FROM A “CHELI” IN NEPAL TO A “KHADAMA” IN THE ARABIAN GULF COUNTRIES: THE LOCAL-GLOBAL ENTANGLEMENTS AND GENDERED LABOUR MIGRATION GOVERNANCE

This dissertation explores: In what ways does gender operate as a governing code in Nepal’s labour migration governance? This question is answered in three specific ways. First, it explores how the gender codes in the Nepali society conjoin global forces to create structural conditions for women’s transnational labour migration. Second, it examines how the Nepali state – within the regional/global geopolitics – embraces the gendered labour migration policy to produce, reproduce, and perpetuate the gender codes. Third, it explicates the ways in which women migrating for domestic work in the Arabian Gulf countries resist and subvert the gender codes while being implicated in the entangled precarity. The research also deliberates on the migrant rights politics and activism that attend to the entangled precarity faced by the Nepali women migrant domestic workers. The dissertation proposes the ‘gendered local-global entanglements’ as a conceptual framework to explore the ways in which the local and global forces and processes are deeply enmeshed and embedded in: 1) women’s transnational labour migration; 2) the gender discriminatory labour migration policy; and 3) the production of entangled precarity faced by women migrant domestic workers. First, the dissertation explicates women’s transnational labour migration for domestic work in the light of four-pronged sociocultural and economic processes and their gendered implications, intersecting with multiple other axes of oppression. Further, the dissertation describes Nepal as a gendered migration state while embracing an “exception to neoliberalism” labour migration policy toward women migrant workers. Such a policy is embedded in the notion of a ‘masculine sovereignty’ which emanates from the patriarchy that conceives women as vulnerable. In contrast to women’s vulnerability, this research unmasks the vulnerability of the Nepali state, as reflected through its ‘sandwiched sovereignty’ that refers to a fragile geopolitical position, resulting from a concurrent pressure from and complicity with global forces and its debilitating bargaining power. Finally, the dissertation explores the ways in which the gendered labour systems and patriarchal ideologies in Nepal and the Arabian states are enmeshed in producing the entangled precarity. These findings are based on roughly five months of ethnographic fieldwork in Nepal, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates and engagements with women migrant domestic workers, including state and non-state actors

Intellectual Property Right on Basmati Rice: Current Scenario and Evidences of Origin, Diversity, Cultivation and Use Values of Basmati Rice in Nepal

Basmati rice, also called the king/prince of rice landraces has very special values in Nepalese society as well as in other countries of Indian Subcontinent. With the objectives of collecting, analyzing and documenting Basmati related information in Nepal, we visited different sites; carried out key informant surveys; organized focus group discussions, online interaction and discussion meetings; requested all relevant offices/ persons/ stakeholders through phone, website, and letter to share information; organized high level official meeting, and Basmati rice expert meeting; documented video documentary and did online as well as library search. Because of its high market value at global level, many countries and organizations have been attempting to get intellectual property rights (mainly patent and geographical indication tag) on Basmati rice. India applied for GI tag to Basmati rice in the European Union (EU) in July 2018, and Nepal submitted opposition letter along with proofs and evidences of origin, diversity, cultivation and use values of Basmati rice on 9 December 2020. A total 133 Basmati type rice landraces are grown in 60 districts of Nepal. Basmati rice is traditionally grown, sold, and consumed in geographically localized areas of Nepal since ancient time. International and national scientists have defined lower altitude of Nepal as one of the centers of origin of Basmati rice. Many Nepalese basmati rice landraces have been characterized and evaluated using morphological traits, isozymes and DNA markers. Four basmati type of rice landraces have been registered in National Seed Board. Many community seed banks have maintained different types of Basmati rice landraces. National Agriculture Genetic Resources Center and International genebanks have collected more than 80 and conserved 68 basmati landraces. Basmati rice landraces have geo-linked traits. The historical culture of production, consumption and marketing of native basmati rice in Nepal should always be favored by both national and international rules and regulations. Nepal has ample and valid evidences to get geographical indication (GI) right on Basmati rice

Anaphylaxis to Ceftriaxone – Evaluation of Two Cases

Allergic reactions to beta-lactamase antibiotics are the most common cause of adverse drug reactions mediated by specific immunological mechanism. Anaphylaxis is diagnosed clinically. In two of our cases, patients developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) secondary to anaphylaxis, which was however managed successfully without residual deficits

Treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma: recommendations from the International Myeloma Working Group

This Policy Review presents the International Myeloma Working Group's clinical practice recommendations for the treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma. Based on the results of phase 2 and phase 3 trials, these recommendations are proposed for the treatment of patients with relapsed and refractory disease who have received one previous line of therapy, and for patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma who have received two or more previous lines of therapy. These recommendations integrate the issue of drug access in both low-income and middle-income countries and in high-income countries to help guide real-world practice and thus improve patient outcomes