🇳🇵The Nepali Producer with a #1 Billboard hit

_{August 20, 2024}

Top Weekly Highlights

🌎 Sansar ma Nepali: 5 signs Nepal is heading in a positive direction
💪🏼 Nepali ley garcha: The 28-Nepali producer with a #1 UK hit
🇳🇵 Nepal Tira: Major accident sparks a mini-riot, airlines pressure government
📆 Events: Nepathya, a weekend hike in Jersey, and a momo class in Sydney

Sansar ma Nepali

5 Positive Signs from Nepal

Here are 5 points that show Nepal is heading in a positive direction:

⚡️ Electricity Output

Nepal now sells more electricity than it buys from India.
Nepal had agreed terms with Bangladesh until student protests stopped the deal.
Nepal Electric Authority transformed from USD 35m loss to USD 350m profit.

💻 IT Sector

In 2022, Nepal’s IT exports was valued at USD 500 million.
IT exports grew by 64.2% from 2021 to 2022.
Average revenue per company doubled from 2020 to 2022.

🌳 Environmental Conversation

44.7% of Nepal is covered in forests.
Nepal has committed to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.
Nepal increased its wild tigers population by 190% from 2009 to 2022.

🏳️‍🌈 LGBT Rights

Legalized homosexual activity in 2007
Introduced a ‘third-gender’ category in the census and on passports
Supreme Court recently ruled to recognize legal recognition of a trans woman.

🌍 Nepali Diaspora

Remittance inflow increased by 16.5% in the last fiscal year.
Nepalis entrepreneurs and professionals are connecting globally.
Nepali origin entrepreneurs have started investing seriously in Nepal.

👉 We do realize that there are many challenges. For example, although Nepal is much more progressive about LGBT rights, in real life, they still face a lot of issues.

However, it’s important to recognize and appreciate the progress we’ve made so far.

If you feel how we do, please copy this link with others and spread a little bit of positive energy ❤️

🚨 Update on Mamta Kafle: Missing since July 31st, 2024

We covered Mamta’s disapparance in our previous issue, and unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of updates on the case.

Mamta Kalfe Bhatt, a 28-year old Pediatric Nurse from Manassas Park, Virginia, has been missing from her family’s home since July 31, 2024.

Fortunately, the entire community of Manassas has joined the Nepali community in the search for Mamta. Media coverage has also ramped up with national news outlets covering Mamta’s disappearance.

🚨If you have any information, please contact the Manassas Park Police Department at 703-361-1136 and/or the poster below:

💰 That’s a lot of dough: In the last fiscal year, Nepali students spent…*wait for it*… USD 9.3 billion to pursue education abroad! That’s around the same amount (USD 10.4 billion) that the Nepali government has spent on education in the past 12 years before 2023.

🧘 Yoga ko shahar: Pokhara is gaining reputation as a destination for yoga tourism, in part due to the Indian Embassy hosting the International Day of Yoga every year on June 21. Increased road connectivity and private promotion have also contributed to this rise.

🇨🇦 Sochera Aunu: The Nepali Embassy in Canada issued a notice urging students considering to carefully understand ground realities before making their final decisions. Living in Canada is becoming increasingly difficult for students and immigrants, which is why we see messages like these on Facebook groups 👇

📜 Asylum Seekers Ghatyo: Following President Joe Biden’s strict entry ban for asylum seekers, the number of Nepalis seeking asylum has decreased sharply. In November 2023, 648 Nepalis sought asylum compared to 159 who applied in July 2024. There are a total of 8,537 pending Nepali asylum cases, while 7,149 have been approved in the past 25 years.

Nepali ley garcha!

The Nepali Producer with a 100 million plays on Spotify

Aasis Giri, AKA Aasisbeats, has never been to New York. Yet, early this year, he was shown to millions of visitors at Times Square in New York (see above).

Aasis is a music producer, specializing in hip-hop and R&B music, and already has a list of impressive achievements:

😄 1st Nepali to reach number 1 on Billboard (Central Cee: Band4Band) Only 🤩 1st Nepali with a platinum record (Nicky Bondz: Satellites)
🤯 Lil Wayne rapped on a beat he produced and featured on 50 Cent’s site
😎 Signed a publishing deal with Sony
😅 Achieved 120 million plays on Spotify

Aasis started off as a “text battle” rapper - which is a form of rap battle done via texting, not spoken words. (Yup! We’d never heard of this before either 😅!)In 2013, he won a text-battle tournament and used the winnings to buy his first microphone.

