KATHMANDU: Story Cycle has built one school and 43 shelters at Ratatar, Sindhuli, in collaboration with Colors Mobile. With Colors Mobile’s contribution to Gift-a-Relief, Story Cycle built 43 CGI transitional shelters consisting of solar lighting system with mobile charging, 11 semi-permanent public toilets, and two large rooms that would function as semi-permanent school. The transitional shelters were built with the help of the locals within three days, as per a press statement issued on Wednesday. In the second phase, Story Cycle is going to build a school in Gorkha in collaboration with Colors Mobile. Under the Gift-a-Relief project, $175 can fund a solar powered charger, solar lamp, CGI shelter and temporary toilet. The pre-monsoon transitional CGI shelter can be set up in a couple of hours with all its materials reusable for permanent homes and provides protection from earthquake, rain and wind. Story Cycle is working in collaboration with different organisations such as Volunteer for Change, Expresiv and Leapfrog Technology for Gift-a-Relief project besides Colors Mobile. In the next phase, Colors Mobile is starting a new campaign ‘Purano Phone, Naya Jiwan’, under which Colors Mobile will place drop boxes across 20 drop points where people can bring in and donate their old functioning phones for earthquake victims.

India steel duty

MUMBAI: The Indian government has raised import duties on certain steel products by up to 2.5 percentage points in a bid to protect domestic producers from surging imports from countries like China and Russia. The government has raised import tax to 10 per cent from 7.5 per cent on flat steel and to 7.5 per cent from 5.5 per cent for long steel products, according to a government notification issued on Wednesday. Earlier this month, the government imposed anti-dumping duties ranging from $180 to $316 per tonne on some industrial-grade stainless steel in a bid to stem the flood of imports.

Japan trade deficit

TOKYO: Japan’s trade deficit narrowed sharply in May from a year earlier because of lower costs for imported oil and gas, but exports also slowed as demand softened in China. The Finance Ministry said on Wednesday that the deficit in May was 216 billion yen ($1.7 billion), compared with 917.2 billion yen a year earlier but exceeding the 55.8 billion yen deficit in April. Exports rose 2.4 per cent to 5.74 trillion yen ($46.5 billion) while imports sank 8.7 per cent to six trillion yen ($48.4 billion). Exports rose year-on-year at an average pace of nine per cent in January to April after rising at a 6.2 per cent pace in the latter half of 2014.

Airlines lobby

BRUSSELS: Leading European airlines are lobbying for new rules in Europe to lessen the impact of strikes and reduce taxes, pushing for what they call more American-style aviation rules. The CEOs of Air France KLM, Lufthansa, Easyjet, Ryanair and International Airlines Group held an unusual meeting in Brussels on Wednesday and expressed frustration at the slowness of efforts to simplify European air traffic control systems. Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said they want to use technology to allow air space over a country to stay open when air traffic controllers go on strike. He argued for ‘first-step measures’ for workers to air concerns before resorting to a strike. Air traffic control workers fear threats to passenger safety and to their jobs and say the EU is yielding to industry pressure to cut costs.