Government announces Science and Technology Task force led by Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman

[Chakar The Great]

The government has now approved the proposed task force on science and technology. The notification lists the names of all the people who will be on the task force.



Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman, Former Minister of Science & Technology, Former Chairman of Higher Education Commission will the chairman of the new task force. He is also part of the 17 man task force on IT and telecom. The secretary to Minister of science and technology will reprise the same role in the task force.

Here are all the people who are on the task force:

1. Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman
2. Secretary, Minister of Science and Technology
3. Syed Yawar Ali
4. Chairman, Pakistan Agriculture Research Council
5. Prof. M. Iqbal Choudhary
6. Dr. Shahid Mansoor
7. Prof. Dr. Raheel Qamar
8. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Wasay
9. Prof. Dr. Sohaib Khan
10. Engineer Khalid Asghar
11. Prof. Waqar Mahmood
12. Prof. Dr. Naveed A. Malik
13. Prof. Dr. Ehsan Ullah Khan Kakar

The objective of the task force is to start an economic renaissance through Education, Science, Technology, Research, Innovation and Commercialization. The task force will try to enhance collaboration between industries and academia. Promotion of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education is also one of the objectives. To summarize the notification, the government plans to empower entrepreneurs working in STEM fields for better products and services.



During the TechJuice Circle, Dr. Umar Saif, former chairman PITB pointed out the need for more IP based startups. He asked the government to focus on giving these people the resources needed to ensure their success. While the plans for a task force must have been laid out earlier, it is good to see the government taking steps that the experts deem compulsory. The other achievement of the task force is the team itself. Eight out of the 13 members of the task force are professors.

However, the task force missed a big opportunity. Many had hoped that the new government would promote diversity and empower women. Yet as mentioned in an earlier article, there were no women included in the list. Apart from that empowering startups, promoting STEM fields, and a highly qualified team are most definitely the steps in the right direction.

 

[FuturePAF]

The government would be wise to locate incubators and science and technology parks within existing universities, at least initially. Resources have already been sunk into these universities, the talent is being nurtured there, and the overlap of talent will generate synergy between the education and actual science and IT sectors. This would also keep IT and Tech workers on a single "campus" in a city, so they can collaborate between companies more efficiently and also serve as inspiration for the students in the other fields. Aerospace students can collaborate with agricultural students to implement smart farming, and get help decoding the legal system in Pakistan with law students and business students. International relations students and language students would also be key in help all of these students plan out their products for the international markets. The collaborate nature of incubators on campuses can jump start value added textile manufacturing and designing, food products including better farmed fish.

knowledge transfers also happen best on universities; there the best and the brightest are already gathered and lectures to an audience by a foreign expert can give different inspirations to different students depending on their specialties. equally the students can ask questions that will benefit all students and the foreign experts.

 

[xyx007]

The government would be wise to locate incubators and science and technology parks within existing universities, at least initially. Resources have already been sunk into these universities, the talent is being nurtured there, and the overlap of talent will generate synergy between the education and actual science and IT sectors. This would also keep IT and Tech workers on a single "campus" in a city, so they can collaborate between companies more efficiently and also serve as inspiration for the students in the other fields. Aerospace students can collaborate with agricultural students to implement smart farming, and get help decoding the legal system in Pakistan with law students and business students. International relations students and language students would also be key in help all of these students plan out their products for the international markets. The collaborate nature of incubators on campuses can jump start value-added textile manufacturing and designing, food products including better farmed fish.

knowledge transfers also happen best on universities; there the best and the brightest are already gathered and lectures to an audience by a foreign expert can give different inspirations to different students depending on their specialties. equally the students can ask questions that will benefit all students and the foreign experts.

While collaboration is certainly not a foreign concept, what we’re seeing around the country is the coming together of non-traditional partners, and a willingness to embrace new ways of working together. And, I agreed with you this collaborative movement will yield promising results.
Best individual efforts can’t stack up against today’s complex and interconnected problems. Your direction is right to putting aside self-interests and collaborating to build a new civic infrastructure to advance their shared objectives. It’s called collective impact and it’s a growing trend across the western world.
A diverse group of local leaders — private, public, philanthropic, and nonprofit — fed up with the dysfunction around them, come together to challenge conventional wisdom and fix problems long written off as unsolvable, such as poverty, unemployment, and a failing education system.

 

[Haris Mansoor]

However, the task force missed a big opportunity. Many had hoped that the new government would promote diversity and empower women. Yet as mentioned in an earlier article, there were no women included in the list. Apart from that empowering startups, promoting STEM fields, and a highly qualified team are most definitely the steps in the right direction.

We need to revive STEM in Pakistan first, empowering can be done later.