<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121148/636ce5649c7e80680e096705jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="947" height="1500"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Countries across the world are using technology to organise, manage, prevent and track Covid-19 rates, while Nepal has fallen behind in the pandemic app race.China, being the first country to contract Covid-19, was naturally first off the mark to launch a ‘<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.mobileeventguide.healthcode&amp;hl=en_US&amp;gl=US" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">health code</a>’ app nationwide. Installing the app was made mandatory by the government, and while many labelled it a breach of privacy and part of China’s state surveillance system, it was also the only effective way to control the virus across a wide population.The app directed people to stay indoors, report their travel history and share knowledge of any symptoms they may be experiencing. Each user then received a coloured QR code to indicate their infection status: red for those considered infected by the virus, yellow for those who may have come into contact with a Covid-positive person, and green code for those who seemed fine and virus-free. Public spaces could only be accessed with a green QR code, to ensure that a Covid-positive individual doesn’t enter, say, a shopping mall and endanger others.India followed China in its contact tracing app (CTA) strategy and method when Prime Minister Modi’s office set up a committee to guide and quickly launch the ‘<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nic.goi.aarogyasetu&amp;hl=en_US&amp;gl=US" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AarogyaSetu</a>’ app. AarogyaSetu is Sanskrit for ‘the bridge for liberation from disease’.It was pretty clear that the Indian government was activating a robust PR campaign around the app as soon as it was launched on both Android and iOS app stores. Indian celebrities such as national cricket captain Virat Kohli and Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn endorsed the app via video clips requesting citizens to safeguard themselves from getting infected, The app crossed 100 million downloads and broke Pokemon Go’s record of being the fastest growing app ever.It has been one year since the app came into mandatory practice, and now airports, malls, clinics and local businesses ask Indian citizens to show their AarogyaSetu app to report their Covid status before they come into contact. As in China, the app uses the green-if-negative and red-if-positive simple <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/business/china-coronavirus-surveillance.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">colour-based communication</a>.The app is not based on prediction but strives for accuracy in reporting. In major cities like Mumbai, the government sends a home testing medical team to test members of households, and if their report is positive, it automatically updates their Covid status on the app, which is linked to their Aadhar Card (government-issued ID).In the United States the federal government did not launch an official app or impose any mandatory rules to use CTAs. Instead, local governments collaborated with Apple and Google to develop regional apps relying on Bluetooth technology, but only for those who wish to use it. These apps ensure user safety by promising not to store personal information on their servers. A survey revealed that roughly 39% of US citizens supported or accepted the use of CTAs to control the pandemic, compared to a whopping 80% in China, indirectly suggesting that the Chinese have more trust in their government institutions than the Americans.Unlike these large economies that developed quick action digital tools under tight timelines, Germany came up with the ‘<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.rki.coronawarnapp&amp;hl=en_US&amp;gl=US" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Corona-Warn-App</a>’ months later, without any rush, taking its time to tackle possible data privacy issues. The download of the German app is voluntary, and it is designed to respect people’s privacy by not permanently storing personal information.Iceland launched its ‘<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=is.landlaeknir.rakning&amp;hl=en_US&amp;gl=US" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rakning C-19</a>’ last April, being the country with the highest penetration of any CTA in the world (40% of Icelanders were adopting apps). However, the Icelandic Covid response team claimed that the app alone did not result in high impact. Manual tracing techniques like phone calls were more effective and required alongside the digital tool.Iceland and a few other European countries have been proponents of free but responsible movement, trusting the citizens to follow guidelines without requiring hefty fines that force them to conform. Sweden, however, has flatly rejected the idea of an official tracking app, despite having more Covid-19 cases than neighbours Denmark and Finland.Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and other West Asian countries have rolled out CTAs with Bluetooth tracing, but Qatar has gone a step further warning that citizens who do not cooperate and install the app may face up to three years in jail.Bahrain set a record this year by being the first country with a CTA that allows users to book free vaccine appointments via the ‘<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bh.bahrain.corona.tracker&amp;hl=en_US&amp;gl=US" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BeAware</a>’ app, even letting people choose between the Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinopharm vaccines. Bahrain quickly became the second mostst vaccinated country in the world after Israel.Here in Nepal, the government launched the ‘<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=np.com.naxa.covid19&amp;hl=ne&amp;gl=US" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hamro Swasthya</a>’ app to disseminate information about the pandemic. It is a collaboration between several IT startups and the Ministry of Health and Population to financially and technically support the government in developing an effective app.With over 300,000 app downloads and over 5 million site views, the app offers national Covid-19 updates, but not regional or local detailed information that would help people navigate their areas smartly. There is no guarantee of data privacy or any marketing campaign launched to promote the app’s usage.This lack of transparency and quality of software development is classic governmental mode of functioning. It is ticking the basic boxes and producing a low-cost, low-quality product that neither attracts nor engages the user with well-planned, well-designed communication.Hamro Swasthya is available in both English and Nepali, and the top feature is the Covid self-assessment test that is a questionnaire asking the user to fill personal information along with answers to questions about symptoms faced and recent travel (note: it does not ask for domestic travel history, only international) in order to make an educated guess on whether the user has contracted the virus or not.There is a section on plasma donation, with a form for both donors and those who require a blood donation. Another feature is the suspect report, where anybody can complain about anybody who they suspect is a Covid-positive individual. This feature is clearly not thoroughly thought out, as it can be easily misused.There is a nationwide map to guide people to the nearest hospital, but there is plenty of room of improvement regarding the UX/UI and information provided (lack of address and phone numbers). The best sign of a good app is how often it is improved and optimised. But as the government started rolling out vaccines, information regarding availability is missing in Hamro Swasthya.Saniaa Shah writes this fortnightly column, Tech-Away for Nepali Times. She runs Studio Aakar, a film production studio. Her marketing career helped her develop a keen interest in tech and digital culture.

