Glossary
Institutional acronyms, programme names, and Bhutanese terms used throughout the book. 32 entries.
Institutions
- ACC — Anti-Corruption Commission
- Bhutan's constitutional anti-corruption body. Conducts investigations, prosecutes corruption cases, and publishes the National Integrity Assessment.
- BBS — Bhutan Broadcasting Service
- Bhutan's public broadcaster. Television and radio service covering domestic news, programming, and government communications.
- BPC — Bhutan Power Corporation
- Bhutan's electricity transmission and distribution utility. Owned by DHI; responsible for the domestic grid and electricity supply.
- DHI — Druk Holding and Investments
- Bhutan's sovereign wealth holding company. Holds and manages the Government's shareholdings in the country's major state-owned enterprises.
- JDWNRH — Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital
- Bhutan's national referral hospital in Thimphu. The country's top-tier public hospital and the primary teaching site for the medical workforce.
- KGUMSB — Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan
- Bhutan's national medical university. Trains the medical workforce and operates the Faculty of Postgraduate Medicine that sends consultants abroad for specialist fellowships.
- MoESD — Ministry of Education and Skills Development
- Bhutan's ministry for education from pre-primary through tertiary and vocational training. Implements the curriculum, teacher pipeline, and Royal Kasho on Education Reform.
- MoFAET — Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade
- Bhutan's ministry for foreign relations, diplomatic missions abroad, and external trade policy. Maintains diaspora estimates through its mission network.
- MoH — Ministry of Health
- Bhutan's ministry responsible for the universal free healthcare system, including primary, secondary, and tertiary care provision.
- NPPF — National Pension and Provident Fund
- Bhutan's public pension fund. Administers the civil-service pension and certain corporate scheme pensions. Covers roughly 47,000 Bhutanese — about 10% of the working-age population.
- NSB — National Statistics Bureau
- Bhutan's official national statistics body. Conducts the Population and Housing Census, the Labour Force Survey, and the National Statistical Yearbook.
- RAA — Royal Audit Authority
- Bhutan's independent constitutional audit body. Audits the accounts of all public-sector entities and publishes an Annual Audit Report each year.
- RCSC — Royal Civil Service Commission
- Bhutan's independent body that recruits, manages, and regulates the civil service. Constituted in 1982; administers the Bhutan Civil Service Examination.
- RMA — Royal Monetary Authority
- Bhutan's central bank. Manages the ngultrum, oversees the banking system, holds the foreign exchange reserves, and regulates financial-sector institutions.
- RUB — Royal University of Bhutan
- Bhutan's federated public university. Established 2003 by Royal Charter; encompasses nine constituent colleges including Sherubtse, the College of Science and Technology, and the Royal Institute of Management.
- Sherubtse — Sherubtse College
- Bhutan's oldest college. Founded 1968 in Kanglung, Trashigang dzongkhag. The constituent college of the Royal University of Bhutan and one of the principal undergraduate institutions producing civil-service aspirants.
Programmes & policies
- DeSuung — DeSuung — Guardians of Peace
- Bhutan's national volunteer corps. Launched by Royal Kasho in 2011; deployed across crisis response, COVID-19 management, and ongoing civic mobilisation.
- GMC — Gelephu Mindfulness City
- A 2,500 km² Special Administrative Region in southern Bhutan, announced by His Majesty The King on 17 December 2023. Designed to attract international investment under a sovereign legal-regulatory framework distinct from the rest of the country.
- Gyalsung — Gyalsung — National Service
- Bhutan's compulsory one-year national service for all citizens at age eighteen. Combines military training, civic education, vocational skills, and national identity formation.
- Project 108
- The Royal articulation of 21 February 2026 launching 108 institutions, initiatives, and infrastructure projects to be commissioned across the next two decades.
Concepts
- GNH — Gross National Happiness
- Bhutan's framework for development that integrates economic, social, environmental, and cultural dimensions. First articulated by the Fourth King in 1979; operationalised as the GNH Index by the Centre for Bhutan Studies from 2008 onward.
- Kasho
- A Royal directive or command issued by His Majesty The King. The principal instrument of strategic articulation in Bhutan; major policy initiatives typically begin as Royal Kashos.
Places
- PHPA-II — Punatsangchhu-II Hydropower Authority
- A 1,020 MW hydroelectric project on the Punatsangchhu river. Commissioned December 2024 after multi-decade construction; concentrates 78% of FY 2024–25 audit irregularities.
- Tala — Tala Hydroelectric Project
- Bhutan's 1,020 MW Tala Hydroelectric Project, commissioned 2007. The country's largest hydropower asset; its tariff structure was set decades before commissioning under bilateral arrangements with India.
Roles
- Druk Gyalpo — His Majesty The King
- The King of Bhutan. Title used in formal register. Bhutan has been a constitutional monarchy since 2008; the current Druk Gyalpo is Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the Fifth King.
Instruments
- Ngultrum — Bhutanese Ngultrum (Nu)
- Bhutan's national currency. Pegged 1:1 to the Indian Rupee since introduction in 1974. ISO code BTN; commonly abbreviated as "Nu".
- SDF — Sustainable Development Fee
- A per-tourist fee charged by Bhutan to international (non-Indian) visitors. Currently USD 100/day. Discussed extensively in tourism-policy paradoxes.
Events
- BCSE — Bhutan Civil Service Examination
- The annual entry examination administered by the Royal Civil Service Commission for entry into the Bhutanese civil service. The bottleneck through which 80% of graduates do not pass.
Terms
- Chiwog
- A village constituency. The smallest electoral and administrative unit within a gewog. Each chiwog elects a *Tshogpa* to the gewog tshogde.
- Dzongkha
- Bhutan's national language. Member of the Sino-Tibetan family; written in the Tibetan script (Uchen). Spoken natively by roughly a quarter of the population; medium of certain government communications.
- Dzongkhag
- A district. The principal administrative division in Bhutan. The country is organised into twenty dzongkhags, each headed by a Dzongdag.
- Gewog
- A block. A sub-district administrative division below the dzongkhag. Bhutan has 205 gewogs total.