SASNET Podcast SASNET

After featuring two experts from Nepal earlier this year, we recently spoke with Dr. Anup Subedee, who gave an overview of the development of the pandemic in Nepal since its first case was detected in January 2020 and analysed the current situation, only a few weeks before the start of two of Nepal's most important religious festivals.

Dr Subedee is an internist and infectious diseases physician, also trained in public health, who currently works in Kathmandu, Nepal. He has been writing actively on issues related to pandemic preparedness and critiquing the government's response in Nepal over the last nine months.

Andreas Johansson spoke to Dr. Shantanu Sharma, researcher in internal medicine - epidemiology at Lund University, about latest developments in India with regards to the pandemic, testing strategies and government measures to help people in the cities and rural areas.

For this episode, Hanna Geschewski spoke to Nirjhar Mazumder of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI) about the spread of coronavirus in Bangladesh, measures taken by the government, the situation in the garment factories and what the pandemic means for the more than 1 million Rohingya refugees currently living in Bangladesh.

Nirjhar Mazumder is currently completing a Master's degree in Political Science at Stockholm University. He holds Master's degrees in Public Administration from Chittagong University and in Global Journalism from Örebro University. At UI, Nirjhar Mazumder focuses on foreign policy and security issues in South Asia.

*Note: While no positive cases of coronavirus from the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's bazaar had been reported at the time of the interview, the number has since risen to two.

This episode focuses on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the measures taken by the government to slow its spread on the Nepali economy, the labour market and on the millions of Nepali migrant workers currently in limbo.

Hanna Geschewski spoke to
Economist Dr Achyut Wagle (PhD in economics), Professor at the Kathmandu University School of Management;
Labour and migration expert Dr Jeevan Baniya (PhD in political science), Assistant Director at Social Science Baha, Kathmandu