NEPAL: Vice-Chancellor of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), Dr. Sunil Babu Shrestha to be Strategic Advisor to the Good City Foundation for Next-Generation Robotics Innovations for Cities
IN JANUARY 2022, Transporter-3 Mission by SpaceX was successfully launched in the Falcon 9 rocket in Cape Canaveral, Florida. While the majority would be excited for the future of space technologies and experience of next generation internet brought by SpaceX and Elon Musk, not many in the market would be aware that the ecosystem of various complex hardware components used on the Transporter-3 was made of 17 economies, a subtle appearance of Nepal was being mentioned among the many other advanced economies such as The US, Germany, The UK and Singapore.
Nepal has been among the developing economies where the country faces frequent natural disasters and socio-economic challenges. While the landlocked country in South Asia with 29 million population also struggles to deal with complicated regional trade relations with India and China, Nepal seems to silently prepare for better time to arrive through the transformation with the local talents in technologies and innovations, especially in the space of Robotics, Agri-Tech and FinTech.
With the missions to encourage stronger public and private partnership for realising relative technological advantages of specific economic cities in Nepal, Good City Foundation is honoured to have Dr. Sunil Babu Shrestha, Vice-Chancellor of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), to support the Foundation’s efforts as Strategic Advisor.
With the support of City Partner of Nepal and the President of the Robotics Association of Nepal (RAN), Mr. Bikash Gurung and Dr. Sunil in NAST, the collaboration strives to highlight the outstanding ecosystem of robotics entrepreneurs and talents in Nepal, and support further the ecosystem building and resources development for Nepal with other neighbouring strategic economies in South Asia and the Middle East.
“It is my great pleasure and honor to be on a Strategic Advisory Role of Good City Foundation. I admire their work on the Next Generation Sustainable Future Cities plan. I had a wonderful experience to be a part of Future City Summit 2021. I have learnt that I can contribute to the bigger goal of Smart Cities as my Food Green City initiative that has already sparked sustainable cities in all seven provinces of Nepal. I want to transfer the knowledge and experience from Nepal to the whole world. I am excited to work together on Urban Digital Transformation and Next Generation Technology with Good City Foundation.As Strategic Advisor to Good City Foundation, I am an optimist for the sustainable future of our cities. I greatly look forward to working with you all.Let us work together for the better future of this planet making our cities more smart, sustainable and social.” — Dr. Sunil Babu Shrestha, Vice-Chancellor of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST)
Dr. Sunil Babu Shrestha is Vice-Chancellor and Academician of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST). He is also Editor In-chief of Nepal Journal of Science and Technology and also senate member of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, Nepal Sanskrit University and Agriculture and Forestry University of Nepal. Dr. Shrestha was a former member of National Planning Commission, Nepal twice (2009, 2015–2018) and served with different portfolios viz: Housing and Urban Development, Water Supply and Sanitation, Science and Technology, Local Development and Federal Affairs and Public Private Partnership.
Dr. Shrestha has gained more than 25 years experience, working in different organizations (Private, Government and Non-government) in various professional and administrative capacities. He had led Nepal’s high-level delegation to the review meeting on the Nuclear Act at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria.
He was a key contributor in infrastructure sector for the preparation of Fourteen National Plan of Nepal, Preparation of Integrated Planned Urban Development Guidelines, Preparation of Concept and Salient features of SMART City for Nepal, Preparation of policy guidelines for Smart Village, Cooperative Housing and Preparation of National Report of Nepal for Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Development (Habitat-III). He was the main contributor to introduce “One City-One Identity (OC-OI)” an innovative concept for Urban Development in Nepal. He served as a member of Task Force formed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Government of Nepal to draft policy on Technical & Vocational Education and Skill Development (TVESD) and National Qualification Framework in 2018.
He is the Fellow Member of Nepal Engineers’ Association (NEA) and Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) of Nepal. Besides this, he is an active life member of the professional societies like Regional and Urban Planners’ Society of Nepal (RUPSON), Nepal PhD. Association (NPA), Nepal GIS Society (NGIS) and Nepal Council of World Affairs (NCWA). Dr. Shrestha is also an expert member of Nepal Forum for Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ).
“It’s an honor having Dr. Sunil Babu Shrestha on the Strategic Advisor board as his vast experience and knowledge Smart City planning and Food Green Cities will open flood of knowledge to the Good City Foundation and its upcoming projects. We are glad to be City partner of Good City Foundation and also work on the Global Agenda on integrating Robotics and AI in developing next generation sustainable cities in Nepal and across South Asia where Dr. Sunil is himself a Champion.” — Mr. Bikash Gurung, the President of the Robotics Association of Nepal (RAN). (City Partner of Good City Foundation)
Previous Engagements of Dr. Sunil in Good City Foundation
Dr. Sunil has been engaging with the Good City Foundation through leading the panel discussion of South Asia Climate Forum in the 6th Annual Meet of the Future City Summit and participation as mentor for groups of Indonesian city leaders in the Bootcamp Accelerator for Mayor Offices in Southeast Asia (BAMO) in 2021.
