The country has transformed, both physically and demographically, underscored Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava speaking at NDTV World's 'Anviksha' India-Nepal Dialogue on Thursday, connecting the change to New Delhi's "neighbourhood first" policy.
The policy prioritises improving physical, digital, and people-to-people connectivity within the region, while also boosting trade and commerce.
"For the last several years, we have been doing work in that direction. Now, Nepal has transformed both in terms of physical transformation, better infrastructure, better roads, better connectivity, hydropower, but also demographically, that's seen a large transformation," the envoy told NDTV.
The envoy elaborated that there's a great exchange of people and ideas between the two South Asian countries.
"Several new initiatives have been taken. We organise, for example, visits of young MPs, in collaboration with think tanks from India to spend 10-15 days in India, see what the Indian development is like and how Nepal's youth and young politicians or young population can fulfill their aspirations as they collaborate with India. That's been the larger objective," the envoy said.
The Indian envoy mentioned how technology is one of the focus areas of the Nepal government and how India is helping with the country's start-ups.
"Nepal has a very vibrant start-up ecosystem. Most of the young Nepalese are into start-ups. And for the last several years, we had done several collaborative events with the local business chambers and universities. What we found was while there is a lot of talent here, they are very ambitious. There could be a mutually beneficial collaboration because the Indian start-up ecosystem would provide them capital, would provide them a market and connections. Keeping that in mind, we started a program called India Nepal Startup Partnership Network. It started last year," he said.
The envoy spotlighted that there have been two batches of Nepalese startups, around 49 start-ups who have been given training and mentorship by India.
"Several of them have got incubation offers in India. Investments have flown in, and we are now working on the regulatory part of it so that the Nepali startups who now wish to expand into India, are able to do so without much of a regulatory hassle," he said.
In the field of agriculture too, India has been extending help to Nepal, the envoy said.
"Best of the Nepalese apples grow in an area called Mustang, but they wanted to increase productivity, so we organised visits for them to go to India, have interactions with our agricultural experts to see how we have done that," he said.
Sports, particularly cricket, remains a common link between the two countries, and India, the envoy said, is helping Nepal cricket grow with help from BCCI.
"Another area that we are focusing on is sports diplomacy, cricket, and it helps that my minister, Dr S Jaishankar, is also a cricket fan. Therefore, when he had come here in 2024, he had met the Nepalese cricket team. And since then, our cooperation with Nepali cricket team has increased," he said.
"With the help of the BCCI, we've organised training camps for them in our national center. And, I guess most of you might have seen the Nepali team's performance in the T20 World Cup both against England and Ireland. Several of them, I hope, will be able to compete in the IPL at some point," he said.
The envoy mentioned that India is working with Nepal's under 19 cricket team.
"We've started, short-term training program for them in Bhopal with an academy. So last year we sent 3 of them, including under 19 um girls team member, Puja Mahato, who's now their vice captain of the National Women's team. So those are some of the areas we are working on in terms of engaging with the youth, and that is a process which will continue in the future," he said.
Education, the envoy said, is "one of the stronger pillars of our people to people connection" and that India remains the "most preferred destinations" for most of the Nepali youth who want to pursue education.
"We support education through provision of scholarships annually. We provide about 1500 scholarships, and these scholarships range from school studies in Nepal and then in India and to higher degree programs whether it is postgraduate or PhD programs. And most of the people are going to India or for engineering, medical sciences, or allied fields. Many of them have become successful entrepreneurs in India and, and we are engaged with them through our alumni association, so the embassy works with the Alumni Association of people who have studied in India in different fields. IIT Roorkee, for example, has the largest alumni association in Nepal," he said.
The Ambassador noted that some of the first buildings in Nepal, including Singh Darbar, were built by engineers who were trained in IT Roorkee.
"We have recently also helped support a new alumni association of people who have studied law in India. Many young people from Nepal go to National Law School for pursuance of their law education, and they come back here. I would say a matter of honor for us in the current Supreme Court, the Chief Justice has studied in India. Several other justices of the Supreme Court are alumni of Indian institutions. So we are expanding that and we are looking at finalising a new scholarship for people who want to study law in India. And this process will is an organic process," he added.
