Privatization Research Articles

Use of space analog missions as an educational tool in primary schools

Space exploration is a field that inspires a wide range of people, from children to university students, including the general public. With a return to the Moon planned for 2024 and the rapid expansion of the private industry, educating the next generation for this challenge becomes a priority. As many interdisciplinary programmes in universities are developed, the increasing interest in do-it-yourself projects can be observed. In addition, nothing inspires children more than the wish of becoming astronauts. By combining these two previously stated themes, space analog missions, simulations of life on another celestial body, were used as an educational tool for children, in our case in a primary school.In the frame of an EPFL semester project, such a program was run at the Vivalys primary school in Switzerland. A class of 16 children between the age of 6 and 9 successfully designed and conducted a simulated Mars-based mission from September 2020 to March 2021, in spite of the difficult COVID situation. The Vivalys Mission has been entirely integrated to the school year's program by adapting the educational subjects (mathematics, sciences, geography, French, sports, history, and arts), attending workshops, and performing hands-on experiments. Systems engineering approaches were adopted allowing the class to acquire knowledge regarding stakeholder analysis, risk management and decision tools. The young team made mission design choices and presented them to experts during reviews. Leadership, teamwork and autonomy were demonstrated and practiced. This tool is innovative: a do-it-yourself approach combined with education and practical work.The educational impact was studied using assessment strategies such as evaluations, rubrics and personal interviews. The progress and skills acquired, as well as their increasing will to work in the space field, were highlighted in the results. Following the success of this program, the local primary schools showed interest in running a similar project. Thanks to this first case study, lessons learned such as adapting the curriculum, organizing exterior activities, and enhancing the participation of adults, were collected.This is the first step towards impacting different age groups, starting in pre-school right up to secondary education. The success of our study underlines the current need and enthusiasm for such projects and will be further developed in the upcoming years becoming easily accessible to schools across Switzerland and the world, also through the promotion at IAC.

Asset Monetisation: A Step Towards Liberalisation and Privatisation–Strategic Issues

Privatisation, a buzzword of the 20th century, has varied approaches; it could be a broad approach of liberalisation to introduce market forces without any change of ownership, termed as ‘partial privatisation’. In narrow terms, it refers to denationalisation or divestiture and change of ownership by sale to private individuals. Public sector in India has grown over the years and operational autonomy has been granted. Disinvestment of government shareholding, has been an annual budgetary exercise; it includes strategic sale. Of late, various disinvestment approaches that are followed include share buyback, cross shareholding offer for sale, follow-on public offer, block deal exchange trade fund. The realisation of disinvestment has been about 56% of the total, and new options have to be explored. Asset monetisation, an approach to encash assets with an objective to raise resources to finance new projects, is planned with an objective to develop infrastructure by involving private sector by following different forms of the publicÐprivate partnership approach. National Monetisation Policy (NMP) has been announced by the government of India to raise ₹600,000 crore over the period of next four years, that is, from 2022 to 25, to cover up the infrastructure gap. As such, monetisation of assetsÑcore as well as non-coreÑwould be a great step in achieving the objective of Atmanirbhar Bharat [self-reliant India], and India to become $5 trillion economy by 2024. Privatisation, liberalisation and asset monetisation appear to be a simple theoretical exercise; it would require planning for newer approaches to attract private funds and also to have political will.

Are Firms Following Through on Their Carbon Pledges With Effective Carbon Management? A Case Study of Sky Group

Effective carbon management in private industries is essential due to the significant emissions from corporations across the globe. Investigation and monitoring of carbon management strategies in large corporations, such as Sky Group, is needed to meet the Paris targets. Sky Group has provided Scope 1, 2 and 3 estimates since 2018. The firm has implemented various carbon management strategies to reduce these emissions, including sourcing 100% renewable energy, submitting pledges to the Science-Based Reduction Targets Initiative and improving the accuracy of carbon emissions estimation methods. We conclude that Sky Group’s carbon management is a respectable example for other firms to follow. Suggested improvements include further investigation into reducing emissions produced by employee commuting, as well as continual increasing of on-site renewable energy.

