This is the 41st instalment of Diaspora Diaries, a regular series in Nepali Times with stories of Nepalis living and working abroad. Even as a kid, I could feel my family's standard of living improve when my father left for Iraq after a failed trucking business in Nepal. It crept up in small ways. Instead of five rupees for lunch money, I now got ten. Or the clothes my mother bought me were of a better quality. Birthday celebrations got bigger. Immediately after Iraq, he hopped on a plane to the UAE to work at an Abu Dhabi-based hospital as a supervisor of security guards. It was a relatively easy job, and he earned well. I am not sure why, but the UAE has fascinated me ever since. I suppose part of it has to do with familiarity, as I watched YouTube videos from a young age to learn more about the country where my father was working. When family members encouraged me to go to Australia or the UK for further studies, I figured the UAE was a better option as I did not want to spend my father's hard earned money to go elsewhere. I was well aware of his struggle and sacrifice, and the UAE felt like a better fit for financial reasons. After my 12th, I headed to the UAE on a family visa that my father arranged. On my second day in Dubai, I passed a walk-in interview for a salesman job at a retail store. I also did my bachelors in business administration over weekends at Jaipur University.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230926120936_cd472b68ad1a2f120dd8bc634c049946f5939d80ff2a2993dd34d67109ce72ce.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20230926120936_cd472b68ad1a2f120dd8bc634c049946f5939d80ff2a2993dd34d67109ce72ce" data-rendition-name="original" width="450" height="592" loading="lazy" alt="DD 41"> </figure>  I was hired as a salesman at a clothing company, but most of my responsibilities were that of a stock boy. One day I got the chance to showcase my salesmanship to the higher ups at a sales event at the World Trade Centre in Dubai. Impressed, they pushed me to take on more front-desk sales related tasks. I outperformed my peers, but I was not satisfied. My next goal was to become a store manager. I took it upon myself to learn various skills including bookkeeping, merchandising, setting schedules of staff and preparing sales reports. To learn these skills, I arrived at the store before opening and left after closing. Those extra hours did not translate to overtime pay, and I left the store only to sleep. I soon saw the fruits of my labour when my sales numbers landed me opportunities to train new hirees at the company headquarters. The networking allowed me to get a store manager job at our branch at the Ibn Battuta Mall. We Nepalis are indeed a hard-working, honest bunch, and there is a reason why we have built a strong reputation abroad amongst employers. I did not get to meet my father much because he was based in Abu Dhabi and I was in Dubai. His schedule was more flexible, so he would sometimes come to see me and we would go eat at Nepali restaurants. I did not share my struggles in the UAE with my father, I just wanted him to know the happy bits.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230926120928_e7e65b492d29434a1e997b85c7e8a896ed8402a5215f3ce99040ce1da7c8977a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20230926120928_e7e65b492d29434a1e997b85c7e8a896ed8402a5215f3ce99040ce1da7c8977a" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="DD 41"> </figure>  Life in Dubai was not easy. There were 8 of us from five nationalities crammed into a small room. I decided with a Nepali that I got along with to get our own place. It was a tiny 7 by 4.5 feet room that had just enough space for a bunk bed and a tiny fridge. We lived frugally, a large chunk of my earnings went on rent and school fees. Living paycheck by paycheck for me meant starting off the month strong and running dry as it ended. Towards the end of the month, I would have to resort to loans from friends, or I had to stop eating out and innovate to make food last longer by adding water to fried lentils bought in the market for one dirham, or living off white rice and fried sausages, which cost peanuts. After the store manager job, I started dreaming bigger. I was transferred to the head office and had my eyes on the area manager role. But I also had other aspirations that would interrupt my career progression -- I started toying with the idea of returning to Nepal. I was in my mid-20s, and there was pressure to get married and have children. With those added responsibilities, I would not be able to choose a risky career path like entrepreneurship, my calling. I had witnessed what was possible with hard work in Dubai during my 3.5 years there. I figured if I failed in Nepal, I could always return again for a job. It was not easy to convince my family, they wanted me to head to greener pastures like the US or Australia and not return to Nepal. Many returning Nepalis who muster the courage to call it quits and come home usually backed by savings accumulated abroad. Not me. I had no savings, only courage.&nbsp; I had learnt to work hard in Dubai, and had built the confidence to deal with people from diverse backgrounds. Even as I took my Nepal-bound flight, I knew that I would be coming back to Dubai one day, either as a tourist or for a job. I knew this wasn’t the final goodbye to the place that had been home. In Nepal I tried my hand at two different clothing lines, given my retail background. On a trip to India to buy fabric for our clothing business, Jama Store, I remember waiting in line for tea every morning at a tea stall. Chhotu, the young tea seller, drew quite a crowd every morning. Intrigued, my friend Ritu Karmacharya and I spoke with Chhotu who excitedly demonstrated to us how he prepares his tea, and what makes it so special. This struck a chord, and we considered the possibility of starting a tea place in Nepal. We also noticed many classy tea cafes in India as we walked around. Once we returned, we visited places in Nepal and realised that there was scope for this venture in Nepal as well.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230926120936_e18cd45a48ad0b2fb99250c591d9321f8c6300aadb4ad80cd9933d76d76ba587.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20230926120936_e18cd45a48ad0b2fb99250c591d9321f8c6300aadb4ad80cd9933d76d76ba587" data-rendition-name="original" width="936" height="753" loading="lazy" alt="DD 41"> </figure>  Ritu's sister, a USA returnee, also suggested that there were such elegant tea places in New York with vibrant Moroccan decor and floor seating arrangements, and she encouraged us to pursue something similar. We had no money, so I reached out to my family members in Kuwait and the UAE who agreed to become part investors. We found a vacant place in Kumaripati and renovated it. Chiya Spot was born and we started selling tea. Our special? Chhotu's tea in honor of the boy from Delhi who inspired us. At first, we made do with three or four packets of milk every day to serve our customers. But unbeknownst to us, the famous food vlogger Mr Foodie Nepal featured our café. It blew up on social media and we started getting loads of customers. We could not keep up and had to expand our space to accommodate more customers.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230926120936_0fa4ec82e0ebed65de088a4519b9d9190169017534abb92cd0d2e5e28fdecf42.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20230926120936_0fa4ec82e0ebed65de088a4519b9d9190169017534abb92cd0d2e5e28fdecf42" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="1200" loading="lazy" alt="DD 41"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230926120936_1f0c371596ab95192026266dcbae582bd01e3c6b313632cdaf927b2410d61c52.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20230926120936_1f0c371596ab95192026266dcbae582bd01e3c6b313632cdaf927b2410d61c52" data-rendition-name="original" width="719" height="898" loading="lazy" alt="DD 41"> </figure>  Most recently, we have also opened a new branch in Boudha. While the Kumaripati branch is inspired by Moroccan/Jaipuri decor, the cafe in Boudha is inspired by Middle Eastern design, in particular from Dubai. I remember going to Dubai Gold Souk whenever I had a few hours off to relax in the market and grab a bite with a friend at a Nepali restaurant. Now, I have brought a little piece of Old Dubai back home to Nepal at the new café, to be enjoyed with karak chai that is famous there. While the vlogger Foodie Nepal's post helped draw customers to Kumaripati, my sisters’ social media posts on the Boudha branch went accidentally viral on TikTok. We got so many customers that it got unmanageable, and this even translated to angry posts and reviews as people were not happy with the wait. We were expecting our customer base to increase organically over time, not overnight. Such is the power of social media. For both good and bad. We quickly added staff and are learning every day to improve our service. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230926120936_1e044c0b6bcaea569c6651e5bf53530abc227f99d55490e5a94940ae032c4d64.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20230926120936_1e044c0b6bcaea569c6651e5bf53530abc227f99d55490e5a94940ae032c4d64" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="DD 41"> </figure>  I had never, in my wildest imagination, thought I would be leaving retail to sell tea one day. But both branches are doing well, Insallah. We try to create a space for people to relax over tea, conversations, or board games without putting pressure on them to leave or order more items. As long as people are happy, the customer volume or finances will automatically work themselves out, as they have over the past three years. &nbsp;We want to fill the niche left by restaurants that either offer great ambience or reasonable prices, which we don’t believe have to be mutually exclusive. Many migrants spend a large chunk of their remittances to buy land or build houses in Nepal. I returned to Nepal empty-handed. But with my earnings here, I have managed to contribute significantly to my parent's new house, and I could not be prouder. Diaspora Diaries is a regular column in Nepali Times providing a platform to share experiences of living, working, studying abroad. Authentic and original entries can be sent to <a href="mailto:editors@nepalitimes.com">editors@nepalitimes.com</a> with Diaspora Diaries in the subject line.

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From retail to selling chiya

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022120710124/6390574f9c7e80680e0ce14fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800"/>For an average Nepali living or studying abroad, getting a green card or a resident ID of the US, UK or Hong Kong is dream come true. Most of them wait years to get their papers so that they can remain abroad, earn more than back home, and explore more opportunities.But for Meghendra Gurung of Sindhuwa village in Dhankuta district, returning to Nepal was a no brainer. Born in Hong Kong where his father Kul Prasad, a British Gurkha officer was stationed, he could have chosen to stay back. Instead he packed his back and returned to Dhankuta when his father retired.Today, he is a well-known vegetable market manager in Dhankuta, helping local farmers sell their produce. His vegetables are sold all over eastern Nepal and even exported to India.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/pigs-fly-and-fish-climb-trees/">Pigs fly and fish climb trees</a>, Sahina ShresthaIn the early 1990s, when the non-governmental organization The Center for Environmental and Agricultural Policy Research, Extension and Development (CEAPRED), trained farmers in Sindhuwa on off-season vegetable farming for the first time in Nepal, Mahendra got involved, was trained, and started farming.He was in-charge of market management, and after the CEAPRED project ended after two and a half years he and more than 85 farmer groups were producing off-season vegetables.But three decades ago, the Eastern Nepal market was too small. Although Dharan was a big city, the population was not large, Itahari was just developing, and there were no big markets in Jhapa either. Even Biratnagar did not consume a lot of vegetables.So it fell upon Meghendra to find a market for the produce. He put together a group and went to Nepal's big cities like Kathmandu, Pokhara and Narayangadh to study the vegeetable market.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/proud-to-give-back-to-nepal/">Proud to give back to Nepal</a>, Nepali Times"At that time we could not find a market that could handle the amount of vegetables we were producing," says Meghendra. So he turned his attention to India. He got in touch with vegetable traders in Siliguri and Kolkata and for the first time, Nepali vegetables entered Indian market.A Nepali who came back from abroad was instead sending Nepali vegetables abroad. The effort of one enterprising man has helped reverse the tide: Nepali vegetables are going to India instead of the other way around.Meghendra is now trying to push for Pest Risk Analysis (PRA), to identify the appropriate phytosanitary measures required to protect plants against new or emerging pests of Nepali agricultural products so that chemical pesticides do not have to be used.Says Meghendra, "If we can do this, there won't be a problem in exporting Nepali vegetables to Indian and regional markets in the Gulf. But rather than an individual, this should be a government effort. If the state facilitates it, we can do the rest."Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dont-give-up-on-nepal-it-has-lots-to-offer/">Don’t give up on Nepal, it has lots to offer</a>, Sahina Shrestha