Saniaa Shah

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Tap, Track, Trace and Test

<figure><img width="1000" height="667" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141136/636bad0c9c7e80680e077f6cjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>High prices, technological limitations and unreliable connectivity threaten to slow the explosive growth of Nepal’s internet market during the COVID-19 lockdown even though everything from recreation to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/online-classes-may-widen-digital-divide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/online-classes-may-widen-digital-divide/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1594636319290000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGlQBvbmcUscdPIWaaKzNL8w6dMBw">education</a> and employment <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/coronavirus-and-the-world-wide-web/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/coronavirus-and-the-world-wide-web/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1594636319290000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEHI8lRd4o5sqJOtOppMPWH2ocQQQ">have gone online. </a>Latest figures from the Nepal Network Operators’ Group (NNOG) show a 35% <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/coronavirus-and-the-world-wide-web/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/coronavirus-and-the-world-wide-web/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1594636319290000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEHI8lRd4o5sqJOtOppMPWH2ocQQQ">increase in internet consumption</a> in the past nearly four months of lockdown. In comparison, pre-lockdown growth of the internet market stood at just 23% per year, according the Group’s CEO Samit Jana Thing. “While pre-lockdown internet consumption stood at 1486 gigabytes per second, post-lockdown levels reach as high as 2100 gigabytes per second,” says Thing, “We have seen a sharp rise in online entertainment with Netflix, TikTok, online ludo and other virtual pastimes.”Traditional giants Facebook, Google and Amazon have also clocked increased hours on their social media, virtual meeting and e-commerce platforms. Google and Facebook alone dominate 82% of all internet traffic in Nepal. Most of the data went through mobile phones and cable internet, with only 11% on wifi.   Multiple price hikes, including a 13% Telecommunications Service Charge on top of 13% VAT and 4% royalty fees, have made internet in Nepal relatively expensive. Nepal also ‘imports’ most of its internet bandwidth through Indian companies such as Tata Communications and Airtel, and is therefore affected by price swings there. This dependence on fibre optic cable corridors to India often leave Nepal’s internet connections vulnerable to network failures, says the Director of Nepal Telecommunications Authority Bijay Kumar Roy. Most of Nepal’s internet comes through cables gateways at the Bhairawa, Duhabi, Tanakpur and Dhalkebar borders with India.   Nepal’s attempt to diversify its internet connectivity has been stymied by even higher prices of bandwidth from China. Despite and agreement with China Telecom Global for cyber connectivity, only a few domestic Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are getting their cyber connections through the Rasuwa border from China where there is also the problem of unreliability because of the terrain and extreme weather on the Tibetan Plateau. Work is ongoing to open another internet gateway through the Kodari border.The NTA says that although mobile phone have now reached full saturation, only 72% of the population uses the internet regularly, up from only 7% ten years ago.  But most complaints from customers are about slow internet from ISPs.The pattern of internet use has also changed during the lockdown. Previously, people going online peaked in the evenings. But in the past four months, there is constantly heavy traffic as Nepal has seen an <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mobile-nepal-is-hooked-on-youtube/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mobile-nepal-is-hooked-on-youtube/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1594636319290000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF8WbP-GFU-70BBY9bbdE-oj9DSwA">explosive growth in YouTube use</a> – up from virtually zero in 2018 to 34% last year, and then almost doubling to 60% this year.The bandwidth often is too narrow to support this kind of traffic in Nepal’s international gateway and local networks. The crossborder connections are through underground fibre optic cable that connect ISPs to India’s Airtel and Tata.Within Nepal, local caches for YouTube and Google use <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/bringing-silicon-valley-to-kathmandu-valley/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/bringing-silicon-valley-to-kathmandu-valley/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1594636319291000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHL8mvo0dWE8Sl_lCbVYZ8CSUUuoQ">artificial intelligence</a> to ‘pre-fetch’ popular content into their own servers so they do not always have to use international connections to source the material. One-third of all downloaded content during the lockdown was from Google, with  YouTube being the most popular.

Nepal internet use increases by 35% during lockdown

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101124/636b71f59c7e80680e0600fcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="592" height="1500"/><figcaption>Illustration : BHANU BHATTARAI</figcaption></figure>While citizens in Western democracies try to get their governments to combat the misuse of their private data by internet companies, here in Nepal the concern is about the state itself <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/spooking-nepalis-by-snooping-on-them/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prying on citizens</a>.Silicon Valley companies whose values exceed the GDP of medium-sized countries thrive in collecting and selling data in the free market of surveillance capitalism. As these companies become more powerful, governments, especially in Europe, are under pressure to protect the privacy of citizens. Nepal, on the other hand, seems to want to practice surveillance communism.What alerts us to this looming danger is the recent convergence of the Criminal Code penalising social media content, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/long-shadows/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Media Council Bill</a>,  and the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/rule-by-law/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Information Technology Bill</a> with the Special Services Bill and the acquisition of sophisticated eavesdropping technology by the state.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/no-freedom-after-expression/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">No Freedom After Expression </a> , Kiran NepalNo doubt, all governments need surveillance technology to control crime and terrorism by giving the intelligence community the proper wherewithal. But in all democracies, there are legal safeguards in place to protect unwarranted spying on citizens that would infringe on their fundamental right to privacy.What is worrisome in Nepal is that the state security apparatus and investigation agencies are not just being allowed to import surveillance technology: the government is simultaneously pushing legislation that would remove current restrictions on their use.This is made even more dangerous by the fact that it is happening at a time of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/14-years-after-conflict-no-closure-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unprecedented impunity, the collapse of accountability of public officials</a>, an epidemic of extortion and corruption, and an open <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/crushers-of-justice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">politico-criminal nexus</a>. The past record of the hacking of Nepal government agency websites and the rise in cybercrime does not inspire confidence in confidentiality safeguards.Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/gagging-the-press-in-installments/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gagging the press in installments</a>, Sewa BhattaraiNepal’s spy agencies have been on a shopping spree to import Russian, Chinese and Malaysian speech forensics technology, CCTV cameras, SIM locators, Digital Information Systems, Mobile Device Management Systems, and International Mobile Subscriber Catchers.The Central Investigation Bureau has acquired SIM locators that will allow it to pinpoint where the user is without having to go through a telecommunication provider and obtain a court warrant.The National Investigation Bureau which has been brought directly under the Prime Minister’s Office this month called for bids to establish a Digital Information System to integrate the data flow of various security and intelligence agencies. The Nepal Telecommunication Authority is soon getting a Rs1 billion Mobile Device Management System to keep track of phone users from the Malaysian company Nuemera (M) Sdn Bhd, which was linked in 2017 to a data leak involving 46.2 million Malaysian mobile phone accounts.Read Also:  <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-undermining-free-expression-hrw/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal undermining free expression</a>The government has also loosened regulations governing the use of CCTV cameras, and the import of these devices doubled in 2019 to Rs970 million from the previous year. The Special Services Bill in Parliament would also allow International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) ‘Catcher’ that can intercept and tap phones. The use of these surveillance devices is so sensitive that the European Court of Justice has actually outlawed them.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/spooking-nepalis-by-snooping-on-them/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Special Services Bill</a> gives the chief of the National Investigation Bureau the sole authority to tap phones, without a court permission. Given the prevalence of blackmail and extortion against political and business rivals, the risk of abuse of this spyware is unacceptably high in Nepal. For example, police last week leaked CCTV footage of an altercation at Kathmandu domestic airport between a female police officer at the security check and singer Astha Raut. A state agency that has no qualms about flouting rules about proper use of footage has no right to be tapping phones.Putting together these recent decisions, new laws and pending bills in Parliament, the ruling NCP seems intent on extending control, spying on citizens to intimidate them, and silencing dissent. In most democracies, governments make laws to protect the privacy of citizens. Nepal makes laws to snoop on them.Read also:<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2016/11/21/the-surveillance-state/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Surveillance State</a><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/creeping-control-over-the-press-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Creeping control over the press in Nepal</a> Ajay Pradhan<h2>10 years ago this week</h2>Prime Minister Oli last week accused editors of “not having a heart”, and his ruling NCP is trying to push laws restricting press freedom. Not much different than ten years ago when it was the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led Maoists who were doing it. Looks like the ex-democratic UML is no fan of a free media. Excerpt from an editorial in <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/issue/486" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#487</a> of 29 Jan-4 Feb 2010.Pushpa Kamal Dahal has done it again. He is once more blaming the messenger, the ‘big media houses’ for undermining his party. Usually when a politician repeats his accusation, it reinforces its significance. But with Dahal, the ranting now seems to have the opposite effect. He has cried wolf so often that the remark made during a speech in Sindhuli on Monday went either unreported, or was relegated to the inside pages.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101124/636b71f79c7e80680e0600fdjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="515" height="800">Yet there is a sinister undercurrent here. The Maoists have made no attempt to hide their contempt for the notion of a free press, just as they have for nonviolent pluralistic politics. Dahal went on to accuse the media of being ‘anti-nationalist.’ This has always been the Maoist method.

