Janapriya Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

Tinospora Cordifolia (Gurjo) and Its Potential Role to Combat with COVID-19: A Review

Manisha Subedi — 2022-12-31

Plant-based medicines have been used to maintain health and treat disease since the dawn of civilization. The present review focuses on studies that have been done on the characteristics of T. cordifolia to see if they may be used to combat COVID-19 Pandemic. During the review, various methodological activities were involved from developing the review concept, reviewing the articles, analyzing them, and finally writing the paper. The result shows that herbal medicine is used by 80% of the world’s population for some aspect of basic health care. T. cordifolia is a medicinal plant which is a useful home remedy for chronic fever, as it calms burning sensations and boosts energy and hunger. Glycosides, alkaloids, steroids, diterpenoid lactones, sesquiterpenoid, and aliphatic chemicals are the most common substances found in this herb. Scientific research on this medicine could lead to a novel method as well as knowledge into COVID-19 prevention, management, and the development of a new therapeutic component.

Role of Human Resource in Quality Enhancement of Tourism Service in Pokhara

Arjun Bahadur Bhandari — 2022-12-31

The Nepal Tourism Policy 2009 recognizes tourism as a key driver for the country and economic growth by creating job opportunities and producing foreign reserves. Tourism policy has been developed to promote the growth and extension of tourism activities, the quality improvement of tourism services, the increase of income, and the expansion of job possibilities in order to enhance Nepalese people living standards. Quality reflects several elements of tourism, such as physical, natural, and environmental. It also focuses on quality tourism; however, officials and tourist operators are divided on the subject. Tourism in Pokhara is increasingly transitioning to mass tourism. As a result, it appears that the moment has come to incorporate quality tourism concepts in the sector. The ecological, economic, and socio-cultural components of tourist development, as well as an appropriate balance between these three dimensions, are referred to as sustainability principles. It also aims to increase the quality of infrastructure and human resources. Role of human resources are always vital ensuring quality assurance. Hence it is the time to address the importance of human resource enhancing quality in the industry. This is a historical study based on qualitative research method. In this study, descriptive and analytical methods were used to investigate the importance of examining and analyzing the challenges faced by the tourism industry in terms of quality, human resources in order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Nepalese tourism industry. This article focuses mostly on the quality of tourism through human resources. Tourist satisfaction is determined by their actions and attitudes, which is a source of worry in the Nepalese tourism business, particularly in Pokhara.

Customer Perception towards Green Products in Pokhara Valley

Baburam Lamichhane — 2022-12-31

This study aims to explore customer awareness and perception towards green products in Pokhara valley. It focuses on customer perception on price, quality, availability, and promotional strategy of green products. For this purpose, the sample size was taken from the entire population of Green Product users in Pokhara Valley. Among them, 110 respondents have been selected on non-probability purposive sampling technique for determining sample size. Primary data was collected by using of structural questionnaire from the targeted respondents. Data analysis was done using the SPSS tool. Descriptive analysis was used for analyzing data. The majority of respondents feel green products as environmentally friendly and healthy and safe products. They declared that they mostly purchase organic food. An advertisement was an important source for providing information about green products to the customers. The majority of customers were not having a precise opinion about the excessive prices of green products but a larger portion were agreed to pay more for green products and to purchase green products in case of the same price as non-green products. Customers were satisfied with the quality of green products. They were aware of their harmless nature of them. They were dissatisfied with the availability of green products. Most of the respondents possessed a very pessimistic opinion towards the promotional strategies of green products. They agreed to take environmental consideration and read the product’s label while buying these products. This study contributes to analyzing the customers’ perception towards Marketers and manufacturers and mainly focuses on the improvement of the quality of green products and making it convenient to buy through increasing its availability and accessibility.

