Democracy For Nepal: New York City

Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts

Friday, November 07, 2014

Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales Writes To PM On Raut

Chair: Kirsty Brimelow QC │ Vice-Chair: Sudanshu Swaroop
Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) | 53-54 Doughty Street | London WC1N 2LS |
e-mail: coordination@barhumanrights.org.uk | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7404 1313 ext. 359 | website: www.barhumanrights.org.uk

The Right Honourable Mr Sushil Koirala
Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers
Singh Durbar
Kathmandu, Nepal
P.O. Box: 23312
SENT BY EMAIL AND POST
London, 6 November 2014

Your Excellency,
RE: Dr Chandra Kant Raut charged with sedition

I am writing on behalf of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC). The BHRC is the international human rights arm of the Bar of England and Wales. It is an independent body primarily concerned with the protection of the rights of advocates and judges around the world. The Committee is also concerned with defending the rule of law and internationally recognised legal standards relating to human rights and the right to a fair trial.

The BHRC is contacting you regarding the arrest and prosecution of Madhesi activist Chandra Kant Raut. As you will be aware, on 14 September 2014, Dr Raut was placed under detention for allegedly inciting separatism in the Madhes region of Nepal under S. 2(1)(k) of the Some Public (Crime and Punishment) Act, 2027 (1970).

1 Then, on 8 October 2014, Dr Raut was charged with subversion contrary to S. 3(1) of the Crime against State and Punishment Act, 2046 (1989) for allegedly inciting separatism in the Madhes region of Nepal, an offence that carries a sentence of life imprisonment.2 Of note, on 20 September 2014, Dr Raut began a hunger strike to protest his arrest for denouncing discrimination of marginalised groups and peacefully demanding autonomy for his region. On 1 October 2014, as Dr Raut’s condition became critical, he was visited in hospital by Nepali Congress Party leader and Minister of Information and Communication Minendra Rijal and Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) leader and Minister of Agriculture Hari Prasad Parajuli. The two Ministers pleaded with Dr Raut to break his fast and gave a written commitment to respect Dr Raut’s freedom of expression. On that occasion, the Vice-President of the Nepali Congress Party Ram Chandra Poudel also visited Dr Raut and made an oral commitment that the charges would not be proceeded with against him.

However, the following week Dr Raut was charged with sedition under the Crime against State and Punishment Act, 2046 (1989). On 15 October 2014, the Special Court granted bail, but Dr Raut refused release on bail as he considered that he would be rearrested immediately on a different charge; the prosecution had stated in court that there was enough evidence to charge Dr Raut with the offence of

The BHRC respectfully draws to the attention of the Government of Nepal Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Nepal has been a party since 1991, and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which enshrine the right to freedom of expression. Nepal has also ratified the First Optional Protocol of the ICCPR. Nepal’s commitment to human rights and the right to freedom of expression are also reflected in Article 12 (3)(a) of the currently in force Interim Constitution 2007.

Limitations to the right to freedom of expression are legitimate only if they fall within the very narrow conditions defined in the three-part test in Article 19(3) of the ICCPR; these restrictions must be ‘provided by law and necessary’, and there must be a legitimate aim to impose such restrictions.

Similarly, Article 12 of Nepal’s Interim Constitution 2007 allows only for the imposition of ‘reasonable restrictions’ to the right to freedom of expression. The BHRC respectfully submits that the restrictions to Dr Raut’s freedom of expression do not pass the three-part test in Article 19(3) of the ICCPR.

First, the formulation of the offence under S. 3(1) of the Crime against State and Punishment Act, 2046 (1989), with which Dr Raut is charged, does not meet the required standards of clarity and precision, leaving it open to abuse and political expediency.

Second, the current position in international law regarding the balance between national security and expression is that it is illegitimate to criminalise simple speech when no imminent violence is being incited with intent, as in the case of Dr Raut.

