...bout [pic] [pic] Welcome to Bhutan – the Land of the Thunder Dragon one of the most sought after travel destinations today. The land of the thunder dragon kingdom is a trekker’s paradise and an environmentalist’s dream. With 72 percent of the country under forest cover, Bhutan’s pristine ecology is home to rare and endangered flora and fauna. This spiritual land is the last bastion of the Vajrayana school of Mahayana Buddhism which provides the essence of a unique identity for the 750,000 people. Bhutan is a unique blend of the old and new. Here is a country that is slowly opening up to the modern world in a fine balance with its ancient traditions. Those fortunate enough to visit Bhutan describe it as a unique, deeply spiritual and mystical experience. This kingdom is an adventure like no other. Facts and Figures Land area: 38,394 square kilometres Forest area: 72.5 % Altitude: between 240metres and 7541metres above sea level Inhabitants: 634,982 Language: official language “Dzongkha”, English widely spoken Religion: Vajrayana stream of Mahayana Buddhism (Also known as Tantric Buddhism) Currency: Ngultrum (equal to Indian Rupee) Capital: Thimphu National Tree: Cypress (Cupressus torolusa) Its capacity to survive on rugged harsh terrain is compared to bravery and simplicity. National Bird: Raven: It ornaments the royal crown. Raven represents the deity Gonpo Jarodongchen (raven headed Mahakala), one of...
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...John Gonzalez When I started reading this article of Bhutan I was amazed that it took the people of this country so long to get television. Mainly because the King of Bhutan finally welcomed the arrival of modern communications technology to his Buddhist kingdom in June 1999. They were the last country in the world to legalize television. The reason for that is their religion, they believe that don’t need technology. Bhutan is an interior country in South Asia at the eastern end of the Himalayas. It is surrounded to the north by China and to the south, east and west by India. To the west, it is separated from Nepal by the Indian state of Sikkim, while farther south it is separated from Bangladesh by the Indian states of Assam and West Bengal. Bhutan's capital and largest city is Thimphu. It’s a small country that no one dares to bother mainly because they’re so distant from everyone. Alexis Bloom is a journalist and documentary filmmaker and has been traveling. When she heard about that television was coming to Bhutan she was eager to go there and make a documentary about it. For centuries, Bhutan followed a policy of self-imposed separation and organized change, with a specific effort on the protection of its unique olden culture and paid little to no attention to the world around it. So far, Bhutan has been a country that numbers more monks than soldiers, and that cares more for general happiness than the national merchandise. But things could change quickly change. The almost...
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...The Rupee shortage has emerged as a major issue due to the recent increase in demand for Indian Rupees to meet transactions related to trade in goods, services and capital and financial transactions. This is not surprising since Bhutan imports most of what it consumes from India, including construction workers. There is also a huge outflow of Rupees annually on education, health, pilgrimage and other travel related expenses as well as remittances out of the country. To meet the increasing demand for Rupee, the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) had to resort to purchase of Rupee through the sale of 200 million US dollars from international reserves in December 2011 and as the INR became acute again, by July 2012 Bhutan’s borrowing stood at INR 11.6 which includes INR3.6M from State Bank of India, INR 6M from Government of India and 2M from Druk Punjab Bank. The present Rupee shortage in the country can be attributed to two main factors (i) rise in aggregate demand; and (ii) limited supply. The increase in aggregate demand has led to surge (increase) in imports as the domestic production capacity is unable to support the demand. On the supply front, the earnings from electricity exports to India remain Bhutan’s single largest export item, followed by exports of processed minerals like ferrosilicon, calcium carbide, cement, etc. Demand factors Major imports Major imports include fuel, vehicles, heavy earthmoving equipment, industrial raw materials, food items and other...
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...Bhutan’s Role in the Modern World The Kingdom of Bhutan may be a small and remote country, but it does play a considerable role in the modern world due to its hydroelectricity, national happiness, and their preservation of their land and culture. According to CIA World Factbook, Bhutan ranks 6th in the world from generating electricity with hydroelectric plants. Karma Tshewang, chief engineer of Bhutan’s Department of Hydropower said, “As a small country with a small population, we don’t have many resources. Hydropower is a strategic resource that can take care of the country’s future in terms of sustainable development.” As stated in International Finance Cooperation, Bhutan’s Tala Hydropower Power Plant transferred energy to India’s power grid in Bhutan with an understanding that most of the power produced would go to India to meet their needs, but it would also benefit the Bhutanese government’s income. This is very advantageous because India is one of many manufacturers in the world, so even though Bhutan is a small country they are leaving their mark on the world through another country. On the contrary, according to BBC News, Bhutan’s citizen’s are being considered as the happiest in the world. The article says, “The country measures the quality of life of its people by their happiness, widely known as Gross National Happiness (GNH), rather than by its Gross National Product (GNP), striking a balance between the spiritual and material.” According to Gross National...
