Despite gloom and doom, the World Bank sees some silver linings in the Nepali clouds. It's progress report on the Nepal Country Assistance Strategy released this week says: "Over the past year a quiet governance revolution seems to have begun in Nepal. These changes have been met with strong public support and merit the fullest support of the Bank group." The bank recently upgraded its lending programme for Nepal from the "low case" ($0-50 million annually in new lending) to the "base case" (around $100 million or more annually). Among the good signs the bank sees are: the government's efforts to restructure its development budget by dropping low priority projects as part of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, as per the government's "immediate action plan" education and health at the local level was being handed over to community management, the government has resisted pressure from vested interest groups to bring financial sector reforms back on track, there has been a crackdown on corruption and "impressive" public sector appointments.