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India’s PM Narendra Modi, while addressing world leaders at the G20 meeting in New Delhi, frequently used the word ‘Bharat’ instead of ‘India’ and reiterated a 2,500-year history of his country in Sanskrit. 

The podium he was taking to welcome foreign delegates, too, was decked as ‘Bharat’, with a symbolic ‘Lotus’—Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s election symbol—displayed around the summit venue. The unprecedented branding of ‘Bharat’ along with ‘Hindu civilization’ could help set a nationalistic agenda for the ruling BJP in upcoming general elections. 

Latest developments like India’s emergence as a ‘Space power’, its soft tone at the recent BRICS summit, and successful execution of G20 Summit could result in a great strategic advantage to India to rise as a prominent power on the world stage. 

A moot question is: How will India balance ties with China, Russia, the US, and various multilateral associations, including QUAD, IPS and BRICS? 

The author is a geostrategic thinker 

The G20 summit, presided over by India, concluded on Sunday, culminating in the release of the New Delhi Leaders Declaration. This landmark event saw a convergence of minds on a multitude of global issues.

The G20, which comprises 19 nations and the European Union, has recently expanded its ranks to welcome the African Union, making the group “G21.” 

Nepal, not being a member of this esteemed international economic forum, had no representation in the summit's proceedings. While Bangladesh also lacks official membership, India extended a coveted invitation to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, extending similar courtesy to Egypt, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain, and the UAE. Foreign policy experts say that Nepal too could have secured a place at this influential gathering had there been more proactive diplomatic overtures by its government.

Nonetheless, Nepal remains tethered to the G20 process through its partial participation in preparatory meetings leading up to the summit. Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat engaged with G20 finance ministers and central governors in July, highlighting the multifaceted challenges confronting least developed nations on a global scale.

Nepal’s vested interest in the G20 summit stems from several compelling factors. Firstly, the country’s prior engagement with G20 activities underscores its ongoing connection to the process. Secondly, the summit's host, India, aspires to assume a leadership role within the Global South, potentially affording Nepal new opportunities and perspectives.

Furthermore, Nepal’s vigilance concerning the G20 summit is warranted given the far-reaching implications of its decisions. The G20, representing a colossal 85 percent of global GDP, over 75 percent of worldwide trade, and nearly two-thirds of the global population, wields substantial influence. 

Ranjit Rae, former Indian ambassador to Nepal, says a multitude of domains offer potential avenues for Nepal to derive benefits from the G20's outcomes, including green energy, biofuels, and digital public infrastructure.

The G20’s commitment to addressing climate change and its consequences is of paramount importance to nations like Nepal. The summit's document outlines its intention to implement decisions made at COP27 regarding funding arrangements for assisting developing countries vulnerable to climate change's adverse effects, including the establishment of a fund. The support for the transitional committee and anticipation of recommendations for operationalizing these funding arrangements at COP28 are of particular relevance to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and developing nations like Nepal.

Recalling the Glasgow climate pact, the G20 has also called upon developed countries to honor their commitment to doubling their collective provision of adaptation finance by 2025, building upon the foundation laid in 2019. This commitment holds promise for countries in need of financial resources for adaptation.

In addition to climate considerations, the arena of digital public infrastructure beckons. India's ambitious plans for a Global Digital Public Infrastructure Repository (GDPIR), a repository of digital public infrastructure shared voluntarily by G20 members and beyond, presents a unique avenue for Nepal to collaborate with G20 nations.

In sum, Nepal’s keen interest in the G20 summit is well-justified by the potential opportunities it presents across a spectrum of critical global issues, underscoring the nation's role in the international arena.

