Advancement in science, technology has made our lives better: Murad

Sindh’s chief minister said on Sunday that advancement in science and technology in many spheres has without a doubt made everyone’s lives better than the earlier times. “We cannot refute the fact that the life of each one of us is highly dependent on scientific inventions and modern technology.”

CM Syed Murad Ali Shah was addressing the International Conference on Information, Science & Communication Technology (ICISCT), which was organised by the Department of Computer Science, Umaer Basha Institute of Information Technology, University of Karachi. Those who attended the conference included Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah and IT Minister Taimore Talpur.

Talking of technological advancements, the chief executive said that it has brought an end to the era of wooden toys and replaced it with electric cars. “Its effect has been well observed in spheres like medicine, education, infrastructure, electricity, aviation, information, computer, metallurgy, physics, nuclear energy, space technology, defence research, biotechnology, household, sports, jobs, tourism, agriculture and numerous other fields.”

He said that to an extent, technology has even conquered that space, adding that in the corporate sector, the use of cloud computing, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, machine learning and business intelligence devices, etc are helping find new avenues to manage, operate and conduct business.

Shah said that the increase in cloud storage, cloud computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence are such examples that very soon will have a node to connect with our body and collect data based on human activities in real time.

“Relentless development in technology has changed the lives of humans both positively as well as negatively,” he said, adding that new inventions and the boom in technology are due to our inherent curiosity, problem-solving skills and, not to say the least, creativity.

“I do believe that if you’re going to try something different, you need to have faith, you need to have the belief that something in the world will actually work for you. Up there, things are already designed; you have to wait for them.”

The CM said that he has many stories about belief, but “it took me the longest time to understand that having belief is one of the most important factors in succeeding as you go forward for the next many years of your life”.

“For this we need to be at the vanguard of the latest advances in science and technology, not only to anticipate the challenges but also to convert them into opportunities to strengthen our regimes.”

Shah said that we have no choice in this regard but to pursue new avenues of cooperation between organisations like our own, and the scientific and research community. He thanked the vice-chancellor for inviting him to the ICISCT and giving him the opportunity to meet with all the learned people from different parts of the world as well as from different regions of Pakistan.

The CM also thanked the keynote speakers that came all the away from different countries and shared their experiences and knowledge skills with the young researchers of Pakistan. He assured KU of all-out support for the betterment of the IT infrastructure and for upgrading the departmental technological laboratories. He said he believes in the talent that we have in the Department of Computer Science. He also congratulated IEEE Computer Society Karachi Section chair Dr Sadiq Ali Khan.