Entrepreneurship activities to be strengthened in universities

Islamabad

To further strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship activities in Pakistani universities, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has established an Innovation Steering Committee in HEC.

This was decided in a meeting held at HEC Secretariat on Friday. The meeting was chaired by HEC Executive Director Dr. Arshad Ali. The session was attended by a number of industry representatives, entrepreneurs and HEC team including Dr. Muhammad Latif, Adviser HEC, Imtiaz Rastgar, Chairman, Rastgar Group, Muhammad Murtaza Zaidi, CEO Cyber vision International, Syed Ahmed, CEO DPL (Pvt) Ltd, Haroon Qurashi, CEO East West Infiniti, Owais Anjum, CEO eMumba (Pvt) Ltd, Wahaj Siraj, CEO Nayatel (Pvt) Ltd, Maajid Maqbool, Assistant Professor, SEECS-NUST, Zeeshan Shahid, Programme Manager TITZ, Yusuf Hussain, Founder NM Ventures, Ali Hasnain, CEO DEACSMASH (Pvt) Ltd, Ammar Khan, MD NEXUS Telecom, Syed Ahmad, Director P@SHA, and Shafiullah Khan, Director (HRD) HEC.

The meeting was unanimous of the opinion innovation and entrepreneurship will ultimately help in creation of job opportunities as well as country’s economic empowerment. It was shared that though some institutions and individuals have performed very well in the recent years, yet there is dire need to encourage maximum number of faculty members, researchers and students to embrace innovative and entrepreneurial endeavours.

The meeting unanimously selected Imtiaz Rastghar as Chairman of the Innovation Steering Committee. The Committee decided to review and further develop parameters to assess Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC), develop a start-up academy as well as take steps to encourage female entrepreneurs. Each participant presented SWOT analysis regarding their interaction with the universities.

Dr. Arshad Ali appreciated continuous support of the industry and informed them that HEC will welcome their suggestions to improve progress of ORIC to move towards creating a knowledge economy. He said that having worked on the other side of the canvas, he is now in a position to identify the gray areas. He showed his concern on increase in youth population and establishment of new universities. “These graduates are a national asset and we need to work together to develop a road map linking our youth to the solution of rising national requirements.”

Dr. Arshad said that HEC looks forward to the positive role of business community for strengthening country’s economy. He also informed that HEC has also planned to convene meeting of ORIC Directors to listen to their problems to identify areas where they could be helped to achieve their objectives.

Dr. Muhammad Latif, Adviser HEC briefed the forum about HEC’s new project on Technology Development Fund for PhD scholars. The Adviser informed the gathering that new project is specifically designed to support researchers for prototype development and marketing their research project to benefit the community and economy at large. The Executive Director said that the establishment of Committee will serve as a backbone to the newly approved HEC’s Technology Fund for which the Government has approved funds amounting to Rs 2.95 million.