Taking Nepali vegetables to the world

<figure><img width="1448" height="1084" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151116/636d07cb9c7e80680e0a5fddjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>The long-overdue privatisation of state-owned Nepal Airlines has become a political hot potato, but with Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress  (NC) now taking over from K P Oli the loss-making carrier may have a better chance at divestment.The last days of the Oli administration was rife with speculation that the airline’s board was preparing to offload some of its shares to the Yeti Group, which many believe was close to the former prime minister. The once reputable Royal Nepal Airlines has been <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/business/saving-nepal-airlines-with-fleet-route-expansion-drives,1983" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/business/saving-nepal-airlines-with-fleet-route-expansion-drives,1983&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1626834166121000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF5qYb0YVxWCZVTlHKKotcgNYG6tA">mired in scandals and mismanagement</a> ever since the restoration of democracy in 1990. Political parties in government used the carrier <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8325#.YPYcpy9w0Wo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D8325%23.YPYcpy9w0Wo&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1626834166121000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHD8BAxuQoXlVdZxA0xt-jaNMU5OA">as an employment agency</a>, and <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=6057#.YPYcsi9w0Wo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D6057%23.YPYcsi9w0Wo&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1626834166121000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGlRzw66RDzay3rYY4reIB_J0w9Mw">pocketed kickbacks</a> on aircraft leases.Now, despite strong opposition from employee unions and some in government, the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic fallout has left Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) no other option. The flag carrier lost over Rs5 billion last year as flights were grounded and domestic passenger volume shrank by 73%, and international passengers went down by 86%. These losses could be a mortal blow to the company, which has racked up a debt of Rs47 billion, and never registered a profitable year in its 63 years of existence. Yet, even when flying through severe turbulence, NAC has somehow stayed afloat because of multiple government bailouts totalling Rs31 billion over the years. Now, NAC’s situation has become so desperate that the government’s benevolence is wearing thin. As prime minister in 2019, Oli rebuffed pleas for government subsidy from NAC executives saying the carrier had to learn to stand on its own feet.“Currently NAC is a costly white elephant,” says Surya Raj Acharya, an expert in development and infrastructure policy. “The practice of the government always having to rescue public sector companies is wrong.” <figure><img width="2398" height="1274" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151116/636d07ce9c7e80680e0a5fdejpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The airline’s debts have skyrocketed because of its <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-airlines-has-new-planes-but-no-new-plans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-airlines-has-new-planes-but-no-new-plans/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1626834166121000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHc9M-QzUx-aLxc_hv4jM7jW2eX8Q">purchase of four brand new Airbus jets</a> before the pandemic hit, as well the induction of six Chinese-made turboprops which have been grounded. The government currently shoulders all of NAC’s debts, pays off all its loans and is also the company’s guarantor and manager. Partially privatising the carrier would ensure that the government handles only its own share, while hopefully making the company competitive and profitable. It would also lessen the revolving-door politically-influenced appointments and interference in management.A corporate culture of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2015/11/02/prepared-for-takeoff/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2015/11/02/prepared-for-takeoff/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1626834166121000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHsSUGrq815MKIc8NUhg5qXAnHMGg">meritocratic employment and reward</a>, more professional management and improvement in reliability and service could turn the airline around. Just relying on flying Nepali <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-diaspora-comes-to-the-rescue/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-diaspora-comes-to-the-rescue/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1626834166121000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFEqcX5_KoN3Wu-tOA1cixqTJ9orQ">overseas workers and the diaspora</a> would guarantee a strong load factor.Even so, plans to privatise and transition the company from full state ownership to only majority control have been<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/keeping-nepal-airlines-airworthy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/keeping-nepal-airlines-airworthy/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1626834166121000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFl7bnK4oPk2Ux-1HdtKChxHP-rGA"> repeatedly shelved </a>over the years even as other state-owned companies were privatised. NAC employees padlocked offices and went on strike on 6 July after the Board of Directors sent management letters and draft regulations for privatisation to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation on  27 June. In response, on 11 July NAC senior management released a notice categorically denying any move towards privatisation.  <figure><img width="796" height="524" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151116/636d07d19c7e80680e0a5fdfjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Government hesitation to act and employee agitation stem from a history of bitter experiences. Nepal’s post-1990 liberalisation boom saw the then-ruling NC initiate a wave of privatisation, albeit with disastrous results. Most newly-privatised companies, such as Gorakhkali Tyre, Bhrikuti Paper, Harisiddhi Bricks, and Bansbari Leather Shoes were unable to cope with the ownership change and folded. As a result, the state has shied away from concrete action on privatisation even if it would remove immense financial burdens. Now, with the NC back in government, there is a chance Nepal Airlines de-nationalisation could be in the cards — even though the worst scandals in the carrier’s history have involved NC politicians.To be sure, Nepal has had privatisation success stories too, with the likes of Nepal Telecom, Nepal Bank, Electricity Generation Company, Rastriya Banijya Bank and Timber Corporation Nepal all in profit, and they have improved their service after switching to a company model.The airline’s Board of Directors move to privatise was based on a report by the Corporation Reform Committee in mid-September 2019 to then Aviation Minister Yogesh Bhattarai. ‘Preparations must be made to convert the Corporation into a limited company under prevailing laws,” the report said, while also recommending restructuring ownership so that 51% of the airline remained in government hands. ‘Once the company is set up, ownership must be structured and shares distributed in such a way that it gives ⅓ of total paid-up capital to those responsible for management while sharing the rest among industries in tourism, local banks and financial agencies, company employees, the government and the general public,’ the Advisory Committee’s report notes.  <figure><img width="733" height="471" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151116/636d07d49c7e80680e0a5fe0jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Member of the NAC Board Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane says: “Our understanding is that the corporation cannot survive under the existing structure, and managerial capacity. However, the government has the final say on any decision.”But the state’s backtracking has dismayed pro-privatisation executives. As early as 2002, another committee had recommended that the NAC switch to a company model with only majority government ownership.A new task force was then set up to review that report and present an action plan with the National Planning Commission’s Shankar Sharma. This task force presented its suggestions in 2002, backing the recommendation that the airline should either be privatised or dissolved. A report by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) recommended in October 2004 that NAC be split into two companies for domestic and international air travel. Other committees followed in 2005 and 2010 recommending that NAC be scrapped with its employees, contracts, capital and liabilities shifted to a new Limited Liability Company (LLC) and registered with the Company Registrar’s office. Like all the committees before them, these reports just gathered dust.  <figure><img width="1752" height="1146" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151116/636d07d69c7e80680e0a5fe1jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>But perhaps the most promising move towards privatisation came in 2017 when the government actively sought strategic partners from the US, Australia, France, Australia and Germany. Only Lufthansa Consulting from Germany responded, and the Nepali side managed to bungle even that deal, with the Council of Ministers taking too long to give the Finance and Tourism Ministries the go-ahead.“Strategic partnerships are a must if the flagship is to be saved,” says former Finance Secretary Shankar Prasad Adhikari. “There is no reason for the government to keep bailing out a company that perennially haemorrhages tax-payers money like Nepal Airlines.” There are lessons to be learnt from Air India which accumulated losses of a staggering INR5 trillion, as the government finally moves to private the flag carrier.  However, experts caution that with the global downturn in aviation, even privatisation may not save Nepal Airlines. Even so, cutting costs, streamlining the fleet, and launching a strategic recovery plan could still save the carrier. But it would be unrealistic to expect that without privatisation and better management.

Nepal Airlines privatisation still stuck

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110101156/636ccb639c7e80680e08bbbejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1778" height="1000"/>Thanks to the year-round pleasant weather and its geography as a valley with lakes nestled below mountains, Pokhara has been synonymous with tourism.But in the last few years, it has diversified its appeal. Pokhara is now home to upcoming universities and colleges that attract both domestic and foreign students. It has a growing manufacturing and service economy, a thriving construction industry and a slew of venues for adventure sports.It has an international cricket stadium, to which the Annapurnas provide a postcard-perfect backdrop. Soon, a spanking new airport will connect Pokhara directly to cities outside Nepal. In these days of global connectivity, can it also be a hub for young Nepali innovators and entrepreneurs?That was the question when I worked as a Pokhara University faculty two years ago. The university wanted to start a business incubation centre for its students, and was looking for ways to make it a successful undertaking by first making sure that the faculty was ready.Ecosystem before the species: Donor-funded micro and small business development programs have been training Nepali chicken farmers, beauty-parlour owners and the like at least since the late 1970s. Few of these showed success beyond the end of the public funding cycle.One reason was that the past generations of small-business development work did not focus on building up and strengthening the ecosystem for entrepreneurs to first survive and then thrive. They used public funds to train individuals--often in batches and for days on end. But they did not see their role in improving the business environment under which the entrepreneurs struggled and laboured for little gains.These days, universities, municipalities and other public-serving institutions need to add the task of building an entrepreneurial ecosystem to their to-do list. They can provide space with low or no rent for initial years, basic infrastructure such as the internet, electricity and water, subsidies for advising and mentoring services, seed funds to help the entrepreneurs start accessing other services that they need, and a network of local investors.Public institutions now know that paying for training services alone is not enough. They need to attract, work with and retain entrepreneurs akin to the federal government’s effort to attract and work with foreign investors. And much like in nature, where the right combination of water, oxygen and temperature helps species to grow and evolve to complexity, entrepreneurs flock to areas where the public institutions have first put in the basic elements of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in place.With its inviting weather and amenities, and its tourism-honed customer-service orientation, Pokhara should stand ready to strengthen its own ecosystem for domestic and foreign entrepreneurs.Can-do mindset over business jargon: Universities and public institutions are averse to taking risks. They aim to minimise failures. But entrepreneurship is all about learning from mistakes and failures so that success can eventually be maximised.If public institutions see entrepreneurship training as an exercise in creating ‘safe to experiment’ and ‘safe to fail many times and get back up’ spaces for students and innovators around their campus and the city, that resultant mindset alone would pay for several years’ worth of pricey MBA fees.Because of high upfront costs of starting a business, most Nepali entrepreneurs dare not fail. As such, they start small, take no risk, and remain small for years--hardly growing beyond the cottage-industry category.If a progressive city like Pokhara defrays the upfront cost of starting and running a business, say, for the first two years, a number of firms could potentially grow to scale, providing hundreds of jobs and other spillover benefits that would more than make up for the initial loss of the rental and income tax receipts.Without the ever-present worry to pay the government from the first month of starting their business, entrepreneurs would learn to calibrate risks and initial energy to maximise success, and not just play safe and remain small by design.Investments over grants: Both grants and investments are important for the growth of an entrepreneurial culture. But Nepali public institutions tend to give grants to individuals (especially in agriculture), but tell them to seek high-interest loans for basic infrastructure upgrades, when it should be the other way around.Pokhara’s public institutions can pay for the basic infrastructure (cold storage facilities, work-machines, etc), while encouraging entrepreneurs to seek equity investments by convincing those with money.More than public institutions, private investors have a better sense when it comes to deciding who to fund and who to let go. If public institutions pay for basic infrastructure while enabling private investors to bet on entrepreneurial teams, then this blend of public and private money minimises entrepreneurs’ start-up risks while their potential for success gets recognised. This is where Kathmandu has failed, and the opportunity is for Pokhara to take.In 2015, Korea’s Ministry of Science and Technology paid for the Nepal Innovation Technology &amp; Entrepreneurship Centre that got its start at Pokhara University, which will soon be handed over to the PU faculty. My conversation with the faculty two years ago was about how to run the Centre for its students.The level of ambition could be much higher: how to start and run a few such Centres across Pokhara to help innovators–students and others--launch and scale up their own businesses that take advantage of Pokhara’s hitherto untapped potential as a destination for entrepreneurs.Ashutosh Tiwari, founder at SAFAL Partners, writes this monthly column CrossCurrent in Nepali Times focussing on entrepreneurship, management, public policies and development as if Nepalis mattered.