SDG Platforms as Strategic Innovation Through Partnerships

This paper examines organizational use of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and why private organizations are using multi-stakeholder SDG platforms as a strategic tool for achieving the goals. Whereas the SDGs’ predecessors, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), were specifically formulated for governmental adoption, the SDGs stand apart in inviting diverse stakeholders, including private industry, to participate in sustainable development. Literature is emerging about how private industry can engage in the SDG framework. We aim to contribute to the sustainability and cross-sector partnership literatures by examining the motivations of organizations that partner into SDG platforms. This research started as an exploratory study to understand how corporations use the SDGs strategically, and we identified platforms as a means of strategic corporate engagement with the SDGs. Our findings are based on semi-structured interviews and documents, and they focus on four Danish SDG platforms: UNLEASH, Hello Science, Fra Filantropi til Forretning (From Philanthropy to Business), and the SDG Accelerator. The findings suggest that speed, impact, and scaling of SDG innovations are features of SDG platforms that motivate cross-sector, boundary-spanning collaboration. We suggest that the larger ambition of the platforms is to shift the value framing from profit outputs to SDG impacts and outcomes, ultimately imagined as a business landscape based on SDG innovation; and we propose a model to reflect the SDG platform process structure.

The pursuit of net-positive sustainability for industrial decarbonization with hybrid energy systems

Signatories of the Paris Agreement are set to miss their climate targets. The net-zero pledges announced to date across many countries and private industries are insufficient to achieve carbon neutrality, which requires implementation of far-reaching and significantly scaled-up climate-positive actions. All technology options that pertain to deep decarbonization and carbon removal must be part of the mitigation portfolio. Transformative action plans must be established in which every individual/organization around the globe is an actor of changes in relation to net-zero goals. Such plans must involve governmental policy support but also encourage voluntary efforts to boost innovations, investments, initiatives, and behavioral changes. Recognition of these efforts is made quantifiable with the concepts of carbon handprint and net positivity. This paper presents a carbon handprint perspective on characterizing the environmental benefits of hybrid energy systems (HESs)—a widely applicable solution to cleaner production leveraging the capabilities of a portfolio of low-carbon energy sources—that provide heat and electricity to industrial processes. First, the carbon handprint and net positivity concepts and their calculation approach are introduced. The state of the art of HES-enabled industrial cogeneration is then surveyed, and the greenhouse gas emission intensities of different energy sources that power HESs are compared. Next, drawing on a case study about a US chemical facility's voluntary initiative to explore replacing its fossil fuel–based cogeneration infrastructure with a clean energy–generated HES, several technically viable scenarios are evaluated—especially those with small modular nuclear reactors—to illustrate how the positive-thinking handprint approach helps encourage and inform the search for widespread influence pathways in pursuit of net-positive sustainability . Finally, current knowledge gaps in the case study are identified, and opportunities to scale up the proposed handprint-based analysis are outlined with consideration of an expanded role of HESs in fulfilling climate objectives. It is envisioned that like-minded decision makers in the industry sector and beyond will adopt this perspective and act synergistically to enhance their environmental stewardship through voluntary actions and make greater contributions to the planet's climate future. • Environmental benefits of hybrid energy systems are assessed using carbon handprint. • Hybrid energy systems produce cleaner heat and power for industrial processes. • Carbon handprint measures impacts of voluntary climate-positive actions. • Exemplary handprint-based net-positivity analysis is performed on a case study. • Opportunities for nuclear and renewable energy are highlighted in the case study.

Contributors to cervical cancer disparities in American Indian/ Alaska Native women: Is sufficient research being performed in this population? (572)

<b>Objectives:</b> American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) women have 1.5 times the incidence and twice the mortality rate of cervical cancer compared to Non-Hispanic White (NHW) women. This disparity is not limited to cervical cancer but is seen in pap smear screening and HPV vaccination uptake. There appear to be few studies in the literature specific to AI/AN women and the prevention and treatment of cervical cancer. We performed a systematic scoping review to evaluate what is known and what gaps in the literature exist related to cervical cancer and its prevention specific to AI/AN women. <b>Methods:</b> We conducted a systematic scoping review of the literature published between 1990 and 2020 regarding <i>1)</i> cervical cancer epidemiology (incidence, prevalence, and mortality); <i>2)</i> cervical cancer screening and prevention (HPV status, HPV vaccine initiation and completion, cervical cancer screening); and <i>3)</i> cervical cancer diagnoses (presence of cervical dysplasia, and cervical cancer stage) among AI/ANs. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms and key search terms were developed to search PubMed and Scopus databases. Abstracts were separately reviewed and compared; disagreements were discussed, and a consensus was achieved. Data were abstracted for included articles. <b>Results:</b> Our search yielded 515 citations; 146 articles met inclusion criteria and were included in our review. The median impact factor for published articles was 2.14 (0-292). Descriptive studies represented 58.9% of all published articles, followed by observational (23.2%) and interventional studies (11.6%). Cervical cancer screen- ing/dysplasia was the most commonly published topic (50.6%), followed by epidemiologic studies (23.9%), HPV (22.6%), and invasive cancer (2.7%). The Indian Health Service (IHS) regions most heavily represented were the Alaska Area and Great Plains Area (Figure 1). Of the 110 articles in which the funding source was documented, 83.6% were federally funded, 11.8% were funded by a non-profit agency, and the remaining 4.6% were funded by a combination of federal, nonprofit, and/or private industry. <b>Conclusions:</b> AI/AN women continue to experience persistent health disparities related to severe dysplasia and cervical cancer. Our review demonstrates that AI/AN women remain understudied in the literature, with a scant 146 articles published over a 20-year period. We conclude that more resources are needed to be invested in the future to eliminate this preventable cancer in AI/AN women.

