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Finance Minister Dr Swarnim Wagle responded to queries raised in regard to the government's policies and program for the fiscal year 2083/84 in today's meeting of the National Assembly. 

Following deliberations over the policies and programs, Minister Wagle expressed the government's commitment to advancing the economy built in the past, inclusive development, and overall social development. 

Finance Minister Wagle said that the upcoming budget would be presented based on the 100-point governance reform actions and inputs received at the House on policies and programs. 

The agenda includes presenting amendments to the policies and programs for decision and passing the policies and programs today itself.

The World Bank (WB) has said that it will provide the possible assistance to Nepal for educational development.

Country Director of the World Bank, David Sislen, conveyed this during a meeting with Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Sasmit Pokhrel, at the Ministry of Education today.

On the occasion, discussions were held between them on improving the education sector, expanding infrastructure, and promoting a technology-friendly education system. 

The World Bank has expressed a particular interest in further investment and collaboration in school and educational infrastructure development.

The Ministry has stated that discussions were held also on making partnerships more effective to expand access to long-term reforms and quality education.

Minister Pokharel, while providing information about the government's priorities, stated that the development of educational infrastructure, strengthening of 'foundation learning', and the expansion of 'digitisation' and technology in education have been promoted as the government's main 'agenda'.

The government has reduced the number of federal ministries to 18 in order to maintain administrative reforms and austerity, reduce unnecessary recurrent expenses and boost up performance. 

A meeting of the Council of Ministers today decided to lower the number of ministries from existing 22 to 18 by approving the 'Nepal Government (Work Division) Regulations, 2083'. 

According to Prime Minister Balendra Shah's Press and Research Adviser Deepa Dahal, the government has retained the Ministry of Finance, Home, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs. 

Similarly, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Supplies, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation, and the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation have also remained unchanged as per the decision. 

Prioritizing technology and innovation, the government has separated science and technology from the erstwhile Ministry of Education and established a new 'Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation' to handle newly added innovation-related tasks. 

In the reorganization of other ministries, extensive adjustments have been made, merging ministries with similar functions, it is shared. 

With this, there will now be the Ministry of Education and Sports, Ministry of Communication, Ministry of Youth, Labor, and Employment, and Ministry of Land, Cooperative, and Human Resources. 

Similarly, the Ministry of Women, Children, Gender, and Sexual Minorities and Social Security, Ministry of Health and Food Security, Ministry of Infrastructure Development, and Ministry of Agriculture, Forests, and Environment have come into existence. 

The information technology-related tasks, previously carried out by the former Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, are now merged into the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers. 

Immediately after the formation of the new government, a plan to review the number of ministries for administrative reform and cost-cutting was put forward under the '100-Point Agenda for Government Reform.' 

To implement the plan, the division of work, renaming, and merging of ministries were carried out based on the report submitted by the 'Restructuring Management Secretariat,' chaired by Secretary Govinda Bahadur Karki, adviser Dahal informed. 

The move has been taken to solve the problem of excessive operational costs due to having more ministries than necessary and to make the state machinery more efficient.

Even the third meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) held on Wednesday failed to enter the regular business owing to obstruction by the opposition parties. It prompted the Speaker to postpone the meeting till Thursday.

The opposition parties demanded the presence of Prime Minister Balendra Shah in the Parliament and sought the Speaker's ruling for it. Although the Parliament meetings were held multiple times, it could not enter the regular business. 

The next meeting is scheduled for 11 am Thursday.

The HoR meeting on Wednesday was scheduled to hold a discussion on the government's policies and programs which was read out by President Ram Chandra Paudel on Monday.