Ashutosh Tiwari

Incubating Pokhara’s business ecosystem

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171156/636bdc6f9c7e80680e080316jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="645"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Contrary to most predictions that remittances Nepali workers send home would fall with the Covid-19 crisis, the inflow has actually risen compared to last year.<a href="https://www.nrb.org.np/contents/uploads/2020/10/Current-Macroeconomic-and-Financial-Situation-English-Based-on-Two-Months-data-of-2020.21.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nrb.org.np/contents/uploads/2020/10/Current-Macroeconomic-and-Financial-Situation-English-Based-on-Two-Months-data-of-2020.21.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604125457209000&amp;usg=AFQjCNErhis4kw5CUS184-2F4jMJdAGnVQ">Figures from the Central Bank</a> for mid-July to mid-September show that Nepalis overseas sent back Rs165.73 billion, an 8.1% increase compared to the same two months of the previous fiscal year. Even in US dollar terms, this was $1.39 billion – a 2.6% growth.This defied the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/high-risk-remittance/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/high-risk-remittance/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604125457209000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFvLGHDs_fFrT910N_vbu3w1Iea4Q">prediction of huge drops</a> in remittances due to the pandemic by Nepal’s Central Bureau of Statistics (18%), Asian Development Bank (28.7%) and the World Bank (14%).In the last fiscal year, remittance inflows actually dropped to Rs 875 billion from the preceding year. And this year, economic slowdown in countries where Nepalis work had led many to presume that their earnings would drop.Migration experts attribute the growth this year to many factors. Many migrant workers in essential sectors have continued to work and earn right through the pandemic, while others have been drawing on their savings to remit to their families, especially during festivals back home.As of the third week of October, 111,549 overseas migrants have returned via air, and an estimated 700,000 Nepalis returned from India, carrying their savings with them. Although many workers did go back to India because of the lack of jobs in Nepal, and the worsening Covid-19 situation here.Other reasons for the growth in remittances are the channeling of informal transfers to formal transfers due to travel disruptions, and the devalued Nepali rupees against the US dollar. While the post-festival period may give a more real picture of the trend in remittances, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/defying-predictions-nepals-remittances-still-high/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/defying-predictions-nepals-remittances-still-high/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604125457209000&amp;usg=AFQjCNExkG-hE0xcjKjDKfs-aaRy-HYlAQ">persistence of the remittance</a> has provided respite to Nepali families across the country.World Bank has already revised its April estimates in its <a href="https://www.knomad.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/Migration%20%26%20Development%20Brief%2033.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.knomad.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/Migration%2520%2526%2520Development%2520Brief%252033.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604125457209000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHJ9pXGczYAXUByrp6RinqZOfXhag">Migration and Development brief</a> released this week. Unlike the earlier outlook that indicated a sharp decline in 2020 followed by a modest recovery in 2021, the forecast for remittances now indicates a more gradual but prolonged decline continuing into 2021.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171156/636bdc729c7e80680e080317jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1808" height="1422"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>The <a href="https://www.knomad.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/R8_Migration%26Remittances_brief32.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.knomad.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/R8_Migration%2526Remittances_brief32.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604125457209000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFlxey6oVC4Es85h_w5zXspauf61g">April outlook projected</a> remittances to low and middle-income countries (LMICs) decline by 20% to $445 billion in 2020, whereas the revised estimates project remittances to fall by 7.2% to $508 billion in 2020 and 7.5% to $470 billion in 2021.The decline is attributed to weak economic growth that will dampen employment and earning prospects for migrants, weak oil price, and exchange rates of the currencies of remittance‐source countries against the US dollar.Remittances to South Asia are now projected to decline by around 4% in 2020 and 11% in 2021. V-shaped recovery that was anticipated in the initial days of the crisis is unlikely given that the pandemic is expected to last through 2021.At a country level, remittances are projected to fall by 9% in India and Sri Lanka and 12% in Nepal. Interestingly, the report projects an increase in remittances by 9% in Pakistan and 8% in Bangladesh, owing to the diversion of remittances from informal to formal channels because of travel restrictions and tax incentives in Pakistan for remittance transfers.The World Bank brief also points out that the relative importance of remittance flows as a source of external financing for LMICs is expected to further increase despite the fall in remittances. In 2019, remittances flows to LMICs were $548 billion compared to foreign direct investment at $534 billion and overseas development assistance (ODA) at $166 billion.This gap between remittance flows and FDI is expected to further widen, a trend that is particularly important for Nepal, where remittances was over 35 times the FDI and 5.5 times the ODA in 2019, making remittances a critical source of external financing.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171156/636bdc759c7e80680e080318jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1690" height="944"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>To be sure, there are still a lot of unknowns and the forecasts may change again as the pandemic plays out because remittances will depend on the impact of Covid-19 on global growth which is linked to efforts to curb the spread of the pandemic.While migrants have been returning to India, migration to third countries has been slow to pick up. According to the <a href="https://www.nrb.org.np/contents/uploads/2020/10/Current-Macroeconomic-and-Financial-Situation-English-Based-on-Two-Months-data-of-2020.21.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nrb.org.np/contents/uploads/2020/10/Current-Macroeconomic-and-Financial-Situation-English-Based-on-Two-Months-data-of-2020.21.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604125457209000&amp;usg=AFQjCNErhis4kw5CUS184-2F4jMJdAGnVQ">Nepal Rastra Bank report</a>, the number of Nepali workers who obtained new labour approvals has decreased by 99.2% in the first two months of the fiscal year while those renewing their contracts has decreased by 86.55%.As the World Bank brief notes, 2020 may become the first year in recent decades to mark an actual fall in the stock of international migrants as the number of new workers slows down.For Nepali workers in India, the situation is different. Hari Sharma made an <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-long-journey-to-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-long-journey-to-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1604125457209000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEUOWH3WfNzutDB4Ys66NQkuVCnOg">arduous journey</a> to Banke district Nepal from Ahmedabad at end of May. “It is better to die in my own country,” he told us then, as he traveled to the Nepal border on India’s Shramik train.Five months on, he is back in Ahmedabad with the same employer despite the Covid-19 situation in India. On the phone this week, he asked: “How will my family survive if I don’t migrate?”

Remittances from Nepali workers rise

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171152/636bdb449c7e80680e0802b5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="564" height="368"/>The forest floor is full of dried leaves, mills throw away sawdust, and farms burn away agriculture residue. Now, a Nepali company has decided not to let waste go waste and turn this biomass into fuel pellets.Biomass pellets can be a clean and cheap energy source, and an alternative to firewood, petroleum products, LPG and coal -- all of which are unsustainable and harmful to health.<a href="https://www.bakas.com.np/aboutus/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bakas.com.np/aboutus/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1603264033011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH2OampiN7yQPEMXTPaK9uye73HAA">Bakas Renewable Energy</a> is planning to produce nearly 20,000 metric tonnes of biomass pellets every year for the Nepali market from its plant in Province 2, and help reduce Nepal’s petroleum import bill and improve public health by reducing air pollution.This week, Bakas signed a loan agreement with NMB Bank for debt financing of Rs160 million. Bakas was founded by Nepali forestry and environmental professionals who believe in a sustainable energy future for the country.<a href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;q=BO2+nepal&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;oe=UTF-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/search?client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26q%3DBO2%2Bnepal%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1603264033011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFaIuUPX68P_WAx0ORg95B7BIO_Ww">Business Oxygen Pvt Ltd (BO2</a>) is making an <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/so-youd-like-to-do-business-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/so-youd-like-to-do-business-in-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1603264033011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGdmhi6QrTIu-Wn8T_slkaiRb5y-A">equity investment</a> of Rs50 million for developing the biomass pellet project at Ishworpur of Sarlahi District. BO2 is Nepal’s first international Private Equity Fund with a climate focus promoted by International Finance Corporation (IFC). The remaining Rs50 million investment will come from promoting shareholders.Most of the raw material for production are sourced from the forest floor of Sagarnath Forest Development Project based on the agreement with Forest Products Development Board. Dried undergrowth is inflammable and one of the reasons for forest fires in the Tarai. More than 80% of Nepalis still <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/no-smoke-without-fire/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/no-smoke-without-fire/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1603264033011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHsNtRHAo8RF8m5_xNGc25556ORHQ">depend on biomass</a> for energy, much of it goes waste.The rest of the raw material is farm residue, saw dust and agriculture waste. Bakas says collection and processing of the raw material will create jobs for local communities, mostly women and disadvantaged groups. The pellets are marketed and sold to brick kilns, cement and other industries that need energy for heating or cooling.“This is an exciting project that assists adaptive resilience and will help the economy with clean energy in numerous ways including being a substitute for coal,” said <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/also-keeping-financially-healthy-in-a-lockdown/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/also-keeping-financially-healthy-in-a-lockdown/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1603264033011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFJOMej18TG3wyAG0dKSuhcofl0WQ">Siddhant Raj Pandey</a>, CEO of BO2 at a virtual signing ceremony on Monday in Kathmandu.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171152/636bdb469c7e80680e0802b6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="564" height="374">Bakas is the first company to produce biomass pellets on an industrial scale in Nepal, and it says the green fuel that is easy to store and handle, and is a proven technology globally for domestic heating, electricity generation and outdoor heating."This project is highly relevant to Nepal because it helps emission reduction caused by forest fires, reduces industrial use of coal and fossil fuels as well as provides employment to the poor and vulnerable people living in neighborhoods of the forest area," said Santosh Mani Nepal, Chairman of Bakas Renewable Energy.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171152/636bdb489c7e80680e0802b7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="396">He said the idea for the project came from managing director Kuber Mani Nepal during the 2015 blockade, when Nepalis did not have LPG and other fuels. Biopellets were a feasible alternative that could be made abundantly available and reduce dependence on imported fossil fuel.BO2 has also backed another renewable energy project, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/this-is-bullshit/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/this-is-bullshit/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1603264033011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHDg9057P76So1InmACi8SBFasrxw">Gandaki Urja in Pokhara</a>, which provides compressed biogas in cylinders, and turns the effluent from its industrial scale digesters into organic fertiliser.Sunil KC, CEO of <a href="https://nmbbanknepal.com/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nmbbanknepal.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1603264033011000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGSewpYVD1ExYGFs8490hwK7efXEg">NMB Bank</a> said he was excited about being part of a project to reduce Nepal’s carbon emission from coal and fossil fuels and promote renewable energy. NMB is a member of the steering committee of the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financial from Asia and a member of Global Alliance for Banking on Values.He said: “Our business model focuses on sustainable and value-based banking projects encompassing renewable energy projects, agribusinesses and projects focused on environment preservation. We are certain that the biopellet project will provide long term sustainable livelihood at the grassroots.”

