It is just a plan.... There is still room for it to be just in the agenda and not in the real thing; though hope it will be in the real budget and it will get allocated and it will not be wasted.
Here is a copy from a recent science article: Nepal Counts on Science to Turn Struggling Country Around ASIA: Nepal Counts on Science to Turn Struggling Country Around -- Guo 320 (5882): 1411 -- Science Source: www.sciencemag.org KATHMANDU—Nepal’s new leaders have a surprising strategy for making the poor Himalayan nation’s transition from monarchy to republic a success: They plan to shower money on science. High on the agenda of Nepal’s new legislative body, the Constituent Assembly, is to approve next month a $125 million budget for the Ministry of Environment, Science, and Technology (MEST)— a whopping 12-fold increase over 2007. “This is so much money that scientists may not [be able to] spend it all,” says science ministry senior adviser Devi Paudyal. Perhaps most remarkable is the source of the promised windfall: the Maoists, a group once labeled as terrorists that won the largest share of assembly seats in elections in April. In a manifesto published shortly before the election, the Maoists declared that “Without science, a country cannot develop.” Before launching a bloody, decade-long insurgency, the group’s leader, Prachanda, had earned a degree in agricultural science from the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science in Rampur and taught science in a prep school. Some in Nepal’s tiny scientific community are cautiously optimistic. “Past governments were not aware about the value of science,” says botanist Dayananda Bajracharya, a science adviser to Girija Koirala, the current prime minister. “The new government has promised they will give more attention to science. Hopefully, they will keep their word.” Others say they will believe it when they see it. “Most of the political parties talk about these things, but when it comes to reality the budget is always full,” says Pramod Jha, a botanist at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. Based on World Bank figures on research and development spending as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), Nepal ranks behind the island nation of Mauritius as well as Burundi, the country with the world’s lowest per capita GDP. Nepal’s first university, Tribhuvan, opened its doors only in 1959, and the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) was established in 1982. One restraint on scientific development is an unchecked brain drain by Nepal’s few rising science stars, says Bajracharya. The Maoists plan to bet heavily on biotechnology, an area the previous government tried to nurture. Last year, NAST broke ground on a three-story biotech lab in Kathmandu that it hopes to complete by summer 2009; MEST plans to begin construction of a national Biotechnology Research and Development Center later this year. This fall, Tribhuvan, Nepal’s top university, will open a graduate program in biotechnology. These efforts are primarily intended to exploit Nepal’s biological riches. Scientists here in recent years have launched programs to find medicinal plants and pinpoint active compounds. But with scant tools for molecular analyses, “we haven’t been able to do much,” says NAST Vice Chancellor Hom Bhattarai. “We want to get modern equipment.” With Nepal recently beset by gasoline and electricity shortages, a large portion of the supersized science budget will be devoted to research on clean energy, says Paudyal. One project the new government intends to fund is development of Jatropha curcas, a variety of a shrub used for biofuel, which is better acclimated to high altitude. In the long term, raising Nepal’s science game will require reducing the country’s appalling 51% illiteracy rate—the 15th highest in the world, according to the United Nations. “The public at large thinks science is too sophisticated for a country like Nepal,” says Bajracharya. It may take another (science) revolution to change that. –JERRY GUO Jerry Guo is a writer in New Haven, Connecticut On Jun 19, 3:32 pm, "Shankar Pokharel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Sagun, > > On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 2:43 PM, Sagun <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > As some of you must have known that the CPN Maoist has decided to alot 2.5 > > crores in research and development and it is being said that science and > > technology is one of their top priorities. Right now their priority is > > biotechnology but IT can also be used as a tool for boost in the economy. > > I was unaware of this and I'm lil bit confused with this. Is CPN > Maoist(the party) going to spend 2.5 crore in research and devt or > will that be from the "to be formed" government's budget? > > > We are trying to make a proposal to the Maoist leadership on science and > > technology especially on IT plans. Our goal is to help government to bring a > > And who does the term "we" refer to? Is it any particular organization/group? > > ~Shankar > > > considerable amount of investment from abroad and create more and more good > > paid jobs. Right now our network has contributers from the US, Europe and > > Asia pacific. I think if FOSS Nepal can make a proposal of framework we can > > put the agendas on FOSS in the IT policy proposal (which can be the > > elaborate form of vision paper that Subir dai , Hempal dai and Akhil dai > > made 3 or 4 years back). I would like to request the current body under > > Subir leadership to start discussions on what could be suggested to the > > future government. We had tried a lot in past (when i was in Nepal) to > > convince the government about FOSS Nepal's vision and now I think its a > > better opportunity because, the party is itself showing some interest in the > > technology. > > > Not just the core team, there are many silent subscribers in the mailing > > list who are business leaders, academicians and professionals who can > > contribute to us. I think their voice and vision will be very important for > > the proposal. > > > -- > > Warm Regards, > > S Dhakhwa --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ FOSS Nepal mailing list: [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/foss-nepal To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Community website: http://www.fossnepal.org/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