Issues in the declaration that matters us

• Better integrate the perspectives of developing countries, including LDCs, LLDCs, and SIDS, into future G20 agenda and strengthen the voice of developing countries in global decision making.
• Recognize the importance of WTO’s ‘Aid for Trade’ initiative to enable developing countries, notably LDCs, to effectively participate in global trade, including through enhanced local value creation.
• Facilitate equitable access to safe, effective, quality-assured, and affordable vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other medical countermeasures, especially in Low-and Middle-income Countries (LMICs), LDCs and SIDS.
• Accelerate actions to address environmental crises and challenges including climate change being experienced worldwide, particularly by the poorest and the most vulnerable, including in LDCs and SIDS.
• Continue to support augmentation of capabilities of all countries, including emerging economies, in particular developing countries, LDCs and SIDS, for promoting disaster and climate resilience of infrastructure systems.
• Extend strong support to Africa, including through the G20 Compact with Africa and G20 Initiative on supporting industrialization in Africa and LDCs. Hold further discussions to deepen cooperation between the G20 and other regional partners.
• Increase resource needs of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and FATF Style Regional Bodies and encourage others to do the same, including for the next round of mutual evaluations. Timely and global implementation of the revised FATF Standards on the transparency of beneficial ownership of legal persons and legal arrangements to make it more difficult for criminals to hide and launder ill-gotten gains.

Experts speak

Nepal should follow up on the outcomes 

Navita Srikant, Financial and Security Analyst 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's message during the G20 India Summit emphasized "human-centric development" and the integration of perspectives from smaller states in global decision-making. Notably, the #G20LeadersNewDelhiDeclaration mentions LDCs six times. In South Asia alone, Bhutan, Nepal, and Bangladesh are on the brink of graduating from LDC status.

These three nations have high expectations from the #G20IndiaSummit, anticipating benefits such as a smoother transition from LDC graduation, improved access to markets, streamlined supply chains, food security, fertilizers, and support for clean energy. 

The declaration also garners support for crucial areas like "WTO's Aid for Trade," accessible and affordable healthcare, a Green Development Pact, Green Credit, and capacity-building for disaster and climate resilience. 

Nepal must now seize the opportunity and develop a clear and definitive Nepal-India road map for the next 10 years, seeking support for enhanced local value creation through comprehensive investments in manufacturing and the agricultural sector.

Furthermore, Nepal should explore the possibility of participating in the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI).

Nepal should grab the opportunity and become a part of PGI

Binoj Basnyat, Political analyst 

Would India become an alternative to China  or a complimentary to the West led by the US in international diplomacy as the political-economy-security-technological order is shifting? The G21 has emerged as a connector between the East and the West, bridging the Global South with Africa and Europe via the Persian Gulf.

The IBSA forum, comprising three major, diverse democracies, has implications for international diplomacy. It's one reason for Chinese President Xi Jinping's absence from the G20 summit and reflects growing challenges to China's global political-economic aspirations.

The Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI), with a commitment of $200bn by 2027, presents itself as an alternative to China's Belt and Road Initiative. In this shifting landscape, Nepal should seize the opportunity and consider participation in the PGI.

India’s evolution from NAM to G20

Chandra Dev Bhatta, Geopolitical Analyst 

India's journey from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to the G20 is captivating. Sixty-five years ago, India's leadership brought NAM into the political spotlight. Today, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, India has successfully hosted the G20 summit in New Delhi, marking a significant elevation of its position in international politics.

The inclusion of the African Union as a permanent member and representation from diverse organizations and countries further enhances India's position in world politics. The G20 now serves as a forum for discussing a wide array of global issues, distinguished by its consensual decision-making process, in contrast to a veto-based system.

With the transfer of G20 presidency to Brazil, another influential country from the Global South, the future of this intergovernmental organization looks exceedingly promising. India's leadership continues to shape and elevate its role on the world stage.

Clean energy will benefit Nepal

Ranjit Rae, former Indian Ambassador to Nepal

There are many areas of interest to countries like Nepal.I would pick digital public infrastructure, DRR, transition to clean green energy and fighting corruption and resilient supply chains. In addition Nepal could consider joining the Global Biofuels alliance. Also the IMEC corridor will benefit Nepal.

Depends on Nepal’s own ability to take advantage 

Sanjay Upadhay, Geopolitical Analyst 

The Delhi Declaration has placed considerable emphasis on important issues pertaining to developing countries like Nepal. These include clean energy, food security and digital economy, which broadly conform to our development priorities.  An India-Europe-Middle East corridor has been conceived as part of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII), a G7 initiative. The corridor opens up the possibility for greater connectivity for Nepal. Much will depend on how these opportunities translate into projects and initiatives on the ground and Nepal’s own ability to take advantage of them.

