Micro Investment

Micro Investment

Small sums of $100, $500 and $1000 can be collected by locally registered, privately held funds in places like New York City. But then such funds can also have large donors. Somebody might pump in $100,000 or more in one go.

Authority will rest in the shareholders and in the Board Of Directors. There would be a top dog that answers to both.

There can be more than one fund, of course. It is for an aspiring entrepreneur, or group of entrepreneurs to take initiative.

The challenge is to sell the idea that it is better for people to invest in these funds than to send money directly to their families in Nepal, that it is better to invest in these funds than to build houses in the towns of Nepal. Real estate can feel like a secure form of investment, but other forms of investments should be able to offer higher annual returns.

Free Money Transfer

Standard Chartered Bank
Standard Chartered Bank - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I learned from Ananta Risal yesterday that there is a Standard Chartered Bank that does for NRNs that Citi does for NRIs. If you have bank accounts in their New York and Kathmandu chapters, you can move dollars from here to there for free. You collect rupees at the other end. I guess the business model is to resell those dollars in Kathmandu.

At The Receiving End

I am not too knowledgeable about the policy framework at the other end. Other than the usual sluggish bureaucracy, I think there are gaping wholes. One obvious one is there is no provision for dual citizenship for the NRNs. That is a mistake. And it should be corrected right away.

Use Of The Internet

I think there should be maximum possible transparency for the investors. I should be able to track my money all the way. If I want to, I should be able to track down as to which 10 farmers are getting micro loans from my particular investment. I should be able to go visit them in Nepal if I might so desire.

Micro Credit Entrepreneurship

I have known of banks investing in big projects, usually buildings, etc. We have been trained to value physical capital. The idea about micro credit is to value human capital. You do it for money. The profit motive works. The amount of individual loans might be small, but the rate of return can be high.

And as with all loans, you have to be willing to write off a certain percentage of loans. In electricity distribution they call it chuhawat.

Policy

I think that is the real challenge. People in the diaspora at the forefront of the idea should be able to write entire policy papers with the help of locally hired legal help. So the legislators, when they are not themselves proactive, are forced to vote yes or no, one way or the other. And the work on those policy papers have to be transparent from the get-go.

It is sad that lack of policy framework is hampering the infusion of massive amounts of capital into Nepal.

Entrepreneurial Culture

That is sorely lacking among the Nepalis in New York City.

I offer a few options myself. There is network marketing. There is my technology company idea. There is a Desi fast food idea that I am also working on. The least people can do is pick up the phone to announce they are interested. Entrepreneurship is about taking initiative. Do you have what it takes?

Growing rich is glorious. Who said that? Den Xiaoping.

On The Web

[PDF] Micro Investment Development Agency Limited
Micro-investment: Building community ownership of the arts ...
Micro Loans, Solid Returns
Startups -- the micro approach
June 2006: Micro-Investment: The Last Sermon: To Someone After Me ...
dollarDEX: Micro investment conversion

Microcredit Summit Campaign
International Year of Microcredit 2005
Virtual Library on Microcredit
So, what is "microcredit" ??
Grameen - Home page of Microcredit
Microcredit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Experts Question Wisdom of Micro-Credit for Women
International Year of Microcredit 2005

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An Event With Ananta Risal At The Nepali Mandir





Date: 30th July, 2006

I would like to thank everyone who came for the Collaborative Network Initiative. Thank you for giving your valuable time and suggestion. Special thanks to Madhurji for sharing this involvement in the Children Foundation and elaborating the outsourcing possibilities in Nepal. We were able present available brochures from the various IT companies in Nepal. Thanks to Knowledge Interface for the pizza and soda. We can't thank enough to the Chairman of the NepaliMandir Mr. Chandra Prakash Sharma to let use the venue within a short notice.

We agreed to meet within 2 weeks time and accomplish the following agenda.

Please assemble your thoughts as we need to move forward with much focused mindset.

1. Name: Suitable Name this for-profit organization

2. Purpose: The purpose of this public company is to take initiation on marketing Nepal as a service sector for Information Technology and more. Work as a show case to provide Nepal as a visibility market to the International community with trust and capacity building approach to NRN.

3. Board of Project Directors and Managers

4. Venue: will be announced later, most probably in New Jersey, 12th Aug 6-8:00 PM

5. Initial Investment: We will discuss about how to execute the company with minimum investment in the earlier stage. We will also discuss about it. We need to decide on the seed money and the number of initial directors.

Please send your valuable suggestion, feedback or any professional methods to initiate this historic business movement.

I will collect all of the ideas and float among all of collectively.

Thanks.

Attendees:

Suraj Mathema
Chandra Kalu
Gopal Shrestha
Menaka Parajuli
Ankit Parajuli
Paramendra Bhagat
Mohit Khetan
Bibhu Poudyal
Binita Poudyal
Parbati Sharma
Chandra Prakash Sharma
Bidur P. Poudyal
Mr. And Mrs. Ujjal Bhattarai
Nitya Bhattarai
Manish Sharma

Coordinator: Ananta Risal

April Convention: Emerging Picture

Website

Ujjwal Bhattarai of The Nepal Digest fame will be working on the website. It will be simple and attractive.

He lives in the New York City metro area. That is a plus. Meetings can be held.

Plus, it is a business deal. The site will have a column on the right for ads. One third of that real estate will be his, and there will be no direct payments made to him.

I will be a co-administrator. Chandra Prakash has put some wonderful ideas. One is that the PayPal button for registration should be the most eye-catching item on every page of the site, hanging in the top left corner.

The site will be NepaliConvention.com, of course. But it is not there yet.

Management Team

Chandra Prakash and I are on it. We are looking for 10 others to be part of the core team. And we will need about 100 volunteers. The term volunteer is misleading since everyone who puts in work will be compensated, only the compensation will be after the convention. Openings will be posted on the site.

You have to be living in the city to be part of the core team. But volunteers can be based anywhere, and can be telecommuting.

The site will feature detailed descriptions for all the openings. Or you can email me and/or Chandra Prakash right away if interested.

There will be an attempt to seek ethnic and gender diversity on the team, but competence and enthusiasm come first in consideration. We are hoping the core team will shape up by the end of August.

Venues

Again, the goal is to get decided on the venues by the end of August. And we are actively seeking suggestions from all sorts of people. Please get in touch with us if you have any ideas on this one.

Not all venues will be at one place. We are expecting guests from outside might like the idea of using the subway. But all venues will be in Queens, and as close to each other as possible.

Registration Fees

First we thought $20, and then charge separate for concerts. Then we thought of a flat fee of $25. Then a registration fee of $25 and $10 each for the three evening events. Finally we have decided on a flat fee of $35. That takes you into all events at the convention, concert, cultural program, everything.

The thing is that this registration is compulsory. We will have security guards posted at the main entrance of each venue. Unless you have the convention button displayed on you, you will not be allowed in. And the security guards will not be anyone you might know.

Right now we are looking at a 5,000 capacity, first come, first serve. So hurry, register as soon as you can. We have to have that kind of a ceilig for the more popular of the events and the fire marshall guidelines in the city.

Media Partners

Nepali Aawaz and this blog are the official media partners of the convention. This blog will help you be part of the discussions as we shape up the convention. Our idea is that a lot of people should get together to shape up the details.

Program Schedule

This is not final, but this is what it looks like for now.

Friday 7 PM - 11 PM Inauguration Ceremony

Saturday 8 AM - 11 AM NYC Sight Seeing For The Interested Guests From Outside The City
Saturday 11 AM - 7 PM Sports Events, Forums, Mini Conventions, Displays
Saturday 7 PM - 11 PM Cultural Program To Exhibit Nepal's Diversity
Saturday 11 PM - 2 AM DJ On The Dance Floor

Sunday 8 AM - 11 AM NYC Sight Seeing For The Interested Guests From Outside The City
Sunday 11 AM - 7 PM Forums, Gatherings, Sports
Sunday 7 PM - 11 PM Concert

The detailed breakdown has not happened yet, and we are open to suggestions. The sight seeing part: we will collaborate with outside companies to provide the transportation. That will be an extra charge for you, but it should be minimal. It will be a crash course, as in see the top 10 spots in three hours.

The 11 PM cut off time is because the subway in the city slows down considerabley after midnight.

ंMoonlight

This convention is being brought to you by Moonlight. It is a private enterprise. The idea is to lower the price and enhance the experience. The management team for the most part just provides the platform. It is for the organizations to decide what to do. They have the power.

One great example is Anand Bist's planned convention. He is Nepali Cogress' point person in America. He has launched a Nepali People's Coordination Committee that is affiliated with the Congress. He hopes to organize a convention for the same within a year. I offered him our convention as the platform, so he does not have to worry about any of the logistics.

People affiliated with the other parties are encouraged to do similar stuff. The Nepali Convention is non partisan.

We are hoping organizations in the city and elsewhere in the country might want to use our event to host their own mini conventions.

Core 200

There will be a dozen people on the core team, and about 100 volunteers. And when you put together the Chieft Guest, the Chief Host, the Special Guests, the VVIPs and the VIPs, you are looking at another 100 people.

All these people will still have to pay $35 for registration, Chandra Prakash and me included. But these 200 get special, bigger buttons.