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...Bhutan (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་ཡུལ་; Wylie transliteration: ʼbrug-yul "Druk Yul"), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asialocated at the eastern end of the Himalayas. It is bordered to the north by China and to the south, east and west by the Republic of India. Further west, it is separated from Nepal by the Indian state of Sikkim, while further south it is separated from Bangladesh by the Indian states of Assam andWest Bengal. Bhutan's capital and largest city is Thimphu. Bhutan existed as a patchwork of minor warring fiefdoms until the early 17th century, when the lama and military leader Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, fleeing religious persecution in Tibet, unified the area and cultivated a distinct Bhutanese identity. Later, in the early 20th century, Bhutan came into contact with the British Empire and retained strong bilateral relations with India upon its independence. In 2006, based on a global survey,Business Week rated Bhutan the happiest country in Asia and the eighth-happiest in the world.[9] Bhutan's landscape ranges from subtropical plains in the south to the sub-alpine Himalayan heights in the north, where some peaks exceed7,000 metres (23,000 ft). Its total area was reported as approximately 46,500 km2 (18,000 sq mi) in 1997[10] and 38,394 square kilometres (14,824 sq mi) in 2002.[1][2] Bhutan's state religion is Vajrayana Buddhism and the population, now (as of 2012/2013) estimated to be nearly three-quarters of a million,[3] is predominantly Buddhist...
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...SAARC Ministerial Declaration on Cooperation in Combating Terrorism ***** We, the Foreign Ministers of Member States of SAARC, are deeply concerned about the continuing scourge of terrorism afflicting the region which has caused extensive social disharmony, loss of human life, destruction and damage to property. Terrorism poses a serious threat to peace and cooperation, and friendly and good neighbourly relations. It jeopardises the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of States, while constituting a serious violation of fundamental human rights. We renew our commitment to strengthening comprehensive region-wide cooperation among SAARC Member States to combat and eliminate all forms and manifestations of terrorism and in this context affirm the need to reinforce further the regional legal regime and instituting pragmatic cooperation to address this issue effectively. We also recognise that our cooperation shall proceed on the basis of sovereign equality, mutual respect and the principles of non-intervention and non-interference in the internal affairs of Member States consistent with the SAARC Charter. As we meet in Colombo, at the Thirty-first Session of the Council of Ministers, we solemnly declare and agree to undertake the following measures of cooperation: 1. We reiterate our commitment to implement measures against organising, instigating, facilitating, financing, fund raising, encouraging, tolerating and providing training for or otherwise...
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...«Majestic» Bhutan – Key Figures • Druk Yul» : Land of Thunder Dragons • Habited since BC 2000 • Independent through history • 38.000 km2 (1/20 of Turkey) • 700.000 Inhabitants (less than 1% of Turkey) • Buddhism since 7th Century AD • Bhutan was under 1974 a Shangri-La (politically and geographically isolated from the West) • GPD per capita : 2.100 US$ (1/5 of Turkey) • In this Shangri-La wealth wasn’t measured in GDP but GNH–Gross National Happiness • Absolute monarchy until 2008 • Since 2008 constitutional monarchy Bhutan – History & Culture & Tourism • Bhutan until 1974 Shangri-La, (geographically and politically isolated) • In 1974, tourism started with 287 tourists • First telephone in 1974 , first TV in 1999. • • • • • • • 2.850 Tourist in 1992, 7.158 in 1999, 64.000 in 2011 "High Value, Low Impact Tourism" Min. impact on unique society Tourists (except Indians) pay per day $200 (low season) and $250 (high season) McKinsey survey result Scrap $250/day, you will reach one million tourists Answer of the dragon king I want to protect my buddist culture Enterpreneur – Mr. Dasho Ugen Dorji • • • • All Kings of Bhutan since 1952 Members of Dorji Family Tashi Group of Companies founded in 1959 by Late Dasho Ugen Dorji (cousin of the king) Chairman of the Group Dasho Topgyal Dorji (Son of founder) Dorji was dispatched to India for boarding school. • From age 5 he studied at the Jesuit St. Joseph’s School in Darjeeling, • High school and college...