Not letting waste go waste

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171148/636bda669c7e80680e080268jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1267" height="950"/>Andy Chong was appointed CEO/MD of Ncell in November 2019 and has been with the Axiata Group since 2008. He has held top management positions in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Chong is a cycling enthusiast and spends weekends exploring the terrain around the Valley and is interested in discovering challenging routes across Nepal. He spoke to Nepali Times this week about telecommunications during the Covid-19 crisis.Nepali Times: Economic activity has come to a standstill globally, yet the telecommunication business appears to be least affected. Is this also the case in Nepal?Andy Chong: It is true telecommunications businesses have been more resilient than many other industries which have been impaired by as much as 95%. For Ncell, while we are in a relatively better position compared to other big businesses, the telecoms are not spared. Telecommunication is a utility to a large extent, and during times like this, access to communications, content, services, entertainment are almost uniquely channeled via data connectivity has been heightened. In Nepal, telecommunications network utilisation has increased by more than 40%. However, the impact of increased use of services with people living at home and working from home has not translated to higher revenues.Telecom companies were compelled to provide this essential service at subsidised rate to ensure our customers had connectivity during lockdowns. For example, we provided 120% bonus on top up, increased saapati amount, made balance transfer service available for free, provided 25% discount in data service, among others.Has there been a slowdown in Ncell's growth in terms of customers as well as profit?During the lockdown data traffic had jumped up by 40%, while overall income declined by 35%, and we believe the same was the case with other telcos. With easing of lockdown there is sign of some hope with business recovering to 28% of pre-lockdown levels. Yet, this will take some time to reach to normalcy.It is evident that consumer consumption behaviour has changed – we saw substantial shift from voice usage to data during the lockdown. We have continued to invest in our data carrying capacity throughout the last eight months.As many as 1 million Ncell customers stopped using their services after lockdown which, we assume, is due to unemployment. Only 3% of our PoS were opened during the lockdown which affected our business and when the government eased lockdown, around 25% of PoS were re-opened.  This has a direct correlation to the recharge activities of consumers.I do not foresee businesses including ours, will return to pre-covid normalcy in the next 9 to 12 months. The impact has dug deep into the structure of Nepal’s economy and will need a longer runway to recover, which at least for our industry, will follow a moderate L-shape. It will be a good outcome if all of us recover to within 90% of pre-covid levels before end 2021. We will be fortunate if we can get back to 80%-90% of normal business of pre-pandemic within next one-and-half years.How do you see the future grown of the telecommunication sector in Nepal, and your own market share?We will give priority to digitalisation of our key business areas as much as we can so when we get out of the pandemic, we are ahead of the curve and better able to serve our customers.Our business strategy remains on track and investments as planned remain unchanged. We are going to be data oriented. Nepal is not ‘digital’ enough today – both from a supply and demand perspective. Had Nepal been up the curve in terms of its digital economy, the impact would have been lessened with easy access to services for customers.Various challenges including impact of COVID impacted Ncell’s performance as July YTD20 revenue (ex-device) declined 22.5%, affected by drops across voice, data and ILD. EBITDA slid 31.9% due to revenue decline coupled with higher network cost. Contribution of data in total revenue has increased to 24% in the Q2 from 22% of FY2019.Data is the future and there is significant opportunity for growth as Nepal embraces a digital future. Share of data in revenue of telecom companies have been increasing every year whilst voice remains relatively constant. We aspire to be a digital telco and strategy is data-centric, which for enterprises, we hope to be first choice of Nepali businesses to help them achieve their aspiration.Any plans to introduce 5G in Nepal?We want to rollout our 4G nationwide but that is a function of spectrum. We will require multiple frequencies – both for capacity enhancement and for expansion of coverage We launched 4G in June 2017 and expanded it to all provinces of Nepal.Spectrum in 900MHz is required to deliver population coverage. We have 54% 4G population coverage and as soon as we awarded technology neutral spectrum in this band, we will be able to expand 4G coverage to 90% of population coverage, so we will continue to investment in expanding our network.With spectrum in 1800MHz band that we secured in December, we will give depth of 4G coverage to deliver higher data speeds and capacity within the coverage area. But to serve wider geography, we need technology neutral spectrum in 900MHz – we are hopeful this will be resolved soon so we can better serve consumers with 4G services.So, for 5G, we would welcome Nepal Telecommunications Authority’s leadership in setting up industry consultations to ensure timely availability. From our point of view this will likely be post implementation of 4G nationwide.Limited competition has been cited as the reason for high cost for calls and data in Nepal. How do we compare with other countries in the region?For making the data service cheaper and profitable, spectrum is needed to expand further to the rural areas. Data price had dropped significantly after the launch of 4G. Cost of the voice has already come down and consumers are now concerned about data although they have alternatives – non-mobility data from their ISPs.For example, in our Axiata operations in Cambodia can produce per GB data at a cost of 15-16 cents. But here in Ncell, due to the lack of sufficient spectrum, our per GB production cost approximately 70 cents. But for many of our data packs, our retail price per GB is well below 70 cents today. Therefore, to deliver lower price points to consumers, operators must be provided enough spectrum to lower its cost of production.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171148/636bda6b9c7e80680e080269jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480">As the biggest foreign investor in Nepal today what needs to be done to attract more foreign investment into the country?For a developing country like Nepal, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) plays a vital and direct role in ensuring economic growth and prosperity in terms of capital formation and technology transfers. Ease of doing business within the country has to be facilitated. Political stability, infrastructure availability, facilitation from government, bureaucracy, and the overall political climate must be supportive for foreign investors.The Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act, amendment to the Industrial Enterprises Act, Special Economic Zone Act and Public Private Partnership and Investment Act came into force in the past two years. As one of the biggest foreign investors in Nepal, we take pride for being one of the highest tax payers of the country. From the time of its inception till date, Ncell has paid over Rs240 billion in taxes to the government, with Rs30.22 billion just in the last fiscal year.Our direct and indirect contribution to the country’s GDP stood at 2 percent in 2018/19. As a committed investor in Nepal, we have made a substantial investment in infrastructure for service expansion and enhancing quality. We put in Rs32-35 billion annually in capex and opex investment that directly or indirectly drive the economy. Infrastructure such as telecommunications have strong links to growth, poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability.Through our investments, we have introduced new technological solutions that has resulted in positive externalities such as direct economic benefits via employment, affordable means of communications resulting in social and economic benefits for our customers, better provision of social services like education and health, decentralisation and integration processes, human welfare and overall economic development.We have created employment opportunities for more than 90,000 people. Increased investment from company like Ncell will contribute to expand the overall infrastructural base of the country and further support National Digital Nepal 2020 initiatives.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171148/636bda6e9c7e80680e08026ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="853"><figcaption>Ncell's CEO Andy Chong cycling in Mustang. He is an avid cyclist and spends weekends exploring the terrain around the Valley and is interested in discovering challenging routes across Nepal. Photo: ANDY CHONG</figcaption></figure>Ncell has been actively supporting social causes. What are some of the highlights?As part of our CSR, we have invested over Rs900 million with focus on education, health and environment like setting up Telemedicine andHealth Informatics Centre in collaboration with Kathmandu UniversityHospital in Dhulikhel to serve remote and underserved communities through quality health care using technology and data-driven health care methods.We are establishing modern digital labs in 60 community schools across the country in collaboration with Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. We have been working closely with the Ministry of Health and Population as an exclusive partner to raise health awareness. As part of it, we are currently engaged in Covid-19 information campaign with UNICEF support.We have collaborated with the Department of Forest and Soil Conservation and have begun greening of the 10km Ring Road stretch from Koteswor to Kalanki. We thank our 16 million customers for their continuous support. We are committed to providing you with a dependable service no matter what the circumstances are. We have been and will continue to support and work with government bodies and the private sector in Nepal in addressing this crisis, and we must remain vigilant, be patient and stay safe.

Nepal’s data-centric future beyond Covid-19

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109171144/636bd96a9c7e80680e080211jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2880" height="1920"/><figcaption>Anirvan Ghosh Dastidar, Chief Executive Officer for Standard Chartered Bank in Nepal.</figcaption></figure>Meet Anirvan Ghosh Dastidar, Chief Executive Officer for Standard Chartered Bank in Nepal. Before arriving in Kathmandu last year, he served as CEO of bank in Brunei, Philippines and Sri Lanka. Nepali Times spoke to him about the current Covid-19 crisis and its impact on financial systems worldwide and in Nepal.Nepali Times: What is your assessment of Nepal's macro-economic situation and the risks to the banking sector? Anirvan Ghosh Dastidar: Nepal’s GDP composition is largely driven by the service sector which amounts to more than half of the total output. The pandemic has rapidly slowed down this sector which maybe causing majority of the aggregate demand subdue. A slowdown in services also means both consumption and production would be impacted since interlinkages between services, agriculture and manufacturing are very high in our economy. Though it may seem on the outside that Nepal’s economy is only consumption led – Nepal’s interlinkages to the global economy on both demand and supply drivers are very high. This also is one reason that the credit demand is quickly picking up after the lockdown was lifted which can be seen from the CCD ratio – since Nepal’s economy is dependent on drivers that may not need so much time for recovery like remittances and the service sector to drive majority of the demand, and, imports to drive majority of the supply.Banks in Nepal are directly impacted by how the economy performs since there are no complex financial instruments in the system that stabilise or delay the impact of economic shocks. Most real GDP economic forecasts for Nepal have relied on a few assumptions: there will be localised lockdowns only until the end of 2020 and cases will gradually decline, economic activities will gradually return to normal starting 2021. Forecasts based on these assumptions estimate Nepal’s real GDP growth to be between 2 to 2.5% for 2020. I have a similar assessment for Nepal’s macroeconomic situation: if there is no second wave and there only are local lockdowns until the end of 2020 – Nepal will gradually go into the recovery phase and it will be quick due to the drivers of our economy.Nepal Rastra Bank has allowed rescheduling and restructuring loans, would this provide relief or just postpone the problem given that economic activity is not picking up? This would be completely dependent on how the economy would recover. If there is no recovery of economic activity, given a subdued demand, the problem would be there irrespective. In this case, there is no other option but to reschedule and restructure loans with an expectation that in the recovery phase things will get back to normal – this trend can be seen across the world, not only in Nepal. I think the factor causing the problem here should be understood well – the Central Bank Policy has in no way got to do anything with the problem, in fact these regulations are there by definition to ease the burden for all stakeholders in the system. The problem is external, which is dependent on market forces and these factors are beyond anyone’s control given the global pandemic. I am in fact appreciative of the efforts Nepal Rastra Bank has taken to stabilise the negative economic impact caused by this crisis – the impact would have been much worse if it were not for the effective actions of our Central Bank.There was always a chronic liquidity crisis among Nepal's banks, but that is not the reality now. Would this not be a time to prime up investment? This is largely dependent on what you are investing in. However, on a broader scale, trying to invest now just because there is liquidity and prices of certain markets are low, would be a myopic view – one might also argue that interest rates are down so credit is cheaper. However, I think the fundamental laws of the markets and economics cannot be ignored. As long as the economy is down, so is the aggregate demand. When aggregate demand is down, an overall subdue in economic activities is bound to exist – this is a vicious cycle. Having said that, Nepal’s economy is slowly picking up because of an ease in the lockdown, but not in all sectors. I would thus say investment decisions would depend more on the sectors involved. The same time maybe prime for some sector and some investments, when it is not for some.Do you see the possibility of mergers of financial institutions during this crisis? There is no straightforward answer when it comes to mergers of financial institutions, and there are various academic arguments on various variables from economies of scale, synergy, efficiency of the industry, quality of assets and returns of the market the financial institutions are operating in. The sky is the limit for these variables. One can add the geographic argument and build a spatial model, one can also argue that traditional models miss the current trends of digitisation or new trends in the economy which may also have different implications to the debate and add these variables. Arguments also differ because of the tools and models which are used to analyse these variables – ranging from Optimized Mathematical Game Theory Models, Time-Series Econometric Models to even Economic General Equilibrium Models. Therefore, commenting on the possibility of mergers is very complicated and this should be based on various factors that are important to the market and industry in question. Ultimately, however, there are fundamental rules always govern any banking industry: a bank needs to be profitable to sustain and should comply with the rules laid forward by the Central Bank.What would be Standard Chartered’ s strategy to ride out this crisis, and indeed see it as an opportunity for expansion? There was an interesting article in <a href="https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/why-japan-s-businesses-are-so-good-at-surviving-crises">Harvard Business Review</a> on the Japanese way of dealing with a crisis which points towards a long term outlook of the society a business operates in. This article argues that the more we contribute towards the overall development of the economy and communities in the economy, the more we benefit. I think our purpose also follows the same concept which includes a focus on the long-term prosperity and economic development of Nepal which in-turn has a direct relationship to the banking industry’s health. We are committed to the sustainable growth priorities of Nepal and are focused on helping businesses and communities revive post Covid-19.Having said that we have had our share of learnings during the pandemic and we have already devised plans to refresh our operating models. Our plans are geared towards enhancing our digital capabilities to support clients with their banking needs. We also feel, as have many institutions internationally, that our operating model will also consist of a refreshed health and safety standard where there will be a certain element of working from home even after the Pandemic. I think our focus is more towards supporting our clients recover from this crisis and keeping our colleagues safe, more than expansion.