Soon after, Aasis started rapping and creating his own music. He shared his songs on YouTube which got the attention of rapper Seth G. Seth offered Aasis $50 for an instrumental and later asked him to work on his album.

Seth also helped get Aasis a scholarship for an online music production degree from Berkeley.

Aasis credits his success to his ability to build relationships with people. This ability got him featured on the TimesSquare billboard and on 50 Cent’s official website.

Aasis plans to release his own music in the near future, and we can’t wait to see what he comes up with!

Here are some of the most popular songs he worked on:
Central Cee ft. Lil Baby: Band4Band [260 million on spotify]
Altair Blake: Fly Away [12 million on spotify]
Arjan Dhillon’s Score [17 million on YouTube]

Dive Deeper
Watch: Let’s Talk Hiphop #29 AasisBeats [The Runway Records]
Follow: AasisBeats on Instagram

Know any stories/news about Nepalis abroad? Reply to feature them!

Nepal Tira

Weekly Briefing: What You Need To Know

🌊 Floods Continue: A flash flood on August 16 damaged half the village of Thame. Experts have linked these floods to melting glaciers. Thame had been hit by an even worse glacier flood in 1985, when 12 people lost their lives. In the past two months, 190 people have died due to floods and landslides across various parts of Nepal.

‘🕊️ TRC Amendment Bill Passed: The House of Representatives has approved to change the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act. This act was established to investigate human right violations that happened during the civil war. The changes now include rape and sexual violence, enforced disappearance, arbitrary murder and inhumane torture as serious violations of human rights.

🚑 Accident triggers crowd: A horrific accident (video warning: sensitive content) that caused the death of a male scooter driver nearly turned into a riot. The man died on the spot when a truck hit and dragged him for nearly 100 meters. Bystanders at the scene took their anger out on the police, who had to use tear gas to control the crowd.

🛫 Airlines ko pressure: Nepali airline operators submitted a 12-point list of demands to PM Oli, including taking initiatives to remove the ban by the EU on Nepali airlines. This would mean dividing CAAN into two separate bodies - one for regulation, and one for service, something the current Director General, Pradeep Adhikari is fully against.

Just a reminder: Since he took over leadership (again) in February 2023, there have been SEVEN airline accidents.

And if you you’re wondering why he hasn’t resigned, just take a look at what he allegedly tweeted 5 days after the Saurya Airlines crash, which killed 18 people 👇
[A lion doesn’t listen to a donkey - even if he (lion) wins, he is shamed]

For a much deeper analysis, we highly recommend Pranaya Rana’s deep dive on KALAM weekly (Formerly known as Off The Record).

Sachi ho? Aabuii 🐍😱

Haasney bela bhayo? 😅

Teta jane ho?

Last week, Nepathya played to a packed audience of Nepalis in Ohio. Unfortunately, the ‘Vek Yabesh & Bizen’ show, originally scheduled on August 15th, was cancelled due to “technical reasons”.

Mark Your Calendars: Next Week

Members and friends of The Great Nepali Diaspora (TGND) Chapters from around the region- NYC, NJ, CT, and PA will meet on August 24th to spend the day to visit Rubin Museum and see the diverse Himalayan exhibitions display until Oct 6th including REIMAGINE: HIMALAYAN ART NOW which feature over 30 contemporary artists.

August 23: The Edge Band & John and the Locals [🇩🇰 Copenhagen]
August 24: Nepathya [🇺🇸 Dallas, TX]
August 24: Day in NYC [🇺🇸 New York, NY]
August 24: Hiking in New Jersey (TNGD) [New Jersey, NJ]
August 30: NASEM Teej Lahar [🇦🇺 Hampton Park, VIC]
August 31: Momo cooking class with social impact [🇦🇺 Sydney, NSW]

👋 Feel free to send in events by replying to this email

yo hapta lai eti nai! Next tuesday, pheri bhetaula hai! ✌️

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— 5MinsNepal Team