BIKRAM RAI
Sushil Koirala sat behind his desk at Singha Darbar on Tuesday (above) to assume office as Nepal’s 37th prime minister at a time of unenviable challenges. With a self-imposed warranty period of one year, his prime ministership is on a tight deadline to deliver. Within hours of taking office, PM Koirala was already in fire-fighting mode in a you-promised-no-we-didn’t row with the UML over the candidacy of Bam Dev Gautam as Home Minister. His next challenge is to form a lean and mean coalition, conduct local elections, and write a constitution all within 2014.