In a surveillance state

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y85epyHUvjo&amp;feature=youtu.beFor those who think that Nepal is too underdeveloped to make full use of <a href="https://fusemachines.com.np/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">artificial intelligence</a> (AI), think again. That is exactly what they used to say about computers and mobile phones in the 1990s.It may come as a surprise to many that Nepal has been gaining ground in AI, developing not only software using machine learning algorithms but producing world-class engineers. One company at the forefront is <a href="https://fusemachines.com.np/">Fusemachines Nepal</a>, which has started using industry experts to train AI students with cutting-edge technology to deliver intelligent solutions.“I wanted to see if I can contribute in bringing the best AI education to Nepal and make Nepal known around the world as one of the best sources of AI talent,” says the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/review/Sameer-Maskey-revolutionalizing-customer-service-through-Fuse-Machines,1069" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepali founder of Fusemachines, Sameer Maskey</a>, a professor at Columbia University.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a95dd9c7e80680e05dc32jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>All Photos: MONIKA DEUPALA/SONIA AWALE</figcaption></figure>This is the age of surveillance capitalism, where algorithms determine election outcomes, Siri knows what you want before you do, wearables correctly deduce the state of the heart and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/so-you-want-to-quit-facebook/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a> recognises friends.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/natural-intelligence/">Natural Intelligence</a>, Duksangh Sherpa<a style="background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/outdated-laws-limited-ecommerce-hold-back-tech-industry%20,3547">Kathmandu's Silicon Alley and the Law</a>, Sonia AwaleAI simply imitates human thinking by recognising patterns in data, so that repetitive everyday work can be done by machines that learn as they go along.Nepal missed the bus on natural resource processing, manufacturing and <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/outdated-laws-limited-ecommerce-hold-back-tech-industry%20,3547" target="_blank" rel="noopener">information technology</a>. But experts say that training a critical mass of engineers in AI can allow the country’s economy to leapfrog and become globally competitive.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a95e09c7e80680e05dc33jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="450"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a95e29c7e80680e05dc34jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="450"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img title="page-14-15d" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a95e49c7e80680e05dc35jpeg.jpg" alt="page-14-15d"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a95e69c7e80680e05dc36jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="450"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Fusemachines Director of Academic Affairs Bülent Uyaniker, who was in Nepal recently, rejects the notion that Nepal is not ready for artificial intelligence applications. “It is happening already, it is inevitable. If there can be 8<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-message-is-the-medium/">.5 million Facebook users</a> in Nepal, then it has the special conditions for AI.”Proof of this is the increasing number of software companies in Nepal using local engineering talent to work on software solutions for customers in North America or Europe. However, most of the engineers and recent graduates need training in AI to keep up with customer requirements. America alone will need 200,000 data scientists in the next five years, and most of these will come from the UK, Finland, Canada, Singapore, China and India.Which is why Fusemachines Nepal is also emphasising education. Says the head of its global operations and strategy, Sumana Shrestha: “You cannot learn AI in a one-day bootcamp, it needs intelligent mathematics, but there is a huge demand versus supply gap for engineers proficient in machine learning or other AI components everywhere.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a95e89c7e80680e05dc37jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">Read also:<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/it-is-all-about-it-in-nepal,3887" target="_blank" rel="noopener">It's all about IT</a>, Sahina Shrestha<a style="background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/drones-to-the-rescue/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Drones to the rescue</a>, Lucia de VriesNepal established itself as a sought after destination in the past 20 years <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/it-is-all-about-it-in-nepal,3887" target="_blank" rel="noopener">for outsourcing services</a> such as software and app development, website design and big data management to overseas clients, mostly due to the country’s inexpensive English-speaking workforce.This move from IT to AI will not just create jobs in Nepal, but also allow the country to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/drones-to-the-rescue/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increase efficiency and productivity in the workplace</a>. General practitioners in rural hospitals will be able to make diagnoses faster so they can spend more time with patients, high-risk individuals can be identified with <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/think-pink-breast%20cancer-diagnosis-treatment,3877" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cancer screening</a>, and targeted advertising and customised itineraries will lure <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/bringing-in-two-miilion-tourists,3551">potential tourists during Visit Nepal 2020</a>.Recently, a group of engineering students developed a model to help <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/are-you-sick-of-chicken/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">poultry</a> entrepreneurs understand fowl behaviour and the state of their animals’ health, helping them to raise the farm’s business profile.“With precision livestock farming we can generate patterns to help farmers recognise symptoms before an outbreak of a disease by implementing AI components such as image processing and deep learning,” explained engineering student Sajil Awale at Pulchok Engineering Campus. “This allows for timely intervention to prevent mass deaths and reduce losses.”Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/tap-and-tour%20,3638" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tap and tour</a>, Clara BullockComputer vision (which enables computers to see and process images as humans would) can also help identify rotten fruit swiftly, and prevent <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/banned-pesticides-are-widely-used-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">misuse of pesticides</a> by identifying areas on the farm that require chemicals, and the amounts needed. AI can also estimate future harvests, allowing farmers time to find markets for produce.Engineers at Fusemachines Nepal are working on Nepal’s first optical character recognition (OCR) system so forms filled out with Nepali handwriting can be digitised and translated into English. This will have huge scope in Nepal’s banking, hospital and government sectors, where pen and paper continues to be the norm.Sixit Bhatta, CEO of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/three-toots-for-tootle/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ride-sharing startup Tootle</a>, says Nepal is ripe for AI applications: “Our efforts now should be on preparing for a world in which machines perform skills-oriented tasks and for humans to take on the roles that require creativity and empathy. But before that, the government should design policies that allow AI to grow, and not restrict it.”Sumana Shrestha at Fusemachines Nepal says that as long as salaries for clerical staff are low, there is less potential for AI to flourish. But she adds: “The curse of cheap labour means companies will prefer to employ people to do repetitive work. But sooner or later, AI will be here. Nepal needs to develop despite government. And the private sector needs to prepare itself for disruption.”Coming to terms with AI Artificial Intelligence: Ability of computer systems or machines to make a decision like humans, or the ability to perform tasks requiring human intelligenceMachine Learning: A subset of artificial intelligence that provides a system with the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed, relying on patterns generated from dataDeep Learning: Machine learning that is applied on a large set of data, also known as deep neural learning that uses deep neural networks to model complicated dataNatural Language Processing: Interaction between computers and human languages, deals with programming computers to process and analyse natural (human) language, this field of AI processes, analyses, interprets and distills information from human languagesComputer Vision: Enables computers to see, identify and process images in the same way that human vision doesImage Processing: Part of computer vision that entails analysis and manipulation to find insights from a digitised imageBig Data: Extremely large data sets on which AI is applied to reveal patterns, trends and associations and make decisions<h2>Making Nepalis artificially intelligent</h2><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a95ec9c7e80680e05dc38jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="990"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>During a visit to Nepal six years ago, Columbia University professor Sameer Maskey handpicked three students from engineering schools across Kathmandu who were able to solve a mathematical equation. The three went on to become the core of <a href="https://www.fusemachines.com/">Fusemachines</a>, a global company that aims to democratise artificial intelligence (AI) through education and software solutions.Headquartered in New York, Fusemachines has since opened branches in Canada, UK and the Dominican Republic to develop intelligent software solutions that have transformed brands and businesses around the world. One of its biggest operations is in Nepal, Fusemachines employs 100 top Nepali software engineers who work on projects that use AI applications in fields ranging from telecommunications and banking to hospitals and governance.Unlike other back office companies that work on outsourced software development, Fusemachines is a school in itself, training engineers while coming up with product solutions.“We employ senior engineers and industry experts with PhDs along with upcoming engineers, who work together to solve client-specific problems though AI,” explains <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/share-a-ride-Kathmandu,2738" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sumana Shrestha</a> who heads Fusemachines’ global operations and strategy. “Such collaborative approach allows young talent to continuously learn and grow.”Following Maskey’s vision, Fusemachines tries to make AI accessible to everyone through education, which is why it initially offered training fellowships and then, to meet the demand for engineers, launched AI Shikshya — a year-long, in-house training program.“With our own proprietary platform and content we have partnered with engineering colleges in Kathmandu to offer AI,” says Shrestha. “The program is a blend of online and on-site, the course material is not too academic, is industry focused and instructors are seasoned engineers up to date with new algorithms.”The company also has its own AI schools, open to professionals who want to grow their business or anyone interested. Fusemachines also offers a foundation course, open to high school graduates. A year-long, micro-degree program consisting of four major courses — including machine learning, deep thinking, natural language processing and computer vision — will be the next step.“In school we were always presented with clean data sets to work on but that is rarely the case on the job. But this year-long training program gets people ready to take on real-life problems and provide AI solutions,” says Rojesh Shikharkar, engineer at Fusemachines Nepal and a post-grad at Pulchok Engineering Campus.Apart from training, Fusemachines has given engineers who would otherwise have migrated to work in the US and Europe an opportunity to find meaningful work in Nepal.Says Shrestha: “If you create opportunities here, people might actually stay, and once we have mass education in artificial intelligence, companies here will start adopting and see the value of AI products, ensuring more opportunities at home.”