Bernstein Vazirani deep neural perceptron based certificateless signcryption for secured data communication in cloud

Present day evolutions in providing genuine security in the Cloud Computing Network havebeen made Certificateless Signcryption model exceedingly acceptable for several applications. However, security and privacy are the paramount area of interests in safeguarding data or data packet as they are said to be highly sensitive.Moreover, with conventional Certificateless Signcryption process found to be computationally laborious and with the discrete operation minimizing the advantages gained from smaller key size, data security is said to be compromised. To address on this issue, in this work, a novel method called, Bernstein Vazirani Deep Neural Perceptron-based Certificateless Signcryption (BVDNP-CS) for secured data communication in cloud computing network is proposed with multiple layers. The proposed BVDNP-CS method consists of one input layer, three hidden layers and one output layer. The BVDNP-CS method in the first layer obtains the data from personal cloud dataset. In the first hidden layer, with security parameterobtained as input, system parameters and master key are generated by means of Multi-linear mapping. In the second hidden layer, three keys, i.e., partial private key, private key and public key are generated by utilizing Bernstein–Vazirani Key Generation, therefore reducing the overhead incurred.

ECDSA-based certificateless conditional privacy-preserving authentication scheme in Vehicular Ad Hoc Network

A Certificateless Public Key Cryptography (CL-PKC) aims to avoid the drawback of both traditional public key cryptography which requires a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), and Identity-Based Public Key Cryptography (ID-PKC) which suffers from the inherent key escrow problem. In Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET), a Certificateless Conditional Privacy Preserving Authentication (CCPPA) fulfills all known VANET security requirements in order to resolve challenges related to security and privacy. However, the existing certificateless schemes only achieve a trust level 2 according to the hierarchy defined by Girault. In case the partial private key is leaked, a malicious node can replace the public key since the public key is not bound to an identity. As a result, the trusted authority can only identify malicious nodes by using their pseudo identities. Al-Riyami and Paterson introduced a binding technique that allows to lift the trust level of a normal certificateless scheme to a trust level 3 by using a binding technique. This paper proposes new CCPPA schemes that use Al-Riyami and Paterson's technique, can achieve a stronger security and achieve a trust level 3. In case the partial private key is leaked, only the legitimate node can use the corresponding public key which has been certified by the trusted authority. As a result, the proposed CCPPA schemes address the vulnerability related to the public key replacement attack which is present in several CCPPA schemes. Our schemes also offer a tracing technique which consists of allowing the trusted authority to identify a malicious node using both its pseudo identity and public key. The proposed schemes use ECC cryptography and avoid Map-to-Hash function and bilinear pairing. Also, we called our schemes ECDSA-CCPPA and ECDSA*-CCPPA since they allow to respectively implement Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) and the modified ECDSA* during authentication process in VANET. A security analysis is performed and proves that the ECDSA-CCPPA and ECDSA*-CCPPA schemes are secure in the random oracle. Actually, the ECDSA*-CCPPA scheme has an advantage over ECDSA-CCPPA in that it allows to perform a batch verification of signatures, where RSUs can support vehicles by collecting vehicle's signatures and verifying their messages in congested areas in order to reduce verification time. Additionally, a performance analysis is carried out to compare ECDSA*-CCPPA with several existing schemes. The simulation results show that ECDSA*-CCPPA outperforms the studied schemes with regard to the signature and verification process of one message. Moreover, it has the less overhead when compared to the studied certificateless schemes.

