KATHMANDU: An inclusive business is an initiative seeking to build bridges between business and low income populations for the benefit of both, said Kush Kumar Joshi, president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), addressing a seminar organised jointly by FNCCI and SIRF/SNV-Nepal to highlight the role of private sectors in making Constitution inclusive and inclusive business.

He said that it is an initiative towards overcoming poverty by including lower-income group within its value chain while not losing sight of the ultimate goal of business that remains to generate profit.

The seminar was a follow-up to an assessment of NorwNorwegianagian support to Democracy in Nepal in 2001 by the Royal Norwegian embassy that envisaged a need to stimulate research on processes of nation building, social exclusion and poverty and the role of the civil society in Nepal.

Senior advisor of SIRF/SNV Mohan Das Manandhar said that social inclusion is vital in Nepal’s current efforts of addressing poverty and human security. “There is a strong need for high-quality and emperically founded research-based knowledge related to this topic,” he added.

Civil Society leader Padma Ratna Tuladhar opined that the main objective of the Research Fund has to be confined in producing high quality and critical research on causes of social exclusion and ways to accomodate and manage diversity.

“It should also ensure that the research contributes more effectively to policy, public debate and deliberate democratic process,” he said.

Constitution expert Daman Nath Dungana was of the opinion that there is a general problem of quality in the research. He also suggested the private sector not to be only profit-oriented but to practice the inclusive theory of business for the overall development of the country also.Sanjay Bahadur Shah, Inclusive business consultant presented a paper

on Social Inclusion Research Fund. “The project will be official launched soon,” he informed.