The lack of quality education from Nepalese university causes students to go abroad to study and half of them do not return.
[4] Ancient kingdoms that existed in the Kathmandu Valley were found to have made use of some technologies in numerous areas such as architecture, agriculture, civil engineering, and water management.
The Gopals and Abhirs, who ruled the valley up until c. 1000 BC, used temporary materials for construction such as bamboo, hay, and timber.
The Kirat period (700 BC – 110 AD) employed the technology of brick firing, as well as produced woolen shawls.
Owing to this isolation, Nepal was relatively untouched by and unfamiliar of social transformations brought about by the British invasion in India and the Industrial Revolution in the West.
[6] However, after the advent of democracy and abolition of Rana regime in 1951, Nepal ended its self-imposed isolation and opened up to the outside world.
[9][8] A common grievance of the Nepali scientific community is that, despite the design of policies, poor implementation, coupled with a lack of resources, has resulted in unmet expectations.
[8] Absences of effective policy implementation have caused others to deliver knowledge transfer and technological absorption, including through public–private partnerships.
[8] The National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (2019) identifies six priority areas: industrial research; agriculture and land use; infrastructure development; optimum use of biodiversity and mining; climate change and disaster management; and better governance.
[8] The policy has pinpointed a number of challenges for science governance, such as a lack of political leadership, a weak administrative capacity and poor co-ordination between line ministries.
[8] Nepal still lacks a robust system of data collection for indicators related to science, technology and innovation.
No innovation survey has ever been conducted, nor any systematic attempt made to measure the business sector’s contribution to research and development, particularly at a time when value addition by manufacturing to the economy has slipped beneath the 5% threshold since peaking at 9% in 1996, according to World Bank data.
However, interviews conducted by Osama, Sha and Wickremaisnghe in 2020[8] suggest that this programme has elicited little response from scientists working abroad.