An improved pairing-free certificateless aggregate signature scheme for healthcare wireless medical sensor networks.

In healthcare wireless medical sensor networks (HWMSNs), the medical sensor nodes are employed to collect medical data which is transmitted to doctors for diagnosis and treatment. In HWMSNs, medical data is vulnerable to various attacks through public channels. In addition, leakage of patients’ information happens frequently. Hence, secure communication and privacy preservation are major concerns in HWMSNs. To solve the above issues, Zhan et al. put forward a pairing-free certificateless aggregate signature (PF-CLAS) scheme. However, according to our cryptanalysis, the malicious medical sensor node (MSNi) can generate the forged signature by replacing the public key in the PF-CLAS scheme. Hence, to address this security flaw, we design the improved PF-CLAS scheme that can achieve unforgeability, anonymity, and traceability. Since we have changed the construction of the partial private key, the improved PF-CLAS scheme can resist Type I and Type II attacks under the Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm assumption. In terms of the performance evaluation, the proposed scheme outperforms related CLAS schemes, which is more suitable for HWMSNs environments.

An initial overview of the National Policy on the Search for Missing Persons in Brazil

The missing and unidentified persons problem affects every country in the world differently. In Brazil, aspects of the investigation and identification of persons are deficient and, among other things, need better policies and integrated procedures. This article focus on the initial steps taken starting in 2019, with the Law n° 13.812, that established de National Policy on the Search for Missing Persons and created the National Registry for Missing Persons, and the first efforts made by the experts involved in understanding the issue in a holistic manner and developing the basis for a multidisciplinary response.

Status of Agroforestry contract farming for the paper industry in Jayamkondan block of Ariyalur district, Tamil Nadu

Agroforestry contract farming is on the increase worldwide. Both the state and private industries have been looking to contract with small farmers to grow tree crops in their lands to meet the requirements of increasing demand and the problem of overfelling of forests for wood resources. Various reasons have been cited about small farmers' preferences over large farmers in agroforestry contracts by the companies and multiple factors motivate the participation of small farmers in these contracts. This article reviews the literature on agroforestry contract farming. It uses empirical evidence from Tamil Nadu, India, to identify the various factors influencing small farmers' participation in these contract farming ventures. It also discusses the state's role in promoting and enforcing these contracts. The study's main findings are that per cent of dry land area in the total land is the most significant factor influencing small farmers' participation in agroforestry contract farming.

Removing emerging perfluoroalkyl ether acids and fluorotelomer sulfonates from water by nanofiltration membranes: Insights into performance and underlying mechanisms

Although nanofiltration (NF) has been widely reported for removing long-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from water, little is known about the correlations between removal efficacy and PFAS/membrane characteristics, especially for emerging PFAS with shorter polyfluoroalkyl chain or containing fluoroether moieties. A systematic study of treatment of structurally diverse PFAS by NF can help predict the behavior of more unknown compounds during NF process. In this study, we conducted filtration experiments with five commercial NF membranes. Results show that seven legacy PFAS, three emerging perfluoroalkyl ether acids (PFEA) and two fluorotelomer sulfonates (FTS) can be removed simultaneously during the NF process, with rejection ranging from 66.0% to > 99.9%. The removal efficiency of five membranes decreased successively as DK > NF90 > XN45 > NF270 > DL. Rejection of FTS and PFEA by DK membranes were 88.3% to 97.1% and 81.7% to > 99.9%, respectively. Correlation analysis revealed that PFAS molecular structure and membrane characteristics significantly affect PFAS rejection. PFAS molecular weight (MW) and hydrophobicity (logKow) and membrane intrinsic structural characteristics (e.g., molecular weight cut-off (MWCO), water permeability, and salt selectivity) are among the most significant parameters impacting PFAS removal. The findings imply that both steric hindrance and hydrophobic interactions contribute to PFAS rejection. Moreover, the mass of PFAS adsorbed on the membrane was positively correlated with their molecular parameters (i.e., MW and logKow) and weakly correlated with membrane properties, suggesting that the adsorption and rejection of PFAS have similar driving forces. This study provides critical insights into the application of NF for emerging PFAS removal for both the scientific community and private industry, concerning water purification processes and remediation of thousands of PFAS-impacted sites.

