condolences to the berieved family. May god bless his soul.

Industrialist Mohan Gopal Khetan passes away

Late Mohan Gopal Khetan (File Photo)
A prominent industrialist Mohan Gopal Khetan passed away on Thursday night at a hospital in Kathmandu.

Khetan died of heart attack at Norvic Hospital at midnight on Thursday. He was 61 years old. His health was not keeping well in recent days.

Chairman of Khetan Group of industries, which include around two dozen business entities such as Himalayan Snacks and Noodles, Gurkha Brewery, and Laxmi Bank, Khetan was a renowned industrialist.

Family sources say his last rites will be performed in Pashupati Aryaghat on Friday.

He is survived by two sons – Rajendra Khetan and Chandra Prakash Khetan – and two daughters.

Born in 1947 in Kathmandu, industrialist Khetan was a law graduate of Tribhuwan University. He had completed his school education from Judhodaya High School of Kathmandu.



Khetan Group of industries has interests in the field of mining, fast moving consumer goods like beverages, food stuff and service industries like insurance, banking/financial services, telecommunications, IT, real estate, investments, energy etc.

Having started business career at very young age, Khetan started from sugar trading and later on moved to diverse fields ranging from transport to petroleum business, to telecommunication and finance, among others..

He was also involved in various social, financial, religious, health education and charity organisations. Khetan was also Honorary Consul General of Turkey for Nepal. nepalnews.com sd Apr 27 07

>> one less burden to the mortherland...
what the Eff is wrong with you, you friggin douche !

May his soul rest in peace !!!

Lunatic, you pathetic soul. You live in the US, say you run a profitable business here and choose to build a mansion in Nepal with that profits do you think anyone has the right to object to your choice? I don't think so, it's your money spend it where, when and how you like it. So what's wrong with Khetan doing it... oh let me read your reply again--you douchebag are not even sure that he did it--it is something that you heard.

We should be grateful to the enterprising people who provided us the goods and services while bearing the risk. The fact that these people are marwaris, bahuns, newars or any other caste should not even be a factor.

this guy lunatic must be a lunatic. How dare you say that thing about a deceased man?

Khetan was born in Indrachouk, and they are long time raithanes. He worked in Nepal, worked hard, perhaps manipulated the system where its in-built defects requires such occasional manipulation, but at the end of the day he should be remembered for creating jobs and giving life support to hundreds of Nepali. Like most of the Marwaris I have met, he was also hardworking, religious, and we should be proud of these people, not jealous.

Khetan was also an outspoken man, who wasn't afraid of any leader. I remember reading some of his interviews in the past, and was reasonably impressed by him.

Also, it is not bad if a Nepali creates an empire in India or in USA. I can tell you about other Nepali who have created empires abroad. The key thing to understand is Khetan called Nepal home, he lived there, he was born there, his kids are raised there, what else you want? He can take his money wherever there is higher rate of return. I want a lot of Nepalese to do that. I want the world to say that the richest man of country XX is a Nepali, the way they say about Laxmi Mittal in South Africa or England.

Be tolerant, brother. Appreciate the creativity of fellow men. Start loving your fellow Nepali. Target the criminals, all right, but don't target a community.

well said dude

May MGK's soul rest in peace.
And my condolences to Rajendra.

From my informal observations, I find that Khetan Group to be a business house which -- compared to its other peer business houses in Nepal -- PROMOTES top-quality Nepali managers to senior professional positions and gives them a lot more space to perform more easily.

We need more such organisations in Nepal so that there is a lot more competition for talents and excellence.

oohi
ashu

Khetan was born in Kathmandu,Nepal. and he really did great contribution to export business of Nepal. don't blame by such low word Mr. lunatic. Nepal need such a business man. Nepali people should not think in traditional and hard nationalism way, Any indian businessman can come Nepal and run business, industry, but they should pay tax and offer employment to nepali people. that will be a path of development of Nepal..

May his soul rest in peace.

Amen!

Nepal needs more of enterprising peeps like em, who can create more jobs, and create new wealth and prosperity.

Best~!

-B

marwaris get a bad rap for their contribution to the economy. They are the risk takers, engage in collaborative efforts and maintain a disciplined lifestyle. I think we should try to learn from their culture.

