“The draft has many points that discourage rather than encourage research and innovation”

Mahavir Pun, Chairman of National Innovation Center, has said that there are many things that discourage research and innovation rather than encouraging research and innovation in the draft of the bill that has been made to regulate science, technology and innovation.

While suggesting advice on the draft of the bill that is made to regulate science, technology and innovation, Pun said that they have started a movement to encourage research and innovation.

He says that there are many clauses in the draft that discourage rather than encourage research and innovation.

He said that no concrete steps have been taken to attract and encourage researchers.

Pun has suggested that talented manpower should be prevented from migrating abroad, academic research and practical research should be arranged separately, research and innovation experts should be kept in the council, and honest, hard-working and trustworthy people should be kept for fund management.

Apart from this, the Public Procurement Act should be made easier, prototypes should be further developed and factories should be established at the regional level for commercial production, students should be supported by funds to become entrepreneurs through research, proposals should be invited for research in June and July every year, and innovation should be started from August. Mahaveer Pun suggested that such topics should be included in the draft.

These are the suggestions of Mahavir Pun

The comments made in consultation with various experts in the draft of the Bill to regulate science, technology and innovation are as follows:

1. It should be understood that the main purpose of conducting scientific research, technology development and innovation (invention) in the present situation of Nepal is to help the development of the economy by reducing imports in the country, to create jobs, to reduce the migration of talents abroad and to develop the society. It seems that this law was not drafted with the understanding of these important objectives.

2. It should be understood that academic research and practical research are two types of research conducted with different objectives. In the draft of the law, there should be a difference in the policy rules for selecting and employing these two types of investigators. There should be a separate arrangement for academic research and a separate arrangement for practical research. For practical research, it should not be determined that the academic qualification should be so high, but rather the sheep/diligence should be seen.

3. A sit-in movement was held that a bill should be made to encourage Nepali researchers and innovators/innovators to conduct research and innovation, but there are many points in this draft that discourage researchers and innovators by forcing them to complete various procedures. There is no mention of any concrete steps to attract and encourage researchers. Not just by giving awards.

4. During the formation of the council, it has been arranged that the secretaries of federal and state ministries, vice chancellors of universities, and executive directors of various agencies will be ex-officio members. In such a situation, if secretaries, vice-chancellors and executive directors who do not understand science, technology, research and innovation come as ex-officio members, they will not be able to provide any concrete support when discussing such a deep issue in the council. Therefore, only experts from different fields should be kept in the council.

5. By making the council proposed in the draft as dignified as an advisory council, it should have the representation of experts who have been working in various academic and research institutions (such as universities, NAST, NARC) and organizations related to science, technology and innovation. In the case of Nepal, such bodies can be small and domestic industries, Nepal Army, Armed Police and Nepal Police, Agriculture, Herbs and Agriculture, Water Resources, Basic and Traditional Technology, Tourism, Nature Conservation and Environment.

6. The committee to manage the fund should consist of 5 to 7 people. All the members of the committee should be selected by the Prime Minister for 5 years on the recommendation of the selection committee. Among them, only one member should be from the ministry. Other members should be far-sighted and reliable people trusted by the people.

7. In the current draft, there is no mention of the programs that can be implemented to attract and stop the talented children who are about to migrate from Nepal to stay in Nepal to do some research and innovation. The experts and researchers who have already gone abroad and made a lot of progress should be invited to Nepal and a law should be made to create an encouraging and appropriate environment to benefit from them in the field of research and innovation, and this draft has not provided anything for that.

8. One of the main demands of our sit-in was to set aside one percent of the development budget for scientific research, technology development and innovation. Addressing this, a fund has also been introduced in this draft. Such a fund does not invest in loans and the money of the fund should only be used for research and innovation. To help research and innovation as much as possible. Researchers and innovators who are successful in research and innovation should be paired with investors to help them produce commercial products and become entrepreneurs, and the government should help by providing concessional loans from other sources.

9. Who will insure research and innovation and how? 90% of researches fail during research and innovation. Doing research and innovation is not doing any business. There may be health insurance for researchers and insurance for tools, but how is the insurance for the subjects of research and innovation?

10. Currently, there are many rules in the proposed draft, such as registration of the institution for research, meeting the standards, renewal, punishment if the rules are not met, no support, cancellation. Those rules are made to bind research and innovation organizations that are already established or are trying to be. But what should be taken care of while trying to bind in such a way is that such points of the rules discourage the talented and creative youths who want to do something while staying in Nepal or return to Nepal from abroad and do something.

11. According to how the Public Procurement Act should be made easier, the Act should be amended for research and innovation. Development and innovation of science and technology will not happen only by imposing administrative burdens, standards and rules. If there is an unnecessary mix-up, the migration of talented and creative young people from Nepal will never stop and the country will still have to bear a huge loss. This draft seems to help to push the talented children abroad.

12. Criteria for registering and operating national excellence centers, research centers, research institutions, incubator institutions, accelerator institutions, innovation institutions, science cities, science technology villages, knowledge parks, science museums, etc. developed by anyone or any organization as included in this draft There are points like making, inspecting and discarding if the standards are not met. But to develop science and technology, to innovate and inspire creative people to become entrepreneurs and to increase public awareness of research and innovation, such centers or institutions should be gradually developed in different provinces of Nepal and for that, there is no point on how to support this research fund. no Such one-sided rules cannot be made by law. There is no justification for creating this fund and hiring only employees if there is no work that will cause problems to the people and benefit them.

13. It does not mention anything to make various types of security systems and other necessary technical research work required by the Nepali Army, Armed Police and Nepal Police to be done by them. A lot of research needs to be done in those security agencies as well.

14. Funds for establishing and operating three or four small-scale manufacturing plants at the regional level with essential facilities to further develop and test prototypes made by startups and talented/creative groups and test them as commercial items. There is no point of allocating money.

15. In the current situation, the government of Nepal has been able to allocate one billion rupees for scientific research, technology development and innovation (according to the agreement with the Deputy Prime Minister, it should be three billion rupees). The current draft has tried to include many things which will definitely take a long time to finalize. Therefore, a summary law should be introduced to quickly put an end to the funding issue. National Nature Conservation Fund and University Grants Commission Act can be taken for reference.

16. There is no point in helping universities, schools and research institutes across the country with funds to open practical research centers and inspire students to become entrepreneurs through research. Nepal is lagging behind in all aspects of development because it has not been done so far.

17. The schedule for inviting proposals, collection, scrutiny and disbursement of funds shall be as follows:
 For those who want to do research, they can call for proposals within the month of Jyesh every year and conduct the investigation within the month of Ashad and Shravan. Initiate research/innovation from the month of Bhadra,
 To keep the research works in multi-year program as per requirement. According to the agreement, the grant will be given and reduced based on the progress of the research.
 To collect the proposals of students and general groups who want to do research/promotion in the research center established by the fund and which can be done in a short period of time every three months and investigate and allow them to conduct research and give grants based on the progress.
 For highly creative, talented and entrepreneurship development to take up excellent proposals at any time and provide prompt assistance for research and without any time limit,

Thank you

mahabir again
President
national invention center

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