Sonia Awale

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Bringing Silicon Valley to Kathmandu Valley

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108111152/636a358a9c7e80680e0482b6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1200"/><figcaption>Pic: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>With 91% of individuals now owning at least one mobile device and almost half of them smartphones, the number of Nepalis using the Internet is rising exponentially. Among them, Facebook and its Messenger app is the most popular, according to the Nepal Media Survey 2019 conducted by Sharecast Initiative.There are now more than 8 million Nepalis with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/face-to-face-with-facebook/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook </a>accounts, and almost 88% of 4,129 respondents to the survey say they use Facebook, while 45% are on Messenger.Read also:<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=24697&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New news</a>, Editorial<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=24646&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepalis are drifting to digital media</a>, Madhu Acharya and Bhumiraj ChapagainFacebook and Messenger are far ahead of the second most popular social media app, IMO, used by 35% of respondents, while 34% regularly access YouTube. The Nepali app HamroPatro has now notched 4%.Facebook is also increasingly the preferred source of news and information about local, national and international happenings. Almost 5% of respondents use Facebook to learn about local events, and 9% rely on it for national and international news. Despite that, the level of trust for Facebook content is low (2%) compared to mainstream <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/amateur-radio-as-vital-source-of-info-for-future-disasters,2816" target="_blank" rel="noopener">radio</a>, tv and newspapers. This indicates that Nepali Internet users do not necessarily trust the most popular Internet sites.Read also:<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=24724&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal is becoming a nation of net addicts</a>, Sabina DevkotaUser-generated content appears to be lower in Nepal than in other countries, meaning most respondents appear to be only consumers of information. Nearly three-quarters of those questioned say they have never posted about local issues on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-new-reality-of-nepals-virtual-celebrities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">social media</a>, and only 1% actually post local happenings on their walls.Another Facebook-owned platform, Instagram, is used by a much lower proportion (4.2%), although it appears to be more popular among urban educated youth. Twitter usage is almost negligible (1.2%).Inevitably, growing access to mobile phones and the Internet has increased the use of Facebook and other media. 95% of households now own mobile phones, on average 2.5 devices per home. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/mr-province-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Province 2 </a>has the highest mobile phone ownership – 96.8% at the household level – followed by Gandaki province at 94.6%.  Even though use of broadband and wifi has not reached rural areas, mobile data services from telecommunication companies like<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-telecom-or-go/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> NCell and NTC </a>have facilitated social media usage in rural Nepal. Mobile data usage is highest in the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-superwomen-beat-superstition/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Far west</a> at 80%.