“We are focussed on post-Covid revival of Nepal’s business”

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141136/636bad589c7e80680e077f8bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Nepali Times issue #1</figcaption></figure>The <a href="http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/nepalitimes/pdf/Nepali_Times_001.pdf">#1 print edition</a> of Nepali Times of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/issue/1">19-25 July 2000</a> shows that even though much has changed in Nepal in the past two decades, a lot has remained the same. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Reports and op-eds published in that very first hardcopy issue are as relevant today as they were then. Most of the protagonists are the same.The <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=10979#.XxAi8KEza70">front page analysis</a> of the first edition looked at the impending state visit to India by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. Among the contentious issues he was going to take up with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee: the Kalapani territory occupied by India. The dispute flared again this year, and sank bilateral ties to a new low.Then, as now, the Indian media had been primed before Koirala’s visit with official leaks about alleged infiltration by Pakistani agents to ‘turn the Tarai into Taliban territory’. The allegations were included in an Indian intelligence report ‘Nepal Gameplan’, and our report said that Koirala’s challenge would be to use his personal chemistry with Vajpayee to convince him that Nepal would not allow any extraneous threats to India from its territory.Both Koirala and Vajpayee are long gone, but India-Nepal relations are still strained —this time over suspicions of growing Chinese influence. The same issue of Nepali Times had an <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=10983#.XxAjfqEza70">interview with UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal</a> on page 3 in which the opposition leader said: “What is surprising is that Koirala is the same person who said he would not visit India until Indian troops are withdrawn from Kalapani, and he is rushing there.”<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=10980#.XxAjxaEza70">The Editorial</a> of the first print edition of Nepali Times laid out what would be the new paper’s mission statement: ‘A newspaper does more than hold a mirror to society. It becomes a mirror itself. There is a belief that literature is generally not read, and journalism is often unreadable. This newspaper will seek to be informal, lively, clear and direct.’In his column <a href="http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/nepalitimes/pdf/Nepali_Times_001.pdf">‘State of the State’, C K Lal</a> lamented the cynicism in Nepali society: ‘Despair hangs as thick as diesel exhaust in the Kathmandu air. Nepal’s nabobs of negativism hold forth in their nay-saying nooks. Cynicism is at least a reflection of exaggerated self-worth. Despair is much worse, it is a state of having lost all hope.’ Locked down for four months, Nepalis are once more drifting from cynicism to despair.The first issue also included <a href="mes.com/news.php?id=10990#.XxAk86Eza70">an investigation</a> into a scandal at the Kathmandu office of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in which an expat official was secretly sacked for embezzlement. Reporter <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=10992#.XxAlC6Eza70">Hemlata Rai</a> wrote about how grassroots democracy was beginning to deliver health, education and other services.Another <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=11001#.XxAlLqEza70">intriguing story</a> was about reports that underground Maoist leader Prachanda had visited UK on an Indian passport to attend a meeting of the Revolutionary International Movement (RIM). Water resources expert <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=11082#.XxAlSKEza70">Dipak Gyawali</a> argued in a commentary that it made more sense for private power producers in Nepal to design projects to sell electricity for domestic value-added use than exporting it to India.COVID-19 is the main global health issue today, but 20 years ago it was HIV/AIDS, and the paper carried a report on anti-retrovirals not being affordable to people in poor countries.<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=11090#.XxAmmqEza70">Manjushree Thapa</a> started her column Nepaliterature in which she profiled writers in the Nepali language with translated excerpts of their work. The July 2000 issue had these lines from Bimal Nibha:Comrade Baburam Bhattarai is busy leading the People’s WarI, dragging along my broken slippersAm wondering —as are many othersI’m an ordinary person who writes the news who writes poemsWho drinks tea and rushes offA worker who delights and weepsWith ardor and effort (nothing exceptional about me)Am I not also engaged in a people’s war, Comrade?Nepali Times also got rights to serialise chapters from <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=11089#.XxAlmqEza70">Desmond Doig’s</a> book In the Kingdom of the Gods, and the first installment carried his description of Jang Bahadur’s Mughal-style Kal Mochan temple, which a western visitor once said was ‘too ugly to describe’.The <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=11099#.XxAmBKEza70">Funny Side Up</a> satire column became a fixture on the back page with the first one on legalising corruption. Taxing bribes and slapping 13% VAT on baksheesh, it was suggested, would be a good way to raise government revenue.From this week, the ‘10 Year Ago’ column in Nepali Times will be ‘20 Years Ago’. It will look at Nepal from two decades ago, and how the country was getting mired deeper in conflict, political disarray was eroding democratic gains, tourism was being affected by the uncertainty.The COVID-19 lockdown is a fitting time for a retrospective – when the media itself is facing a crisis of survival. The media in Nepal has historically been threatened by the extreme right and the extreme left. It had survived the economic crises during the earthquake and Blockade. Legacy media was trying to cope with the digital transition. But never  has it had to face such an existential crisis.  There are serious implications for journalism as well as for an open society.As the past two decades show, journalism is indeed history in a hurry. And those who do not learn from it are doomed to repeat it.The content of the past 20 years of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-grapples-with-bringing-workers-home/">Nepali Times</a> is available in a searchable archive. The ePaper can also be accessed by issue through the <a href="http://www.digitalhimalaya.com/collections/journals/nepalitimes/">Digital Himalaya</a> site.

Kunda Dixit

20 years ago this week

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101124/636b71f99c7e80680e0600fejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Photo : KHAALISISI</figcaption></figure>Real entrepreneurship is about innovation, executing ideas, consistency, not giving up easily and not worrying too much about finding investors immediately.Prospective entrepreneurs do not need an MBA from an expensive international university: they start with a great idea and a bit of money, and they set about implementing the idea step by step.Young entrepreneur Aayushi KC is a good example of this. She quit a secure job at an international aid agency to start her own company, Khaalisisi Management. Khaalisisi uses a digital platform to link garbage sellers and buyers for waste transactions. It was an unusual idea, and many thought KC had lost her mind.Read Also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/a-load-of-rubbish-kathmandus-garbage-problem,4039" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A load of rubbish,</a> Sahina Shrestha<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/making-money-from-garbage-in-kathmandu,2055" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rupees from rubbish,</a> Sahina Shrestha“Every time I shared my idea, people laughed and ridiculed me. Nobody had done this kind of business before and so everyone was sceptical,” she recalls. But she was determined to use this sustainable business solution to clean up Kathmandu.It wasn’t easy, as KC had no technical background on information technology, recycling waste or garbage management. All she had were the facts and a motivation to make her idea work.She did her own research and met experts and people who were already recycling garbage. And it was after meeting Kathmandu’s waste collectors that KC learnt how <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/recycle-reuse-reduce-garbage-kathmandu,1279" target="_blank" rel="noopener">waste management</a> works in practice.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihLCphyeO6o&amp;t=6sThere are about 13,000 collectors in Kathmandu alone, and there was already a network of people managing waste by recycling in their own way. KC decided to partner with them.“They are the real waste entrepreneurs who deserve to be respected and the society needs to dignify their hard work and not disrespect them,” says KC. She shares that one of the best rewards for her is to see collectors get more respect after they started working with Khaalisisi, which provides them with uniforms and ID cards. The company employs 300 collectors, who are known as Khaalisisi Friends.Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/returning-to-nepal-has-its-rewards/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Returning to Nepal has its rewards</a>, Naresh Newar<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/rupeshs-epic-journey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rupesh's epic journey</a>, Naresh NewarThe way it works is this: Khaalisisi connects the collectors with waste sellers through the Khaalisisi digital platform, social media and phone apps. Waste sellers, mostly city residents with a lot of trash, contact the Khaalisisi team for a pick-up. The company then contacts the waste collectors, who make house calls to purchase the waste. Recyclables are then sold on the market, and Khaalisisi gets a commission.This process has apparently helped waste collectors increase their incomes. They no longer need to roam neighbourhoods on their bicycles, shouting to attract the attention of residents.In just three years, Khaalisisi has become a recognized brand gaining popularity in Nepal and abroad for its novel approach to sustainability. In 2018, Forbes listed KC in its 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs, selected from thousands of online nominations. In December she was one of the top five youth social entrepreneurs out of 1,000 competitors from 90 countries to speak during the World Bank Youth Summit in Washington DC. The Asia Society also included her as one of the 2019 Class of Asia 21 Young Leaders.“This is a business-for-profit initiative, but as a company we also have a social responsibility to educate people on how to manage their own waste and create a better environment starting with our own neighbourhoods,” says KC, whose team also visits schools to urge them to manage their own waste. The government also needs to step in to give incentives to people who actively reduce, recycle and reuse, she says.Khaalisi and other business initiatives involving waste management are gaining traction as awareness grows worldwide about sustainability, environmental degradation, plastic pollution in the rivers and seas and the climate crisis.“There was nothing extraordinary about our business idea. We all have great ideas but they will come to nothing if we fail execute them. I acted on a simple idea and that was the starting point to build this company,” says KC, now 30.Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/staying-in-nepal-to-create-jobs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Staying in Nepal to create jobs</a>, Naresh Newar

