Former finance minister Rana no more

Senior economist and former finance minister Madhukar SJB Rana passed away today at the age of 78.
Rana breathed his last while undergoing treatment at Nepal Mediciti Hospital, according to his family sources. Rana was suffering from heart disease and had undergone by-pass surgery twice.
Born in 1941, Rana served as a professor at the Asian Institute of Management and was popular as ‘development economist’ at his time. He was the finance minister during the regime of former king Gyanendra Shah. Rana, who had widely contributed in the academic and management sectors, was an intellectual economist.
“Saddened at the news of the demise of Madhukar Rana, a noted economist, who also served as finance minister. Wish his soul rest in peace and heartfelt condolence to the family,” tweeted former finance minister Ram Sharan Mahat.
Likewise, former finance minister Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani, also tweeted, “Madhukar Rana is no longer with us. This is sad news.”
“We have been friends for the last forty five years and and worked together at CEDA when it was first established,” Lohani further tweeted. “We then worked together in the government as well as the academia. Madhukar ji was a gentleman and a scholar always full of new concepts and ideas in economics, management and regional economic cooperation. He was one of the founders of the South Asian Institute of Management and his dream was to see it evolve as a new university in the country focussing on IT and business administration. My heart felt condolence to Greta and the family. May his soul rest in Peace.”
Rana is survived by a wife and two sons.

Nepal figures in bottom 10 in global competitiveness survey

Political instability has hurt the Nepal's business competitiveness as it figures in the bottom 10 in the World Competitiveness Report for 2010-11.
"Among the 139 economies that are surveyed by the WEF, Nepal ranks 130th due to political instability, corruption, policy instability, inefficient government bureaucracy, inadequate supply of infrastructure among others," said Bharat Pokharel, executive director of Centre of Economic Development and Administration (CEDA), Tribhuvan University (TU) launching the report for 2010-2011 here today.
Nepal scored 3.34 and ranked 130th -- the highest among the bottom 10 countries -- in the annual list that has figured Nepal at 125th in 2009-10's report among the 133 economies.
Similarly, Nepal ranked 126th in 2008-09 among the 134 economies. "The report shows that there has not been any positive changes in Nepal since last three years," he said, adding that the survey was conducted in Nepal in March-April among the 102 Small and Large Entreprises.
"This is an executive opinion survey of the entreprises that employes more than 50 people," said Prof Dr Ramesh Chitrakar, national coordinator of the World Competitiveness Report.
Nepal is also at the bottom in the South Asia, where India ranks 51st, Sri Lanka at 62nd, Bangladesh at 107 and Pakistan ranks at 123rd position.
Since 2005 the WEF started publishing the Global Competitiveness Report and Nepal has been figured since 2006, he said, adding that the report is based on 12 key indicators. Under the 12 indicators, there are 112 variables to measure a countries competitiveness.
Switzerland tops the overall ranking, whereas the United States falls two places to fourth position, overtaken by Sweden at second and Singapore at third position. The People's Repbulic of China continues to lead the way among the large developing economies, improving by two more places this year to position itself at 30. Other Asian that performed strongly are Japan (sixth) and Hong Kong (11th).

Top 10 Countries and Score

1. Switzerland -- 5.63
2. Sweden -- 5.56
3. Singapore – 5.48
4. United States – 5.43
5. Germany – 5.39
6. Japan – 5.37
7. Finland – 5.37
8. Netherlands – 5.33
9. Denmark – 5.32
10. Canada – 5.30

Bottom 10 Countries and Score

130 – Nepal – 3.34
131 – Mozambique – 3.32
132 – Mali – 3.28
133 – Timor Leste – 3.23
134 – Burkina Faso – 3.20
135 – Moritania – 3.14
136 – Zimbabwe – 3.03
137 – Burundi – 2.96
138 – Angola – 2.93
139 – Chad – 2.73

South Asian Countries and ranking
51. India – 4.33
62. Sri Lanka – 4.26
107. Bangladesh – 3.64
123. Pakistan – 3.48
130. Nepal – 3.34