaccine is more pronounced, and investment is made to develop and expand COVID-19 vaccine. Due to lockdown, people are stuck at their home, not being able to perform their day to daily work and not able to earn money for their survival, this is leading to the frustration among them and they want the solution for this virus. There is an observation that in many places where the pharmaceutical companies develop some medicine for increasing the immunity system people tends to buy that medicine at any cost, it shows their eagerness for getting rid of this pandemic. Now the market for the vaccine is completely created there is no one in the world who will say no to the vaccine, companies can charge whatever amount they want and it will further includes the charges which the companies need to pay to the government, every nation completely understood that if they create vaccine first they will get the first mover advantage and lead the market, and that country will earn a huge amount of revenue that is the reason every country is trying to make the vaccine at first and launch it as earliest as possible.

All the world leader and countries have vested interest in the development of vaccine, US President Donald Trump wants vaccine before November 3 to win the election whereas Vladmir Putin the Russian President has already given approval to Sputnik 5, the name resembling the Soviet era space programme giving the message Russia is still number one. Chinese President Xi Jing Ping has eye on global dominance and shift in power from America to the Asian continent. India country with second most patients of Covid-19 and the largest market of vaccine Prime Minister Modi has his own interest. His partner his supporter Yogi Ramdev Baba has already had a stunt on medicine for Covid 19. World's largest vaccine developer Serum Institute is also from his own country which also leads to great interest for the leader. With about 7 billion people in the world and everybody directly or indirectly affected by the Covid â&#x20AC;&#x201C;19 the market for vaccine which has developed in 2020 is huge. People have changed their lifestyle due to the outbreak and are eager to get back to their old lifestyle. People want to party see live sports go to concert and enjoy basically which has all been restricted due to Covid outbreak. This all can be changed only through the development of safe vaccine. Hence every country has in the world are eager to win the race for development of vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), but the development of vaccine is not that easy and even if the vaccine is developed mobilizing it to every corner of the world is another huge mountain to climb. Although huge market for vaccine has been created by Covid and lockdown, capitalizing in this market is a huge challenge for any producer. - Pramod Acharya Little Angels' College of Management

BIZanalysis Corporate governance: A cross-continental analysis Mitra Bandhu Poudel Principal, LACM Abstract This paper highlights the various corporate governance practices in selected countries across the Asia and American continents. The objective of the study is to find out compared corporate governance practices over selected countries. It had adopted case study techniques to analyze corporate governance. This paper reviewed the basic corporate governance principles derived by different institution like OECD and World Bank. It had examined how these principles are applicable in selected countries over the globe.

Keywords Corporate governance, OECD, Sarbanes- Oxley Act Introduction Corporate governance has received an increasing amount of attention in years (McGee, 2008). The International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), founded in 1995 at the instigation of major institutional investors, represents investors, companies, financial intermediaries, academics and other parties interested in the development of global corporate governance practices. In May 1999 ministers representing the 29 government that comprise the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) voted unanimously to endorse the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance (ICGN, 2005), however, it is a voluntary organization with no enforcement powers. The group of 29 also missed several nations with important global roles.

Objectives The objective of the study is to find out compare corporate governance practices over selected countries. This study tries to answer following questions: 1. Is corporate governance contextual? 2. How are the principles of corporate governance applicable in selected countries? Determinants of corporate governance The Principles, since their endorsement, have become recognized as a declaration of minimum acceptable governance standards for companies and investors around the world. The Principles were reviewed and revised in 2004(ICGN, 2005). However, governance systems are not uniform across countries (Larckel, 2015). They are shaped by: i. the efficiency of the local capital market ii. the protection afforded by the legal system iii. reliability of accounting standards iv. enforcement of regulations, and v. societal and cultural values

