As Rastriya Swantantra Party (RSP) assumes the reins of power, social media is abuzz with anticipation of a digital revolution. From proposed data center building sprees to talks of making Nepal an IT outsourcing hub, these schemes are being touted as the kind of vision (a favorite word of the Nepali electorate) one can expect from youthful, dynamic leadership. Indeed, Prime Minister Balen Shah’s charismatic, and to some, enigmatic, image owes much to the way social media amplified him into a political phenomenon. Words like algorithm, AI, crypto, outsourcing and data centers have entered the national political lexicon and will likely remain there, barring a global catastrophe that forces a worldwide return to mythical pre-internet days.
Given the sweeping scale of this proposed digital revolution, we suggest the new government start at the most basic levels. The most consequential part of RSP’s digital agenda is not some glamorous AI project or cutting-edge tool, but the pledge to implement “modern and digital processes” in government offices. As it stands, for most ordinary Nepalese, visiting a government office is a humiliation ritual. If one’s patience and dignity are not eroded by the sclerotic bureaucracy and shady brokers, they will be by servers that are mysteriously and routinely “down.”
Indeed, a recent case from July 2025 relating to National Identity Card (NID), where many online services were disrupted including online registration, card distribution, correction of personal details, and related welfare linked services, shows that these concerns are real. Thus, the foremost priority should be a public status tracking page that provides insights into service disruptions, uptime, and resolution times. With this data, taxpayers and auditing authorities can hold offices accountable and perhaps get to the bottom of why servers across Nepal’s government offices keep failing. We don’t have a crystal ball, but our prediction is that once status tracking is enforced, these outages will decline sharply.
The average voter may not grasp the intricacies of large-scale digital transformation, but if she can visit a government office or use an online service without feeling browbeaten, or better yet leave satisfied with the experience, RSP will have done far more to create a genuine sense of digital revolution. This kind of consistent, tangible improvement builds trust in the system and fosters citizen buy-in, both of which are essential to acclimatizing the citizenry to a future shaped by more ambitious, trailblazing digital innovations. Moreover, such satisfaction would also reinforce RSP’s signature commitment to good governance.
Another crucial step toward good governance is mandating every government office to publicly host standardized key performance indicators (KPIs) related to service efficiency on their websites. These dashboards must be updated in real time and include metrics such as average wait times, service completion rates, system uptime and data on ongoing projects. This would enable year-over-year comparisons as well as meaningful cross-comparisons across government bodies. It could also be used to incentivize high-performing departments and penalize persistent underperformers, creating a culture of performance and accountability.
Likewise, any serious drive toward digital governance should be accompanied by robust data protection regulation and actual enforcement. There is little value in moving services online only for citizens to be left wondering who is accessing their data, how long it is retained, with whom it is shared, and what recourse exists in the event of a breach. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gained global influence because it went beyond treating data protection as mere technical legislation and instead addressed it as a right and an obligation. Nepal already has the Privacy Act, 2075 on its books. The critical next step is to ensure administrative seriousness that would render privacy protection visible, enforceable, and realistic in practice. Otherwise, digitization won't feel modern. It will feel invasive.
Our intention is not to dissuade the government from pursuing novel, cutting-edge technological advancements, but to suggest, in good faith, a few changes that would substantially improve governance and be felt by many. Discussions of the more ambitious programs outlined in RSP’s Citizen Contract merit deeper examination, which we intend to undertake in future articles. Nepal’s digital revolution will depend primarily on strong digital public infrastructure and reliable cybersecurity capacity. Currently, Nepal’s digital infrastructure remains weak and underprepared, and its cybersecurity capacity is not yet strong enough to support a transformation on this scale.
A 2024 government presentation, Country Report Presentation: Nepal’s Digital Policies, prepared by Indra Prasad Basyal, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, cites the International Telecommunication Union’s Global Cybersecurity Index and notes a score of 69.76 out of 100 for Nepal. That is the profile of a country still building cyber resilience, not one yet in a position to make grand claims about digital transformation. For now, we wish Prime Minister Balen Shah’s government the best.
