Information and Technology Revolution in Nepal
HAMRO JOBS - Jobs IN Nepal
Services: Payroll Management, Staff Outsourcing, Sourcing, Recruitment ...
Information Technology in Nepal, sometimes shortened to?I&T in Nepal, encompass the development and challenges of scientific research and technological innovation in?Nepal, and how these developments, in turn, affect Nepali society, politics, and culture. Science and technology are small but emerging fields in Nepal. The?Ministry of Education, Science and Technology?is the apex government body tasked with the responsibility of overseeing the development of science and technology in the country.
Nepal as a developing country is plagued with problems like?Poverty?Illiteracy, and?Unemployment. Consequently, science and technology have invariably lagged behind in the priority list of the government. On the other hand, citing poor university education at home, tens of thousands of Nepali students leave the country every year, with half of them never returning. These factors have been huge deterrents to the development of science and technology in Nepal.
Nepal was ranked 111th in the?Global Innovation Index?in 2021.
History
It has been discovered that the ancient kingdoms that once ruled the Kathmandu Valley employed various ingenious technology in a variety of fields, including building, agriculture, civil engineering, water management, etc. The temporary building materials utilized by the Gopals and Abhirs, who governed the valley till around 1000 BC, included bamboo, hay, lumber, etc. Brick-firing technology was used during the Kirat period (700 BC – 110 AD), which also produced fine wool shawls. Similar structures built during the Lichhavi era (110 AD - 879 AD) still stand today, demonstrating the inventiveness of traditional architecture. These structures include stupas, idols, canals, self-recharging ponds, reservoirs, etc. Additionally, the Malla era (1200 AD - 1768 AD) had an astonishing rise in architecture on par with those of the most developed modern civilizations. Nayatpol, a five-story, 30-meter-tall temple in Bhaktapur, which has eerily withstood at least four significant earthquakes, including the Nepal Earthquake in April 2015, is a prime example of Malla architecture.
Nepal entered the modern realm of science and technology rather late. Chandra Shamsher founded Tri- Chandra College, the country of Nepal's first higher education institution, in 1918. A year later, the institution began teaching science at the intermediate level, which marked the beginning of the nation's formal science education. However, only a small number of Rana Regime members had access to the college, which was closed to the general population. Nepal was essentially cut off from the rest of the world for the entirety of the Rana administration, which lasted for well over a century. Due to its seclusion, Nepal was largely spared and unaffected by the societal changes that the British Invasion in India and the Industrial Revolution in the West brought about. But following the advent of With the advent of democracy and the overthrow of the Rana monarchy in 1951, Nepal was able to shed its self-imposed seclusion and become more open to the outside world. Tribhuvan University, the first institution of its sort in the nation, was established shortly after the opening, signaling the start of scientific and technology operations in the nation. The institution began providing postgraduate courses in physics, chemistry, zoology, and botany in 1965.
National policy
Overview: Problems with implementing policies
Since the early 2000s, a variety of sector-specific science and technology policies have been enacted; nevertheless, policy execution hasn't always been up to par. Since Nepal has consistently established low research intensity goals, sectoral strategies have lessened in efficacy.
Numerous anticipated efforts have fallen through. These include a national fund for ICT research proposed by the National ICT Policy (2015), a national biotechnology research center proposed by the Biotechnology Policy (2006), as well as three other planned research centers: the national nanotechnology Centre, nuclear research Centre, and space research institute.
Although the Nuclear Policy was enacted in 2007, the Nuclear Act, which facilitates the peaceful use of nuclear science and technology transfer for the health and environmental sectors in particular, was only adopted by parliament in 2019. Despite the fact that the Central Renewable Energy Fund, the delivery mechanism for the Renewable Energy Subsidy Policy of 2016, introduced subsidies for solar, wind, and mini- and micro-hydropower, their share of final energy consumption actually decreased from 11% to 5% between 2015 and 2019. 2019 saw installed hydropower capacity (1,250 MW) fall far short of the desired 2,301 MW. The majority of hydropower projects have been delayed, raising the price of building this infrastructure.
The lack of expectations despite well-designed policies and poor implementation, coupled with a lack of resources, is a prevalent complaint of the scientific community in Nepal. For instance, initiatives to digitize Nepal or build smart cities have not been successful.