Facebook nation

Nepal won the first two matches, clinching the T20 series in the UAE, making history: this is the country’s first ever win, and series win, against a Test-playing country.&nbsp; On Tuesday night, Nepal lost the last game by 10 wickets. The West Indies easily met Nepal’s 122 runs in 19.5 overs. Despite that, Nepal had beaten the two-time T20 World Champions which is currently number 6 in T20 rankings. It is important to note that the West Indies are fielding a significantly weaker and younger team than they could. Caribbean heavy hitters Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell and Shimron Hetmyer are currently resting or playing in domestic leagues. But that does not take away from the fact that, after two narrow misses against South Africa and Bangladesh at the 2024 T20 World Cup, Nepal has now beaten a Test-Playing nation, and done so convincingly.&nbsp; Nepal won the first match of the series on 27 September by 19 runs. Batting first after winning the toss, Nepal put up 148 for 8 after losing openers Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh early.&nbsp; Rohit Paudel’s 38 and Kushal Malla’s 30 steadied the innings, and 148 was a reasonable target to defend on the tricky Sharjah pitch. The young Windies dropped a series of catches.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251001031052_5f24273f6da2f52f6414b7ecc485938a4c726431bfa7c2ba435bded3debe9f5a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20251001031052_5f24273f6da2f52f6414b7ecc485938a4c726431bfa7c2ba435bded3debe9f5a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal defeats West Indies NT 1"> </figure>  Nepal’s fielding, in contrast, was excellent as it held the West Indies to 129 for 8. Dipendra Singh Airee and Kushal Bhurtel both had run outs, and the team held on to tricky catches throughout.&nbsp; The last ball of the match, with it already won, saw Bhurtel catch Fabian Allen off of Airee’s bowling, throw the ball in the air before stepping outside the boundary, before jumping back in to complete the catch legally.&nbsp; Head coach Stuart Law, former Australian Cricketer, was pleased with the performance. “We deserved it, we played a really good game of cricket. I thought our fielding in the first 15-17 overs was outstanding,” he said, predicting, “the West Indies will be hurt, they’re a proud nation. They’ll come out red-hot on Monday, so we got to be better than tonight.”&nbsp; Bhurtel was ecstatic at having beaten the two-time T20 World Champions. He pointed to the team’s versatility as a big strength. “We have a lot of players who can both bat and bowl. Gulsan (Jha) and Kushal Malla did not bowl at all, and Lalit (Rajbhansi) did not bowl out all of his overs.” And the team still used seven bowlers.&nbsp; If the first match was a surprise, then the second match was a shock. Nepal put up 173 for 6, with Aasif Sheikh hitting 68 not out and Sundeep Jora 63, the two putting up a hundred run fourth wicket partnership.&nbsp; They then bowled out the West Indies for a humiliating 83, with Mohammad Aadil Alam taking 4 for 24 and Kushal Bhurtel 3 for 16.&nbsp; There was more excellence in the field, with the Nepali team taking seven catches, many of them very tricky ones right on the edge of the ropes. This second win sealed the series victory, also a first for Nepali cricket. The margin of victory and the team’s overall dominance were both very obvious.&nbsp; Nepalis in the UAE showed up at the Sharjah Stadium in full support for the Rhinos, wearing jerseys, flags, and dhaka topis, raucously cheering on the team’s performance.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251001031052_217ceb7078e9c253f8db6fec57911eb8e56822e3fc20d520d39e06f475fd6d65.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20251001031052_217ceb7078e9c253f8db6fec57911eb8e56822e3fc20d520d39e06f475fd6d65" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal defeats West Indies NT 1"> </figure>  Fresh on their minds must have been recent protests back home. The Cricket Association of Nepal dedicated the series to those who lost their lives. Captain Rohit Paudel also dedicated his man of the match award from the first T20 to the 74 people killed last month in Nepal.&nbsp; “Since last one month has not been that great for us, so slowly we are getting better. It is great to give a little happiness to the people of Nepal,” said Paudel.&nbsp; Leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane was notably absent from both matches, having excused himself from the squad for personal reasons.&nbsp; “It is what it is,” said coach Law. “we are a very competitive team and someone has to stand up in his place.”&nbsp; The wins also open the possibilities for further series, with countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan or Zimbabwe.&nbsp; CHASING TESTS  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251001031048_70fed823c34d91dfefc078cb5786c2ea04ad70387fbf09424a5304b926cc3e3c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20251001031048_70fed823c34d91dfefc078cb5786c2ea04ad70387fbf09424a5304b926cc3e3c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="995" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal defeats West Indies"> </figure>  In international cricket, a ‘Test-playing nation’ is a country that is authorised to play Test Matches by the central governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC). Test Matches are the longest format of the sport, lasting up to five days, and are the most prestigious.&nbsp; Currently, this exclusive group is made up of Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe, and Afghanistan.&nbsp; Nepal has a ways to go. To become a Test-playing nation, it must first become a full member of the ICC. To do this, they must consistently qualify for ODI and T20 world cups over eight years, and have at least two ICC-accredited venues for hosting matches — currently only the Tribhuvan University Cricket Ground qualifies.&nbsp; Nepal must also have significant youth development infrastructure, a good domestic setup, and a recognised governing body that is financially stable and not corrupt.&nbsp; With the current development of stadiums across Nepal and innovations such as the Nepal Premier League, and performances such as these, Nepal seems firmly on the way.&nbsp;

