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Glossary -- Bhutan (Nepal and Bhutan)
- Asian Development Bank
- Established in 1966, the Asian Development Bank assists
developing member countries in economic development and promotes
growth and cooperation. Membership includes both developed
countries and developing countries in Asia, and developed countries
in the West. Nepal joined the bank in 1966, Bhutan in 1982. The
bank is headquartered in Manila.
- birta
- Nepalese tax-free land tenure granted by the government
primarily as a pension or as a reward to political supporters and
family members, important especially during the Rana period;
abolished 1959.
- Colombo Plan for Cooperative, Economic,
and Social Development in Asia and the Pacific (Colombo Plan)
- Founded in 1951, originally under a slightly different name, to
coordinate and aid development among newly independent countries.
Members include nations throughout the Asia-Pacific region (Nepal
joined in 1952; Bhutan in 1962). Donor countries include Australia,
Britain, Canada, India, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States.
The organization's headquarters are in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
- dzong
- Bhutanese combined administrative and religious complex; a
fortified monastery and often the seat of government for the local
jurisdiction.
- Fiscal year (FY)
- In Nepal: July 16 to July 15. In Bhutan: July 1 through June 30
after July 1, 1988. Prior to March 31, 1987, the fiscal year was
from April 1 through March 31. The period from April 1, 1987 to
June 30, 1988 was used for FY 1988. The text of this book uses FY
1990, for example, when referring to 1989-90.
- Gorkha
- A principality west of Kathmandu and the ancestral home of the
Shah kings, which became the House of Gorkha.
- gross domestic product (GDP)
- A value measure of the flow of domestic goods and services
produced by an economy over a period of time, such as a year. Only
output values of goods for final consumption and investment are
included because the values of primary and intermediate production
are assumed to be included in final prices. GDP is sometimes
aggregated and shown at market prices, meaning that indirect taxes
and subsidies are included; when these have been eliminated, the
result is GDP at factor cost. The word gross indicates
that deductions for depreciation of physical assets have not been
made. See also gross national product.
- gross national product (GNP)
- Gross domestic product (q.v.) plus the net income or
loss stemming from transactions with foreign countries. GNP is the
broadest measure of the output of goods and services of an economy.
It can be calculated at market prices, which include indirect taxes
and subsidies. Because indirect taxes and subsidies are only
transfer payments, GNP is often calculated at factor cost by
removing indirect taxes and subsidies.
- Gurkha
- the British derivative of Gorkha evolved from the name
Gorkha, which originally was applied to the soldiers of
that region. The Gurkha soldiers of Nepal, who became famous for
their service in the British and Indian armies in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries, principally were composed of members of
the Magar, Gurung, Limbu, and Rai tribes, and were not a single
ethnic group, tribe, clan, or caste.
- International Monetary Fund
(IMF)
- Established along with the World Bank (q.v.) in 1945,
the IMF is a specialized agency affiliated with the United Nations
and is responsible for stabilizing international exchange loans to
its members (including industrialized and developing countries)
when they experience balance of payments difficulties. These loans
frequently carry conditions that require substantial international
economic adjustments by the recipients, most of which are
developing countries.
- jagir
- A type of land tenure in Nepal granted primarily to military
personnel, allowing them tax-free access to produce from the land
in return for military service. This tenure was a basic feature of
military service in northern India and in Nepal during late
medieval times, and disappeared in Nepal only in the twentieth
century.
- Khasa
- A term applied to the peoples and languages in the western
parts of Nepal, closely related to the cultures of northern India.
- Kirata
- A Tibeto-Burman ethnic group inhabiting eastern Nepal since
before the Licchavi Dynasty, just prior to and during the early
years of the Christian era.
- ngultrum
- Bhutan's unit of currency adopted in 1974. In November 1990,
the official exchange rate was US$1 equals ngultrum (Nu) 17.95 and
at par with the Indian rupee (Nu1 = Rs1). There are 100 chetrum
(Ch) in one ngultrum. There are 5, 10, 25, and 50 chetrum cupro-
nickel coins and a 1 ngultrum bronze coin, and 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50,
and 100 ngultrum notes. Large ngultrum amounts are counted using
the Sanskrit terms lakh (100,000) and crore (10
million); thus Nu1 lakh = Nu 100,000 and Nu 1 crore = Nu10
million). The term is derived from the Dzongkha ngul,
meaning silver, and trum, probably a Hindi word, meaning
money. Before 1957 Indian and Bhutanese coins circulated in
nondecimal paisa and rupee denominations (1 rupee = 64 paisa);
after the decimal system was adopted in 1957, paisa, rupee, and
sertum circulated (1 sertum = 100 rupees; 1 rupee = 100 paisa).