Third, limitations to freedom of expression are such as are necessary in a democratic society. The purpose must never be to shield governments from peaceful opposition. In this respect, the Crime against State and Punishment Act, 2046 (1989) is a piece of legislation drafted at the twilight of the Panchayat autocracy (1960-1990). This piece of legislation was enacted to repress dissent and curb the efforts of pro-democracy activists, and as such it has no place in a democracy.

The BHRC therefore respectfully requests the Government of Nepal and appropriate institutions to call to account the current actions that have led to Dr. Raut’s loss of liberty with a view to securing his release without fear of further arrests. Further, it should reconsider the appropriateness of the Crime against State and Punishment Act 2046 (1989). The BHRC calls upon the authorities to ensure the internationally protected right to freedom of expression to all Nepali citizens in order to preserve the rule of law and administration of justice in Nepal. This is particularly important at this delicate moment of negotiations over the new constitutional settlement.

Yours sincerely,
Kirsty Brimelow QC
Chair, Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC)
Cc : Embassy of Nepal in the UK
Cc : British Embassy in Nepal

1 S.2 – Prohibition to commit some public crime (1) No person shall commit any of the following acts: (k) To commit any act or express anything, which causes intimidation or terror in general public and breaks public peace, by entering or not entering in any public gathering, assembly or demonstration; or to show weapon. See: http://www.lawcommission.gov.np/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=25&func=startdown&id=611&lang=en

2 S.3 (1) – If someone causes or attempts to cause any disorder with an intention to jeopardize the sovereignty, integrity or national unity of Nepal, he/she shall be liable for life imprisonment. See: http://www.lawcommission.gov.np/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=25&func=fileinfo&id=712&lang=enChair: Kirsty Brimelow QC │ Vice-Chair: Sudanshu Swaroop

Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) | 53-54 Doughty Street | London WC1N 2LS |
e-mail: coordination@barhumanrights.org.uk | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7404 1313 ext. 359 | website: www.barhumanrights.org.uk cybercrime for posting political material on his website, and the reportedly outstanding case under the Some Public (Crime and Punishment) Act, 2027 (1970).

Saturday, October 25, 2014

नेपालमा आर्थिक क्रान्ति र न्यु यर्कका नेपाली

New York City is the capital city of the world. There are talented Nepalis all over the world. But NYC does have a pretty impressive collection of Nepali talent.
Nepal is a very poor country. The most important goal for Nepal for the next 30 years is rapid economic growth. An economic revolution would be double digit growth rates year in year out for 30 years. Any Prime Minister of Nepal who does anything less over the next 30 years is a failure.
A lot of talented Nepalis have left Nepal for educational opportunities and greener pastures abroad. But among them I have felt a universal desire to give back, to contribute. That has to be tapped.
The quality of organization is important. The depth of feeling is important. The nation of Israel is a great example of how a well organized people can make outsize contributions.
Once A Nepali, Always A Nepali is a key concept. Citizenship without political rights makes zero sense. Dual citizenship with full rights would be a brain gain concept, it is the single most important thing the country can do to bring in massive FDI.
There are 30 Nepali millionaires in Moscow. By that count there should be 100 Nepali millionaires in NYC.
High tech entrepreneurship is the best way to get there.
One idea that has been floated is to incorporate a company in which a few hundred Nepalis would invest a thousand dollars each. And that LLC would invest in Nepali origin high tech startups in the early stages. I think that's a great idea.
Unless you can be a successful entrepreneur in an environment like NYC, it would be hard to make concrete contributions to Nepal's economic growth.

Thursday, October 09, 2014

न्यु यर्क शहरका ठगिएका बाहुनहरु

न्यु यर्क शहरको नेपाली समुदायमा शायद ८०% बाहुनहरु नै होलान। यदि न्यु यर्क आई पुग्नु प्रगति हो भने यी बाहुणहरुलाई नेपालको बाहुनबादको फाइदा भएकै हो। तर म इनलाई ठगिएका बाहुनहरु भन्छु।