2-1 for Nepal against The Windies

Nepal is still reeling from the short but violent GenZ moment, and the reverberations are being felt around the world.&nbsp;
As news from the killings and rampage from Nepal on 8-9 September spread through the wire services and social media, in the Philippines, East Timor and even faraway Peru, banners on the streets last week referred to ‘learning lessons from Nepal’. In Ladakh last week, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/25/bloodiest-day-how-gen-z-protest-wave-hit-indias-ladakh-killing-four">protesters set fire to the ruling BJP party office</a> and four people were killed in police firing.&nbsp;
Nepal’s GenZ was praised by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/opinion/asia-protest-youth-nepal-bangladesh.html">international commentators</a> for rising up against chronic corruption and impunity, and for achieving the fastest regime change in history. But the youth were also blamed for the arson and vandalism even though the groups said they had no part in it — most &nbsp;foreign media also did not highlight enough the infiltration by radical groups.
“We were not expecting the protests to turn so violent and deadly. On the second day, things escalated so quickly it became difficult to keep track. We were rushing on the groud and making calls to confirm what was happening,” recalls Paavan Mathema of Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Nepal.
The GenZ protest this month was a lesson on the mechanics of social media. Hashtags like #youthagainstcorruption and #nepobaby from Indonesia inspired Nepal’s youth to take to the streets, but events here in turn triggered protests elsewhere. The international news agencies and mainstream global tv channels were not as important in this information cross-pollination.
The movement was organised online and spread quickly in no time, but it was disinformation and fake news that spread faster than facts. The over-simplification by international media was because it had to explain 30 years of political evolution in a country that they mostly ignored in the past, this sometimes tended to be misleading.&nbsp;
While the Oli government’s social media ban of 26 platforms starting 5 September poured oil on the fire that had already been lit by a disparate group of desperate youth, their outrage over decades of corruption and impunity was reaching a breaking point. There was extreme disenchantment with serial politicians recycling themselves in power.&nbsp;
“The ban on social media definitely triggered the protest, but we put a high priority on accuracy and speed during reporting in such times,” explains the Nepal correspondent for Associated Press (AP) news agency in Nepal Binaj Gurubacharya. “Our own safety also becomes a prime concern in times like these, but should not be at an expense of accuracy.”
CRISIS REPORTING
But headlines everywhere including in The New York Times, The Guardian and others that used wire service content initially highlighted the social media ban as the main reason for the protest. They were soon called out by protesters, while <a href="https://institute.aljazeera.net/en/ajr/article/3358" target="_blank">Al Jazeera</a> and its <a href="https://institute.aljazeera.net/en" target="_blank">Media Institute </a>were applauded for more nuanced coverage.
Another positive example of international media supplementing the stories by local journalists was <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/" target="_blank">France 24’</a>s detailed <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20250915-nepal-police-protests-violence-kathmandu" target="_blank">forensic analysis</a> of the security forces firing live ammunition at protesters at Parliament on 8 September.&nbsp;
What really went far and wide around the world were dramatic YouTube videos about the violence, and memes on social media. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-accidental-journalist" target="_blank">A British tourist</a> who filmed street protests did the work of an on-the-ground journalist and got millions of views globally for some of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slq6zWu9o9w" target="_blank">his YouTube videos</a>.&nbsp;
But some of the misinformation or fake news on social media was also picked up by the mainstream press, like the <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/nepal-violence-ex-pm-khanals-wife-dies-after-house-torched-president-urges-calm-dialogue/articleshow/123791004.cms">wrongly reported death of former Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal’s wife</a> in an arson attack on their home. A video of the Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel being <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/video-nepal-finance-minister-chased-through-street-kicked-attacked-9243749">chased and beaten</a> by protesters also turned out to be someone else.&nbsp;
Some international outlets, mainly in India, also fell prey to a fake video that K P Oli had fled to Dubai. Even this newspaper’s online edition had to correct it after wrongly reporting it without verification.&nbsp;
Indian tv channels which did &nbsp;extensive coverage of events in Nepal, with many Nepalis relying on them and believing their content — especially during the protests when Nepal’s main channels went off air as they were being attacked.
All this got out of hand, and protesters in the week after the violence started ridiculing and harassing Indian tv correspondents as they tried to interview talking heads outside the charred Parliament building, or on the streets.
<a href="https://www.newslaundry.com/2025/09/09/foreign-hand-gen-z-data-addiction-5-ways-indian-media-missed-the-nepal-story">Indian media</a> were also the first to accuse US involvement in sparking a ‘colour revolution’ in Nepal. They later claimed that former Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) chief and now Energy Minister Kulman Ghising and even Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah have been appointed interim prime minister in Nepal. These were rumours in Nepal, but were reported as news.&nbsp;
“Fact checking is crucial while covering such movements, and since we are telling an important story about Nepal to the world, double checking becomes important as it sets the international narrative,” says Mathema.
“We were constantly double checking numbers and information with concerned authorities and parties to make sure we were accurate, especially as misinformation was rampant,” she adds.
Apart from Indian media, international news agencies got reinforcements of reporters, photojournalists and editors from the region, and other foreign correspondents also flew in when Kathmandu airport was opened after 48 hours.
Adds Mathema: “Sometimes foreign reporters can give a fresh perspective or an angle which we could not see or cover. So their inputs are always helpful.”
In the aftermath of the violence, there were plenty of jokes and memes, clips of protesters dancing, in weird poses and performing martial arts, showcasing the light hearted side of the protests while also <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-meme-revolution">reaffirming the resilience</a> of people able to bounce back from something so traumatic.
The GenZ clean-up campaigns, neighbourhoods helping restore burnt out police stations and local people’s emotional reaction to the burnt out hulks of government buildings at the city centre also <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3325635/nepals-gen-z-protesters-lead-clean-campaign-after-violent-clashes">made news</a>.
“After the protests, people were quick to gather and clean up public spaces and paint police stations. This is a scene which may not be so common in other countries with similar violence,” adds Gurubacharya. “So it became an important story to also tell the world.”&nbsp;
In less than two days, the world saw a dramatic toppling of a democratic government. With the interim government led by former chief justice Sushila Karki, there is much hope. She has expanded her ministerial cabinet, and the election has been announced for 5 March 2026 but between then and now, a lot remains uncertain.&nbsp;
And Nepal will continue to be watched by national and international media alike until then and after. AP’s Gurubacharya sums it up: “For now, we are taking it one day at a time.”

