Kathmandu: Dr. Badri Prasad Shrestha, 69, a Nepali economist of international standing, received the prestigious award entitled “DISTINGUISHED AWARD IN ECONOMICS – 2001” for the first time for his outstanding contributions, both in theory and practice to the field of Development Economics in Nepal.

Dr. Shrestha has rendered his valuable contributions to the Nepalese economy for about four and a half decades.

On this occasion, Rt. Hon’ble Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala presented a cash prize of Rs.75, 000, a memento and the citation to Dr. B. P. Shrestha amidst a galaxy of Nepali literati and the economists at a special function organized by the recently founded “Nepal Academy of Economic Studies (NAES).

Nepal Academy of Economic Studies (NAES) has constituted ‘The Distinguished Award in Economics’, an emerging organization set up primarily with a view to honor and award the economists for their contributions to the field of Nepalese economy.

NAES is currently headed by a senior economist Prof. Bishwambher Pyakuryal, who is concurrently the Chairman of NIDC-Nepal Industrial Development Corporation.

Other prominent members of the NAES Governing Council include among others, Prof. V. R. Panchamukhi, Director, RIS, New Delhi; Prof. Binayak Bhadra, Deputy Director, ICIMOD; Dr. Bimal Koirala, Secretary, Ministry of Finance; Prof. Madan K. Dahal, Chairman, NEFAS; Prof. Parashar Koirala, Chairman, Gorkhapatra Sansthan, a government owned media organization.
Telegraph adds: What factors pressed the governing board of the NAES to include an Indian senior economist namely V.R.Panchmukhi alone in their organization is very hard to contemplate. If the NAES wished to give their organization an outlook of a regional body then they could have invited equally competent authorities of economic discipline from the rest of the SAARC countries. However, the NAES on this count remains silent.

Nepali intellectuals suggest the NAES to include members from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bhutan, Maldives and Bangladesh at the earliest to avoid undesirable speculations regarding the very motive behind the formation of the NAES.