Are Nepal’s celebrated technocrats serving the country or global capital?

There is a distinct, recurring theatre to economic governance in the Global South. Every few years, a polished, Western-educated technocrat emerges from the periphery, steps onto an international stage, and is bestowed a gleaming accolade by the high priests of global finance. In 2016, Ram Sharan Mahat was named Global and Asia-Pacific Finance Minister of the Year by The Banker , a publication nestled within the institutional embrace of the UK’s Financial Times.

A decade later, Swarnim Wagle was thrust onto the TIME100 Climate list as a visionary leader navigating the existential perils of planetary heating. On the surface, these honours are sold to the domestic public as triumphs of national, patriarchal pride. We are invited to celebrate the brilliance of our native sons who have conquered the boardrooms of internationally celebrated think tanks and academia, proving that a small, landlocked Himalayan republic can produce minds capable of swimming in the deep end of global statecraft.

Dive beneath the glittering surface, and a far more calculated, structural dynamic reveals itself.