Khetan has always been controversial. Girija jailed him in "LC kanda" and general public thinks he made his fortune in "hundi" business. Whatever he might have done to establish himself, he created economy for Nepal...created countless opportunities for Nepalese people....remember some of you might have financed your education, house, business through his financial insititution like Laxmi Bank or even Himalayan Bank...

The baby boom generation of Nepal had tough time to establish themselves. There were very limited options if you were not from the Rana/Shah family or part of the Newar family that engaged in trade with China/Tibet. Unless you did "dayan bayan" and extreme "chakadi," opportunities were limited.

Khetan leaves younger gernations an inpiration and platform to create more socio-economic opportunities

I hope that the younger generation will try to find their Heroes within Nepal than in Wall Street Journal or Harvard business review. I hope in the near future, before the baby boomers start to dissapear, I hope history will document their achievements...Ashu interested?

May his soul rest in peace!.

Well i heard that he was exporting rice from Nepal to India and buying more expensive rice from India for Nepal at the same time.

So many US/Foreign born and Naturalized Nepalis, aren't they contributing to the US or foreign country? Or are they just sucking up US's or foreign country's economy and sending it all to Nepal. Lunatic, if you are in Nepal, then you don't deserve to be in any other country because of your comments. If you are indeed in a foreign country, spend some time contemplating on what you just said and how it applies to you as well!!

Kumar keto writes:

"I hope that the younger generation will try to find their Heroes within Nepal than in Wall Street Journal or Harvard business review. I hope in the near future, before the baby boomers start to dissapear, I hope history will document their achievements...Ashu interested?"


Hmm .. . good idea.

That said, actually, MGK and others were/are well-known businessmen in Nepal. Others who are doing intertesting work but get little recognition deserve to be highlighted too.

There's this organization called ASHOKA, with its own Nepal chapter, that does a lot of interesting selection of what it calls "Social Entrepreneurs".

One year, I was honored to serve as a member of its Nepal selection panel.

Check this out to learn about interesting business-like innovations going on in Nepal.

- http://www.ashoka.org/search/fellows?country=NP&

****************

That said, given these knee-jerk anti-Marwari sentiments of some on Sajha, here's a humorous description of a course that one can take at a fictitious business school.


"ANTHROPOLOGY 201 The Mystery Called Marwari

Why are Nepali businessmen so jealous of the Marwaris? What makes the Marwaris allegedly so successful? Explore these concerns in depth by studying the history, family networks, religious rituals, immigration patterns, language, sex life and the business practices of the Marwaris, Nepal's most prosperous minority. Do not just sit back and criticize them; you too can learn all their clever tactics to beat them at their own game. By the end of Anthro 201, you will be able to sell Banarasi saris even to the Marwaris."

From
- http://www.sajha.com/guild/read.cfm?guildid=22


oohi
ashu

Hey Ashu -

I read your blog entry and left you a note. Great piece of humor and satire there - unfortunately a pretty accurate reflection of the state of affairs in Nepal. I hope things will change for the better.

One other point, which you perhaps touched on a little bit, is the skepticism and sometimes utter disdain that Nepal's rulers - whoever they have been - have had for the business community in Nepal. The reasons are understandable - and you talk about them in your peace - but I think a sea change in thinking is required to create a truly business friendly government of the type that our neighbors India and China have come to have over the years.

I know of a friend involved in software who moved his business from Kathmandu to Delhi because the overhead of doing business in Nepal was so much higher as a result of bureaucratic inefficiencies and red tape, lack of reliable infrastructure, and of course the political climate which hopefully will change for the better. So much so that the cost of slightly cheaper Nepali labor was offset by these incidental overheads and the inability to attract clients because of concerns around stability in Nepal. Plus as a person of Indian origin who grew up in Nepal, he found much more dignity in India than he did in Nepal where he was always viewed suspiciously by a lot of people for no other reason than the fact he was of Indian heritage (though a Nepali by birth and citizenship)

I guess people reading this can evangelize and start preaching on how we need to be responsible towards our country etc and not seek to find everything in place but the example I gave is a real life scenario of what sometimes really happens on the ground no matter how lofty our ideals towards our country and it's economy are.

he was a Nepali marwari.. did not want his offsprinngs to marry into Indians business houses, unlike the chowdharis and mittlals, and kediyas and golchhas. He was a Nepali true to the spirit.

When our Big Rana and Shah family like to tie relations with Indian Rajas why a marwari cannot ?
So , in that case this Pyara Jung , Phasupati Shamaser are not Nepali ,Correct?