Organizations

There will be three categories.

• Participating Organizations.
• Star Organizations. Members elected its president directly some time during the past year. Number of members is public.
• Superstar Organization. The best organization based on membership size, transparency, vibrancy, impact, internal democracy.

These organizations are the ones that will collectively decide on the awards.

Awards

There are six big awards for people in Nepal. And there will be awards for the Nepalis in America.

• Politics.
• Entrepreneurship.
• NGO Sector.
• Social Justice: DaMaJaMa.
• Media.
• Entertainment.

At least one officer with an organization has to register with the convention before that organization may participate.

Each organization will nominate one person each for the six categories and write a brief paragraph supporting their case. A participating organization has one vote, a star organization has two votes, a superstar organization has three votes. All nominations will be tallied, all nominations will be made public. There will be five finalists in each category. Then all organizations will vote again. And the award recipients will be decided by the end of February 2007. The entire process will stay transparent.

There will be non cash prize awards to the Nepalis in America. The categories have not been decided yet. We are open to suggestions. The awards will be decided in a similar manner as above.

Nepali Block Party: September 29

This is to be our dress rehearsal. There will be no entry fee. Food and non alcoholic drinks will be sold through vendors. There will be music, and mini speeches. And other stuff. Come in large numbers. Venue to be decided.

Why New York, Why Queens

New York City is the Kathmandu of the world. It is the most diverse city on the planet. Queens is the most diverse borough in the city. Jackson Heights is the most diverse locality in Queens.

There are 100,000-120,000 Nepalis in America. Of those close to 30,000-40,000 live in the city. Of the rest, most live in the Boston-DC corridor. New York City is the geographical center of that corridor.

There is public transportation in that corridor, unlike the rest of America. New York City has the best public transportation of any place in the country.

There are three airports.

This convention will be held in Queens, year after year after year.

April Revolution, April Convention

In The News

UML presents 23-point suggestion to ICDC; ‘fate of monarchy be decided by referendum’ NepalNews the interim constitution include provision to hold referendum to decide the fate of monarchy....... The three-member Interim Constitution Advisory Committee headed by UML standing committee member Bharat Mohan Adhikari ...... the party had suggested the drafting committee to include the mandate of the people’s movement-II, democratic republic, peace and inclusive restructuring of the state as the ‘directive principles of the state’...... referendum, which can be held in tandem with the constituent assembly elections ..... “There is no guarantee that the constituent assembly will have 2/3rd majority in favour of abolishment of monarchy from the country.” He said the UML believed that the country could easily do away with monarchy through a referendum....... Italy and Bolivia where constituent assembly polls and referendum were held together ...... a cost-effective and practical method ...... the Nepali Army.. the UML has suggested that it “should be national in nature”, inclusive and democratic and should be under the cabinet. The party has also suggested that the interim constitution make provisions to resolve the problems regarding the distribution of citizenship..... made no specific mention about the interim parliament ..... The UML’s suggestion came a day after the end of the second deadline given to the drafting committee to finalise the interim statute...... Other constituents of the SPA are yet to present their suggestions to the ICDC
CoAS Thapa defers summon of Rayamajhi commission informed that he could not attend the commission to file statement at the Commission, as he has to go Pokhara for some important work......
Prachanda, Nepal discuss upcoming high-level talks
UN team continues parleys
Armymen including Captain suspended for torturing policemen
Two Maoist cadres shot at in Siraha Reports quoted Yadav as saying that nine armed activists of the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha dragged him out of bed and shot at him.

UN asks Nepal for common stand on arms India eNews.com, India
Soldiers go on rampage in Kathmandu India eNews.com
Nepal orders probe into army mayhem DailyIndia.com
Three Dozen Army Men Suspended in Nepal Associated Content, CO
Nepal army chief to be questioned BBC News
Army Gundagardi. Nepal Army Becoming Rascals Club United We Blog, Nepal
Hooligans burn copies of Kantipur daily Kantipur Online
Armymen including Captain suspended for torturing policemen Nepalnews.com
China, Nepal agree to push economic, technical cooperation People's Daily Online
Nepal’s little prince turns five India eNews.com, India
Exit permit process for US resettlement initiated : Nepal Phayul, Tibet

ICDC giving 'final touch' to drafts today Kantipur Publications According to family sources, the members have been away from home since last Thursday.
मोर्चालाई सरकारले सम्बोधन गर्ने
नयाँ राष्ट्रगानको अर्थ
बहिरालाई क्याम्पस
युनियन गठन नगर्न अन्तरिम आदेश

Dishanirdesh

Krishna Sitaula, CK Lal Part 1, Part 2, Part 3