E-governance in Nepal

ENRD's intervention
ENRD is regularly conducting awareness program to the local communities in rural villages on the available online services of Nepal government. Telecenters established by the collaborative efforts of rural villages and local government are gradually getting priority in their VDC level action plan so as to flow the information of Nepal government throgh ICT. These telecenters are not only disseminating Nepal government information in local level but also trying to pull local content in the central level. Further working closely with Purbanchal university, ENRD team is also engaged in designing and teaching e-governence courses in selective colleges.

1.Historical Background:

Nepal the Himalayan kingdom lies between India and China. It has covered 147.181 sq. km. Land of the world. The country is divided administratively into 5 development regions and 75 districts. 3915 Village Development Committees (VDCs) and 58 Municipalities are the lowest

administrative local level units. Ecologically it is divided into three ecological regions called Mountains, Hills and Tarai. Total population of the country is 22,736,934. Those of them 1,585,092 lies in Himalayan region, 9,996,975 lies in Hill region and 11,154,867 lies in Tarai region. Only 65.2% are educated in country (CBS, 2001). Those of them very few are aware with benefit of the Information Technology.

His Majesties Government, in 1971, introduced Information Technology to process the National population census data. National Computer Center was established in 1974 with the objective of providing IT training within Nepal. NCC, developed software for various government agencies, processed examination results for SLC Board and Tribhuvan University. It also conducted regular training courses on Computer Literacy and software applications. NCC was dissolved in 1998 and currently there is an absence of a computer-training institution in the government sector.
rivate sector began its activity in early eighties after the introduction of Personal computers. In 1992 Mercantile Communication Pvt. Ltd. (MCPL) started commercial E-mail through Internet and in 1995 it was formally registered with HMG/N as first Internet Service Provider (ISP). Since 1999 Government has liberalized its policy to use own VSAT. Since then the number of ISPs are increased and so the price of Internet service is decreasing in country. Now here are more then 15 ISPs and around 115,000 Internet users (NPC, 2002).

There are about forty software development companies, two hundred plus companies are involved in IT trading and more than five hundred training institutes are taking part in operation training at different levels. Government and public sector has recently started academic IT courses in their respective Institutions. There are few computers in different government Institutions and most of them are used for word-processing purposes. Computerization and IT applications implementation in the government is very low. In 2000 HMG/N has declared Information Technology Policy, B.S. 2057 (2000) with the following objectives.> To make information technology accessible to the general public and increase employment through this means. > To build a knowledge-based society. >To establish knowledge-based industries.
According to the policy an info-super highway and IT park plan are processing ahead.

2. Available Systems and Resources in the Country

2.1. Human Resource DevelopmentEducational institutions have recently started IT curriculum; therefore, most of the higher education by the Nepalese students in Information and Communication Technology is obtained from abroad. Ministry of Science & Technology has granted RS. 10 million from fiscal year 056/57 as seed money to different Private and public Universities to strengthen their capabilities of producing IT workforce. The history of technical education in Nepal can be traced back to the early 40?s but technical courses like Electrical Engineering was only started around mid sixties. The Kathmandu University started B. E. in computer engineering in 1994 and the Institute of Engineering (IOE) started computer science courses only in 1998. Kathmandu University has already produced about 50 computer-engineering graduates to date. Pokhara University also offers bachelor level Computer Engineering and Electronics Engineering courses. Similarly, Purvanchal University (Eastern University) and its affiliates have started a program of Bachelor in Computer Application since 1999.

Although four universities have already started IT related graduate programs in computer engineering / application and computer sciences. The number of students graduating remain below 100 per year. Some private colleges offer Bachelor of Computer Science programs with the affiliation of TU and more than 60 students are expected to graduate. Kathmandu University affiliates also offer Bachelor level course in IT. None of the universities offer master?s degree in IT, except Post Graduate Diploma Course recently started by Nepal Engineering Collage. In addition to the in-country program of IT, a large number of Nepalese students are studying computer engineering and computer science and related subjects in foreign countries. Basically the computer professionals and experts working in Nepal are trained from foreign countries. A large number of Nepalese students study computer science and computer engineering in India. The number of Nepalese students studying computer science in the US is also growing every year. The decade of nineties is noted for the beginning of IT education in Nepal, computer courses are included in the curriculum as optional subject for the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) board examination and the private schools have started to conduct regular computer classes.