Other stakeholders have stepped up to deliver knowledge transfer and technical absorption whenever there hasn't been a successful policy execution, notably through public-private partnerships. Examples include the National Innovation Center, which was established in 2019 on land donated by Tribhuvan University and built in 2012 through crowdsourcing, the Centre for Molecular Dynamics Nepal (est. 2007), which was established through an NGO, and the Smart Urban Technology Challenge, a public-private partnership involving the Kathmandu municipality that organizes regular competitions for entrepreneurial teams to address problems relating to urban planning.
National Science Technology and Innovation Policy?(2019)
There Was Six key areas are listed in the National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (2019): industrial research, agricultural and land use, infrastructure development, best use of biodiversity and mining, climate change and disaster management, and better governance.
The policy has identified a number of obstacles to effective science governance, including a dearth of political will, insufficient administrative resources, and ineffective coordination between line ministries. The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology was created in 2018 by the merger of the Ministries of Science and Technology and Education in order to better coordination.
Despite receiving the majority of public research funding, the majority of research institutes have a tendency to be overly bureaucratic and spend in focused research insufficiently. This explains why there isn't a strong feeling of community or clear objectives for the creation and dissemination of information. Additionally, there is a lack of a mission-driven research program to achieve national economic goals.
领英推荐
A fund for science, technology, and innovation was suggested in the National Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (2019), however as of late 2020, no funding had been assigned to such a fund. The policy's goals will need to be accomplished with the help of adaptable institutions and sufficient money.
This also applies to the fifteenth five-year plan (2019–2023) and the three-year plan (2016–2018). Reaching the Three-Year Plan's goals of a 65% Internet access rate by 2018 and a 35% gross enrolment rate in higher education, for example, will require responsive institutions and sufficient money. The strategy calls for the development of 11 000 jobs in science and engineering by 2018 as well as support for start-ups through the establishment of business incubators at universities.
The government's goals for the 15th Five-Year Plan, which runs from 2019 to 2023, are no less ambitious: fostering a culture of science and evidence-based research, utilizing technology and science to raise living standards, promoting emerging technologies, and fostering connections between business and academia, including with entrepreneurs.
The government will need to regularly gather and evaluate thorough data in order to monitor progress towards these targets and objectives. However, Nepal still lacks a reliable mechanism for gathering data for indicators relating to innovation, science, and technology. For instance, it does not routinely assess the level of national research activity. The business sector's contribution to R&D has never been systematically measured, nor has there ever been an innovation survey. This is particularly noteworthy given that manufacturing's value addition to the economy has fallen below the 5% mark since peaking at 9% in 1996, according to data from the World Bank. A significant flaw in the Nepalese research system is the absence of data to guide policy-making.
Financial compensation and upward mobility
Nepali university students typically major in STEM disciplines. They are, however, emigrating from Nepal in greater numbers. From 2012 to 2017, there was a 68% rise in outbound student mobility, reaching 49 451 students, 29% of whom (14 445) went to North America and Western Europe. Nepal was the 13th largest source of international students to the USA during the 2016–2017 school year. Of these, 54% enrolled in undergraduate programs in US universities and 34% in graduate programs. The US Chamber of Commerce has calculated that these Nepali students have contributed 369 million dollars to the US economy.
Insufficient salaries and grants are provided by Nepali institutions to keep graduates. For instance, the Nepal Agriculture Research Council had over half of its advertised positions unfilled in 2018. three years The University Grant Commission offers PhD grants that cost RS 8,000 (less than US$ 70) per month.
To strengthen relations between the government and the diaspora, the Nepalese National Academy of Science and Technology launched the Return Scientists, Return Home program (Farka Hai Farka Baigyanik). However, it appears from interviews conducted by Osama, Sha, and Wickremaisnghe in 2020 that few scientists who operate abroad have responded to this program. The program has not been able to offer financial incentives, such as funding for establishing a laboratory in Nepal, or to give members of the diaspora the chance to participate in ongoing research projects being carried out by the academy in the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology, molecular research, environmental science, and other areas.
Research?patterns
According to data provided by the government, Nepal's research intensity fell short of its goal for 2019 of 0.62%, remaining at 0.3%.
From 2015 to 2019, there were 1,665 more Nepalese scientific papers in the Scopus database than there were in 2015. In the broad subject of health sciences, more than half (60%) of papers published between 2017 and 2019 fell.
The number of patents awarded to Nepali inventors from the top five patent offices worldwide increased by around 330% (62 to 265 patents) between 2015 and 2018. The total number of patents granted fell to 199 in 2019.
Research organizations
The following are a few of the nation's leading institutions for scientific research: