. Babu Ram Aryal, cyber law, cybersecurity, and media law professional, based in Kathmandu. He is the Vice-Chair of the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum and the Nepal Internet Governance Forum.
He is the co-founder and the CEO of Internet Governance Institute (IGI), a dedicated IG grass-root capacity building organization in the Asia Pacific. IGI is established to strengthen IG discourse and capacity at the grass-root level to the Asia Pacific region. We partner with local School on Internet Governance (SIG) and partners to conduct local level IG capacity building activities as part of different IG courses under IGI. IGI also closely watches IG related law and policy development as a think tank and do review, analysis, and recommendation in the region.
As a keen IG enthusiast, he started engaging himself in the area of Internet Governance since 2008, just before Hyderabad IGF. Mr. Aryal is the architect of Nepal IGF and the Nepal School on Internet Governance (npSIG) respectively started in 2017 and 2018. He is elected as Vice-Chair of the MSG of Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF) for the year 2018-2020 and founding Vice-Chair of the Nepal IGF as well. He is one of early contributors for Asia Pacific School on Internet Governance (APSIG) as a facilitator and participated in various editions of APSIG and Indian School on Internet Governance (inSIG).
Mr. Aryal first participated in the IGF in 2012 (Baku IGF) and APrIGF in 2014 (New Delhi). Since then he has participated in IGF in Geneva (2017), Paris (2018), and Berlin (2019) in person. After New Delhi (2014) APrIGF, he has participated in APrIGF in person in Macao (2015), Taipei (2016), Bangkok(2017), Vanuatu (2018)(Remotely) and Vladivostok (2019). He is also an ICANN fellow and has participated in various ICANN meetings.
At the professional domain, Mr. Aryal runs a leading technology law firm Delta Law Private Limited that is declared Telecommunication Law Firm of the year, 2020 by AI International. He has worked for a range of clients includes major global Internet and Communication Multinational companies. Similarly, he is also the legal advisor for various Internet Operators in Nepal as well as the umbrella of ISPs in Nepal ISP Association of Nepal.
Mr. Aryal has a significant presence in policy discourse. He served as the legal expert member at the National ICT Council, chaired by the Prime Minister of Nepal. He was part of the Drafting new Information Technology Bill 2019 and has done significant research on ICT and Law some of them are:
- Trend of cybercrime in Nepal
- Analysis of technology-related laws in Nepal
- Use of criminal laws to curb FoE in Nepal.
He was also assigned as a legal consultant for the License Audit of Telecom Operators in Nepal and Possibility study of Mobile Handset Industry in Nepal. He also contributed to the A4AI Index as lead researcher for few countries.
Mr. Aryal is very committed to the inclusive Internet and contributed at various levels. He was one of the founders of the Internet Society Nepal Chapter and led the organization as its president. Mr. Aryal was also elected as the Secretary of first Chapter Advisory Council of Internet Society, a US-based not for profit organization. In his leadership, the post-disaster restoration and support on telecommunication service through Reconnect Nepal Initiative was launched after a massive earthquake in 2015. He has also special interest in ICT and Disability, Child, and Gender issues. He worked for various ICT and Disability activities in Nepal Which includes:
- qualitative and quantitative surveys
- a hackathon for developing tools for persons with disabilities
- and capacity building for persons with disabilities in ICT
He also founded Forum for Digital Equality in 2008 that is leading the consortium of child protection complaint platform in Nepal; www.childsafety.org.np.
Mr. Aryal is a Ph.D. Scholar and his research topic is “Enforcement of International Contracts in Nepal”. He holds a Masters Degree in Law from Pune University, India. Recently Mr. Aryal also went to Annenberg- Oxford Media Policy Summer School for media policy and US Telecommunication Training Institute (USTTI) for cybersecurity policy. He married Kamala Adhikari in 2011 and proud father of two daughters, Aahana and Aashiyana.