Reaching Back: Convict Leasing and the Trusty System in the Nineteenth Century

Reaching Back: Convict Leasing and the Trusty System in the Nineteenth Century

Contracts and access to Mexico’s natural gas resources: The text is not legible on the ground

We examine how contracts mediate private industry access to state-owned subterranean resources. Using a case study from one of Mexico’s most productive onshore natural gas fields, the Burgos Basin, we link contract literatures in geography and critical legal scholarship to answer the following two questions: Does the contract text correspond to how private companies access state-owned subsurface resources, and what purposes do the contracts serve for the contract signatories beyond resource production? The data suggest that contract winners have, so far, limited their drilling activities on the Burgos Basin. This situation draws attention to a puzzle wherein natural gas reserves are not being produced, but the contracts remain active and important to both the contractors and the government. Putting semi-structured interview data into direct conversation with contract text to answer our research questions, we encourage a deeper engagement with how extractive contracts are used to access state-owned resources. First, we uncover how the contract text is not instructive of how or why a private firm will access the resource or why the state enters the contract. Second, we highlight the ways that the contract fails to actualize resource production using a mechanisms of access approach to guide our analysis. Third, we show that resource contracts facilitate relationships and advance the interests of the contract parties regardless of what the actual text purports to do. We finally describe how state-firm resource contracts offer a fruitful area of exploration for geographers interested in resource production.

A formative measurement model and development of quality of work-life scale based on two-factor theory: evidence from Indian private industries

PurposeThis study examines the quality of work-life (QoWL) as a formative construct and validates the scale in an Indian context. Taking a cue from the two-factor (Herzberg) theory, the study developed and validated a formative assessment model of QoWL in the current scenario.Design/methodology/approachCross-sectional data and a self-administered questionnaire were used to analyze the QoWL scale based on a sample of 841 respondents from IT/ITES, BFSI, CPG and manufacturing sectors. Indicators/items of QoWL were considered a first-order reflective construct, and factors of QoWL were considered second-order formative construct in the study. Embedded two-stage approach was used to assess the antecedent construct in the model in which QoWL was measured with seven formative indicators in stage one, and all the constructs of the QoWL are measured with a single item (Global_QWL, i.e. the essence of all constructs) in stage two.FindingsThe study found QoWL as a formative construct with seven significant dimensions; namely, hygiene factors included fairness in compensation (FC), job security (JS), interpersonal relationship (IR), health and wellbeing (HWB), where motivational factors had rewards and career growth (RG), work-life balance (WLB) and learning and development (LD). The study also indicated the strong association of a single item (global_QWL) with all constructs of QoWL. The study findings conceptualize a QoWL as a formative construct within the mentioned sector and can be generalized and extended to other sectors of the economy as well.Research limitations/implicationsFuture researchers can take guidance to deal with the formative construct in the development and validation of scale in various topics in the field of HRM. Future researchers can extend the study across cities and different sectors.Practical implicationsIn this VUCA world, employees have to be constantly on their toes to ensure their organization remains relevant. In this context, the least organization can do for their employees is to offer a conducive environment and favorable QoWL. This study aims to assist the key decision-makers in applying the QoWL index as a formative construct and aiding them in improving the quality of their decisions.Social implicationsResearcher believes that applying the QoWL index as a formative construct can aid decision-makers in improving the quality of their decisions by equipping them with relevant inputs and knowledge. Government can focus on the employees' welfare and introduce the current motivational and hygiene factors in the area of quality of life of the Indians.Originality/valueFormative assessment measurement of QoWL model was validated with the two-factor theory to understand the work environment of India in the private sector across different sectors. The unique finding of the study was a single item (global_QWL) to conclude the QoWL index as a formative construct by redundancy analysis.

Surveillance and privacy as coevolving disruptions: reflections on “notice and choice”

The last two decades have seen a dramatic rise in the ways governments, private industry, and other interests can access, gather, analyze, and employ information about citizens. Given the unique roles of practitioners from both the public and private sectors in this policy ecosystem, we lay conceptual groundwork for coevolving technological, business, and policy disruptions. We focus on the “notice and choice” framework (which we consider a type of nudge) given changing conceptions of privacy in a world of evolving norms. Finally, we consider the difficult problem of clear guideposts for policy actors as they try to reconcile public demands for privacy with competing interests.

