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INTRODUCTION: Social health insurance (SHI) is a risk-sharing method-based health care financing and administration. SHI combines the contributions of people, households, businesses, and the government with people's health hazards. As a result, it shields people from financial and physical hardship and is a generally equitable way to pay for medical care. This study aims to assess the status of social health insurance in Nepal. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The research is based on a review of empirical studies, reports, and data. The Google Scholar search engine was used to locate research publications on health insurance. The Google Scholar Open Database was applied to find the publications using the keywords "health insurance" or "social health insurance in Nepal." All papers that were published before July 2022 were checked for the study. Fifty-seven research papers were discovered during the initial inquiry; five duplicate articles were eliminated, and seven were out of the norm. Finally, 45 research papers and reports were selected for evaluation with the study titled "The status of health insurance in Nepal." RESULTS: This study finds that Madhesh province has poor status (4.63%) of social health insurance and province one has the highest (33.02%) of insured persons in Nepal. Females (52%) insured are higher than males (48%). The population covered by health insurance is seven percent in Nepal. Likewise, the renewal status of social health insurance is poor in Karnali province (50%) and highest in Lumbini province (85%) for the fiscal year 2021/22. CONCLUSIONS: Social health insurance is an effective strategy for fair access to healthcare services. The penetration of social health insurance is low in Nepal. Since the social health insurance program is one of the effective tools for improving the health system in developing nations like Nepal, so the government should speed up its implementation to achieve the goal of universal health coverage and sustainable development goals.

The emergence of the financial market favorably influences the economy. The choices of an individual engaging in the financial market have a crucial part in setting the market trend, which subsequently affects the economy. This research seeks to examine the variables impacting the investment choices of people functioning in financial and non-financial sectors. The research employs a social survey design, based on 280 samples obtained by a structured questionnaire employing a convenience sampling approach. The study was restricted to the Pokhara metropolitan city of Nepal. Descriptive Statistics, Chi-square test, t-test, ANOVAs, Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling were utilized to fulfill the study goals. The study demonstrates that there is no substantial difference between personnel working in the financial and non-finance industries on herding, market, heuristic and demographic component. However, people working in the financial industry examine more economic aspects and the total investment performance is greater for employees working in the financial sector. Further, the research reveals that self-confidence, market information, the recommendation of professionals, minimization through portfolio diversification and high-income level increases in interest in investment were the significant influential factors affecting investment decisions of an employee working in financial and non-financial institutions. The CFA establishes a significant link between observable variables and their fundamental constructs. The path analysis demonstrates that Market, Herding, Knowledge and Economic factors has a favorable influence on investment choices. The regulatory authority and related institutions should equip investors in respect of both economic and behavioral elements to make a smart investment choice.

Background: Microfinance is an effective tool for financial inclusion and poverty reduction in developing countries like Nepal. It delivers financial and non-financial services to unbanked people from formal financial services. Microfinance services support people from weaker sections of society with a view of socio-economic transformation. Low access to finance is a problem for poor and marginalized people. Microfinance institutions provide microcredit to unbanked people without physical collateral. Thus they help people from lower-income groups improve their livelihood through productive investment. Objectives: This paper aims to examine the effects of microfinance services on the economic status of clients' status with references to Sana Kisan Bikas Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited (SKBBL), Pokhara, Nepal. Methods: The research presents the findings of data collected through a survey research design in the Kaski district of Nepal. The researchers administered the survey questionnaire to 235 clients of SKBBL microfinance institutions involved in the programme for the last five or more years. We used a stratified random sampling technique to collect the data. The sample population comprised 70 from a scheduled caste (Dalit), 75 from ethnic groups, and 90 from upper castes. Both descriptive and inferential statistics have been used to analyze the data. The paired sample t-test has been used to examine the effects of microfinance intervention on occupational status, income level, consumption expenditure, capital expenditure, and monthly savings of the clients. Results: The results show that microfinance has contributed a significant role. It has enabled people from lower income groups to access microcredit and encourage productive investment that facilitates productive investment and economic transformation. -The result derived from paired sample t-test finds the positive effects of microfinance intervention on occupational status, income level, consumption, capital expenditure, and saving habits. Conclusion: This study concludes that role of microcredit is significant in enhancing the clients' economic status. Microfinance positively affects clients' earnings, savings, spending, asset accumulation, and occupational status. However, utilizing microcredit in productive sectors is necessary to empower the clients' economic status. The findings indicate that microfinance institutions must focus on effective microcredit applications to help create micro-businesses and improve the clients' livelihood status.