- nibbana
- More commonly known in Western literature as nirvana. The goal
of the path, the extinction of desire, hate, and the illusion of
selfhood. A state of mystical union with the absolute one world
soul (brahma), not an individual soul that attains it (as
in Hinduism). For the Hindu, a state of liberation or illumination.
For the Buddhist, there are no immortal particular souls, only the
world soul, in which all beings, both animate and inanimate, are
participants. The goal of spiritual practice in all branches of
Buddhism. Enlightenment is the realization of the identity of the
self with the absolute. The release from the cycle of rebirths and
the annihilation of the individual being that occurs on achievement
of perfect spiritual understanding.
- official development assistance
(ODA)
- Those flows to developing countries and multilateral
institutions provided by official agencies, including state and
local governments, or by their executive agencies, each transaction
of which meets the following criteria: it is administered with the
promotion of the economic development and welfare of developing
countries as its main objective; and it is concessional in
character and contains a grant element of at least 25 percent.
- panchayat
- In ancient times, a Nepalese public assembly, ideally comprised
of the five (pancha) most important caste or occupational
groups in the village. A pancha is a member of a
panchayat. From 1962 until the 1990 constitution took
effect, assemblies modeled on this ancient system formed the
backbone of political structure in Nepal, at the village and
district levels, and at the top in the National Panchayat, or
Rashtriya Panchayat.
- Rana
- Term, used as an honorific personal name, signified strength in
battle in late medieval north India. It was adopted as a title by
Jang Bahadur Kunwar in the 1850s, and by his heirs after him, and
became the standard name used for this Nepalese dynasty of prime
ministers and their families.
- rupee
- (Rs) or Nepalese rupee (NRs), the unit of currency, universal
since the late 1960s. The Nepalese rupee is linked to the Indian
rupee and is fully convertible although restrictions were imposed
during the 1989-90 trade and transit dispute. The equivalency rate
used in Chapter 1 is Rs2.1=US$1 in 1919. By 1973 the official
exchange rate was Rs6.55=US$1; in 1991, Rs30.80=US$1. One Nepalese
rupee = 100 paisa.
- samuha
- Interest group within a pancha (q.v.). The
term is derogatory when used by someone who does not belong to a
pancha.
- soft loan
- A loan bearing either no rate of interest, or an interest rate
below the true cost of the capital lent. The International
Development Association, an affiliate of the International Bank for
Reconstruction (see World Bank, q.v.), grants soft loans
to developing countries for long-term capital projects.
- South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC)
- Comprises the seven nations of South Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan,
India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka; headquartered in
Kathmandu. Founded as South Asia Regional Cooperation (SARC)
organization at a meeting for foreign ministers in New Delhi on
August 1-2, 1983; a second organizational meeting of foreign
ministers was held in Thimphu in May 1985; inaugural meeting of
heads of state and government in Dhaka on December 7-8, 1986. The
goal is to effect economic, technical, and cultural cooperation,
and to provide a forum for discussions of South Asia's political
problems.
- United States Export-Import Bank
(Eximbank)
- An independent corporate agency of the United States
government, founded in 1934 to stimulate foreign trade during the
Great Depression. The Eximbank facilitates export financing of
United States goods and services by neutralizing the effect of
export credit subsidies from other governments and by absorbing
reasonable credit risks beyond the reach of the private sector.
- World Bank
- Informal name used to designate a group of four affiliated
international institutions: the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International
Development Association (IDA), the International Finance
Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
(MIGA). The IBRD, established in 1945, has as its primary purpose
the provision of loans to developing countries for productive
projects. The IDA, a legally separate loan fund but administered by
the staff of the IBRD, was set up in 1960 to furnish credits to the
poorest developing countries on much easier terms than those of
conventional IBRD loans. The IFC, founded in 1956, supplements the
activities of the IBRD through loans and assistance designed
specifically to encourage the growth of productive private
enterprises in the less-developed countries. The MIGA, founded in
1988, insures private foreign investment in developing countries
against various noncommercial risks. The president and certain
senior officers of the IBRD hold the same positions in the IFC. The
four institutions are owned by the governments of the countries
that subscribe their capital. To participate in the World Bank
group, member states must first belong to the Intentional Monetary
Fund (IMF--q.v.).
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