यिन मध्येका नेपाली नागरिकलाई नेपाली चुनावमा वोट खसाल्न दिएको छैन।
यिन मध्येका अमेरिकी नागरिकलाई दोस्रो दर्जाको द्वैध नागरिकता दिने षड्यंत्र वामदेवले गर्दैछ। त्यो बाहुनले यी बाहुनलाई गनेको छैन।
आजभन्दा २०० वर्ष अगाडि बोस्टनमा आयरिशहरु नागरिक भए पनि, नभए पनि, ग्रीन कार्ड भए पनि नभए पनि शहरको चुनावमा वोट खसाल्थे, र त्यस कारणले त्यहाँ उनीहरुको पुछारथ हुन्थ्यो। यी बाहुनहरुको न्यु यर्क शहरमा कुनै पुछारथ छैन। धोबीका कुत्ता न घरका न घाटका भने जस्तो।
उसै पनि न्यु यर्कको सबैभन्दा पिछडिएको जात नै शायद यो नेपाली बाहुन समुदाय हो। भले इनले घरमा फर्केर इंडियनलाई जति गाली गरुन, आखिर ९५% को रोजीरोटी त्यही इंडियनले चलाई दिएको छ। कालेलाई गाली गरुन, एउटा काले राष्ट्रपति भएको देश।

प्रवासी नेपालीलाई नेपालमा द्वैध नागरिकता दिने तर दोस्रो दर्जाको, राजनीतिक अधिकार नभएको। बाहुनहरु फुरुङ्ग छन। २०० वर्ष अगाडिको कालो स्लेवहरुले पार्टी गरे जस्तो। Partying like there is no tomorrow.

एउटा छ नेपालमा आइन्स्टाइन, बाबा वामदेव। राजनीतिक अधिकार बिनाको नागरिकता र आत्म अधिकार बिनाको संघीयता ल्याउन मरि मेटेर लागेको छ। त्यस पछि ल्याउने भनेको निर्दलीय प्रजातन्त्र नै हो। त्यो आइन्स्टाइनले प्रयास छोड्दैन।

न्यु यर्क शहरको बाहुनलाई म मधेसी बाहुन भन्छु। जसरी नेपालमा मधेसीलाई समानता र अधिकार छैन, न्यु यर्कका बाहुनहरु त्यस्तै हो।

Friday, October 03, 2014

No Guarantees

(written for Vishwa Sandesh)

A tech startup is high risk behavior. If you had 100,000 dollars to invest, a financial advisor would tell you, put 10% of your money in the no risk zone. It might be money in a checking account, or a savings account. Put 10% of your money in high risk, high gain investments. This is money you could lose, but this is also money that could see wild growth. And then put 90% of your money somewhere in between. US Treasury bonds might give you a 5% annual return, but they are safe. Stocks might give you a 10% annual return, but they are volatile.

Investing in the first round of a successful startup could see your money grow 10,000%, but it is very hard to get in. Chances are you don’t personally know the founder of a tech startup who is just starting out. You simply don’t have that kind of social capital. And it is very hard to figure out if a tech startup is going to be successful or if it is going to go belly up.

And so I offered a hybrid situation to my high school friend Ravindra Sapkota a few months back. He is an Oxford University graduate running the top biotech company in Nepal. He raised half a million pounds out of college to launch his venture. It has had a few successful years in a row and I feel is in a prime position to raise its second round of funding.

Ravindra invested 5,000 dollars as soon as he found out I was launching a tech startup. A week later after sending the money we finally got to talking about what the idea is, what my plans were. He also later brought in one of his professors at 5,000. The professor is hoping to launch a biotech startup and is eager to raise some money for it in the New York market. I have also offered to help Ravindra raise round two money for his biotech startup in the New York market, the money capital of the world.

I made it risk free for them, as to Kundan Gurung who was one year senior to me at high school, and now lives five blocks from me in Woodside. Kundan is also in at 5,000.

The “risk free” deal I offered to them is this.

Should the venture fail, from the day of the failure, I will have 12 months to return this 5K to you, as if it were a personal loan. Should the venture succeed, I will get 5% of the growth this investment might see. So if this 5K becomes a million dollars in five years, I get 5% of that million, namely 50K, and you get the rest.