Nepali entrepreneur turns trash into cash

One smoggy winter morning in February 2019, Ekta regretted coming to her sculpture class. It was the first day of her period, and the 19-year-old wished she was home, curled up in bed with a hot water bag to soothe her cramps.
Her class was at Kalapremi Ceramic Studio, a dark room on the ground floor of a house in Maharajganj, and Ekta’s teacher was the artist Gopal Das Shrestha ‘Kalapremi’, a noted sculptor.
Two other students were already there, using all their muscle strength to knead the sculpting clay. Ekta, now 24, recalls how Kalapremi asked her if she was feeling all right. She avoided him, as she did not want everyone to know she was menstruating.
Kalapremi repeatedly asked Ekta what was wrong. She finally muttered that she was having her period, after which he grabbed her hand and led her to a partitioned corner of the studio and sat her on a chair. Before she could stop him, he slid his hand under her dress, and started massaging her abdomen.
“I was horrified,” Ekta recalls. “I told him to stop, but he didn’t listen, asking me not to be shy, saying he knew how to relieve my pain. He stopped only after I protested furiously.”&nbsp;
The art tutor then said, “You’re like my daughter. I’m doing it out of love to make you feel better, but you’re so stubborn.”&nbsp;
“Instead of saying sorry he acted like I was the one having crazy thoughts,” remembers Ekta, adding that from April 2016 to August 2020 beginning the time she was 16, the artist sexually abused and harassed her on several occasions. &nbsp;
Now, Ekta and the artist’s other former students are finally sharing their experiences and some are pressing legal charges against him, hoping that others do not have to endure what they did.&nbsp;
Award-winning artist and teacher Gopal Das Shrestha ‘Kalapremi’ (the name means ‘Art Lover’) is known for his ceramic art, sculpture, and contemporary pottery. He was <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/the-house-of-kalapremi">profiled in Nepali Times after a collaborative exhibition</a>, ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ at the Siddhartha Art Gallery three years ago.&nbsp;
His pieces, titled Gaalis, featured sculpted female figures with the heads of dogs, sheep, and donkeys (pictured) to depict derogatory terms for women. Some critics said the collection was a satire on feminists.
Kalapremi started his artistic and teaching career in 1983 and over the years taught at Bhanubhakta School, Kathmandu University School of Arts, Lalitkala Campus and at his private Kalapremi Ceramic Studio. He has also lectured at Jeonju University in South Korea and recently at Tabor Academy in the United States.
Seven of Kalapremi’s former students were interviewed for this story. Five female students said he touched them inappropriately in his studio or at Kathmandu University. Two male students said they witnessed him abuse and harass the women. In all cases, the students struggled to recognise the abuse when it occurred, and the lack of reporting systems left them to cope on their own for years.&nbsp;
Earlier this year, students shared a social media post hinting at Kalapremi’s history of abusive behaviour following which more students of the artist reached out sharing similar experiences. Some students spoke of abuse that happened as long as 20 years ago.
Kalapremi, 60, has denied the allegations. He told Nepali Times: “Some years ago, there was a movement encouraging people to hug and kiss. I used to do it purely out of friendship and love. But after seeing posts on social media last year calling out my behaviour, I realised my actions may have hurt some people. I understand now that I should have been more mindful.”
He added: “I am also an auxiliary health worker, so I know the exact points to massage to relieve menstrual pain. It’s not just menstruation, I take anyone who is ill to the hospital.”
Sexual abuse is much more rampant than reported given how difficult it is to prove it in court. The law defines sexual abuse as occuring when someone touches another’s private parts, coerces them into touching theirs, uses vulgar language, shows degrading images, or behaves indecently towards them without consent.&nbsp;
Ekta and her fellow students are consulting lawyer Suneeta Regmi Pokhrel, who says they know that even if the court decides in their favour, it is difficult to survive after speaking up, and influential men defend themselves saying they are being framed.&nbsp;
“They are in a lot of pain and weep when recalling how he abused them,” Regmi Pokhrel told us. “They are angry and have filed a case against him, but they are also terrified. They know he is a powerful man and they have seen how our society treats women who speak up against abusers. Unless people speak up, perpetrators will be emboldened.”
Art and academia in Nepal simply reflect the power imbalances in society where people with intersecting identities experience worse forms of abuse. Theatre actors Raj Kumar Pudasaini, Rajan Khatiwada, and Sunil Pokhrel were called out during the #MeToo movement in the Nepali theatre scene in 2019. Even after the allegations Pokhrel went on to receive national awards, while others continued to work without repercussions.
“If you speak up against abusers, you gradually get sidelined from projects,” explained a theatre artist who wished anonymity fearing professional setbacks. “The theatre scene in Nepal is quite small, you just have to make peace with the perpetrators and work with them if you want to sustain yourself.”&nbsp;
In academia there is a history of faculty members sexually harassing students and getting away with it. After Tribhuvan University (TU) lecturer Krishna Bhattachan was accused of harassing women students, the university said it would follow Nepal’s sexual harassment law and set up a reporting mechanism. But nothing happened to the professor, who had already retired. Instead, he counter-accused the students of 'attacking the indigenous people’s movement with baseless allegations' as <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/letters/2019/01/29/bhattachan-responds">he told the Kathmandu Post in 2019</a>. He continues to be featured as a prominent speaker including at TU.
Other faculty members previously accused of sexual harassment include Jagadish Murti Koirala from TU, Bishnu Prasad Acharya from Ratna Rajya Campus, and Bodha Raj Tripathee from Lalitpur Madhyamik Vidhyalaya. A woman staff member from TU also filed a sexual abuse complaint against Dambar Chemjong from TU.
Prominent figures like <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-rise-and-fall-of-nims-purja">mountaineer Nims Purja</a> have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/31/sports/mountaineering-sexual-harassment-abuse-nims-purja.html">accused of sexual assault</a>, and cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane, actor <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/celebrity-rape-case-spotlights-nepal-laws">Paul Shah</a>, and former speaker of Parliament <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mahara-arrested">Krishna Bahadur Mahara</a> have been accused of rape, but society-at-large has let off the alleged perpetrators amdist a larger debate about justice for survivors and punishment of perpetrators.&nbsp;
‘Gaushala-26’ is the court name given to the 18-year-old who accused Sandeep Lamichhane, former captain of Nepal’s national cricket team and skipper of Biratnagar Kings in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/here-comes-the-nepal-premier-league">ongoing Nepal Premier League</a>, of rape. She left the country citing society questioning her character affecting her mental health while Lamichhane got an outpouring of support. In May, the Patan High Court overturned a prior verdict that found Lamichhane guilty of rape and had sentenced him to eight years in prison. During the 23-month legal battle to pursue justice, Gaushala-26 faced threats of gang rape and acid attacks.&nbsp;
Exhausted by the struggle, Gaushala-26 sought to “move to a new world” where she could live free without hiding her identity.
Actress Samragyee Rajya Laxmi Shah in an Instagram video now deleted detailed the harassment she faced from a filmmaker during a movie shoot. She did not name any name but veteran actor Bhuwan KC filed a defamation case against Rana, but the court ruled that the charge lacked sufficient evidence.&nbsp;
Former Kathmandu mayor <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/theytoo">Keshav Sthapit also mocked the #MeToo movement</a>, calling accusations against him by journalists Rashmila Prajapati and Ujjwala Maharjan “a rape of men’s rights”.
Serial Abuse
Back at the Kalapremi Ceramics studio, another former student, 24-year-old Rajiv, says he felt the need to speak out after seeing his female classmates being abused.&nbsp;
“He frequently kissed them on their cheeks,” he told Nepali Times. “Whenever they walked into the studio he flailed his arms like a child asking for a hug. They awkwardly hugged him from the side, but he pulled them closer, held their chin, and kissed their cheeks.”&nbsp;
Rajiv says he also saw Kalapremi pull the women’s bra straps, touch their breasts, and slap their buttocks. The young students would freeze, not knowing how to react, and if they protested, he would say it was “normal in art”. Rajiv, 19 at the time like his classmates, remembers thinking perhaps the well-respected artist was right after all.
Another student, Luna, who took lessons at Kalapremi’s studio from 2020 to 2022 did try to confront the tutor after he made an obscene proposal to her. She recalls: “One day when the other students had left the studio and it was just the two of us, he told me that God had given him special artistic talent and he could transfer those powers to me. But to do that both of us will have to be naked, inside a dark room, and have sex.”
Luna, who was 18 then, was livid and told him she did not want any of his powers, but she says he laughed at her as if he was joking. She did not tell her family about the incident because she thought no one would believe her.&nbsp;
“They were all in awe of this famous artist and felt I should be grateful that to be learning sculpting from him,” she says. “I was scared to be alone with him in case he talked about sex again. My coping mechanism was to be rude so he wouldn’t try to come close to me.”
Seeing how some classmates were standing up to Kalapremi, Ekta too tried to push back against his advances, but she said he found ways to coerce her. Since Ekta, Rajiv, and Luna could not afford Kalapremi’s Rs30,000 monthly fee for lessons, he had offered them all a stipend to assist him in the studio.
“He had spondylosis and took me to his therapy sessions to learn massage techniques, then he often made me and other students massage him,” says Ekta. Whenever she refused, he would feign pain to make her feel sorry for him. “He would insist that I put my hands under his shirt so that I could massage him better,” she adds.
The art tutor often tried to “seduce sympathy” from Ekta by sharing how he had never been loved as a child and was “sexually frustrated” as an adult.&nbsp;
“At 7PM, he would pour himself Signature whiskey and immediately go off again about how he was sex-starved. I didn’t know how to respond. It took me time to realise alcohol was just an excuse to talk about sex,” Ekta says.
If convicted, Kalapremi could face financial penalty and/or a prison sentence of up to three years according to Section 224 of National Penal (Code) Act 2017.&nbsp;
Data suggests that victims of child sexual abuse on average take nearly 24 years to tell someone about their trauma, and some may never disclose it at all.&nbsp;
“In our culture, children are rarely taught about boundaries. They often react, show anger when adults pinch their cheeks. But adults insist they did it out of love, and force the children to accept it,” says Sita Lama, a psychotherapist at Manka Kura. “And even when someone touches them inappropriately they struggle to identify and verbalise it.”
When perpetrators claim to be “acting out of love”, Lama says survivors are likely to perceive it as something safe, rather than recognising it as abuse.&nbsp;
“It may take years for them to realise they were abused,” she explains. "And even when they become aware, the power imbalance with the abuser and the associated shame often prevents survivors from speaking up."
Other former students from the School of Art at Kathmandu University have also come forward years later, saying Kalapremi sexually abused them. As young adults, they felt his behaviour was off but were uncertain if it was inappropriate, illegal, or they did not know how to respond. After having understood that it was indeed abuse, they say they are speaking out now to protect others.&nbsp;
Amina Singh, a visiting faculty member at Kathmandu University, says there is no clause against sexual abuse in contracts of teachers, and there is no formal grievance handling mechanism for the students.&nbsp;
“So the only way students can to deal with sexual abuse is approach someone they trust,” she says.
Eight other former art students of Lalit Kala Campus and Srijana College of Fine Arts of Tribhuvan University and other private art studios in Kathmandu say they were also sexually abused by their art teachers. Three faculty members interviewed from these institutions said they saw the abuse, but felt it was futile to report it given how powerful the teachers were.
In the absence of a formal system, some longtime women artists warned each other about “problematic” artists. They shared &nbsp;a “heads-up” to be more cautious when collaborating with them, and avoided responding to their calls and texts after work hours.
To ensure art institutions are safe for all, galleries, museums, artist studios, and smaller art spaces need to develop policies on sexual harassment. This would include a code of conduct or studio policies that hold the leadership accountable and outline the principles of professional ethics.&nbsp;
Students and employees should inquire about accountability mechanisms for raising concerns, both formally and informally, advocates say.
Three years after Ekta left the ceramics studio, she learnt that Kalapremi had harassed many other women. Still trying to get a footing in the art industry, she attended a workshop in Kathmandu where women artists discussed ways to stay safe in the art sector.&nbsp;
Since it was a close-knit group Ekta opened up about how she felt violated and realised she was not alone, he had been abusing underprivileged students for years, and this was common knowledge among artists in Nepal.
Ekta says that even after she quit, Kalapremi continued sending her text messages like ‘I am thinking of you’, ‘Why have you stopped speaking with me’, or ‘I am waiting for your call’.&nbsp;
But what really forced her to act was when Ekta found out that he was sending similar texts to her younger sister.&nbsp;
“I’ve had enough,” she told us. “He abused me all these years but I won’t let him abuse my sister.” &nbsp;
Ekta, Rajiv and Luna are not the real names of the students.&nbsp;