When capital markets are efficient, prices (labor, capital, and natural resources) are correct, that improves decision making. Efficient markets protect against adverse selection and moral hazard (Larckel, 2015). If a country lacks efficient capital markets something else (wealthy families, large banking institutes, other companies or government) must take its place. Larckel (2015) believes that private parties are less effective at monitoring companies than capital markets. Larckel (2015) argues that a country's legal system has significant implications on the rights afforded to business owners. Issues such as protection of property against expropriation, predictability of how claimed will be resolved, the enforceability of contracts and efficiency and honesty of judiciary are included. Accounting standards provide investors confidence that financial reports are correct and can be relied upon to evaluate risk and reward. If accounting standards are compromised, manipulated or lack transparency, investment decisions and oversight of management will suffer. Management incentives due to fault accounting standards will be inappropriate (Larckel, 2015). Ernstberger and Vogler (2008) state that companies that adopt international standards receive an â&#x20AC;&#x153;accounting premiumâ&#x20AC;? from investors. With global investment increasing, investors want to be assured that the accounting statements are similarly prepared. Regulatory enforcement signals that management is being monitored that contribute to investor confidence that their interests will be protected. Officials must be willing to enforce regulations in a fair and consistent, manner even if the legal system is strong (Larckel, 2015). Reddy (2009) as cited in Yeen, Subramanian, and Ramchandran (2013) believes that corporate governance practice will differ as long as cultural and political differences exist and the concept of 'one size fits all' cannot be established

with regards to corporate governance practice. Larckel (2015) states that managerial behavior is influenced by the company to operate. He further states that activities that are accepted in one culture may be unaccepted in another. In addition to this, societal values will also influence whether the company takes a more shareholder centric or stakeholder centric approach (Larckel, 2015). Auditors

Customers

Board

Efficient Capital market

Regulatory Enforcement Suppliers

Investors Managers

Unions

Creditors Media

Analysts Regulators Legal Tradition

Accounting Standards

Societal and Cultural Values

(Source: Larckel, 2015 p.3)

Methodology This study is qualitative in nature using case study technique. Selected four developed countries and eight Asian countries are chosen for this study. The Analysis of the categories proposed by McGee (2008) has been discussed. The study is based on the observance of various corporate governance practices; eight Asian countries' (India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) total of twenty two categories of corporate governance practices are briefly reviewed. Basic corporate governance principles derived by World Bank and the study of Larckel (2015) has been discussed using documents review method.

Results and Discussion: Corporate Governance Cases in Selected Developed Countries A brief description of countries (The United States, The UK, Germany, The Netherlands, and eight Asian countries) regarding corporate governance issues have been stated here. The United States: Liew et al. (2013) state that the perception of corporate governance in the United States has gone through massive reformation after the financial crisis. In Jackson's study, (as cited in Liew et al., 2013), the practices have since been insidiously breached by cumbersome and cost-prohibitive regulations mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The United States has large and liquid capital markets. It also has an active market for corporate control (Larckel, 2015). Investors' interests protected by

the Security and Exchange Commission whereas the Accounting standards established by exchange listing (NYSE, NASDAQ) and legislations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank are put in place. It has mostly shareholder centric approach (Larckel, 2015), at least in terms of rhetoric, if not actual practice. The United Kingdom: The corporate governance practice in the UK is similar to the United States, the “Anglo-Saxon model”. Governance Standards are recommended in the “revise combine code” with the provision of separation of Chairman and CEO roles, although this is not the standard practice in the US, where the practice seems to vary between 40-50% most years. senior independent directors, independent board and committees, board, directors, and committees are subject to an annual review. Transparency of procedures and decisions are emphasized with sound internal controls (Larckel, 2015). Germany: Larckel (2015) states that it has the provision of a twotiered board structure named management board and supervisory board. The management board runs the company whereas the supervisory board appoints members to the management board. The supervisory board includes founding family members, financial institutions, retired management, etc. In Germany, public shareholder voting rights are somewhat limited (Larckel, 2015). The Netherlands: Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code (DCC) in the Netherlands explain about the general rules of civil law relating to the governance of companies and listed companies (Calkoen, 2019). The Netherlands has rules on the supervision of the business conduct of listed companies, laid down in Chapter 5 of the Financial Supervision Act (FSA). A specially designated body, the Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), supervise the compliance with these rules. The government introduced the Banking Code to govern Dutch Banks in 2010. The Banking Code (updated in 2015) applies to both listed and unlisted banks (Calkoen, 2019). Dutch corporate law has traditionally provided for a two-tier board structure consisting of a management board and a separate supervisory board; however, the institution of a supervisory board is only mandatory for companies subject to the structure regime. The supervisory board appoints and removes the management board members of structure-regime companies. In companies not governed by this regime, the general meeting of shareholders has this power. Under the present Corporate Governance Code, management board members are in principle appointed for a maximum term of four years, but reappointment for successive four-year terms is permitted (p.252). EU Directive