To them it feels like the worst that can happen is their 5K will not grow. That puts their money in the safe 10% no risk zone. To me it feels like I just signed up to get 50K for free. I am hugely optimistic and confident about my venture.

This instrument I invented is not to say a tech startup is risk free. It is anything but. You take multiple risks on a daily basis. You have to innovate fast. You have to move fast.

A tech startup is super risky. That is precisely why the rewards are super high. No Nepali in New York City has a net worth approaching a hundred million dollars. And you can’t dream of getting there the old economy way. A successful tech startup might be one of the few vehicles to get there.

Launching a successful tech startup also puts you in a good position to raise money for your NGO, your non profit, if you have one, it puts you in a good position to raise money for hydro projects in Nepal, should that hit your fancy.

It takes a lot to be a successful entrepreneur, especially a successful tech entrepreneur. A huge appetite for risk is key. You will almost never have 100% of the information you need. Often times you will only know half of what you need to know. And you still have to call the shots with utmost confidence. You have to have the right instincts, or you have to cultivate them.

You could fail a thousand ways. You could fail every step of the way. You could fail after two years of “success.” The market (the goddess) could kill you three years down the line in one fell swoop and with little to no warning.

I don’t see all that as a downside. That risk factor is part of the excitement. It is reward in its own right.

Monday, September 08, 2014

Ideas, Execution And The Old Economy

English: Jack Ma speaks during The Future of the Global Economy: The View from China plenary session at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China 28 September 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(written for Vishwa Sandesh)

The taxi cab is squarely in the old economy. So is the motel, or apartments passing for motels. But Uber and AirBnB are tech companies. They are not only tech, they are cutting edge tech, they are billion, multi-billion dollar tech companies.

Software started out as pure information processing. Then when connectivity came along, and the Internet took off, that information processing went to whole new heights. By now I feel software has clearly started eating into the big world out there. Uber should be an inspiration for people who might know their small chunk of the old economy pretty well, but who find technology intimidating.

A few developers writing code is one way to start a tech company. Sometimes you have a great idea that goes on to change the world. Sometimes your idea is not so good. Acquiring a good knowledge of an industry or a segment of the economy takes time. But time spent acquiring that knowledge might also have been time spent not learning to code. I happen to think that is a smaller problem.

The saying goes, ideas are a dime a dozen, what really matters is execution. I don’t agree with that. There are scores of old, big companies that have perfected the art of execution, but that can be considered brain dead, because they stopped innovating a long time ago, and are on their way out. Ideas matter. But once you do have an excellent idea, it is then all about execution. Unless the idea is executed, it is not a business.

Once you have an excellent idea, it is all about execution. That I buy into.

In the recent years the early stage funding market has really blossomed. You can raise more money earlier than you used to be able to. That does not always mean you can skip the friends and family round. It helps to have a basic prototype even when you want to raise money from angels. And if you are not coding yourself, chances are you are hiring coders, or a tech team, perhaps a tech consultant. That costs some money, maybe less than what it costs to launch a paan dokan in Jackson Heights, but it is still money.

Angels and venture capitalists get hit by ideas all day every day. So when you have a prototype you are ahead of perhaps 95% of the people out there. But even after that, it is hard for the investors to see what you got. One metric separates you from the herd. Do you have a product that has a rapidly growing user base? If the answer is yes, the investors don’t even have to fully comprehend what your idea is, they will fall for you.

In the first dot com boom launching a dot com meant buying servers, for one. You were going to host your website somewhere! But today even a near billion dollar company like FourSquare uses Amazon Web Services. Cloud hosting seems to work just fine. And that server space is really cheap when you just start out. For a few hundred dollars a month, you could go a long way. How about that?

You need an excellent idea. You need some seed money that you can cough up yourself, or you can raise among family and friends. It also helps to have a Cofounder. A big reason is emotion management. In the morning you can feel like a future millionaire. By evening you might feel you were better off working the day at the local McDonald’s, because you might at least have made a few bucks. And that emotional roller coaster is with successful startups. I am not talking about failures.