This study explores whether the perceived behavioral factors impelling specific investors' decision-making to contribute to the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) performance. Applying structural model analysis of the data, it shows that among the four behavioral variables, market, heuristic, and herding factors have significant effects on investment performance. This study observes more reliance and dependence of investors on market information and sentiments. Research findings suggest that investors consider the fundamentals of the stock and consider the investors' behavior to get a return from the market. The study has been confined to five metropolitan cities with 350 samples randomly obtained in 2018 from different broking firms.

Background: Behavioral finance deals with the study of psychological influences on investors and financial markets. Investors commonly perform investment analysis through fundamental and technical analysis. The behavior of the investment market originates from the principles of psychological decision-making that explains the reasons behind buying and selling stocks. Objectives: This paper aims to examine the effect of cognitive biases on investment decisions in Pokhara Valley, Nepal. The effect of five cognitive biases, such as availability, anchoring, overconfidence, herd instinct, and regret aversion, is measured on rational investment decision-making. Methods: This study is based on primary data sources using non-probability (convenience method) sampling techniques. There are seven brokerage houses in Pokhara valley, and researchers selected 179 respondents involved in stock market investment. Both descriptive and inferential analyses were made to analyze the data. Results: The study discovers a link between irrationality in financial decision-making and availability, overconfidence, and herd instinct biases, but anchoring and regret aversion biases had no effect on irrational investment decisions. However, though all the biases have a positive relationship with an irrational investment decision, overconfidence bias has the highest impact. Regret aversion bias has the least impact on investment decisions in comparison to the other four biases. Conclusion: The investors and the policymakers should focus on finding the cognitive biases and various de-biasing methods to eradicate those biases throughout investment decision-making. The findings of this study have a number of implications for investors, brokers, and governments who aim to stimulate stock market investment.

INTRODUCTION: Yoga practices have been increased around the world due to perceived benefits of meditation for stress management. It has a positive impact on stress level in yoga practitioners. Yoga activities provide a sense of well-being, which leads to an increase in self-esteem and relaxation. Banking personnel often have a high degree of stress due to work pressure they confront in their job. Stress lowers a person's ability and a healthy employee ensures productive outcome in the organization. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross sectional descriptive research design was used and this study was confined to employees of different banks situated at Janakpurdham, Nepal. The duration of the study was from August 2020 to September 2020. A total of 205 participants were randomly selected. Simple random sampling technique was used to select banks of Janakpurdham from the list papered for the purpose of data collection. RESULTS: There was strong association between demographic variables and perception of yoga, regarding mental and physical health among the bank employees. The perceived benefits of yoga on physical health as well as mental health for stress management was found to be associated with socioeconomic characteristics of the participants such as gender, religion, level of education, family income (p0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study found that yoga keeps persons active for whole day, as well as yoga is beneficial for stress management too. Yoga is effective in lowering occupational stress, hence yoga awareness program among bank personnel is necessary.

INTRODUCTION: Health insurance program is a social protection program of the government of Nepal, which aims to enable its citizens to have access to quality health care services without placing financial burden on them. There was insufficient knowledge and awareness of the health insurance activities. Insured persons have complained of poor attitude and behaviour of service providers operating in the health insurance scheme. The aim of this study was to investigate the awareness and perception regarding health insurance among community people in a municipality. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey assessing awareness and perception of community people on health insurance was conducted using a structured questionnaire in Bardibas municipality of Mahottari district of Nepal during the month of August 2019 to October 2019. A total of 422 sample were selected by use of simple random sampling technique and face-to-face interview was conducted using the structured questionnaire. Multivariable logistic regression model was applied to test the effects of independent variables after adjusted potential confounders. A p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Participants who were from age group of less than 30 years [aOR 2.82; 95% CI (1.46-5.47)] of male gender [aOR 2.03; 95% CI (1.13-3.66)], from upper caste [aOR 6.22; 95% CI (2.97-13.0)], and had higher secondary education level and above [aOR 4.66; 95% CI (2.81-7.74)] were likely to have adequate level of awareness than counterparts. Likewise, participants who were married [aOR 3.46; 95% CI (1.57- 7.63)], had higher secondary education level and above [aOR 4.74; 95% CI (2.85- 7.87)], and involved in services or business [aOR 8.67; 95% CI (3.54-21.23)], were more likely to have satisfactory perception on health insurance. CONCLUSIONS: Education level and occupation has influence on the level of awareness and perception of health insurance. Therefore, awareness programme on health insurance need to be implemented through mass media campaign.