‘Art Lover’ accused of sexual abuse

It was 8:15 in the evening of 25 March 1968 when everyone in the village of Batulechaur near Pokhara heard a deafening sound like thunder as a bright flashing object hurtled down to land in a field.&nbsp; That field belonged to Kul Timilsina, and the next morning he retrieved a sheet of metal about 2m by 1m and carried it home with the help of a few others, thinking it would be useful for his buffalo shed.&nbsp; Before he died at age 83 three years ago, Timilsina had told photo archivist Sunil Ulak that the black metal sheet was not rectangular and had rounded corners. There are a few witnesses still alive who have a clear recollection of the object that fell from the sky that night.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024120707128_75cc85aac56b9cc4a77366471f058d7b3eb6868776811b0923845c2d0a61f014.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024120707128_75cc85aac56b9cc4a77366471f058d7b3eb6868776811b0923845c2d0a61f014" data-rendition-name="original" width="1170" height="601" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> <figcaption>The field in Batulechaur belonging to Kul Timilsina where fragments of a flying object fell from the sky in 1968.</figcaption> </figure>  One of them is Timilsina’s wife Gyanu, who was 22 at the time. She had been at home, and remembers hearing the big bang and the sky becoming very bright. “We saw the thing in the field in the morning,” she told us. “It looked like a lid, a covering of some sort. The way it was stuck in the ground, it must have fallen from the sky. We thought we could use it to dry clothes on, and took it home.”&nbsp; Another witness is Kul Narayan Paudel. “I was only eight then. We ran to the field to see what had fallen. It was a four-sided metal sheet. The elders took it away, and I don't know what happened to it.” &nbsp; Ram Bahadur Baniya, a teacher at the local school, says he had heard the sheet had been brought to the school, and later handed over to the Zonal Commissioner at the time, Nanda Prasad Malla. “But that is all hearsay,” he says.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024120707128_0bf207a12063fb8155b3c8d9a00a94887b126380c9e0627527c84cf5e1101f54.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2024120707128_0bf207a12063fb8155b3c8d9a00a94887b126380c9e0627527c84cf5e1101f54" data-rendition-name="original" width="1170" height="610" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> <figcaption>Gyanu Timilsina, wife of Kul Timilsina.</figcaption> </figure>  There are two versions of what happened to Kul Timilsina’s metal sheet. One is that an American Peace Corp Volunteer teaching at the nearby Bindyabasini School took it, and another is that it was handed over to the government. Recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and US State Department documents from the time say that the US Embassy in Kathmandu tracked down the object two years later and had it shipped back to the US. A telegram from the Department of State and Department of Defense tagged as ‘MOON DUST / Space Fragments’ dated 1 March 1972 stated: ‘1. Restored space fragment will be on board Embassy support flight 115 arriving Kathmandu on or about March 10. Fragment is packed in shipping crate (cargo no. 72-33365) marked in care of DAO.&nbsp; 2. State and Defense representatives examined fragments prior to shipment finding restoration acceptable.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071212_929d903ee06d41baa4f6040e981cd7c7d7bd75cc9c37c9b617d307fc8538d2df.png" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20241207071212_929d903ee06d41baa4f6040e981cd7c7d7bd75cc9c37c9b617d307fc8538d2df" data-rendition-name="original" width="856" height="568" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> <figcaption>Declassified CIA documents about the investigation into the object sighted in Pokhara. </figcaption> </figure>  The documents show that the US government, military and intelligence agencies investigated this incident thoroughly when it occurred, and have continued to revisit it ever since, as recently as five years ago. What is even more intriguing is that the object that fell in Pokhara was not the only unidentified space object that fell to earth that year. There were similar sightings of objects falling from the sky in Ladakh, Sikkim and Bhutan between 19 February and 25 March 1968.&nbsp; These mysteries were the subject of a CIA investigation in 1968 titled ‘<a href="https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP81R00560R000100070007-8.pdf">Sighting of Unidentified Flying Objects in Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan</a>’, and the report is part of the recent online declassification of 800,000 top-secret documents from the period.&nbsp; &nbsp;Although unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have a connotation now of being alien craft, it could be pieces of satellite, missile, rocket or even aircraft. The CIA report documents six sightings in 1968 and quotes local sources as describing all of them having similar characteristics: bright blue or red streaks in the sky accompanied by loud sounds like lightning and thunder and objects falling to the ground. Aside from the metallic object that was found in Batlechaur, there were other items also found nearby in Tallakot, Tureypasal, Armalakot and Maidan. Whatever the object was, it seems to have disintegrated even before it hit the ground.&nbsp; The CIA report records the first sighting on 19 February 1968 in various parts of Sikkim and Olangchung Gola and Ghunsa in eastern Nepal. The light was said to be ‘long and thin’ and giving out ‘green and red light’. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071212_c3c825027d966a2aedc846970390eebe063957503c7eacc8e01e0517843f9bbb.png" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20241207071212_c3c825027d966a2aedc846970390eebe063957503c7eacc8e01e0517843f9bbb" data-rendition-name="original" width="892" height="596" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara "> </figure>  Two days later on 21 February, a soundless blue object was seen traveling fast across the sky above Thimphu in Bhutan. Then on 4 March there were multiple daytime sightings or white streaks in the sky at Chang La Pass, Fukche and Koyul in Ladakh. There were more sightings in Ladakh on the very day fragments fell near Pokhara on 25 March 1968.&nbsp; After the sightings in Pokhara, rumours started flying in Kathmandu that these were aliens trying to land on Earth, it could be Russian or Chinese spy planes or satellites, and some even say it as a sign from heaven that the end of the world was near. This was at the height of the Cold War. The Russians and Americans were testing their thermonuclear devices as well as intercontinental ballistic missile delivery systems. The Washington-Beijing rapprochement had not yet happened, and China was making quick progress testing atomic bombs. Within two years after its first atomic test, in 1966 China exploded its first hydrogen bomb at the Lop Nur site in Xinjiang, 3,000km to the north from Nepal. After neary six decades, what is still intriguing is that all the sightings within a few months of each other in 1968 were along the Himalayan arc bordering Tibet: from Bhutan, Sikkim Nepal, to Ladakh. The US military intelligence seems to have concluded that this was not a coincidence and there were frequent research trips to the site in Pokhara by American officials in the months after the incident. With the help of the Royal Nepal Army, the region north of Pokhara was thoroughly searched.&nbsp; A confidential memo dated 25 June 1968 by Jerry C Trippy to a ‘Mr Farley’ mentions that the US Air Force’s Foreign Technology Division had decided that the debris could be important because it may be related to a Chinese missile test or a Soviet ‘Vehicle Venik’ rocket.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071216_feb5425692dc36b20187de4e4fcc2ce9fd12b6d9e1b8724398e50bcdbf9032fe.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20241207071216_feb5425692dc36b20187de4e4fcc2ce9fd12b6d9e1b8724398e50bcdbf9032fe" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> </figure>  On 28 August 1968 the US Embassy in Kathmandu sent a letter to Washington DC saying that the object could be of Soviet origin, possibly from when the rocket carrying the ‘Kosmos 208’ satellite re-entered the atmosphere. But why were the fragments falling to earth several weeks apart, and in the same region? No one knows where the metal sheet that Kul Timilsina recovered is now. It was definitely packed in a crate and taken to the US, and although it is rumoured that it was returned that is not very likely. Archivist Sunil Ulak heard from the Timilsina family that CIA officials had returned to the site five years ago. &nbsp; Interest in UFOs peaked in the US in the 1950s, with the Cold War space race and tests of atomic weapons and delivery rockets. CIA and scientists were being sent to investigate sightings, both publicly and privately. Could the Pokhara fragments as well as the sightings in Ladakh and Bhutan actually be alien craft falling to earth? The renewal in interest in space travel in large part due to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, UFOs and sightings are again subjects of public interest.&nbsp; Even 57 years later, even if there was definitive proof about whether the Batlechaur fragment was from a Chinese missile or a soviet rocket, it has not been made public in documents declassified so far. We may never know.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241207071216_b6938795f40731e7657fd6dcbb3cf460a326186a15eb11d4f832f602201ff598.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20241207071216_b6938795f40731e7657fd6dcbb3cf460a326186a15eb11d4f832f602201ff598" data-rendition-name="original" width="642" height="320" loading="lazy" alt="UFO over Pokhara"> </figure>  Sunil Ulak speculates if the debris actually came from an American aircraft, perhaps on an intel mission upon China. “Which could explain why they were so thorough in collecting the fragments in Pokhara,” he says. But that still does not explain the multiple sightings weeks apart in 1968.&nbsp; Indeed, US military aircraft were at that time flying frequent night-time missions from air force bases in India to supply weapons to Khampa guerrilla camps in Nepal located north of Pokhara in Mustang. It could very well be that the Chinese shot down one such aircraft. The other sightings could have been contrails of US spy planes, or Chinese anti-aircraft missiles.&nbsp; There were quite a few developments regarding UFOs in 2024. In a US congressional hearing in July, former intelligence officer David Grusch claimed that the government had long been involved in a program to investigate and retrieve non-human craft crashes, and then try to reverse engineer them. However Grusch did not show any evidence.&nbsp; The UAP Disclosure Act of 2024 was signed into law by Joe Biden in December 2023. It plans to oversee the public disclosure of UFO information. However, there is a clause in it that prevents disclosure if it would cause threats to military defense, intelligence operations or foreign relations.&nbsp; It is unlikely that the declassified documents about sightings in the Himalayan will cause any real surprise about definite evidence of alien life even if it was found. It seems humanity will continue, at least for now, to wonder about curious lights in the sky and whether there is anybody out there.&nbsp;

