Kathmandu. The Computer Association of Nepal (CAN Federation) has entered a new and significant turning point. Sunaina Ghimire Pandey has resigned from her post citing personal reasons. After his departure, Senior Vice President and Nepal’s established cyber security activist Chiranjibi Adhikari has officially assumed the responsibility of Acting Chairman for the remainder of the term.
This high-level leadership change comes at a critical time for Nepal’s fast-evolving digital ecosystem. Nepal is grappling with a huge opportunity of automation and digital transformation on one hand and also facing challenges like cloud security and vulnerability on the other. In such a situation, the tech sector has placed great trust in the mature leadership of Adhikari to bridge the huge gap between the national digital policy and the ground implementation.
Chiranjeevi Adhikari’s Institutional Journey of Two Decades {{TAG_OPEN_strong_52 TAG_CLOSE_strong_52}}
Adhikari’s arrival at the leadership of the federation did not happen overnight: it is the result of his continuous service to the organizational structure of CAN Federation for more than 21 years. He understands the internal and structural problems of Nepal’s technology industry. Because he has efficiently fulfilled almost every important responsibility in local, provincial and national committees.
Acting President and Senior Vice President: Leading the national executive decisions of the Federation of ICT Policy Coordinators, facilitating strategic policy dialogue with government ministries.
Vice-Chairperson: Coordination of provincial infrastructure development and promotion of public-private technical partnership.
Secretary-General: National Organizational Operations, Corporate Relations and Management of International Technical Delegations.
Secretary: Management of regional affairs in accordance with central directives.
Central Working Committee Members: High-level policy voting and strategic intervention in the interest of industry.
Founding Coordinator of Youth in ICT Committee: Building the first institutional channel to bring young Nepali innovators and engineering students into the mainstream technology economy.
Founder Treasurer of CAN Federation Chitwan Chapter: Establishment of the financial and administrative framework of the Federation at the local district level.
Structural Technical Policy Advocacy: National Framework
Nepal’s technology sector has been shrunk for a long time due to outdated legal frameworks. For example, the Electronic Transactions Act (2006) was enacted long before modern cloud computing, AI architectures, or complex banking APIs were developed. Under Adhikari’s active leadership, the CAN Federation has submitted many important recommendations to the Government of Nepal and Nepal Rastra Bank to revise the legal landscape of the country.
1 Artificial Intelligence and Governance Blueprint
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Adhikari has played a key role in the formulation of national AI policy recommendations, which emphasize the creation of an ethical sandbox, vernacular language processing model, and secure data hosting pipeline. In addition, his Governance Blueprint recommendation guides the integration of APIs among government entities to de-hassle administrative paperwork and digitize citizen services, from passports to land revenues.
2. Monetary and Banking Security System
With the expansion of digital financial services to rural areas of Nepal, banking networks are increasingly vulnerable to cross-border cyber threats. Adhikari led the recommendation of the Nepal Rastra Bank Cyber Security Roadmap. The framework entails implementation of mandatory Multifactor Authentication, Zero Trust Network Baseline and Real Time Threat Hunting Protocols in all Category A, B and C BFIs.
3 Data Universality and .np Policy Reforms
Modernizing Nepal’s digital landscape is a key priority of Adhikari’s policy agenda. He has been consistently advocating for a complete revision of the .np domain policy. In order to make the domain registration system fully automated, transparent and secure. In addition, he has expressed serious concern about the national state of data centers and cloud networks.
“Data centers and cloud services are the backbone of Nepal’s digital economy. We cannot build a sovereign digital nation if our state’s critical databases and citizen’s data remain entirely on foreign servers without local data sovereignty protections. Chiranjeevi Adhikari said. ‘
Addressing the main challenges of the IT industry
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Nepal’s local technology ecosystem is facing many challenges, from complexity of public procurement processes to lack of capital. As the acting chairman, Adhikari has prioritized some important reforms to protect Nepali entrepreneurs and technocrats.
Make in Nepal Software Campaign and Procurement Improvements
Currently, a large portion of the public sector’s technology budget goes out to foreign software purchases, leaving capable local products behind. The authorities have launched a massive campaign to revise the IT procurement guidelines. The purpose is clear. Locally manufactured software should be preferred before foreign products are selected in public tenders. This will not only keep the capital in the country but also establish the capacity of Nepali engineers.
{{TAG_OPEN_strong_45}Software Product Financing & Startup Ecosystem
Unlike traditional businesses, software startups do not have physical collateral, such as land or machinery, to secure a bank loan. Authorities have been advocating for software product financing with banking regulators to ensure that intellectual property, source code audit and regular contractual revenues of SaaS (SaaS as a Service) are accepted as legitimate collateral.
Who is Chiranjeevi Adhikari: The Pioneer of Cybersecurity
Chiranjibi Adhikari, who has a permanent address in Bharatpur Metropolitan City, Chitwan, is known as an expert and guide in the digital security sector of Nepal. He has more than 21 years of specialized and highly effective technical experience in this field.
