February 07, 2011

Technology foresight: Innovative entrepreneurship


Workshop in NED University Karachi

Pakistan Technology Board (PTB), Ministry of Science & Technology (MoST) conducted a workshop in Technology Foresight Project under ICT Expert Panel to promote the ICT as a development tool. Badar Sultan Minhas conducted the workshop and Murtaza Zaidi a young successful entrepreneur was keynote speaker who has achieved success in business through outsourcing portals.

Foresight brought into focus a new concept of doing business with little resources. Six socio-economic areas identified for Technology Foresight Pakistan. Technology Foresight team is focusing on critical future technologies and how to become self reliant in all the aspects of the identified future technologies through consensus of all stakeholders within a National Innovation System (NIS).

The NIS is based on Provincial Innovation Centre (PIC) and District Innovation Centre (DIC). These innovation centers are also expected to tap the talent of young minds in order to hunt the creativity. Idea of innovation centers was developed by Engr. Mansoor Malik and is being pursued to build the knowledge-based economy of the country.

The first workshop of this series was co-organized by Engr. Shahrukh, Director, Directorate of Industrial Liaison (DIL), NED University Karachi and Technology Foresight Project Team from Pakistan Technology Board, Ministry of Science and Technology, Islamabad. Purpose of the workshop was to promote the concept of entrepreneurship among the graduates. Technology Foresight ICT expert panelist Murtaza Zaidi demonstrated the concept of doing online business in agriculture, administration, translation, engineering, consultancy, medical and others. He motivated the graduates of 17 engineering disciplines to start small business online through some of the popular web portals. Students were engaged in interactive sessions to learn about the business they can do online with as little as $20.

All the students keenly participated in the concept and did ask critical questions about security and other social issues. Khalid Siddiq, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology appreciated the effort as a practical step towards socio-economic well being of Pakistan. Director of DIL, NED University, emphasized that the work on establishment of provincial and district innovation centers must be carried out quickly so that talent of youth could be channelized for effective utilization.

Workshop in Mehran University Jamshoro

Another workshop on Cyber Entrepreneurship was organized by Technology Foresight Project, of Pakistan Technology Board, at Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro. Badar Sultan Minhas and Murtaza Zaidi conducted the workshop. Mehran university’s faculty members, graduating students from all departments attended the workshop. Professor Dr. Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry, Chairman/Head Department of Electronics & Biomedical Engineering, Institute of Information & Communication Technologies, also graced the occasion.

Basic idea of this workshop was to promote the importance of ICT as a development tool. The purpose of the workshop was to motivate the graduates and give them direction towards cyber entrepreneurship ventures using the online resources which are yet in the favor of Pakistani HR in almost all disciplines. The unfathomable ocean of online resources is growing by leaps and bounds where fishing is free for all, implied in the speech by Murtaza Zaidi. He reinforced that the limitations of Pakistan are not allowing the youth to get the jobs in the market in all disciplines however focusing on the online resources are pretty cheap and are easily available at home.

Officials of Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro appreciated the idea by Technology Foresight Project team and ICT expert panel. They have allotted space for District Innovation Center (DIC), the first of its type in Sindh. Such endeavors from Pakistan Technology Board TF project are appreciated by Joint Secretary MoST, M. Khalid Siddiq and are expected to build consensus on future socio-economic technologies among the local area experts from public sector, private sector, civil organizations and academia. The concept of National Innovation System, Provincial Innovation Centers and District Innovation Centers are expected to bridge the gap between academia, industry and society.

http://www.technologytimes.pk/mag/2011/feb11/issue01/technology_foresight_innovative.php 

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