UFO over Pokhara

When Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) president Rabi Lamichhane was arrested in October on charges of defrauding depositors of cooperatives, the party’s vice president Swarnim Wagle gifted him Fareed Zakaria’s book, Age of Revolutions.
Since then, Lamichhane has been shunted around from Kathmandu to Pokhara to Chitwan and back to Pokhara to attend police investigations and court proceedings. He was being flown to Birganj via Kathmandu on Buddha Air on Monday. There is another pending case in Janakpur.
Human rights groups and civil society have criticised the government for hounding Lamichhane with inhumane treatment that borders on physical torture. The two parties in the coalition, Nepali Congress (NC) and the UML, see Lamichhane’s RSP as a potentially formidable challenge to their power.
Even if the fraud charges against Lamichhane are true, the Nepali public is increasingly looking at the government’s actions through the police and courts as political vendetta.
Despite all the travelling, sometimes by plane and often by road at night, Lamichhane appears to be in high spirits, waving to supporters who often gather if they know he is going to be driven around. A social media video shows him giving high fives to fellow passengers on a recent flight to Pokhara.&nbsp;
In the past weeks, streets in Pokhara have erupted with parallel protests by Lamichhane’s supporters as well as depositors of cooperatives who lost their savings to the scam.&nbsp;
Although family visits are allowed, prison officials in Pokhara told Nepali Times that not many people visit Lamichhane these days. He added, “When he does get visitors, he asks them to bring him books.”
Lamichhane is currently Nepal’s most high-profile public figure in custody, and highlights the stark difference between how influential prisoners are treated compared to ordinary inmates.
There are six prison cells at Kaski District Police Office’s two-story detention centre, three on each floor. And while authorities pack prisoners into already overcrowded cells, Lamichhane has an entire room on the second floor to himself.&nbsp;
He has also been allowed to call his family every few days. Other prisoners are not permitted phone calls except for emergencies.
Meanwhile, Lamichhane’s former business partner Chhabilal Joshi, an ex-Deputy Inspector General of Police with whom he established his Gorkha Media Network, is in custody under the same charges in the prison cell next to him.
Lamichhane is accused of siphoning off depositors' money to the tv network in which he was part-owner and anchor. &nbsp;
Both Lamichhane and Joshi are able to buy food from the police canteen instead of being served the regular meal like other prisoners. Joshi has also given his statement to authorities in Rupandehi and Kathmandu for his alleged role in the scam. Lamichhane is yet to be presented in Kathmandu for questioning.
While he was in custody at the Kathmandu District Police Complex, Joshi expressed his desire to sleep in a police officer’s office, reportedly assuring authorities that he would not run away and he was entitled to certain facilities as a former officer of the law.
“He seemed to be under the impression that he is still a police officer,” says a source at the Kathmandu District Police. “We made it clear to him that as someone accused of a crime, he was not entitled to special treatment.”
Former ministers Balkrishna Khand and Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, and ex-home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, who were arrested in connection with the fake refugee scam last year, were similarly housed in the offices of law enforcement officials instead of prison cells. Khand has since been released after six months in jail.
While there is no legal provision to keep high-ranking officials in separate detention centres when they are arrested, authorities granting them special facilities is not uncommon. Law enforcement officials say VIP detainees expect preferential treatment while in police custody.
Among those is former Kosi Province minister Lila Ballav Adhikari, who was arrested from Biratnagar on 10 November over his alleged involvement in human trafficking and brought to Kathmandu. Adhikari had flown to Japan without government approval with three individuals on 29 October to attend a cultural conference, but had been sent back to Nepal from Narita.&nbsp;
His three companions were arrested at Kathmandu airport upon their arrival, but Adhikari was able to exit unscathed from the VIP lounge. Adhikari had resigned as the Kosi Province Minister for Internal Affairs and Law when it became public that his companions had been taken into custody, and was himself arrested shortly after. He has since been cleared by the courts.
Throughout his detention, Adhikari was kept separately from other inmates. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Basant Rajouri, head of the Bhadrakali complex, says that while there is no separate detention area for VIPs, some detainees are kept separately depending on the nature of their crime.
However, sources say that arrangements were made for retired judges and others to visit Adhikari frequently worked at the office of a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) during his time in custody.&nbsp;
“He used to constantly pester the authorities to let him sit outside in the sun, and to be able to use the police officer’s shower area,” added an officer.
Adhikari was released on 25 November after the government prosecutor’s office decided not to charge him in a move that was seen to expose the government’s double standards.
Over at Kathmandu’s Dilli Bazar Prison, former Kist Bank CEO Kamal Gyawali emerges from his prison cell into the courtyard of the prison’s ‘Ka (क)’ block every morning with a thick book in his hands, ready to give his daily sermon.
With his long beard, Gyawali, who is serving a prison sentence for banking fraud, looks the part of a religious guru as he implores his rapt listeners to “walk the right path, abandon bad thoughts and turn to scripture and spirituality”.&nbsp;
Afterward, the attendees gather to discuss politics and current affairs. Inmates at his daily sermons at the prison include other high-profile detainees, including former MP Ichchha Raj Tamang, who is in jail for money laundering and cooperatives fraud, former joint secretary Chudamani Sharma, who was convicted of corruption, as well as NC leader Chandra Bahadur Lama and Krishna Bahadur Upreti of the UML both of whom are on trial for embezzling billions of rupees.
Victims of the cooperatives scam that former lawmaker Tamang was involved in have made trips to the prison and requested visits, but he has refused to meet with any of them.
“Tamang often complains that the state has prevented him from returning the money to the victims by locking him up,” says a police officer at the Dili Bazar jail.
“All you hear every day from the VIP prisoners is that they have been framed,” adds the officer. “No one admits that they were involved in misdeeds.”
But while most high-profile prisoners complain about prison conditions, one exception is former provincial lawmaker Deepak Manange, who is serving a sentence at Dilli Bazar Jail for attempted murder.
“He is the happiest prisoner here,” says a warden. “Unlike the others, he doesn’t claim to have been framed, in fact he doesn’t seem to care that he is in prison.”
Manange is detained in the ‘Kha (ख)’ block of the prison complex, which he renovated at his own expense. The block previously housed female prisoners, but Manange used his influence to transfer them elsewhere. He faces no shortage of visitors, who range from political leaders to people from the underworld.
Along with Manange, other well-known prisoners in this block include Nepal Telecom Managing Director Sunil Poudel, and former executive director of the Surakshan Printing Centre Bikal Poudel, who are serving time for corruption.
Former prisoners at Dilli Bazar prison include ex-ministers Khum Bahadur Khadka and Shyam Sundar Gupta, NC leader Ganesh Lama, Maoist MP Balkrishna Dhungel, Nagarik Unmukti Party leader Resham Chaudhary, as well as former IGs Ramesh Chand Thakuri, Om Bikram Rana, and Hem Bahadur Gurung.
Section 54 of Nepal’s Prison Act assigns each prison’s internal administration the
responsibility of governing its prisoners, which means the more favourable the jail management is, the more comfortable it is for prisoners.
Dilli Bazar prison has been the prison of choice for many high-ranking prisoners, especially those convicted of white collar crimes, due to its more accommodating administrators. The prison, which has the capacity to house 700 inmates, is also less crowded than other jails.
Anuj Bhattarai, spokesperson of the Department of Prison Management, says that there is no legal classification in Nepal for felons to be assigned prisons based on the nature of their crimes.
“That Dilli Bazar Jail has a higher number of prisoners convicted of crimes like corruption is most likely a coincidence,” says Bhattarai. “There is no provision for influential people to be able to choose where they will be incarcerated.”&nbsp;
Translated by Shristi Karki from the Nepali original published in himalkhabar.com

What Nepal’s VIP prisoners do in jail

If you were raised in Nepal, you must have picked up its unique set of vocabulary: आन्दोलन, चक्का जाम, बन्द, राँके जुलुस, आफ्नो मान्छे, हाम्रो दल, कर्फु and many more words connoting political protest.
We became familiar with the acrid smell of burning tyres, and eyes smarting from tear gas. And yet, everyone speaks of another revolution in the making. Not by desire, but by suffocation.
We heard speeches about नयाँ नेपाल, but the New Nepal never arrived. The governance system changed, but it did not reflect on people’s lives — except for those close to centres of power. The state is still unreachable and is not bothered about <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/matter-of-life-and-debt">victims of loan sharks</a>, cooperative scams and other injustices.
Politicians continue to speak in sound bites, but fail to deliver. They have mastered the game of pointing fingers towards an external enemy and convincing people that they are never at fault. The political narrative is so disconnected from the actual analysis of the problem that suffocation doesn’t go away after every revolution.
No genuine effort has been made to deliver at all, which is why there is a palpable sense of disillusionment in the air forcing us to seek another revolution, even if Nepal may not be able to afford it.
How has the current system successfully held power, even if the public is deeply frustrated? How is it that for three decades we continue to be led by the same faces, who have time and again, proved to us that they may be great politicians but not national leaders?
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/improving-internet-governance-in-nepal">My experience at the epicentre of politics</a> has led me to identify three cultures that have enabled political parties to keep a tight hold on power: acceptance, silence and dependency.
We accept things the way they are. We use fatalistic phrases like “नेपालमा यस्तै हो” or “नेपालको कानुन दैब जानुन”. While this resilience enables us to rise back up from devastating calamities, it is also a reason for our compliance with the status quo.
Despite so many ‘revolutions’ that have led to significant reforms, these phrases keep getting reinforced, to the point that the upcoming generations have made it their lingo.&nbsp;
This acceptance is not a symbol of law-abiding citizens, but citizens living in fear of those in power, unable to ask the whys and why-nots.
Innovation suffocates in this culture of acceptance of the status quo. This is manifested in remarks like “but we don’t have any laws for this,” or “we don’t have the capacity to implement this”. An innovator or entrepreneur therefore has to spend that energy to become a political lobbyist, often educating and convincing the bureaucracy.&nbsp;
Remember when locally assembled <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/designed-and-made-in-nepal">Yatri motorbikes</a>, despite having willing customers, had to suffer to secure license numbers because of a lack of regulations? Instead of creating new laws, the government kept chanting the “We will promote Nepal-made goods” mantra, leaving entrepreneurs in a labyrinth of bureaucracy. The weight of acceptance of the law lies heavily on innovators. Fatalism is a tactic used by those in power to generate mass fear in society.
When we accept, we become silent. This is a pervasive phenomenon. We are trained to keep quiet, lest we ruffle feathers, burn bridges, or not get the help we need in future. We know, yet we don’t speak.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/bureaucratic-hurdles-in-researching-nepals-bureaucracy">Bureaucratic hurdles in researching Nepal's bureaucracy</a>, Daniel W Edwards
Here is one example: the 2021 census shows that the number of baby boys born for every 100 baby girls is 112. This is a clear indication of female foeticide because of boy preference in society.
Despite such horrifying realities, there is finger-pointing within the government between the Ministry of Health and Population with the Ministry of Home Affairs. At the citizen level, we know those who are involved in killing girls. Yet, we don’t speak up. The Nepal Medical Council reports state that despite this gender imbalance at birth, there is no indication of any action.
But why would anyone speak against one's own fraternity, no matter how vile the act is?
When we accept and keep quiet, we become dependent on those who yield power. From getting our government procedure completed on time to getting transfers, to accessing any of our legally protected rights as well, we are forced to depend on our networks of चिनेको मान्छे people we know by blood, village, relations, political affiliation.
The culture of dependency has been the established way in Nepal. If you drive a two-wheeler or four-wheeler, and you get into a small accident, you will be asked to sort it yourself, dialing up the most powerful person you know. It becomes a competition of who knows who.
Recently I was told that there were calls from the Ministry of Health and Population and another from the Prime Minister's Office for just one medical position in a private hospital. Each was pushing its own candidate. Guess which candidate got the position.&nbsp;
The dependency of people is not on the laws or the state, it is with people in power, a reliance on the network of somebody who knows somebody, including those not officially in power.
These cultures are deeply ingrained in our heads, and in society. Collectively they form a vicious circle that helps those in power to retain power. This is not the society we want to live in.
Then, what do we do as a collective to break away from this? How do we break away from the cultures of acceptance and silence that have created this dependency? What can we do to ensure that our children do not have to learn the jargon of आन्दोलन before they learn about the state?
These are the cultures political parties need to shed rather than use them to perpetuate their power. This is what <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/an-alternative-to-alternative-politics-in-nepal">alternative politics</a> needs to be about.
Sumana Shrestha is a member of Parliament’s Education, Health and Information Technology parliamentary committee and represents the Rastriya Swatantara Party.

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