International spotlight on Nepal

From the echo chambers of social media to neighborhood tea shops, the hot topic two weeks after the GenZ revolt toppled Nepal’s government is whether the country should now have a directly elected prime minister. Although this has been proposed before as a way to end the instability in heads of government chosen by the biggest party or coalition in Parliament, it has found supporters and critics in the aftermath of the protests. As democratic as it sounds, a directly elected executive is not that simple.&nbsp; Nepal’s 2015 Constitution does not allow it, but for a young generation impatient for change, this demand raises critical social, political and constitutional questions. Nepal has seen a multiplicity of systems in the past 45 years: from a partyless absolute monarchy to a constitutional one, a parliamentary democracy and then a federal republic. But they have repeatedly failed to bring stability, good governance or an end to corruption in Nepal. But even though lately they have ensured civil liberties, the public was losing hope for the future, especially the young who could air and amplify their outrage on social media. Unbridled corruption and ideologically mismatched fragile coalitions acting with impunity, led many to conclude that a directly elected prime minister would ensure stability and accountability. ‘We have repeatedly trusted the same political parties, but they have repeatedly broken that trust, so it is no longer possible to trust that system anymore,’ says Miraj Dhungana, popular for the TikTok videos asking young people to go out into the streets to rally against corruption, and seen by many as the ‘original’ representative of Gen Z.&nbsp; In interviews he has stated that it has become necessary for Nepal to have a directly elected executive head through constitutional amendment. Dhungana himself did not participate in the protests after his meeting with pro-monarchist businessman Durga Prasai on 7 September sparked controversy that he as a lackey. Binod Deuba Thakuri of the Nepal Student Union who also participated in the GenZ protests thinks Nepal is institutionally not ready for directly elected prime minister: “Our democracy is not mature yet, our institutions are not strong, and we are vulnerable to social media induced populism.”&nbsp; CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT Amending the Constitution would also open a pandora’s box, with other demands, and should be left to the next legislative body, he adds. In her address to the nation on Friday, Prime Minister Sushila Karki who is a former chief justice also clarified that her interim government does not have the mandate to amend the Constitution to make way for a directly elected head of government, and it should be up to the new legislature and government after the 5 March election.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250919130956_799b2d43dccca73b3bff96e435efc0752203117b2cb219d0073994c0e6f2ee25.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250919130956_799b2d43dccca73b3bff96e435efc0752203117b2cb219d0073994c0e6f2ee25" data-rendition-name="original" width="4160" height="2774" loading="lazy" alt="Constitution Day NT"> <figcaption>Constitution Day address by Prime Minister Sushila Karki on 19th September earlier this month.</figcaption> </figure>  The demand for a directly elected executive head was first raised by Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal after the 2006 ceasefire. He proposed himself as Nepal’s first executive president ahead of the 2008 Constituent Assembly elections. While the UML did not strongly oppose the idea, the Nepali Congress (NC) stuck to a parliamentary framework. The 2015 Constitution ultimately clinched it for the current parliamentary system. The Constitution stipulates that the process of selecting a prime minister is based on parliamentary strength: the President appoints the leader of the party with a majority in the House of Representatives, or, in the absence of such a majority, a member who can demonstrate majority support. If these efforts fail, provisions exist for coalition or minority governments, and ultimately for the dissolution of the House and fresh elections. The Constitution currently makes no provision for a directly elected prime minister, which means that any attempt to introduce a directly elected executive would first require the careful design of a democratic mechanism to amend the Constitution and set out the procedures for such an election.&nbsp; “There is no legal legitimacy to have the directly elected executive head of the country in the March election, except if political legitimacy surpasses legality but that would mean a new constitution,” explains senior advocate Surendra Kumar Mahato. “Many other institutional arrangements like the appointment of the judiciary, the role of the president, and other check and balance mechanisms would need to be restructured.” Mahato says: “Nepal’s Constitution itself is not at fault — it is the political actors, who have failed to uphold good governance within its framework. Changing systems does not ensure better governance.”&nbsp; Changing the Constitution also needs a broad political consensus, the institutional capacity of the state must be carefully considered to ensure such a new system can function effectively in practice and not simply in theory. Empowering an executive head through direct elections should not come at the expense of accountability or parliamentary oversight, and there should be checks and balances in place. LESSONS FROM ABROAD Sri Lanka’s 2022 Agralaya was fuelled by the anger that the directly executive head turned out to be an authoritarian who backslides on democracy. Under Sri Lanka’s 1978 Constitution, the country adopted a directly elected executive presidency with sweeping powers over the cabinet, appointments, dismissal of parliament, and control over key institutions.&nbsp; Over the years, President Mahinda Rajapaksa removed term limits via the 18th Amendment in 2010, centralised appointment powers, including judges and heads of independent commissions, and used constitutional changes such as the 20th Amendment (2020) to reverse safeguards that limited presidential authority, thereby subordinating the legislature, weakening oversight, and enabling authoritarian control.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250914060932_a96e1046d0b148982b33f2dcbe56f349dc0c20a087e358360eb2dddcfe0b5072.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250914060932_a96e1046d0b148982b33f2dcbe56f349dc0c20a087e358360eb2dddcfe0b5072" data-rendition-name="original" width="4640" height="2610" loading="lazy" alt="GenZ and Aragalaya"> <figcaption>Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka on 13 April 2022 in front of the Presidential Secretariat. Photo: WIKIPEDIA</figcaption> </figure>  Nepal’s multiparty framework upholds an institutional balance where both the governing party and the opposition have defined roles. This parliamentary setup prevents power from being overly concentrated in one individual and ensures accountability through parliament and competing parties. Beyond the neighbourhood, the United States has a directly elected executive system. Donald Trump exemplifies how direct electoral mandate can fracture institutional check mechanisms. He has leveraged his power to attack judges, frame political opponents, turn legal defeats into rallying points for his supporters, often using pliant media platforms to reinforce the idea that institutional checks impeded the popular will. In Nepal, there is a risk that a directly elected prime minister could bring up a populist media savvy messiah who could use public grievances to get to power and consolidate it. Social media can be mobilised and easily saturated with posts to fuel a political narrative of choice.&nbsp; In the past, former prime minister K P Oli’s ‘digital army’ has been lobbied on his behalf on social media. Even without an ‘IT sena’, it is not unusual for governments to collaborate with social media platforms as seen in the US and India.&nbsp; In Nepal, a directly elected prime minister would raise the stakes, turning the battle for votes into a battle for attention online, where a leader who wins the algorithm also wins the elections, just as Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah demonstrated in 2022 with support from groups like MRR and RONB. The Balen Phenomenon started in social media trickled to the ballot box.&nbsp; The digital space mas ensure that it is not trendy to dislike Balen. Comments that are critical of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City’s treatment of street vendors or of the mayor himself are met with backlash from supporters. Or, if the comments did not get any likes, the algorithms filtered them out as ‘not relevant’.&nbsp; The conversation of Shah often centred on his emotive responses and sentiments, generating strong engagement online. Meanwhile, policy debates received comparatively less attention.&nbsp; “Choosing a leader directly through an election means that we are vulnerable to populism and undermining of the democratic process, accountable institutions,” says Thaukri. Political activist Pradip Gyawali admits that the GenZ revolt was an example of how social media is a powerful tool to organise and disseminate information. But there are risks posed by disinformation and fake news online.&nbsp; “More media and political literacy among the people before the election in March is crucial to control the damage social media could do to influence voter behaviour,” he says.&nbsp; Beyond social media, online news increasingly relies on sensational, click-driven headlines to attract readers in a competitive digital market. A recent survey showed that 82.6% of GenZ (16- 24) rely on Facebook for news and 51.4% on YouTube.&nbsp; Nepali people with higher education seemed to engage with news more (99.1%) than illiterate individuals at 52.1%. Byte-sized headline-only journalism is leaving readers to their own devices, and vulnerable to media infiltration by IT cells.&nbsp; With social media actively shaping the course of elections, and news consumption, debates about changing the Constitution or the system of governance yet again may not ensure the demands for corruption free governance is met. Instead, strengthening media and political literacy among voters is key to prepare for the elections in March. Ayusha Chalise is a communication and development scholar specialising in how politics is experienced in the digital space.