Ashu dai,
your article was pretty funny.Enjoyed it :)

ashu interesting article..a good one...I have met many graduates of foreign institutions who have failed horribly in Nepal. They don't understand the supply chain issues..they don't understand the financing issues..That also goes for the local students looking into harvard busness case studies...

How about case studies like... how was wai wai company financed? Distribution model of gold star TV? Autobiographies on some of the famous entreprenuers likes of Khetan..When i was flying to Nepal a friend gave me a book to kill time on the plane. It was a book called "Soch" by our famous hotelier Karna Shakya. Though I am personally not very fond of his business strategies, I was very inspired to read about his success of creating one of the famous hotels in the South Asia, Kathmandu Guest House. By the time I landed in Nepal, I finished the book.

These are the stories that need to unfold so that the younger generations can appreciate the existing business environment.

As somebody mentioned the nauptials between the Chaudharys and the Mittals..I was quite amazed how chaudhary made if possible...but do most of us know just 25 years ago Binod was renting apt in KTM and singing songs at the Radio Nepal? How did he succeed? Now that is the story that is worth reading about.

Younger generations needs to find role models and we need to identify role models within our reach.

Captain,

Enjoyed reading your thoughts.

In Nepal, to many people, business = extortion, tax evasion, etc

No doubt, businessmen themselves have played a big role in creating that image of what they do.

The challenge ahead is to transform that thinking into making:

successful business = additional job creation

******

Kumar Keto,

I am actually heartened by the quality of business journalism these days in Nepal.

There are devoted-to-business monthly magazines (New Business Age, BOSS, etc) that cover both "hard" and "soft" business issues.

There are many business-oriented newsletters in circulation. Overall, I find that the quality of writing, reporting and analyses improving every year.

To be sure, we are nowhere near the best of business writing I see/read in, say, the Indian (English language) press, but overall, I think we are taking marginally better steps each year.

But when it comes to case writing, the situation is different.

But that's a function of incentives, isn't it? Harvard Business School (HBS) produces cases because it sees itself -- first and foremost -- as a 'knowledge creating' institution.

To that end, HBS professors have clear career-related incentives to 'create knowledge' by -- among others -- writing up cases.And that's what they do: write up new cases every year by finding interesting stuff to write about.

Cases don't get written up in Nepal because, well, where are the incentives for writing them?

For a variety of reasons (i.e. shortage of teachers, career progression issues tied to subjective factors as in who-likes-who and NOT to research productivity, etc) business schools in Nepal have to operate like money-making vocational schools -- and NOT as research-oriented business schools.

And vocational schools -- like community colleges in the US -- are better off using stuff developed elsewhere to educate their students and waste time creating original knowledge in which they do not have much of an advantage.

The result is that, by and large, cases with local content don't get written much.


Incidentally, talking about business schools and case studies in general, here's a post I found quite interesting when I first stumbled upon it:


- http://trustedadvisor.com/blog/3/


Enjoy,

oohi
ashu

ashu,

Do you think Rajendra Khetan has what it takes to succeed? I have seen him doing interview a few times in TV, and he looked pretty articulate. He was telling how Nepal could deal with Indian firms or something like that.

I am also surprised to hear that Mohan Gopal was only 61 years old. Man, that's not the age to die. On the other hand, I have always had this feeling that Khetan was old man, with grey beards/moustache.

also, just one more fact, Marwaris have as long a history of living in KTM as anyone else. In the history of Kathmandu, Pingala Devi is remembered as a beautiful goddess. She was actually a queen of Marawara, who came to Kathmandu at least two thousands of years ago, and was later followed by her husband. Her beauty was said to have mesmerized the locals. (and in a mythological tradition, the god)

True. Marwadis are Nepalis. They may have origins in Rajasthan but a lot of us have origins in india one way or other.

As far as Khetan is concerned, I have respect for him. I mean if you're a businessman, you're bound to be strict on money because well, that's what you do.

Besides, the guy was raised in Nepal, died a Nepali. I have really close marwadi friends and they're just like any human being.

Those who complain about money are those who
1. Either have no money
or
2. Are lazy asses and losers who weren;t able to accomplish anything in life.

in sanskrit- "Dhanaat, dharma, bardhatay"
Meaning: With fortune, comes the opportunity to do more good.

ADIOS!!!