Methicillin-Resistant Staphyloccocus aureus Contamination in Hospital Door Handles of Pokhara, Nepal

Binita Koirala Sharma — 2022-12-31

The presence of contaminants on the door handles surfaces of hospitals may be a common means of transfer of potentially pathogenic bacteria among users and can act as vehicles of diseases transmission. The aim of this study was to isolate, identify and evaluate the presence of bacterial contaminants and Methicillin Resistant Staphylococci (MRSA) with their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern present on the door handles of selected hospitals of Pokhara Metropolitan City, Western Nepal to take the necessary remedial measures. Isolation, identification and antimicrobial susceptibility test of bacteria were done using standard microbiological procedures. Further screening and confirmation of MRSA were done according to Clinical Laboratory Standard Institutes (CLSI) guidelines. Out of the 100 swab samples cultured, 96 (96%) showed bacterial growth. 62.86% (88/140) of the isolates were found to be Gram positive. Percentage distribution of the isolates showed that the most prevalent Gram-positive bacteria identified was Staphylococcus aureus (43.18%), followed by Coagulase negative Staphylococci (15.91%), Bacillus spp (11.36%), Diptheroides (10.23%) but considerable number of Micrococci (7.95%), Streptococcus pneumoniae (6.82%), Enterococci (4.55%). Prevalence of MRSA in this study was 39.47%. Significant difference in antibiotic resistance pattern was found among MRSA and MSSA isolates (P<0.05) reflecting increased ability of MRSA to develop resistance against various antimicrobials. Drugs like clindamycin, cefazoline and amikacin were found quite effective against MRSA in the present study would be better options for the management of such infections. MRSA strains’ contaminating on the door handles of hospitals may cause threat of infections to patients, hospital staffs, visitors to hospitals and people in the community. Thus, regular surveillance and disinfection with appropriate agent at regular interval would minimize the settlement and transmission of various pathogens including MRSA.
Keywords: Contaminants; disinfection; door handles; hospital; MRSA; pathogen

Determinants of Inflation: Evidence from Nepalese Data

Deepak Neupane — 2022-12-31

This study focuses on the examination of the relationship between the inflation and its major determinants in Nepal namely, GDP at constant price, investment, broad money supply, remittance, exchange rate, interest rate and inflation of India considering their log form using the data from 1980 to 2020 A.D. Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test was adopted to examine whether the variables are stationary or not. The data under the consideration were integrated of different orders I (0) and I (1) so autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) and bounds test was employed to make the analysis of the data. Vector auto regression (VAR) lag selection criteria was employed for the selection of the optimum lag length. The short run results show that the broad money supply, exchange rate and inflation of India are the significant determinants. Moreover, the results of F-statistic bounds test shows that GDP at constant price, broad money supply, exchange rate and Indian inflation are the major determinants of inflation in the long-run. The negative and significant value of the error correction term (ECT) imply that, the deviation in the long run increment in the inflation is corrected in the succeeding year. In addition, the results of the cumulative sum (CUSUM) and cumulative sum of square (CUSUMSQ) indicate the stability in the coefficients.

Loan and Advance Management of Nepal Bank Limited and Rastriya Banijya Bank

Hari Bahadur Bhandari — 2022-12-31

The main objective of this study was to assess and compare loan and advance management of Nepal Bank Limited and Rastriya Banijya Bank. The study used descriptive and analytical research design. Two banks out of total 27 commercial banks in Nepal were selected based on judgmental sampling. Quantitative data are collected from secondary sources of annual audited report. The collected data were classified, coded and analyzed with the help of statistical tools like percentage, mean, standard deviation, coefficient of correlation, and coefficient of determination using MS-Word, MS-Excel, and Statistical Package for Social Science. Both the banks utilized most of the deposits in the forms of loan and advance. NBL has provided more amount for loan loss provision in comparison with the RBB. Non-performing loan to total loan and advance ratio showed that NBL (2.25%) has good management than the RBB (4.03%). Unlike this, the mean ratio of loan and advance to total assets ratio of NBL (55.7%) is lower than the RBB (61.48%) proved that RBB mobilized fund properly. Lower standard deviation and coefficient of variation of RBB have been indicated that the bank has more uniformity than the NBL except interest income to loan and advance ratio. The study showed that there is significant relationship of loan and advance with total deposit, loan loss provision, nonperforming loan and total assets of both banks except the non-performing loan and loan and advance of RBB.

