The Harvest

Perspectives on Teacher Education in South Asia: A Comparative Review

Bharat Prasad Neupane — 2022-04-07

With the political shifts in twentieth century, South Asia has witnessed rapid socio-cultural and educational transformation. At this backdrop, the study aims to review the efforts made by South Asian countries for quality enhancement of teacher education recently. This thematic review of policy documents, reports, and articles representing eight countries revealed that though South Asia is rich with socio-cultural, economic, and topographical diversity, there are some convergence and divergence in terms of investment and environment offered to teacher education. For instance, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan have provided better opportunities for teacher education and pre-service and in-service training and development, while teachers in Pakistan and Afghanistan have not made substantive progress. Except Pakistan and Afghanistan, all other countries have strict criteria for enrollment in teacher education programs, teacher recruitment, and licensing. These countries also provide motivating environment with the provisions of training and development, and awards and recognition. Whereas Pakistan and Afghanistan are facing two-fold challenges: nominal investment in teacher development and reconstructing the infrastructure damaged in decade-long armed struggle. The article concludes with the recommendation to increase investment in teacher education as developed and motivated teachers contribute to the overall transformation of education sector in South Asia.

Impact of Remittance on Consumer Price Index in Nepal

Binod Joshi — 2022-04-07

Remittances play a significant role in the economic development of the recipient economy through different micro and macroeconomic channels. The adverse impact of remittances in the form of Dutch disease and inflation cannot be overlooked. This paper examines the impact of remittance on overall inflation measured by the consumer price index in Nepal. It applies time series data for the period 1975 to 2020. Ordinary least squared (OLS) regression method results revealed that remittances, money supply, import trade and budget deficit have a positive impact on inflation whereas the impact of real gross domestic product is negative. The impact of export trade is inconclusive. Given the inflationary nature of remittances, it becomes necessary for the government to channelize the remitted funds into productive investment to avoid a surge in demand-pull inflation.

The Relationship between the Determinants of Equity Prices in Nepal

Churamani Pandey — 2022-04-07

The major objective of this study is to investigate the relationship of share price with dividend payout ratio, retention ratio, dividend per share, earning per share and return on equity. The samples have been chosen on the basis of easily availability of annual reports. The total number of observations is fifty having ten years annual financial data of five sampled banks. As per research design descriptive and Correlational research design have been employed. The statistical tools consist of mean, standard deviation as well as Correlation analyses. The dependent variable market price per share (MPS) is positively correlated with independent variables such as earning per share, dividend per share, return on equity and dividend payout ratio which implies that they move in the same direction. In other words, when one increases another also increases and vice versa. Moreover, retention ratio is negatively correlated with market price per share.

Harvesting a Philosophy of Personal Development through a Popular Business Classic Who Moved My Cheese?

Hriseekesh Upadhyay — 2022-04-07

Philosophy of Management is a relatively new term compared to the tradition of Philosophy itself. If Management as a university discipline is barely a century old, Philosophy of Management has a history of only a few decades. As Management broadly concerns conducting the affairs of a corporation or a business enterprise effectively, writers on management hesitate to adorn the title Philosophy to the issues they deal in their discourse. Management Department in universities and colleges invariably project their fields as a science with tools, techniques and methods of their own. Increasingly University dons in Management and successful executives of top business corporations began sounding about Philosophy of Management. A century after the first MBAs graduated from the US universities, Philosophy of Management has emerged as an academic discipline of its own. Personal Development of corporate executives, frontline business personnel and lowly staff members of business houses has been an important sub-field of Philosophy of Management. Dr. Spencer Johnson’s Who Moved My Cheese? (1998) has been a popular business classic that is a unique source of constructing a philosophy of personal development. This paper explores the concept of change as a critical element in the life of individuals and business organizations for successfully navigating the constantly changing world which can expand the basis of Philosophy of Management. Ability to perceive change that occurs in a small degree, to anticipate changes in the world of things, to prepare oneself for the changes that arrive and not to fear to confront changes and to understand that changes can bring better options are some of the philosophical lessons in the parable of Johnson’s book.

