ICT DAY 2011

ICT Excellence Award 2011
Award Winners

ICT Business Excellence Award 2011
Mr. Sanjib Raj Bhandari

Sanjib Raj Bhandari is the CEO of Mercantile Office Systems, the pioneer company in Nepal's IT sector. Having seen the evolution of sorts in IT in the past two decades, Raj Bhandari himself has effected a sea-change in his business, priorities and processes. At the beginning, his company was a computer distributer in the mid-1980s, became an internet service provider in 1990s, produced own brands of computers in the beginning of 2000, and now in 2011, Mercantile is chiefly a software producing company. Mercantile-produced software are extensively used in Nepal, especially in the banking sector. Raj Bhandari foresees Nepal's great future in IT.  He says Nepal also lags in South Asia behind India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Best ICT user in private sector
Tele Medicine Project(Kathmandu Model Hospital)

Tele-medicine, an important component of e-health, is one of the most rewarding and promising achievements of the advances in information and communication technology. It has unfolded the possibility of narrowing the gap between developed and underdeveloped countries, between cities and villages and between the 'haves' and 'have nots'. Through making services available to the needy in remotest areas, telemedicine can reduce mortality, morbidity, expenses, and psychological strains and can be a very useful tool for producing health for the people at large.

Several efforts have been ongoing in Nepal to provide access on quality health services for rural majority through Telemedicine. Kathmandu Model Hospital, the medical partner of NREN, with the support of NREN and Nepal Wireless have initiated a pilot project on 2006, which connects more than 80 Km far rural community hospital through setting up wireless network.
This is very successful initiatives and it has been replicating in different remote areas of Nepal. Currently we have connected 10 rural health centers and have been conducting regular virtual classes and real time tele-consults.

After connection with TEIN3, the telemedicine initiatives has broaden and have established better communication and relation with different Medical university, Teaching hospitals and the medical persons across the globe. We are connected to number of universities in the US, Japan, Korea, Australia and conducting regular session with Kyushu University Hospital Japan, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital Korea, University of Kansas and the University of New Mexico United States. And also working to develop regional network among South Asian TEIN3 partners.
Currently we have built active connection among following medical organization of Nepal to enhance telemedicine initiatives:

• Kathmandu Model Hospital, Bagbazar (Medical Partner of NREN

• Institute of Medicine, Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu

• Nepal Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu

• Communication Health Education Services by Telehealth (CHEST), Maharajgunj, Kathmandu

• Gauri Shankar General Hospital, Dolakha

• Manmohan Memorial Community Hospital, Pharping
   

Best ICT user in public sector 2011
Inland Revenue Department

The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) is currently responsible for the enforcement of Tax Laws and administration of the following taxes: Income Tax, Value Added Tax, Excise Duty, Vehicle Tax and certain fee and duties like Entertainment fee (Film Development Fee), Special fee, etc. Likewise, the Department is also responsible for monitoring the non-tax revenue such as dividends, royalties etc. of the Government.
IRD carries out the following functions:
1. Tax Administration (Income Tax and VAT)
2. Tax Policy
3. Tax Payer Services
4. Registration, Revenue Collection
5. Tax audit
6. Tax Enforcement and investigation
7. Review & Appeal
8. Tax Refund
9. Advance Ruling
10. Tax Treaty and International Taxation
11. Excises and Liquor Administration
12. Monitoring of non-tax

IRD is centrally located in Kathmandu. There are 36 field offices throughout Nepal including 1 Large Taxpayers Office, 22 Inland Revenue Offices and 13 Taxpayer Service Offices. The previous Department of Taxation was established in 1960. IRD and its district offices are totally running on functional line. Major functions include Taxpayer`s Service, Audit and Collection.