Narayan Prasad Ghimire

Laudable Initiatives
If you have a smartphone, you do not need to go out and bargain with a taxi or wait for a crowded bus to reach your destination in the Kathmandu Valley. With Tootle and Pathao, the ride-sharing services, offering taxi and motorcycle ride, you can book them through your phones and then travel to your destination in time.
What you need is the internet and apps on your cell phones. The recent MIS report of the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has stated that internet penetration has crossed 84 per cent in Nepal. It is a huge achievement. Similarly, several other apps such as Khalti and e-Sewa facilitate e-banking, Foodmandu caters to your food needs through home delivery; Daraz delivers books, garments and other accessories as per your orders.
Many people with access to the internet are engaged in the transaction of goods, merchandise, money and other items using their smartphones. After the banking sector introduced the Dematerialized (Demat) accounts, the digital presence in the stock share transaction activities has grown gradually. Almost all banks have their apps to better facilitate customers.
Several private schools conducted virtual classes and dozens of government offices held virtual meetings and officers took part in the international conferences and gatherings during the pandemic period. Some local levels have adopted impressive measures to build smart offices, thereby ensuring prompt public service delivery and proactive dissemination of information. Hundreds of Nepali youths are working abroad in the technology sector from their home, while thousands are getting graduate degrees in IT courses.
There are other praiseworthy initiatives- the government launched digital soil mapping last month. As per the project, it took almost four years to prepare the software, which has voluminous data on different parameters of Nepali soil. The soil mapping helps you identify the ingredients in the soil of a particular area.
Visiting the website of the National Soil Science Research Centre(https://soil.narc.gov.np/soil/soilmap/), one can visit his/her province, district, local level and check the soil properties of the respective area. The understanding of soil properties is imperative to select crops, which is related to modernising agriculture. At a time when the lack of data on agriculture is at a pathetic level, assembling such a huge cache of data is another laudable progress aimed at utilising technology in Nepal's agriculture sector.
The introduction of the Nagarik App by the government is another achievement in taking Nepal towards digital transformation. The integration of basic data of all Nepali citizens in a single digital platform has tremendously helped government offices to promptly deliver public services including land reform and transport management.
Moreover, there are several private sector initiatives to build a digital ecosystem. The concept of and debate on open data, data governance, internet freedoms, human rights in cyberspace have been intensified by civil society organisations. The discussion on the technology and policy interface is gaining ground. These have further bolstered the atmosphere for the internet governance regime. The Internet Governance Forums have been held in Nepal three times, where myriad issues of computer, internet, and digital space emerged and discourse amplified.
The above-mentioned cases are representative ones. In the meantime, several innovative approaches in technology are also going on in different cities of Nepal.