2014/95 requires large companies to have a description of the diversity policy applied to the undertaking's administrative, management and supervisory bodies. This was implemented in Dutch law in December 2016 and entered into force on 1st January 2017. In the Netherlands, listed companies are subject to various disclosure obligations. The transparency requirements can, in general terms, be divided into two categories: ad hoc disclosure obligations and periodic disclosure obligations (p.258). On 20 May 2017, the revised Shareholders' Rights Directive entered into force. Some of the rules are new to the Netherlands; others already apply under Dutch law (p.264).

Corporate Governance in Asia:

McGee (2008) states that the World Bank has conducted several studies of corporate governance practices in various countries all over the World. Based on the observance of various corporate governance practices, eight Asian countries' (India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) corporate governance practices in various categories are briefly discussed here. McGee (2008) explains the observance of corporate governance of those countries using 23 tables (p.12-34). There is a total of 22 categories of corporate governance with the five observance categories of Observed (O), Largely Observed (LO), Partially Observed (PO), Materially Not Observed (MNO) and Not Observed (NO). Based on McGee (2008), the following table has been developed. A brief description of each category has been discussed here. 1. Basic shareholder rights

India was the only country earning the highest score. Indonesia and Vietnam only partly observed basic shareholder rights, the remaining five countries largely observed basic shareholder rights (p.11).

2. Participation rights

India received the highest score. Five countries scored largely observed. The Philippines and Vietnam only partially observed this corporate governance recommendation (p.13).

4. Disproportionate control disclosure

6. Equal treatment of shareholders

None of the Asian countries scored in the highest category. Indonesia had the lowest score (p.14).

The only country that got the highest rating in the market for corporate control was India. Five of the eight countries did

The most frequent score was partially observed. Vietnam had the lowest score whereas none of the countries achieved the highest score (p.17).

8. Disclosure of interest

None of the countries had the top rating in the category of disclosure of interests. Malaysia, Pakistan, and Thailand had the next highest rating. Vietnam had the lowest rating (p.18).

9. Stakeholder rights respected

India and Pakistan had the highest scores, followed by Malaysia the Philippines and Thailand in the second-best category. Indonesia, Korea, and Vietnam only partially observed this guideline (p.19).

10. Redress for violation

Korea was the only country scoring in the highest category. The category listed most frequently was the partially observed category in terms of redress for violation of rights (p.20)

11. Performance enhancement

India and Pakistan scored in the highest category. The other countries were evenly split between the second and third best category (p.21).

12. Access to information

India and Korea give their shareholders the best access to information. Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam give their shareholders the least access, although none of these countries earned the second-lowest rating in this category (p.22).

13. Disclosure standards

Disclosure standards were not particularly good for any of these countries. None of them earned the top rating. Vietnam had the lowest rating in this category (p.23).

14. Accounting and Audit standards

5. The market for corporate control

None of the countries earned the top rating for equal treatment of shareholders. Korea and Pakistan had the next highest rating. Vietnam had the lowest, with a rating of materially not observed (p.16).

7. Prohibit insider trading

India and Korea had the top ratings. Indonesia, Pakistan, and the Philippines largely observe participation rights, whereas Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam only partly observe these rights (p.12).

3. Shareholdersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; AGM rights

poorly in this category, even though none of them earned the lowest possible rating (p.15).

Malaysia was the only country that had the top rating. There is a lot of room for important in the category. Half of the countries only partly observed (p.24).

15. Independent audits

None of the countries observed the guideline for independent

Corporate Governance in Asia: Eight Countries case studies Meaning: O=Observed LO=Largely Observed PO=Partially Observed MNO=Materially Not Observed NO=Not Observed SN