302 | Leapfrogging to a Thriving Sustainable Economy in Bhutan with Ujjwal Deep Dahal
Our guest this week on the pod is Ujjwal Deep Dahal. Ujjwal is the CEO at Druk Holding Investments, the largest and only government owned holding company in Bhutan. It was established in 2007 to hold and mange the existing and future investments of the Royal Government for the long term benefit of the people of Bhutan.
This episode is sponsored by the coaching company of our host, Zelizer Consulting Services.
Resources mentioned in this episode include:
Leapfrogging to a Thriving Sustainable Economy in Bhutan - an interview with Ujjwal Deep Dahal
NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer a transcript and the below summaries by Castmagic for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.
You can read the full transcript of this episode here.
Time Stamped Overview
[00:02:51] Transition from less developed economy to growth economy with DHI..
[00:06:08] Leveraging technology to build sustainable businesses.
[00:09:18] Bhutan faces challenges in geography, demography, and connectivity but sees opportunities in digital technology. The country has a department focused on innovation and technology and is working on projects including drones and a national digital identity backed by blockchain. Bhutan aims to build products that solve societal problems and plans to scale these solutions internationally.
[00:17:11] Bhutan uses drones and AI to locate transmission faults.
[00:22:11] Expanding portfolio of sustainable companies with examples from the tech, mining, digital assets sectors.
[00:27:53] Gross national happiness philosophy in Bhutan and leveraging technology for societal well-being.
[00:33:55] Values evolve, commitment to change important.
[00:39:19] Significant impact at scale, future goals of DHI.
[00:40:59] DHI aims for regional and international presence.
[00:45:20] National digital identity enables accurate online identification. Previously, internet lacked identity, but decentralization provides it. Editor worked on electrification project in Bhutan. Collaboration between academia and industry is crucial.
[00:48:36] Check show notes for awesome links and please suggest topics you’d like to hear episodes on.
Key Quotes
Managing Investments in a Changing Economy: "I see, you know, a lot of change in the way we need to operate, but also a quick adaptation in terms of the direction we take as a company over the years."— Ujjwal Deep Dahal
Leveraging Technology for Sustainable Business: "Moving forward, leveraging technology We are creating a national endeavor not only to invest in bigger companies, but also invest in building a platform for the next generation of youth to contribute in problem solving and hence building companies that matter, companies with values, you know, building technologies with values."— Ujjwal Deep Dahal
\Bhutan's Tech Revolution: "We kind of manage those macro challenges about demography, geography, connectivity, top of hopefully. We kinda manage those with the digital with with the evolution of computing power and the opportunity in the digital space."— Ujjwal Deep Dahal
Using Drones to Improve Transmission Line Maintenance: "And that is exactly the point in time when a drone with cameras could fly over the transmission lines, find the fault in 15 minutes, then we dispatch our crew to actually you know, maintain the line."— Ujjwal Deep Dahal
Bhutan's Next Generation Portfolio: "But then the next gen of companies that we talked about, the innovation side, we're really looking at 5 different areas And one is definitely definitely on tech that we talked about couple of projects. But now we are also looking to expand using technology how we can be more efficient in various energy and resources, whether it's solar, whether it's wind, and and other stuffs. The other area is mining and minerals. So we also are looking for partners looking for ideas from universities to establish companies to startups or individuals, professionals around the world to see how we can build up sustainable green mining in terms of some of some important materials. So we are very happy to explore that. The other area that we are working on is also on digital assets. beyond, of course, beyond digital assets than infrastructure and management. So these are the 4 5 areas that we work on and we would love to hear. We would love to collaborate with individuals and passionate minds around the world to see how we can leverage leverage in these areas using tech, using experience around the world to build the next gen portfolio of companies, which serves put on, but more important to at least solve problems for societies around the world."— Ujjwal Deep Dahal
The Future of Technology and Happiness: "So what that effectively also means is we just don't look at GDP as a measure of growth. We look at what makes a human whole in terms of purpose of life."— Ujjwal Deep Dahal
The Evolution of Values in the Age of AI: "I think one being human in the age of AI would be very important, I would say."— Ujjwal Deep Dahal
DHI's Future Plans: "The way I see DHI moving forward from here is making an international regional and international presence."— Ujjwal Deep Dahal
Building an Economy: "But putting these two people or these two groups of people together, you get an amazing conversation and amazing ideas that you can synthesize in building your policy or building your framework of moving forward in building an economy."— Ujjwal Deep Dahal