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...Introduction about Druk Air Corporation Limited Drukair Corporation Limited operating as Drukair — Royal Bhutan Airlines is the national airline of the Kingdom of Bhutan. Its headquarters are in the western districts of Paro. Founded in 1981, ten years after the third king Jigme Dorji Wangchuck gradually began to open up the kingdom from self-imposed isolation, and seven years after welcoming its first foreign visitors, the airline commenced operations in 1983 with flights from Calcutta to Paro. A switch to BAe 146-100 equipment occurred in November 1988, and in order to meet increased demand, those aircraft were replaced in 2004 with two Airbus A319s. Drukair operates a modest scheduled flight network within the South Asian region from its base at Paro Airport and currently consists of eight destinations in five countries. Bhutan has drawn a Vision 2020 Plan, as part of its Five Year Development Plans targeting several sectors for development, which includes improved external air links by 2017 that would enable increase in income from tourism from 100% (by 2012) to 150% (2017) coupled with completion of second National Highway by 2017. It has also signed several memoranda of understanding with the government of India, not only to enhance air traffic facilities and operations but also to help Bhutan during emergency situations of floods and earthquake affecting the Paro Airport. Today, Drukair is a professional corporate entity under the aegis of the Druk Holdings Investment...
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...By: Ram Adhikari February 12, 2015 Life as a Refugee Have you ever imagined what you would do if your life was controlled by others? Or, if you had to survive with the food that is provided to you and your family by others every other week? Have you ever lived your life depending on the person who is next to you? Asking for food to eat when you were hungry? Life is not always easy growing up in a refugee camp. It is not like growing up in a decent family where every family member has a well-paying job, nice house to live, enough food to eat, and good clothes to wear. I was born in a Bhutanese refugee camp of Nepal. In the camp, there was a lack of everything. For basic needs, there was not a enough food to eat, not good clothes to wear, limited access to proper education, and few opportunities. There was not proper place to sleep, not good water to drink. In the miserable situation of the refugee camp, it was very strenuous to find any kind of job. My parents were not well educated to have a decent paying job to send me to private school. My father usually muddled through minimum wage jobs to fulfill our wants. In the camp, every house and school had unfinished flat roofs. I can still remember in winter, we could the feel thunder storm outside of the house sitting in the kitchen in front of a burning fire. Water would not stop dropping from every house because of unfinished flat roofs. Every year many people died from various diseases like asthma, cancer, tuberculosis, diabetes...
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...JBR Paper June 27, 1999 DIVERSIFICATION AND MARKET ENTRY CHOICES IN THE CONTEXT OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT Ram Mudambi University of Reading and Case Western Reserve University Susan McDowell Mudambi John Carroll University Address for correspondence: Dr. Susan McDowell Mudambi Department of Management, Marketing and Logistics Boler School of Business John Carroll University University Heights OH 44118 Phone: FAX: Email: (216) 397-3094 (216) 397-1728 smudambi@jcu.edu DIVERSIFICATION AND MARKET ENTRY CHOICES IN THE CONTEXT OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT Abstract Multinational enterprises consider many factors when making decisions in the context of foreign direct investment (FDI). In deciding what to produce, the multinational enterprise (MNE) must decide whether to diversify or to concentration on its main line of business. This paper offers insights into influences on this choice, and identifies a number of conditions under which diversification is more likely to be chosen. Factors affecting the foreign entry mode decision are also analyzed. The international business literature has generally treated these strategic choices as independent. This paper introduces a more realistic selection model, in which the diversification choice and the entry mode choice are made sequentially and are therefore related. The model is tested using a data set of FDI into the United Kingdom by MNEs in engineering and related industries. The analysis indicates a strong relationship...
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...Summary: The Bhutan country was an emerging market. They strived to instill innovative leaders who wanted to open up to foreign markets. The main industrial strive to increase its growing tourism business was in the form of Royal Bhutan Airlines. They experienced industry growth. This caused them to rethink their strategy of high value low volume. This was due to wanting to preserve the culture and geography of the small nation of under 700 thousand people. Royal Bhutan Airlines was contemplating how to increase size and lower costs by online booking, increased domestic travel, and alliance partnerships. Issues: The major issues that interfered with growth was corporate culture, tariffs, seasonal traffic, and logistical burdens. For starters, Royal Bhutan Airlines was a direct extension from the government since it was designed as a taxi service for Indian officials. They were set on preserving the pristine nature of the Bhutan culture, religious and geographically. Hence why they set small limits on tourists coming in and out of the country. Tariffs caused higher prices on people traveling to the country due to having to go through specific travel agents. Season trends were a large portion of the problem for Royal Bhutan Airlines. To solve this problem, consider buying smaller more economical planes that are only used during slower seasons. It would help with the load percentage. During peak seasons bring out the larger aircrafts. This would also reduce wear...
