Nepal, April 23 -- In Nepal, it is not surprising that people who can efficiently learn how to create Virtual Private Networks on their smartphones to download restricted material pretend not to know how to use the calendar function. People tend to ignore things that they are not comfortable with. The digitisation of land records and bringing about transparency in maintaining land records as well as real estate transactions have, therefore, not been an area of priority. The Shah kings and the Rana rulers enjoyed the benefit through ownership of land. They created different structures to provide land grants, through birtas and jagirs, temporarily to people currying favour, thereby institutionalising rent-seeking.

After the advent of multi...