And you need to execute. You need to move. Risk taking has to be impulsive for you. Too much caution can cause analysis paralysis where you absolutely refuge to move. Tech entrepreneurship is not for everybody. But it is for more people than have given it a shot. I think there is a lot of room for people with in-depth knowledge of segments of the old economy. Start innovating. Jack Ma, who is the new Jack Welch, is not a coder. You don’t have to be.

You have to become obsessed with your idea. The Pinterest founder wrote personal, handwritten letters to his first 5,000 users. He was just so grateful they were even using his product. You need that kind of obsession. When you have only 100 users, you shower on them the attention that you might later have to spread to a million users. That kind of obsession.

New York City is number two after San Francisco by now when it comes to tech startups. You are not in the wrong city to be launching a tech startup. You can if you want to, but no, you don’t have to move to California to launch a tech startup. Drop your buckets, you are off the mouth of the Amazon, came the morse code reply from the ship that was asked for drinking water.

Saturday, September 06, 2014

Beyond Federalism To Double Digit Growth

Nepal topography. The green/yellow zones hold the Inner Terai valleys. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(Article sent to Kantipur on August 6, 2014)

A few months after the king’s coup in 2005 I moved to New York City from the Midwest. I had no such plans, but I ended up putting full time work into Nepal’s democracy movement, and subsequently the Madhesi movement. I went on to become Barack Obama’s first full time volunteer in all of New York City. I also watched Modi’s campaign for hours each day. To this day I follow Nepali politics pretty closely.

It is a shame that Nepal’s constitution was not written during the first two years of the first constituent assembly. Nepal’s leaders failed its people. But here we are with six months to go. Not completing the task is not an option, because massive economic opportunities are knocking at the door.

During the Shivaratri mayhem around Pashupati, all you have to do is go stand in the middle and the crowd will take you forward. China has been growing at massive rates with no signs of slowing down. India is about to take off in a similar way. All Nepal has to do is provide basic political stability, basic law and order, and the economy would take off for being sandwiched between the two awake giants. This is precisely the point I made when I got to meet Prime Minister Sushil Koirala in NYC a few weeks back.

I think the recent electoral mandate was broadly for geographic federalism. We should move towards six states: East Terai (Chitwan and Udaypur included), West Terai (Surkhet included), Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki, Karnali. The primary achievement of the Madhesh Movement was making sure the number of MPs from the Terai is in direct proportion to its population. That has to continue. Beyond that an electoral system fair to the DaMaJaMa (Dalit, Madhesi, Janajati, Mahila) has to be put in place.

205 seats in a lower house and 100 seats in an upper house might suffice. 7% of the 205 seats, or 15 seats should be reserved for Dalits. These would be constituencies where only Dalit candidates may contest. One third of all seats should similarly be set aside for women, or about 67 seats. Of those seats for women, 20% should be for Dalit women, 30% for Madhesi women, and 30% for Janajati women.

For the 100 upper house seats, it would be fully proportional. How many votes a party collects would determine how many seats that party gets. There would be provisions for the DaMaJaMa. One third for women again, as in every third name on a party’s list should be a woman. 7% for Dalits again. 10% for Madhesis, and 10% for Janajatis. The parties must submit lists before the election and make them public. The lists may not be amended after the election. So if a party gets 10 seats, the first 10 names on its submitted list get in.

A Prime Minister elected by both Chambers of the House would be the Executive Chief, free to form his cabinet with people from inside and outside the parliament, and a president elected by all elected leaders in the country at all levels, local, state and national, would serve as the constitutional head, and the Commander In Chief of the Nepal Army.

The six states would have unicameral legislatures. Every parliamentary constituency might be split into two state legislature constituencies. The 75 districts stay intact. There is the central government, there are the six state governments, the 75 district governments, and the city, town and village governments. It is important to come up with formulas such that the state, district and local governments end up with substantial budgets.

