The Nepalese word for development is bikas, which is defined as "bloom, expanding, progress, "development," and stems from the Sanskrit vikasa, "to appear, become visible, shine forth." When exactly bikas took on the semantic field that it now occupies in day-to-day vocabulary, signifying "development," is difficult to pinpoint. But its contemporary meaning seems to have come into use with increasing regularity in both national and local media since the introduction of the "break-open the fountain of development" plan in the early 1970s.