TOKYO – When he was 18 in his home district of Syangja, Chandi Subedi used to be amazed by Japanese calculators and radios, and was full of admiration of the country that manufactured such cool gadgets.
So, when he had a chance to go for higher studies in 1992, Japan was his first choice. He switched from medical school to engineering and after graduation got a job at the Information Systems Division at
SoftBank Telecom.
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When the
East Japan earthquake struck in 2011, unleashing a catastrophic tsunami, communications links broke down. Subedi developed a USB dongle that could be stuck into home computers and allow them to run on minimal software by making use of a cloud of network servers. The innovation earned Chandi Subedi the company’s SoftBank Award, the first time it was given to an engineer.
“The device allows users to access the company’s network through the cloud when they are at home or travelling,” Chandi explained to me as simply as possible during a recent visit, “during the earthquake and tsunami we distributed 13,000 devices and helped people keep in touch.”
Subedi graduated from
Jyoti English School Boarding in Syangja and went to
Amrit Science College in Kathmandu. In Japan he didn’t want to waste three years working on a PhD, and was impatient to find applications for telecom software that would help people.
The number of Nepalis in Japan is growing steadily and has crossed 40,000, the highest number from any South Asian country. Most of them work in restaurants, in semi-skilled jobs, or are students. “The challenge for Nepalis is to live a dignified life in Japan, and we residents must guide them to do better,” says Subedi.
The telecom sector is expanding rapidly in Japan, and Subedi’s little USB stick has transformed the lives of many people by, for instance, allowing young mothers to work from home. There have been misgivings lately about storing programs and files on clouds, but Subedi says it is perfectly safe and secure.
But even while working in Japan, Subedi’s heart is still in Nepal. He gets together with fellow-Syangjalis on weekends, and updates himself through online news from back home. He feels there are quite a few ways information technology could help Nepalis.
For instance, after reading about the devastating landslides and flash floods in Nepal in August, he discussed with fellow engineers in his company about how telecommunications could be used for early warning.
The Japan chapter of the
Nepal Engineers Association is trying to see how the technology can be tweaked for use through the mobile network in Nepal. “If people can be warned about floods or landslides through mobile phones, it can save lives,” he says.
Japan is already using an earthquake alert system that goes directly to every mobile phone user, and gives people precious seconds to move to safer places. Subedi is not just looking at disasters, he thinks
information technology can be used to make elections back home cheaper, faster and cleaner by making ballot boxes, ballot papers and rubber stamps obsolete.
“We can use tablets, and the votes go directly into a central server in the cloud, you can save billions of rupees,” he says.
Every time Subedi sees tv images of
long passport queues at Narayanhiti or Nepali migrant workers lining up for jobs abroad, he shakes his head. The long waits could be a thing of the past with telecom applications.
“The government could easily offer smart services to everyone, removing the long waits, why are we punishing our own citizens?” he asks.
Every bit of news from Nepal makes Subedi’s mind race to find
telecommunications solutions. And because of his interest in health issues, he thinks telemedicine has enormous potential in Nepal, and could save many lives in remote areas.
Asked what makes him happiest, Subedi stares out of the window of his high rise at the Pacific Ocean with a faraway look: “I want to develop softwares that saves lives by connecting people, I want to make fellow-Nepalis a little happier.”
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