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of micro-credit on the small or micro-enterprises development with reference to Kaski district of Nepal. The descriptive and analytical research design is used and the research is based on the primary sources of data collected through structured questionnaires. During the study, the researchers selected 170 respondents, who were involved in the micro-credit programme in the last five or more years in the microfinance institutions, using the purposive sampling technique. The study finds that the majority of the clients are involved in agriculture and livestock and the rest are involved in the micro-business and enterprises related to service industry (such as tailoring, beauty parlor, hotel or restaurant), trade or business and small-scale manufacturing sectors. Micro-credit has a positive correlation with initial investment, revenue generation, employment generation, expansion of business and profit generation. The study also finds that micro-credit has encouraged clients to engage in the micro-business and enterprise development activities. The study recommends that it is necessary to adopt an effective utilization policy of micro-credit that may benefit both microfinance institutions for its sustainability and clients for their living standard improvement.

The paper aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 on the construction industry of Nepal. This research is based on primary data, and the nature of the data is qualitative. The sources of empirical data have been collected with the help of unstructured interviews with nine professional contractors who have been directly involved in the construction sectors for a long time. This study used a thematic analysis to examine the responses provided by participants in the research field. The major three themes and 12 sub-themes were generated from the study to find the impact of COVID-19 on the construction industry in Nepal. The study finds the three-level of impacts—financial, operational, and institutional on construction sectors. The government budget reduction, the deteriorating financial situation of the contractors, late payment, and over cost runs of the projects are the financial impact. Likewise, the operational level impact is related to delay in project completion, supply chain problems, difficulty in workforce management, and maintaining the health and safety of the workforce. The study finds no adequate support and special packages from the government, including professional associations. The government and regulatory authority should support the construction industry to build efficient, competent, and resourceful sectors. Once the issues and expectations of constructional professionals are addressed, that ultimately helps to enhance the construction industry’s performance. Finally, the construction professionals, the industry, and the government will be benefited.

The objective of this study is to examine the effects of microfinance intervention on multiple and non-multiple borrowings clients in the Gandaki province of Nepal. Further, the study aims to explore the reasons for multiple borrowings and the impact of microfinance intervention on micro-enterprise creation, total investment, profit per month, income, and saving. The research is based on primary sources of data and confined to Muktinath Biikas Bank Limited (MBBL). Microfinance clients involving MBBL for the last five or more years are the respondents, and 311 MF clients were randomly selected from 10 branches of MBBL. Both descriptive and inferential statistics have been applied to find out the effects of microfinance intervention. The key reasons behind multiple financing are forced by friends, the presence of other MFIs, insufficient loan, meeting domestic requirements, repaying other MFIs loan, lending to others at high interest, and repaying a high-interest loan. There are significant differences between multiple and non-multiple financing clients in terms of micro-enterprise creation, total investment, profit per month, and saving. The result shows that non-multiple financing clients are more likely to earn more profit, create new business, and have the potential for large-scale investment. The mean score shows that non-multiple financing clients are saving more than multiple financing clients, indicating more commitment to saving for future funds requirement to expand the business. At last, the study concluded that the performance of non-multiple financing clients is significantly better than multiple financing clients. Since multiple financing creates problems if it is not controlled properly, so microfinance institutions (MFIs) and regulatory authorities should discourage multiple borrowing practices through proper regulation, adequate supply of loans, and its productive orientation.