Upstream SOEs in the mixed-ownership reform

This article explores possible options of the upstream mixed-ownership reform with imperfect substitute products in a vertically related market composed of one upstream SOE and two downstream profit-maximising retailers. Its focus is not only on incorporating the issue of privatisation into a vertical market structure, but also on extending the traditional upstream–downstream competition model by allowing the active contribution of retailers to enhance values at different costs. It finds that in a vertically related market where retailers’ effort matters, the socially optimal policy towards the upstream SOE is partial privatisation regardless what product differentiation is involved, but the specific degree of privatisation is negatively correlated to the level of effort costs. By contrast, in a vertically related market without retailers’ effort, the government tends to choose full nationalisation of the firm.

Residual State Ownership and Firm Performance: A Case of Vietnam

Privatization has played an important role in national economic reform in Vietnam. However, unlike other transitional countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Vietnam has chosen a partial and gradual privatization where the government still holds significant ownership in most privatized firms. Whether partial privatization can enhance privatized firms’ performance or full privatization should have been implemented is a critical question that needs to be answered. This paper utilizes semiparametric regressions to study the relationship between residual state ownership and firm performance. The results indicate an inverted U relationship between state ownership and firm performance. We show that the performance of privatized firms improves with an increase in the level of state ownership until around 40%, after which the effect of state ownership on firm performance tends to decline. This demonstrates that in a transitional context, relinquishing governmental control via privatization can significantly benefit privatized firm performance. However, further reduction of state ownership may decrease the performance of privatized firms. Overall, the study contributes significantly to the growing body of evidence on the nonlinear effects of state ownership. This suggests that in the transitional context of Vietnam, due to weak corporate governance and limited protection of minority shareholders, there could be a temporary optimal position where state and private investors hold balanced ownership to simultaneously supervise operations and promote the performance of privatized firms.

Climate Change, Social Work, and the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels: A Scoping Review

Climate change is a crisis in our midst. This scoping review examines practices to transition away from fossil fuels in the social work literature, to inform social work engagement in climate mitigation and in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and 13 (Climate Action). We searched peer-reviewed and grey literature, applying the inclusion criteria: (1) published on or since 1 January 2005; (2) social work literature; (3) examines at least one topic related to the transition away from fossil fuels; and (4) describes, examines, or evaluates a specific form of practice for the transition away from fossil fuels that occurred or is occurring. Fifty-eight items met the inclusion criteria, containing 79 practices. The most frequent practice types were “organizing or advocacy” and “energy at home”. Common targets of change were individuals/households and private industry. The most organizing against private industry was led by Indigenous or Tribal nations. More social work engagement in the transition away from fossil fuels is needed, including engagement that embraces an ecosocial approach. Local organizing, advocacy, and program development are an area of strength and an intervention scale at which social workers can influence multi-prong efforts to transition away from fossil fuels. New social work policy analysis and advocacy at global, national, and state levels is also recommended.

Drug Manufacturing and Access to Medicine in Nepal – A Literature Review of Challenges and Proposed Remediation

In recent years considerable attention has been paid to the issue of access to medicine. Access to medicine cannot depend on the decision of private industries only but also on government policies and strategies. According to National Health Policy2019, it is the right of all citizens to have basic health care service including access to safe, efficacious and quality medicine. Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia. Nepal is a diverse country with a varied culture, language, and biodiversity, but generally affected by the common disease (e.g. tuberculosis, COPD, diarrhoeal disease, diabetes and malaria). There are 65 plus private pharmaceutical industries in operation in Nepal and approximately 60% of drugs are imported from India and third-world countries. The only government owned pharmaceutical industry is ‘Nepal Aushadhi Limited’ which is not fully operational in manufacturing essential medicine. Private manufacturers focus mainly on brand competition for private consumption but not in essential medicines. Some essential medicines are totally imported from India and other countries (e.g. insulin). The Nepal government has Free Drug List (FDL) consisting 70 medicines that should be provided free to the all patients but these are not accessible to all citizen of rural areas due to poor logistic management, supply chain and transportation facilities. Quality and adequacy of health services and medicines are the main problem in rural areas. This article mainly focuses on challenges of drug manufacturing and access to safe, efficacious and quality medicines in Nepal. It also emphasizes on strategies and policies being implemented to solve these problems. It is obvious that solving the challenges to provide safe, efficacious and quality medicine is collective responsibility of government of Nepal, private manufacturing industries, regulatory bodies, health professional, the patient and NGO, INGOs working on healthcare system of Nepal. Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 20(3): 373-379, 2022 (June) Centennial Special Issue