Pakistan’s Failure in Applied Science Domain

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Pakistan and On Going Challenges

Topic: Pakistan’s Faliure in Applied Science Domain

By AzadPakistan2009

There was a time when people imagined the world and they rationalized it with stories of magic and conjurers. In addition to the evolution of society the people started to gather together to rationalize the world around humans. Also with the culture of awakening of mind , people started to observe the world around them and they started to study it with great interest. First there were philosophical studies and later on a branch emerged which focused on None Philosophical Approach for defining the world around us , by rationalization and meaning. They called it “Science” a study of world around us with experimentalism and proof of concept. Applied Science in simple terms the application of theory aspect and a practical application of scientific concept which is theorized. Pakistan has fallen behind the world considerably when it comes to Applied Science, not by choice by due to bad national policies and lack of protection of its local Industries.

Pakistan is almost 73 years old as a nation, and if we observe each of the decades Pakistan has considerably been behind the world in adoption of Technology. Countries such as USA and Europe were building mechanical engines and setting up massive sky scrapers since early 1900’s. All of these advancements were possible due to few main reasons firstly manpower then strong scientific base and solid interest for applying concepts towards application. People such as John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) were willing to invest money into ventures such as Oil exploration, while entrepreneurs such as Ford ventured off to setup manufacturing of engine [ii] and The Wright brothers – Orville and Wilbur in December 17, 1903 created first machine to fly above the ground. Pakistan unlike many examples of the world has traditionally opted to buy it’s technology and inventors are never fully appreciated and cherished for their creativity and ingenuity. Why is it that Pakistan has yet to produce an inventor or research who is credited with a discovery of unique invention. The idea of Pakistani inventing something new, confuses many Pakistanis, whose first remark is always a sense of disbelief. This is swiftly followed by a joke that this can’t possibly be true. We can ask ourselves that: "Where are these Pakistani investors who are willing to invest in a new idea or to be the first to bring a new product to the market which is not yet available in World ?"

If we review back to 60’s and 70’s Pakistan clearly missed the electronic revolution, while Pakistan had a fantastic emerging educated class, yet still they failed to capitalize on the Laborer force’s potential to dominate the electronic segment. In the 80’s an 90’s Pakistan missed out on the Computer Hardware and Computer manufacturing segment , it can be argued that yes not many people understood what computers were however USA have been using Computers since Moon Missions [iii]. Similarly Pakistan was just too late to understand the importance of Computer Chip manufacturing and Electronic gadget craze of 00’s and present. Pakistan’s education system has taught the theoretical aspect of a concept to students over generation but the mechanism does not exists to fully push the student to “create” a new product which is based on the principles learned in universities and schools. Furthermore, there is a lack of industrialization of the concepts.

For Pakistan it has not been helpful that majority of the country’s population is working in Farm Lands , and many a high % does not gets formally education in schools. UNESCO estimates the figure to be around 60% literacy rate [iv] . Due to majority of population working in farms or not valuing education , not enough people are available to research, as many who graduate opt to target becoming Doctors, Engineers or Software Programmers. The remaining educated class focuses on Service sector such as banking or financial segment or Telecommunication. For many people who are asked about their career choices they are driven by the desire of their Parents to study something which will yield a “Job” so the person can make a transition into a married comfortable life. There are not many people who claim they want to get educated in order to “Invent” or “to create”. For most the high cost of invention realization into reality is a factor which stops them from inventing or applying their education towards an application of idea.

Government of Pakistan of course does not have any major programs to promote a massive push towards creating industries with “New” products or technology. The banks are always reluctant to invest in unproven people coming out of university, so there is a general air of mistrust. You have to put your home or property as a "Collateral" in order to secure a business loan. Long story short , the lack of financing needed to help mature a business does not exist in Pakistan. Financing is never an issue for big politicians or people with contacts in Political position. However that benefit does not exists for the everyday Pakistani. That is why we don’t see a Pakistani entrepreneur taking over the market, locally or globally. Availability of financing to youth and young businessmen investing in scientific products is vital in order to promote an environment which helps or nurtures for application of science. Many of the Pakistani government's initiatives are focused on farmers' to attain a tractor or farming equipment or fertilizers. There is lack of strategy in order to incubate Business which focuses on researching in the applied science arena.

Pakistan needs to allocate % of their GDP towards growth of individual businesses with financial incentive at early stage and and then follow up financing for continued growth phases for a new organization. Regardless of profits or loss margin, the continued sustained investment is needed in order to build up Applied Science segment, in various fields of society. The mentality needs to shift away from thinking that the businessman will run away with money but trust needs to be constructed so financing is available for Young Businessman to setup and environment where young researchers can implement concept of science.

