Hem Bahadur Malla, the man responsible for single-handedly improving the IQ of millions of Nepali children by managing salt-iodisation and distribution in Nepal died of cardiac arrest at a New Delhi hospital on 28 October. Over the past 20 years, iodisation of salt distributed in Nepal has reduced endemic goitre, cretinism and other disabilities related to the shortage of this micro-nutrient. Malla was president of Salt Trading Corporation (STC) which supplied salt under the Goitre Prevention Project. It was Malla's single-minded energy that helped make the distribution effective, one reason why iodised salt is available today all over the country. The STC now has six iodisation plants where the iodine content in salt is checked and augmented, where needed, before supplying it to the market and the goitre-prone districts.

Malla, 62, was STC's the first general manager, and later went on to be the CEO and finally the president. In his 24 years at the corporation, Malla also pioneered the establishment of Nepal's first modern factories producing flour and banaspati ghew (hydrogenated vegetable oil), and the Gorakhkali rubber tyre factory in Gorkha.