Challenges
Despite having positive developments in the digital regime, Nepal still has several constraints and obstructions that impede the intensification of digital movement. For example, for most Nepalis, Facebook is synonymous with the internet. Most of them access the internet via mobile phones. However, a more reliable, affordable, accessible internet is, therefore, a prerequisite for meaningful digital life for Nepalis that enables them to harness the benefits of the digital ecosystem.
At a recent programme, a piece of worrisome information was revealed: Nepal can hardly retain its IT graduates for two years. The exodus of skilled IT professionals from Nepal is a serious setback for our job market, which directly dents our digital economy. Where has the government gone wrong or ignored this worrisome fact?
What is the policy to retain skilled IT human resource in Nepal? What infrastructures do they need to foster digital innovation within the country? These are the questions worth mulling by both the government and private sectors. Similarly, to help farmers access the digital soil-mapping website and take benefits, they should be provided with orientation in new technology. Only basic literacy of computer and digital/internet function empowers their status to gain from websites. Otherwise, such a great cache of data on agriculture will be limited to only researchers. There is a need to link the data to agricultural productivity.
The recent brawl of taxi drivers with ride-sharing service operators is another issue that needs to be properly addressed so that the taxi drivers would not be discouraged in earning their incomes even when innovative transport services such as Tootle and Pathao continue providing services in the nation. The monopoly of a particular digital business is detrimental to economic freedoms.
For digital technology to thrive in Nepal, a competitive atmosphere is essential for various innovative platforms, startups, entrepreneurial youths, industrial firms and associations. Recently, the organisations of the business community like the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) and Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) have come up with ambitious plans of creating tens of thousands of jobs in the country. They can encourage the youths, the skilled IT graduates to explore their potential and prosper in the digital economy within the country.
Identification of innovative digital business and lobby and advocacy with the government ministries to remove policy level hindrance is equally significant. Along with this, independent assessment of present needs, rigorous research and adequate financial investment can depict a true picture of the country's IT and digital scenario. It can be a base from which further plans and strategies can be formulated to achieve the goal. Otherwise, setting ambitious plans on the digital economy and digital Nepal in absence of a necessary foundation with preparatory infrastructures is meaningless.
With the growing e-banking, the safety of customers' data should be given utmost priority. Robust software systems and continuous upgrading should be in place to prevent hacking and data breaching. Now, the concept of ethical hackers has also emerged. Both the individual and computer system should be made smart for smart service delivery.
Similarly, the data collected in the government launched websites and apps must not be misused, breached and hacked. The data/information regarding the privacy of citizens must be guaranteed as it is the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution. Privacy is the gateway for the citizens to exercise other rights so data protection warrants equal attention in the digital age. A strong collaboration among citizens, policy people and IT sectors can frustrate those who can harm digital infrastructures.
Another most important challenge to address for digital transformation is the lackadaisical bureaucracy. The inaction of the government servants to embrace technology is a sheer obstruction to public service delivery. Although it may seem a hasty generalisation about bureaucracy, the cases of irregularities and corruption cannot be ignored.
The adoption of digital technology is key to curb corruption and build good governance. The readiness in civil services should be measured in terms of implementing laws and policies to ensure digital Nepal. Talking about the policy level work, especially in the digital sector, Nepal has the Digital Nepal Framework (DNF) 2019, which has incorporated different eight sectors – education, health, digital foundation, agriculture, energy, tourism, finance and urban infrastructure.
Under the eight sectors, eighty digital initiatives have been identified, to boost socio-economic growth. Smart classroom under education, high-speed internet connectivity for efficient public service delivery under digital foundation, smart livestock and wildlife management under agriculture, next-generation digital healthcare facilities under health, NEA official mobile app 2.0 under energy, tourist security infrastructure, national payment gateway under finance, intelligent waste management under urban infrastructure are laudable initiatives that are to be adopted.
DNF is a solid policy foundation for the activities to be launched surrounding the digital sphere. Although it has not been long since DNF was introduced, the endeavours taken so far should be highlighted and monitoring and evaluation should be conducted accordingly. The best practices enabled by the DNF need wider visibility while targets should be set for other activities. As mentioned in the beginning, some positive developments have occurred. It takes time to achieve all the targets. Only effective implementation of these activities helps build digital Nepal.

Missed Industrial Revolution
Similarly, as Nepal is preparing for the digital transformation, the age of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), it is unforgettable that we badly missed achieving the earlier industrial revolutions- first, second and third. It is indeed a time to seriously evaluate why and how Nepal missed the previous revolutions. In the absence of the technological foundations, Nepal is now forced to shoulder the double burden of staying onboard by establishing mechanisms for missed revolution with proper linkage and negotiate the present 4IR by leveraging the digital atmosphere. With quite a delay, the Nepali farmers were provided with land tillers. Some farmers are waiting to get adequate agricultural tools for mechanization on the one hand, while we are still advocating for a complete digitalization on the other. The mechanisation of agriculture had led to the first industrial revolution in the now developed countries. From that very point, Nepal missed the bus. It does not mean that Nepal had no technology in the past. But the pressing matter is that we failed to continue upgrading indigenous skills and technology.
Rather than ditching traditional technology, we can revive them as applicable entities. Similarly, upgrading of human skills and experience, acquisition of new technology, preparedness of bureaucracy with capacity enhancement, digital literacy to the public, encouragement to youths with finance and technology supports policy and practice to retain techno graduates within the country are indispensable in achieving the goal.

Recommendation
Here, I would like to bring relevant recommendations of two international researchers, namely Dan Ciuriak and Maria Ptashakina for the developing countries. In a policy brief related to digital transformation for development and global south strategy, they have suggested five major things for developing countries. They are a) acquisition of technology, b) encouragement to private sector development on digitally-enabled micro, small and medium enterprises, c) replication of best practices from small economics like Estonia, Singapore and Rwanda, d) setting objectives to leapfrog traditional technologies in adopting solar-electric, internet-based urban systems, and e) prevention of premature rural-urban migration, thereby enabling the development of sustainable urban systems. How important are these recommendations for us? Let us discuss.

(Ghimire is an internet governance enthusiast)