“Why do many students fail in the national level examinations?” This question repeatedly gets prominence whenever the boards—be it National Examinations Board (NEB) or Tribhuvan University (TU)—publish the results of examinations of different levels. Yet, the issue remains unsolved and thus, resurfaces every year.

With just a 50.91 pass percentage, three points higher than last year’s, with their tails up, NEB published the results of grade twelve examinations. Despite dismal results with close to half the students failing, to get the narrative in its favor, the NEB may bask in the glory of its minuscule improvement, compared to last year’s results. But this falls into the shadow of the lives of 49.09 percent of the total young minds that have been put to a halt, disqualifying them from enrollment in the university.

Issues

Such a high share of academic failure is indeed a national tragedy and as well as a bloody blow to our educational system. This isn’t the first time to have such depressing results. Over the years, NEB results have been hovering around fifty percent; the story is even darker in the case of TU, the oldest university in the country.

In Nepal, there’s a tendency of labeling students as ‘failures’ when they fail to get the minimum threshold in the standardized tests. In a true sense, the students never fail; technically, they just get the answers wrong. It’s indeed the parents, teachers, schools, curriculum designers, textbook writers, question paper setters or the entire education system that actually fail.

There is a chronic issue with our education outcomes. Behind this, there are scores of reasons, including inappropriate student-teacher ratio, lack of teachers' training, lack of community-school partnership, lack of school-university partnership, teachers’ affiliations with politics, politicized teachers’ recruitment process, and inadequate monetary & non-monetary incentives for the teachers and so forth.

In rural settings, there is a chronic shortfall of teachers to teach core subjects like English, Science, and Maths. This may be one of the reasons why 1,09,527 students failed in English alone this year. Even the existing teachers are bound to spread over multiple, crowded classes of different levels. Added to this, owing to nepotism in the teachers' recruitment process, the quality of the teachers has been questionable; also, due to a lack of training, and professional development workshops for the teachers, they aren’t up-to-date pedagogically. 

In the urban areas, most of the teachers work on a part-time basis and they are bound to moonlight. With divided minds and efforts, the outcomes become dismal. Added to this is, the gap between the curriculum designer, textbook writers, question paper setters, examiners, and teachers, contributes to chronic education outcomes; if this gap is bridged, the failure rates can be curbed, to some extent. Currently, there are 3,522  under-resourced community schools to run the classes for grades 11 and 12; the government doesn’t provide enough funds, except salaries of 6,000 teachers hired in temporary positions.

Consequences

While TU has already made a call for merger applications from its constituent campuses owing to an already surfaced student crunch, with close to half of the examinees who failed to meet the requirement to have access to higher university education, it’s quite easy to predict that the Nepalese universities will be thrown into a deeper level of student crunch and thus, results in fewer number of graduates. This will further lead to a more extreme level of workforce crisis in the country. The learning centers are already facing the brunt of an acute shortfall of teachers, and according to a study conducted in 2018, there is a requirement of 7800 additional teachers to teach in grades 11 and 12.

In addition,  a yearly trend of 60,000-70,000 students flying out of the country, an estimation of the conservatives,  for better economic and educational opportunities will add fuel in the fire- less passing rate; the Nepalese universities will be hit-hard with extreme levels of students-dry. With the exodus of teenage students, the country will not only lose youth power and energy but will also lose at least $1.5 billion that flies out of the country with them.

The ministry’s statistics show that about 400,000 students flew out of the country in the last one decade, until last year, and there has been geometric growth after the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions by the developed countries. The statistics show that as many as 110,000 students received No Objection Certificates (NOC) last fiscal year to study in 72 different countries. This exodus of teenage students is a great loss for the country from economic, and as well as the perspective of the youth power.

Furthermore, forty-nine percent of the students who have been put into the non-graded category, will not only lose their self-confidence but will also have to face the brunt of psychological ailing. While many of them may drop out of academics forever, others may choose to fly out of the country for physical work or others may unfortunately get indulged in wrongdoings; either way, it’s a threat to the country.

Way forward

Such a high share of failure is a national tragedy. The poor education outcome is the reflection of our poor, flawed education system.  The government, including the wider fraternity has to pay attention to resolve this grave issue; otherwise, the nation will have to bear irrecoverable losses in the future. 

