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Nepalese
Economy in Retrospect and Prospect
Author: B.P.
Shrestha
ISBN:
Pages:
Size:
Edition: HB
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Rs. 200.00
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About the book
Over the past quarter of a century Nepal has made a remarkable progress
in all spheres of national fife, especially in creating essential preconditions
for a viable process of development. The country, however, remains trapped
in a vicious circle of poverty and underemployment. 11 is generally felt
that there is an urgent need of some objective and dispassionate analysis
of the present state of economy for assessing its strengths as well as its
weaknesses. The present book is intended to provide such analysis in its
first chapter.
The second chapter examines in depth the basic problems underlying the economy
such as low production, low productivity, high incidence of poverty and
inequality, resulting largely from the widespread underemployment in rural
areas due to continuing accumulation of idle labour on fixed land resource
of' the country. It seems as if the vision of' the Panchayat polity to create
an exploitation-free society is gradually getting blurred. Even the commitment
to meet the basic needs of people by 2000 A.D. is likely to remain largely
unfulfilled unless an appropriate strategy of' development is pursued. The
present development process seems to have deepened the dualism in the economy
with lop-sided emphasis on industrialization and modernization but without
prior or concurrent measures for structural change in the vast rural economy.
The third chapter presents an alternative strategy of development to deal
with these basic problems. The hard core of' the development strategy as
visualized in this study in based, among other things, on the conviction
that rationalization of the traditional agricultural sector is a precondition
for industrialization and modernization of the economy on a viable basis.
In the context of' the Nepalese economy, such rationalization means essentially
a process of introducing new production functions in the rural economy.
The objective of' the Panchayat system of' Nepal is to create a democratic,
dynamic and exploitation-free society through harmonization of' interests
of various classes and professions. Under the constitution of Nepal, the
Panchayat system requires that private enterprises and investment should
be encouraged, and Sajha (cooperative) organizations promoted and that no
class or individual can exert undue economic pressure upon another class
or individual. A society of this nature aiming at mutually competitive objectives
needs numerous countervailing mechanisms to harmonize the various interests
and minimize the undue economic pressures. The role and responsibility of
state on this account should, therefore, be thoroughly examined. In short,
an attempt is made in the fourth and last chapter to provide an economic
blue-print to attain the basic objectives of the Panchayat polity in Nepal. |