This paper aims at detecting the causes of delay in the “design and build model” of motorable bridge construction under the Bridge Project, Department of Roads, Nepal. The research is based on an intensive literature review, primary data, secondary data, and interviews. The survey which was carried out with the help of questionnaires was used to assess the perceptions of the respondents involved in the construction of the “design and build model” of the bridge project. The questionnaire was divided into three parts and the main part focused on the causes of delay in “design and build model” in the implementation of such projects. A total of 56 different causes for delay of bridge construction were identified through the literature review and a pilot survey of three groups of respondents who were involved in the construction of such bridges (see literature review of this paper). The eight most important causes, among 56, identified by the study are: 1) Lack of stakeholder analysis 2) Poor portfolio management 3) Lack of inadequate pre-execution planning and improper time management 4) Lack of site management 5) Inadequate budget allocation and delay in payment 6) Lack of provision of reward and penalty, 7) Lack of detail survey, improper soil exploration and preparing report without depth study and 8) contractor’s excessive workload. The cost, quality, and schedule of bridge construction projects can be maintained once the problem of unnecessary delay is resolved and the competency of the construction industry in Nepal will improve.

The multiple borrowing problems are more common in microfinance institutions in Nepal. The study aims to evaluate the performance of multiple borrowing clients in Gandaki province of Nepal with reference to Muktinath Bikas Bank Limited (MBBL). The performance of multiple borrowing clients, in terms of women empowerment, consumption expenditure, capital expenditure, micro-enterprises creation, saving, investment, and profit, has been examined with the help of descriptive and inferential statistics. The study has been confined to five districts of Gandaki province and the data have been collected from MBBL clients who are involved in microfinance intervention at least from the last five or more years. The performance of most of the observed clients was empowered by microfinance activities but no significant difference in terms of changes in the livelihood parameters. Although microfinance programmes empower clients, the results of the investment, saving, micro-enterprises creation, capital and consumption expenditure, and income generation of clients are not convincing. The regulatory authority should identify the problems of multiple borrowing whether the financing from microfinance institutions is just for their profit or for productive application of loan. The socio-economic performance of clients is connected with the effective monitoring of clients made by microfinance institutions whether the loan has been properly utilized or not.

The paper examines the impact of micro-finance on business creation in Nepal through paired sample t-test, chi-square test and Wilcoxon signed rank test. The research is based on primary data collected through structured questionnaires. The survey includes 500 micro-finance clients from four districts of western development region who have been involved in micro-finance programme for last five years. There is a positive association between loan size and its application. The clients who have taken small size of loans, they have mostly spent their loans on domestic purposes and found poor application of loans in micro-business whereas big loan size clients have greater application of loans in productive sectors. The study concludes that micro-business and enterprises creation of people have been significantly improved after involvement in micro-finance programme. Micro finance institutions should give equal priority for non-financial services such as financial literacy and provision of entrepreneurship skills through government and non-government organizations that ultimately helps to utilize micro-credit into productive sectors.

This paper examines the loan size and its productive application after involvement in micro-finance programme in western development region of Nepal. The paper is based on primary sources of data collected through structured questionnaires. The survey includes 500 clients from four districts of western development region both from government and Private microfinance institutions. The study shows that there is positive association between size of savings and loans, size of savings and loan application, current loan size and ethnicity, loan size and duration of membership, and finally loan size and its application. It has been found that clients who have taken small size of loans, they have mostly spent their loans on domestic purposes and found poor application of loans in micro-business whereas big loan size clients have greater application of loans in productive sectors. Micro-finance institutions should increase loan size (as per the provision of monitory policy) with necessary entrepreneurship skills that will help to enhance productive application of loans however, strict monitoring and supervision is essential. Thus, MFIs should give equal priority for non-financial services such as financial literacy and provision of entrepreneurship skills through government and non-government organizations that ultimately helps to utilize micro-credit into productive sectors.Repositioning Vol.1(1) 2016: 63-72

This paper examines the causality of economic growth and financial institutions with reference to Nepalese economy and determines whether financial institutions supports for economic growth or not. The empirical analysis shows that there is existence of long run association among the variables of gross domestic product (GDP), broad money (M2) and domestic credit to private sectors (DCPS). Moreover, vector error correction model (VECM) also suggests for the validity of the long run association among variables. The Granger causality and Wald statistics test do not find any short run causal relationship. The empirical result shows that there is a long-run association between financial institutions and economic growth of Nepal. Thus, a sound financial system helps to promote financial institutions in the country that supports for economic growth of the nation in the long run. The regulatory authority and financial institutions should accelerate financial reforms to improve the efficiency of financial system that helps to stimulate adequate capital formation and investment in the productive sectors.Economic Literature Vol.12 2014: 56-68