19th Annual Himalayan Policy Research Conference 

Dec. 7th & 8th, 2024

Zoom: Register

December 7th, 2024

6:00am-6:15am U.S. Mountain Time (6:45pm-7:00pm Nepal Time) 

Welcome Remarks: Dr. Keshav Bhattarai

6:15am-7:45am U.S. Mountain Time (7:00pm-8:30pm Nepal Time)

Session 1: Agriculture and Food Security

Moderator: Dr. Niraj khatiwada

• Food Sovereignty of Pastoral Nomads in Western Himalayas: From Subsistence to Dependence (Afreen Faridi)

• Reevaluating Nepal’s National Fruit: A Case for the Indigenous Lapsi (Suprabh Raj Joshi)

• Climatic Shocks and Income Smoothing Behavior in Nepal: A Mahalanobis Distance Matching Analysis  (Sushant Rijal)

• Enhancing Nepal’s vegetable sub-sector: Strategies for import substitution and export promotion (Ramhari Timalsina, Santosh Pathak, and Krishna Timsina)

• Calorie distribution in Nepalese households: A multi cross sectional study (Manab Prakash, Sanjeev Nhemhafuki, Nirmal Kumar Raut & Bipin Khadka)

7:50am-8:50am U.S. Mountain Time (8:35pm-9:35pm Nepal Time)

Special panel: Regenerative Dreams/Designs across the Hindu-Kush Himalayas during the tumultuous times of the Combined Climate/Coronaviruses Disruptions

Moderator: Dr. Alok Bohara

(Pramod Parajuli; Vashudha Pande)

9:00am-10:00am U.S. Mountain Time (9:45pm-10:45pm Nepal Time)

Keynote speaker: Dr. Hakan Yilmazkuday “Geopolitical Risks and International Economics”

Moderator: Dr. Niraj khatiwada

10:05am-10:50am U.S. Mountain Time (10:50pm-11:35pm Nepal Time)

Session 2: Politics, Governance, and Global Affairs

Moderator: Dr. Thaneshwar Paneru 

• The Ripple Effect: Water, Power, and Resilience in the Himalayan Landscape (Mir Wafa Rasheeq)

• Governance Quality and Economic Development: Examining Public-Private Partnerships for Sustainable Growth (Priyant Banerjee)

• Human Rights Violations in Global Supply Chains: Case Studies of Labor Exploitation and Corporate Accountability (Vallabh Verma)

10:50am-11:50am U.S. Mountain Time (11:35pm-12:35pm Nepal Time)

Special panel: Migration, Social Integration, and Development: Role of Remittances and Identity 

Moderator: Dr. Samrat Kunwar

• “When Will You Come Back?”: An Ethnographic Study of Return Migration Decisions Among Sikkimese Youth (Binit Gurung)

• International Labor Migration from Nepal Himalayan Region in the 21st Century (Rajesh Kumar)

• Contrasting Pathways of Social Integration: A Comparative Study of Tamil Migrant Communities from Myanmar and Sri Lanka (Subashini S S)

December 8th, 2024

6:00am-6:05am U.S. Mountain Time (6:45pm-6:50pm Nepal Time) 

Welcome back: Dr. Aakrit Joshi

6:05am-7:05am U.S. Mountain Time (6:50pm-7:50pm Nepal Time) 

Session 3: Environment and Climate

Moderator: Dr. Aakrit Joshi

• Impact of Climatic Shocks on Land Productivity: Evidence from District- Level Agricultural Data of Bangladesh (Gautam Kumar Biswas)

• Strategies for Climate-Friendly Planning and Design for Cities (Ambika P. Adhikari & Keshav Bhattarai)

• Environmental Dependence and Economic Vulnerability in Nepal’s Rural Communities (Sanjeev Nhemhafuki, Resham Thapa-Parajuli, Bipin Khadka & Roja Pradhananga)

7:10am-8:10am U.S. Mountain Time (7:55pm-8:55pm Nepal Time) 

Special panel: Women and Children at High Risk: Gendered Dimensions of Human Trafficking in the Himalayas

Moderator: Dr. Soumyajit Chakraborty

• The Menace of Child Trafficking in India Today (Biswajit Ghosh)

• Sex Trafficking in the Indo-Nepal Region: Voices From the Field (Tatum Street)

• Child trafficking and Cross-Border Migration: A Sociological Study in Manipur, Northeast India (Ajailiu Niumai)

8:15am-9:15am U.S. Mountain Time (9:00pm-10:00pm Nepal Time) 

Special panel: Marriage/Intermarriage

Moderators: Dr. Prakash Adhikari & Dr. Rimu Chaudhuri

• Matriarchal Remnants and Relative freedom for women in Newāḥ (Kathmandu Valley, Nepal) Marriages (Sipoy Sarveswar)

• Observing the Transformation of the Idea of Marriage: A Sociological Narrative of ‘Autonomy’ and ‘Agency’ (Promita Roy)

• How Gender and Ethnicity Intersect: The Significance Of Marital Status and how Marriage Markets affect employment, consumption and savings (Macro Level Analysis of the Effects of Marriage on the Economy) (Ananta Banerjee)

• Intermarriage and Integration: The Case of Bhutanese Refugees Resettled in Michigan (Natalie Stetler, Prakash Adhikari, and Wendy L. Hansen)

9:20am-10:20am U.S. Mountain Time (10:05pm-11:05pm Nepal Time) 

Session 4: Gender, Health, and Nutrition

Moderator: Dr. Disha Shende

• ‘Unlucky wombs, cursed luck’: Nomadic women’s trials of accessing health-care and sanitation in Ganderbal, India (Madiha Nisar)

• Determinants of Female Labor Force Participation: Evidence from Nepal (Nischal Dhungel, Pradhyumna Wagle, & Siddhartha Rayamajhi)

• Determinants of Child Stunting in Bangladesh: The Role of Dietary Diversity (Tausifa Hasin Tajalli)

10:20am -11:05am U.S. Mountain Time (11:05pm-11:50pm Nepal Time) 

Session 5: Education

Moderator: Dr. Mohammad Mashiur Rahman

• Boys Inclusion for Better Future (Kwaje Emmanuel)

• Healing the Human Society through Reviving Traditional Learning Systems (Tenzing Jinpa Bhutia)

• Pedagogical and Empirical Approaches in Exploring Water-related Issues: An Economic Perspective (Samrat Kunwar)
  
  

11:05am-11:15am U.S. Mountain Time (11:50pm-12:00am Nepal Time) 

Wrap up and happy hour