Impact of Bank-Specific Variables on Financial Performance of Joint Venture Banks in Nepal

Hari Prasad Pathak — 2022-12-31

Banks play an important role not only in the growth of the financial system but also in the development of the overall economy of a nation. Therefore, the determinants of bank performance have attracted the interest of academic research, bank management, and financial markets as well as of bank regulatory bodies. This paper examines the impact of bank-specific variables on the financial performance of joint venture banks in Nepal. The data are collected from the supervision report of Nepal Rastra Bank and annual reports of the sample banks for 10 years from the fiscal year 2009/10 to 2018/19. Based on the results of the Breusch-Pagan LM test and Hausman Test, fixed effects regression models are applied to examine the effects of bank-specific variables on the financial performance of Nepalese joint venture banks. The result shows that there is a significant positive impact of size and employee expenses on the performance of banks measured in terms of return on assets, return on equity and net interest margin. Management efficiency has also a positive impact on the performance of banks but it is significant only on net interest margin. Similarly, there is a significant negative impact of liquidity on return on equity and net interest margin and a significant negative impact of operating expenses on the net interest margin of the banks.

Foreign Trade, Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in Nepal

Hom Bahadur Chhetri — 2022-12-31

One of the important issues that persist in the economic literature is the relationship between foreign trade, foreign direct investment and economic growth in host countries. This issue has become renewed interest in recent years mainly for countries suffering from unemployment problems and lack of technological progress. This paper analyzed this issue for Nepal using time series data over the period of 1995-2020.The ARDL bound test approach to co-integration has been used to analyze long-run and short-run relationship between variables. The study found that there is a co-integration between foreign trade, FDI and economic growth. The study also found that there is a strong positive interaction between foreign trade and FDI in progressing economic growth both in the short-run and long-run. The results show that the foreign trade and FDI can play a significant role to accelerate the economic growth of Nepal.

Assessing the Nepalese Economy Through the Vision of Cooperative Resources

Khom Raj Kharel — 2022-12-31

This article examines cooperative development strategies and resource mobilization to analyze Nepal’s cooperative development. Analytic approaches were used to explore the design and regulations of the coop in new developments, and resource mobilization was investigated using simple statistical tools. The study’s primary purpose is to evaluate collaboration strategy and principles during development plan periods and investigate cooperative resource mobilization. Secondary data and descriptive statistics are used to analyze tables, pie charts, and line graphs. A simple regression model considers employment and debt investment as two variables. Regression analysis reveals that debt investment positively impacts employment during the study period. Every additional unit of debt investment results in a 1.12 percent increase in employment. The results imply that debt investment and employment significantlyimpact during the study period.

Inter-religious Harmony Between Hindu and Muslim Religious Communities of Miya Patan of Pokhara

Niranjan Ojha — 2022-12-31

Most Hindus see Muslims as the opposing faith to their own, although Hindus attend Muslim celebrations and Muslims attend Hindu festivals in Pokhara. Muslims in Pokhara dress in Nepali attire, which is not Islamic, and communicate in Nepali rather than Urdu or Hindi, which are peculiar to Muslim fundamentalism. Religious harmony is always vital for maintaining peace and harmony in a multi-religious country like Nepal. Despite the fact that Nepal is a secular country with a Hindu majority, Muslims are important and integral parts of Nepalese society. Unlike neighboring nations, there have been no severe religious riots or confrontations between Hindus and Muslims up to this point. When two cultures meet and interact, religious ideas will be transferred. The Muslims of Miya Patan have never contemplated a separate identity or attempted to break from society. They are quite proud of their national identity and identify more as Nepalese than Muslims. For ages, the Muslims of Pokhara have coexisted peacefully with their Hindu neighbors. This study attempts to explain the underlying causes influencing religious harmony in a multi-religious community of Miya Patan of Pokhara. In order to address the problem of study, discussion, in-depth interview and library research methods are applied. It is based on qualitative research method. It underlines the importance of components responsible for religious harmony in Pokhara. The findings may inspire other minority religious groups to maintain solid relationships in different parts of the country.