The depressing results have not only posed a question about the life of young minds, but also challenged the letter grading system that was introduced six years ago without much preparation, strategy, and investment to pull it off. It’s also the reflection of the politicized teacher recruitment process and successive governments who turned their deaf ears and blind eyes to refine or restructure our existing flawed system.

To curb the failure rates, teacher recruitment must be done through a more competitive, healthy, and transparent process. In addition, to maintain professional conduct among the teachers, they must be discouraged to have political affiliations. For the same, Kathmandu Metropolitan City has recently enforced new regulations across the valley to discourage teachers from having political affiliations. With such enforcement across the country, schools can be made more autonomous and apolitical yielding better learning outcomes. 

Similarly, in rural settings where there is a shortage of qualified teachers, through school-community partnerships, the issue of poor learning outcomes can be resolved. For this, through the initiation of the local government, health or banking professionals from the local community, for example, can be tapped into to teach subjects like Science, Maths or perhaps, English in the morning. Moreover, in the urban setting, teachers’ recruitment must be made on a full-time basis with adequate training, monetary and non-monetary incentives.

The ax that is not sharpened for a long time, fails to chop the woods efficiently. So, it’s imperative to brush up on the skills and knowledge of the teachers to enhance overall learning outcomes of the students. For the same, a local government can forget partnerships with the universities to launch teachers’ development workshops or pursue higher university degrees through the arrangement of scholarship schemes. Also local governments can partner with the EdTech companies for expertise and knowledge sharing to make the teaching-learning process more fun, engaging, and productive through the implementation of multimedia in the classroom to improve the overall learning outcomes.

In Nepal, there is a tendency of launching the courses or programs without much preparation; this should bring to an end in the future. The boards should ensure the teachers across the country go through the rigorous training on the curriculum or new course before it’s launched or implemented; this may aid to yield better results.

49.09 percent—that’s not the figure that students failed; they never fail. So, to ensure the success of our education system, we need to work in-hand-hand to strengthen it. With this, not only can the future of young minds be secured in particular, but also of the future of the country at large; together, this is feasible.

The author is Kathmandu-based teacher 

How could I not buy a book about books? I saw the title ‘The Last Library’ on the spine of the book during a recent trip to Ekta Books in Thapathali, Kathmandu, and bought it on a whim. I didn’t even read the blurb. I was reading something else at the moment but I still couldn’t resist it. I started reading it, sitting at Ekta’s newly opened quaint little café at the bookstore premises. It didn’t immediately grab my attention and, as far as my experience with books goes, that’s never a good thing.

 It’s a cute little book. That’s all there is to it. I didn’t love it. But it was enjoyable. I felt like I had read similar books in the past. The plot wasn’t anything new. In fact, it felt a little too cliché. But I also wanted to finish it despite having a strong inkling about how it would end. The characters are interesting, but then again, you’ve met them before, in books with similar plots. Sampson hasn’t been able to develop the characters. You meet them but you never really get to know them. And you end up not caring much about them either.

This standalone novel focuses on a library assistant and her determination to fight for her beloved local library which is threatened to be shut down. Thirty-year-old June Jones has never left the sleepy English village where she grew up. She spends all her time at the library where her mum once worked. She’s the assistant librarian there. When the library is threatened with closure, June has to get out of her comfort zone to save the place that holds so many memories. At the risk of losing her job, she joins hands with a group of eccentric yet loyal locals who start a campaign to keep the library open. In doing so, June builds some relationships that might save her and give her story a new beginning.

The Last Library (The Last Chance Library in the US version), I believe, is perfect for non-readers or those who want to get started with reading. It’s light. You don’t have to invest too much mental or emotional energy and the chapters are short. I felt the book was also a commentary on the importance of libraries as public spaces. In the book, it’s where a lonely old man hangs out, where a teenager escapes her chaotic household to study in peace, and an immigrant builds new connections. I wouldn’t recommend or not recommend this book but if you are a voracious reader, you can give it a miss.

Fiction

https://www.goodreads.com/series/240356-the-last-library 

The Last Library

Freya Sampson

Published: 2021

Publisher: Zaffre

Pages: 364, Paperback