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...TOTAL (Scaled) Bhutan has recently opened its doors to the outside world and before 1961; it had purposefully remained isolated in an attempt to maintain it’s traditional, unique and Buddhist society. Today, the process of modernization brought dramatic changes to urbanization, industrialization, media participation, education and democratization that has encourages the people to work more to meet their hopes and aspirations, however, our tradition values are being gradually undermined, as people become more self centered and materialistic. This essay will attempt to explain how Bhutan is experiencing significant transformation particularly in terms of folklore, traditional offering, dress, language and folksongs. The age of modernization has lead to the Bhutanese people to purchase more comfortable goods and services. The influx of new technologies such as television and internet is widely used in Bhutan. Bhutanese people willingly work at any situation of under intense hot or freezing conditions for sum amount to be earned. The amount earned has to meet their daily expenditure and beside, they spend on buying the items like television and internet. Such modern gadgets influence people to stay hours in front of the Television watching the modern life styles. As a result, the people start adapting western styles of dressing, doing mock play of western wrestling which adversely impacts tradition and threatens their life (Cline, 2011). In the past days, Bhutan had a rich oral...
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...diaper change. But there is one Country that seems to be going against the grain; putting greater significance on things humanity seems to forget from time to time, like human well-being and the environment. Sandwiched in between China and India is a small country called Bhutan, a country that takes a different approach when looking at the well-being of its citizens. In 1972, 17 year-old Jigme Singye Wangchuck became the 4th Dragon Emperor of Bhutan, and implemented a new system that structures an economy around the happiness of its population. Gross National Happiness (GNH) is the sadly unorthodox alternative to GDP, based on Buddhist beliefs; it puts value in the happiness, not money when valuing a country. It is the only country in the world that uses this system of measurement. Although this system has the best intentions for the people and its surrounding environment, it is not the best overall strategy because it doesn’t adequately incorporate economic growth, which is very important to a country’s well-being. At first glance it seems like a truly distinct, altruistic approach to GDP but it would not be applicable to the entire world because of its ambiguity in the basic measurement of happiness. Right now Bhutan seems to be moving upstream, but because of the powerful influence of western society, Bhutan’s values may stray and ultimately lead their utopian society into the same direction as the rest of the world. Happiness is a key ingredient to well-being. How do you...
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...banks in Bhutan are as following: 1. Bank of Bhutan (BOB) Bank of Bhutan is the oldest commercial bank in Bhutan established in 1968. Until 1982, Bank of Bhutan acts as central bank in Bhutan (Bank of Bhutan). Since 1997, the bank was incorporated as per the Companies Act of the Kingdom of Bhutan, 2000 and converted to public commercial bank. In 2007, the Druk Holding and Investment...
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...Waste problems in Bhutan Bhutan, a small Himalayan Kingdom, where “Gross National Happiness (GNH)” philosophy is the guiding spirit for the developmental progress, sustainable wastes management is inevitable, especially the municipal solid wastes (MSW). A nation, highly dependent on import, subsistence farming and tourism needs to be very careful with wastes generation and the management. As of now, the major population remains innocent about the consequences of the unmanaged wastes and waste management techniques. Also, very limited options remain for improvement of the conventional waste management systems. In most urban settlements, formal waste management does not even exist. There are a number of environmental issues in Bhutan. Among Bhutan's most pressing issues waste disposal due to industrial pollution threaten Bhutan's serene environment and population. Land and water use have also become matters of environmental concern in both rural and urban settings. In addition to these general issues, others such as landfill availability and air and noise pollution are particularly prevalent in relatively urbanized and industrialized areas of Bhutan. Bhutan experience accelerated economic activities that pressured natural resources such as land, air, and water. Development activities increased concern for solid waste management projects. Land degradation, biodiversity and habitat loss, high fuel-wood consumption, and human-wildlife conflicts are some of Bhutan's environmental...
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