Nepal's democracy keeps doubting itself

The word for ‘development’ in Nepali is bikas. The world for destruction is binas. &nbsp; The two words not only rhyme, but replacing just one consonant gives it an opposite meaning. It also demonstrates how easily what we think is <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/development-destruction-yt3t1yhu">‘Development’ can be destructive</a>.&nbsp; University libraries in Nepal and around the world are stacked with hundreds of books dissecting ‘development’. They can be divided broadly into at least two types: some authors define development as a moral imperative to improve living standards of people in the underserved parts of the world, mostly in the Global South.&nbsp; Others critique development either as being an ‘industry’, or as a continuation of the western colonial project that imposes dependency and corruption, perpetuates the donor-recipient hierarchy, and ends up disempowering intended beneficiaries. Somewhere in between are books by experts who have tried to find a middle path with concepts like ‘sustainable human development’, ‘people’s participation’ or ‘public-private partnership’. But even the staunchest proponents of traditional development models will admit that all is not well, somewhere along the line we lost our way. Peter Sutoris and Uma Pradhan have dared to take the bull by the horns to find a new path to ‘reimagine’ development, and explore new templates to confront a world wracked by interconnected crises of conflict, inequality, environmental decay and climate breakdown. Their book Reimagining Development: Bold Directions Towards a Thriving World lays out a roadmap for countries like Nepal as they try to fix what went wrong. Billions of dollars were poured into Nepal’s ‘development’ over the past seven decades, but the country is littered with the carcasses of failures like the rusted abandoned tractors from the Rapti Valley Development Project 65 years ago. To be sure, there have been catalytic success stories along the way. It is not a coincidence that whatever has worked well in Nepal since 1990 has the word ‘community’ in it — things fall into place when local groups are given ownership to decide what they need, and allowed to decide what they need to do.&nbsp; Some examples in the book include <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/reviving-nepals-community-forestry-success-story">Nepal’s community forestry project</a>, which Sutoris and Pradhan cite as an example of the kind of possibilities needed to reimagine development for a ‘thriving world’. Local communities were handed control to manage their natural resources, revive traditional conservation practices, and assert command over their own destiny. Nepal’s community forestry program together with the Local Self Governance Act that decentralised power to elected local bodies in the 1990s was the best example of how development can be a political act to ensure an equitable future, while conserving nature. Sutoris and Pradhan write: ‘Substantial evidence from Nepal indicates that community forestry enhances forest protection and regeneration … Village Development Committees that had adopted community forestry recorded a 77% increase in forested area, compared to a 13% increase in the villages without community forest.’&nbsp; Peter Sutoris was born in the former Czechoslovakia that saw the 1968 Prague Spring uprising and the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Uma Pradhan is from Nepal, which has witnessed successive People’s Movements in 1980, 1990, 2006 and earlier this month in 2025. &nbsp; ‘It was perhaps because of these experiences of witnessing the remaking of the world in the wake of the end of the Cold War that we come to this book with a strong belief that even the most rigid collective trajectories can and do change,’ the authors write in their introduction. Their book has three parts. The first one dissects the Development Industry and the model of perpetual ‘growth’. (Interestingly, the word ‘growth’ is used in medicine to signify malignancy.) The authors propose re-centering the stories of beneficiaries and their lived experiences which have been pushed to the margins in ‘project’ design of mainstream Development with a capital ‘D’. &nbsp; The book defines development with a lowercase ‘d’ as a more democratic bottom-up approach. Capital ‘D’ Development on the other hand involves ‘developers’ wanting to ‘develop’ societies, replicating the wasteful, unsustainable growth path of the industrialised countries. &nbsp; The book’s second section examines the tension between sweeping international concepts of development, and how it is not quite relevant to the reality of rural areas of countries like Nepal. The prevailing notion that development ‘aid’ flows mostly from cash rich countries to cash poor ones ignores the fact that it mostly takes from the poor in rich countries to give to the rich in poor countries. After all, the Global South also includes the underserved parts of the Global North.&nbsp; RETHINKING PROGRESS The Development Industry does ‘develop’ certain segments of the economy, just not so much the sections it is supposed to uplift. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/usnoaid">cancellation of USAID</a> this year vacated hundreds of rented offices and houses in Kathmandu, consultants and contractors became jobless, and even Nepal’s domestic airlines lost business.&nbsp; The third part of this book imagines what ‘A Thriving World’ can look like if we listened more to indigenous communities and their knowledge of the stewardship of nature, adopted best practices about inclusive and decentralised decision-making, and explores examples of ‘degrowth’ and ‘postgrowth’ to address unsustainable consumerist, extractivist economics, and the climate crisis. Sutoris and Pradhan admit that these concepts are not new. Practitioners have questioned the top-down model for decades, but their book Reimagining Development takes a fresh, non-conventional approach to bridging the best of the ‘old’ development discourse with a ‘new’ imagining that transcends entrenched positions. The authors cite Buddhist mindfulness techniques, the concept of ‘radical humility’ and the idea of deep time to zoom out for a fresh perspective on a novel development paradigm to ‘think about humanity’s position in the world’. ‘Ultimately, this book is likely to disappoint both the proponents and critics of development,’ the authors admit. ‘The proponents might view the arguments we put forward as too esoteric and not attuned to what can realistically be achieved. The critics might be dismayed by our &nbsp;unwillingness to dispose of the concept of development altogether and by our attempts to give credit to the Development establishment where credit is due. Our aim, however, is not to please either camp.’ The authors do not want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. However, the obsolete way of forcing soft states to adopt the path of linear modernisation and infinite growth so they can ‘graduate’ to a higher per capita income bracket must be rethought. Alternative models are available to confront the momentous crises facing people and the planet.&nbsp; Nepal’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-historic-youth-dissensus">GenZ protesters this month rose up</a> against corruption and bad governance. But underlying it was a failure of the development path that the country has chosen, which contributed to wanton destruction of ecosystems, the unequal allocation of &nbsp;benefits, and corruption that ensured both over- and under-development.&nbsp; Nepal’s young idealists may not have been able to articulate it in the language of academic discourse, but on social media platforms they have discussed a post-development era to reexamine and reimagine development, accountability, embedded ethnocentric hegemony, and an in-built structural inequality in the system.&nbsp; These lines from Sutoris and Pradhan’s book could almost be word-for-word from the GenZ manifesto: ‘Development encompasses not only financial prosperity but social justice, environmental sustainability, and the more plural development pathways that respect the world’s diverse cultural, historical, political, and social contexts.’&nbsp; Indeed, instant global connectivity through social media platforms has meant that socio-political movements elsewhere in the world impacted on young Nepalis, just as the events in Nepal this month are now influencing youth globally.&nbsp; These lines from Reimagining Development were written before the September Uprising in Nepal, but were a warning of things to come: ‘The current moment feels different. Perhaps due to the global nature of many of the contemporary movements facilitated by social networks, perhaps due to the movements’ sheer scale, or perhaps as a result of the multitude of challenges faced by the world, the feeling in the air seems to be that accumulated critiques of Development are more pressing than ever. If development is to remain a historical moment, it must reinvent itself and finally listen to the voices from below.’ &nbsp; Kunda Dixit is the author of Dateline Earth: Journalism As If the Planet Mattered, and publisher of Nepali Times.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025092704094_b795907f8fa9a5ec67508e683e7a65737c6c237ca5482425bcbe5ee6254bb3f0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2025092704094_b795907f8fa9a5ec67508e683e7a65737c6c237ca5482425bcbe5ee6254bb3f0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Development book details"> </figure>

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