Nepal that is a federal country should have many fewer bureaucrats, soldiers and police officers than it currently has, because federalism is a more efficient form of government. A lot of stuff gets taken care of locally. Downsizing the Nepal Army from 100,000 soldiers to about 10,000 soldiers would free up resources for tens of thousands of teachers and health care workers. Policing is a state function and so Nepal Police will have to give way. Several ministries will have to be eliminated, all will have to be significantly downsized.

Modi during his recent visit said, “Nepal can become a developed nation by selling power to India.” That is true. Once the country has a new constitution and there are regular elections to all levels of government I am sure the country will see plenty of good leaders emerge who might do for Nepal what Nitish Kumar has done for Bihar.

An economic revolution would be Nepal growing at double digit rates year in year out for 30 years. That kind of growth rate is the best and fastest way to wiping out poverty in the country.

(Paramendra Bhagat is a tech entrepreneur based in New York City. His global team is working on an Augmented Reality Mobile Game.)

Tuesday, September 02, 2014

50 Millionaires

Nepali architect - Arniko in Miaoying Temple (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Russia hosts the largest cluster of Nepali millionaires in the Nepali diaspora. By some counts there are about 30 millionaires based in Moscow. These are all self made people. And so you can not argue the NRN leadership has been dominated by wealth.

For the first time NRNA USA has some semblance of existence. There are thousands of members, there are duly elected leaders. But NRNA USA is still no close to aspirations of global leadership.

For me it is less about the NRNA organization and more about Nepal’s economic growth as it can be projected over the next three decades. I did full time work for Nepal’s democracy movement in the 2005 period. Subsequently I put full time work into Nepal’s Madhesi Movement. And I have moved on. And now the issue is economic growth.

You can’t build a successful company as an act of charity, or by thinking about a particular country. Entrepreneurship responds to its internal forces. It is a high risk venture. You have to respond to the market forces. And it is not like I don’t think about me or my family. But I do also have one eye on Nepal.

To me more important than membership drives of the NRNA is the quest to see at least 50 millionaires among the Nepalis in NYC. That is the only meaningful way the Nepalis in America, more specifically New York, can not only hope to provide global leadership to the NRNA but, more importantly, make meaningful contributions to Nepal’s economic growth. So I look more for aspiring entrepreneurs than neta types. A few I might team up with, many I would just want to stay in the loop with.

You have to be in a position to personally invest, you have to be in a position to guide global investments into the Nepali economy, and then you can also hope to collectively propose policy changes that are so fundamental to letting the economy in Nepal bloom to its rightful size.

Working for Nepal’s democracy and Madhesi movements cost me money. I had to eat into my savings. But this next phase is about making money, about creating some serious personal wealth.

I don’t have much taste for old economy ventures. That is not a stamp of disapproval. The richest Nepalis in the city today have all made their money in the old economy. But I am grounded in software, and my ventures are new economy ventures. I find high tech exciting. Down the line that also makes room for clean energy ventures.

Building an ambitious company in a city like New York necessarily means you are going to aim for a global customer base, or at least a globally diverse customer base. That necessarily means you are going to have to build a globally diverse team. You can not have an all Nepali team trying to serve a global customer base. So you build your company following rules that are best for the company’s growth. And you contribute to Nepal’s economy to the best of your abilities, according to rules that best serve the purpose.

New York City is greatly suited for building great companies, especially multi-national corporations. The infrastructure here - and I don’t mean just the trains and buses - is optimal. It has a well developed financial marketplace. You count your blessings and you make your moves.

I have my tech startup, an Augmented Reality Mobile Game. That is recent, and it is pre-launch. I have had my tech consulting firm for years now. I have a strong bias in that I like working with tech startup type clients. Usually I just build the basic prototype. In rare cases I also end up taking a bigger role. I bring more than tech to the table. I also bring my knowledge of tech startups. I have been building a network for fundraising among professional investors for years now. But you can only cash on it if you have built the right company with the right kind of growth rates. Read: wild growth rates. Investors are business people. They invest because they think you will grow their money.