Role of Yoga Practices for Mental Health and Learning Habits of Management Students

Lal Prasad Aryal — 2022-04-07

Learning habit is purely and fairly psychological activity that needs sound mental health including inner-peace, calmness, easiness, positivity, curiosity, interest and self-motivation. The increased global interest in yoga practices in recent decades is primarily due to the expectancy that it can calm the mind and increase overall health and well-being of the students. Yoga provides training of mind and body to bring emotional and mental balance as well as it leads to alignment and harmony. This article discusses yoga (Asanas, Pranayamas and Dhyanas) as a potential tool for the management students to deal with mental health that essentially important for effective learning habits and to regulate themselves. This research study combination of both experimental and survey research designs. For this experimental study, 60 number of students are taken as sample who were failed in their mid-term examination and they were further classified as self-control group and experimental group with 30 students in each group in order to identify and confirm the effectiveness of yoga practices on academic performance of students. This study finding suggests that ‘yoga practices’ is an effective tool to solve mental health issues and finally it contributes for effective learning habits of management students. With this study, it is argued that students need such aid to listen inward, to their bodies, feelings, and ideas.

A Long-term Policy to Mitigate Load Shedding by Hydro Investment in Nepal

Sibahari Mainali — 2022-04-07

Nepal has been facing acute load shedding problem though it has a large potential for hydropower generations. The load shedding, which increased significantly over the past decade, has hindered overall economic growth of the nation. Several previous researchers concluded that the load shedding problem can be abolished with the dynamic pricing policy in short-run. They do not talk much about long-term solution. However, the hypothesis of this study is that the foreign direct investment policy for deficit financing of hydropower projects can eradicate the capacity shortage, increase the electricity supply, and mitigates the load shedding problem in long-run.

As load shedding is a dynamic problem that requires analysis by dynamics models, Stella Architect software is used to analyze and find solutions to the problem. The research concludes that at least 9% of the deficit financing must be covered by the foreign direct investment to increase the hydro capacity and electricity supply to mitigate load shedding over the policy period in future. The net present value of profits of Nepal Electricity Authority, the organization with the full responsibility of the production and distribution of electricity in Nepal, with the foreign direct investment policy is almost doubled than without policy.

Social Commitment in Writing

Shreedhar Gautam — 2022-04-07

Whether literature should include or exclude politics as its subject matter is a question over which opinions would widely differ. However, in this article an endeavour has been made to high light the literature written from the point of view of the socialist consciousness. A number of representative writers’ works are referred to as examples to show how they tried to connect literature with the contemporary events. The article concludes that literature while not fully socialist but sufficiently critical of class society will reveal important truths about the society and, thus, contribute to the freeing of the human consciousness from the limitations which class society has imposed on it.

Participation of Workers in the Management of Jute Industry of Nepal

Upendra Kumar Koirala — 2022-04-07

Workers’ participation in the management of jute industry of Nepal, an intensive scientific inquiry, was started by the researchers long years back to explore status and position of workers’ involvement in decision making. The major objectives of the study were; i. to assess the existing and desired degree and level of workers’ participation in different selected areas of decisions (i.e. economic , personnel and social decisions) in the units of the study (Biratnagar Jute Mills and Raghupati Jute Mills, each from private and public sector) at various levels as perceived by workers and management personnel, ii. to identify the degree and extent of involvement/ participation of workers in selected decision areas iii. to ascertain the management level of acceptance for workers’ participation, and iv. to assess and evaluate the effective performance of work committees as to overcome the barriers of participation. The study showed a poor level of workers’ participation in areas of personnel and economic decisions. However, their participatory desired level on this issue was quite high. A greater discrepancy between workers desired level of participation and management acceptance for participation indicated lack of mutual understanding among them. Similarly, works communities in both mills were not contributing at satisfactory level to both the parties as an effective mechanism of participation.