Nepalis in New York should be able to outdo the Nepalis in Moscow. And entrepreneurship is that route. I happen to believe entrepreneurship is for everybody. I am a big fan of network marketing, for example. Because it allows a venue for entrepreneurship even among the low income Nepalis in the city. Or you could invest 5K, 10K in a tech startup. A successful tech startups would give you returns that land in Kathmandu simply can not. Owning a small equity in a high tech venture beats owning real estate in Kathmandu.

The message of entrepreneurship goes hand in hand with the message of dual citizenship, and I don’t mean the watered down dual citizenship that the politicians in Kathmandu are talking about. They are trying to create a second class citizenship for the NRNs, like they already have for the Madhesis in Nepal. That is a no no.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

One Eye On Nepal

A tech startup launched partly or fully by Nepalis that might manage to raise 100K or 200K from among Nepalis in the first round, also called seed round, or friends and family round, if it does good work positions itself to raise north of a million dollars in its second round from professional investors. But it would be hard, probably impossible, to raise a million dollars from among Nepalis.

There is a flip side to that coin. Say that tech startup does well and ends up with a valuation in the 100 million dollar range in five years. Interested Nepalis either invested in the first round or did not invest at all. Because round two onwards you have to be a licensed investor to invest. You can’t come into rounds two, three or four.

Granted a tech startup is high risk behavior. Bottom line, it could fail. You could lose your money as an investor. But I can’t think of a better vehicle than a tech startup to start tapping into the robust capital markets in this city, the finance capital of the world. And unless you are a successful entrepreneur, you have no moral standing to make any meaningful contribution to economic growth in Nepal. Lecturing goes only so far, you have to be in a position to make meaningful investments. In this era of globalization and the Internet one can hope to make major contributions to Nepal’s economic growth, even if it might be 10,000 miles away.

Let’s say you invest 5K in a tech startup that goes on from a million dollar valuation in round 1 to a 100 million dollar valuation in about five years. Your 5K just grew to half a million dollars. It can be argued that is retirement money. A 500,000 dollar trust fund could generate 50K every year forever. It could be set up that way. As in, your half million stays intact. And you are netting 50K a year forever. 50K a year is not fancy, but it can be if you were to choose to spend all your money in a country like Nepal.

By that token a 10K investment would bring you a million dollars in that startup. A 20K investment would bring you two million dollars. A two million dollar trust fund would bring you 200K every year. That is rich!

What if you invested 5K each into 10 startups and only one of them hit it big? Your 50K still became half a million.

By one count there are 30 millionaire Nepalis in Russia. Shesh Ghale is in Australia. No matter which way you look, Nepalis in America look to be in a bad shape. America should have minted more Nepali millionaires than any place else. But that has not happened because not enough Nepalis in this country have gone into entrepreneurship. I happen to think that is a shame.

In Russia you could have bought factories for cheap when the Soviet Union collapsed. In Australia I guess real estate and education were key. But in the American economy high tech is the way to go. Old economy companies make money but not wild money. The beauty of software is it allows you to cash on your old economy expertise. I believe many software companies like Uber and AirBnB are yet to be born, companies that will target major inefficiencies in the old economy at large scales. Both are multi-billion dollar companies.

Clean energy is another way to get on the cutting edge. Finally Nepal might start making some big moves in a few years. I think there is room to build multinational corporations that do business globally, but also are deeply engaged in Nepal’s hydro sector.

The other day I was at a rooftop party in Manhattan and I came across this guy who had a biotech background who was doing Big Data for some big bank. He was not cashing in on his biotech background, not yet. But just like there are intersections between software and biotech, there necessarily are intersections between clean energy and software.

Risk taking is the top quality entrepreneurs share. Risk taking is more important than smarts, more important than a great work ethic. Sometimes you simply have to jump in and let the chips fall where they may. No risk, no gain.

But to the ablest of entrepreneurs, it probably does not feel like risk taking. To those watching, it might look like risk taking. But the best of entrepreneurs move with the assurance of a sleep walker. Just like I think of New York City as not part of America, but a whole different country altogether, I think entrepreneurs are a whole different species.