Reference:
i https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/john-d-rockefeller

[ii] https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/henry-ford

[iii] https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/underappreciated-power-apollo-computer/594121/

[iv] http://uis.unesco.org/en/country/pk

Disclaimer:
Here is an article from our contestant AzadPakistani. The article another entry for BWC 2020. The article does not represent any views of Pakistan Defence management.
The article may have citations or op-ed. The Pakistan defence is not responsible for any of the citation flaws or reference crisis (if any).In addition to that we are not responsible for copy rights of any image of conflicting points mentioned/used/described/defined by contestant in his entry.
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Regards
Pakistan Defence Official


@Slav Defence or @webaster or @Horus or @WAJsal or @Irfan Baloch

 

[jaibi]

Good effort, will post review later!

 

[khansaheeb]

You can invent and create as much as you want but without capital it will never come into fruition.

Pakistani people have been for too long been crushed by corrupts and the IMF and have spent most of their time preventing themselves from economic drowning. Pure love for their subject can only come when one is not seeking money for the sake of satisfying hunger but to satisfy knowledge hunger.

 

[masterchief_mirza]

Great essay piece.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Excellent thought piece!


Very early in its existence, the United States instituted a patent system. The first US patent was issued in 1790, just one year after the US Constitution was ratified. Now, granted Pakistan does not have the internal market that the USA possessed in 1790, relative to world commercial potential, but still, the US patent system was instrumental in the take-off of US technology. Pakistan needs to have a national patent system that allows Pakistani inventors to develop and protect their inventions in the world market. This means Pakistan would need to have a strong relationship with the World Intellectual Property Organization and Pakistani inventors would need to file their inventions both in Pakistan and with the WIPO. No start-up inventors or entrepreneurs could survive without patent protection.

 

[khansaheeb]

Excellent thought piece!


Very early in its existence, the United States instituted a patent system. The first US patent was issued in 1790, just one year after the US Constitution was ratified. Now, granted Pakistan does not have the internal market that the USA possessed in 1790, relative to world commercial potential, but still, the US patent system was instrumental in the take-off of US technology. Pakistan needs to have a national patent system that allows Pakistani inventors to develop and protect their inventions in the world market. This means Pakistan would need to have a strong relationship with the World Intellectual Property Organization and Pakistani inventors would need to file their inventions both in Pakistan and with the WIPO. No start-up inventors or entrepreneurs could survive without patent protection.

Patents system is a scam. Just a smart way of stealing your ideas. Unless you have the big bucks to enforce it, which most people don't , you can't enforce it.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Patents system is a scam. Just a smart way of stealing your ideas. Unless you have the bug bucks to enforce it, which most people don't , you can't enforce it.

It is true that it takes significant finances to enforce a patent in the USA or Europe. On the other hand, there is no other way to protect an inventor's rights. The more significant the invention, the more it needs to be protected by patent. So, part of the process of successfully commercializing an invention, and building a new Pakistani business based on a new Pakistani invention, is including the financial resources for patenting and patent enforcement in the business plan. It has to be part of the equation in building a new technological business. Otherwise, don't bother.

 

[khansaheeb]

It is true that it takes significant finances to enforce a patent in the USA or Europe. On the other hand, there is no other way to protect an inventor's rights. The more significant the invention, the more it needs to be protected by patent. So, part of the process of successfully commercializing an invention, and building a new Pakistani business based on a new Pakistani invention, is including the financial resources for patenting and patent enforcement in the business plan. It has to be part of the equation in building a new technological business. Otherwise, don't bother.

It's probably best to keep your idea secret,push to market before anyone else and make your money and not bother with the patent.

 

[TruthSeeker]

It's probably best to keep your idea secret,push to market before anyone else and make your money and not bother with the patent.

No significant, business-building idea could be sustained in the face of multinational competition without patent protection. You cannot rely on trade secrets when confronted by the world's technological companies in China, South Korea, Japan, USA, and Europe. Sure, you could make some quick money off a secret, clever novelty item, like a hula hoop, but not with a meaningful technical innovation, which was the subject of this thread.

 

[V. Makarov]

USA's unique history with regard to development of science and technology and why Pakistan should learn from Israel instead of USA.

@V. Makarov

USA had a very different history compared to the rest of the world. However, USA's war of independence can be compared to the War of Independence of 1857 in the Sub continent. Both of these wars were fought by the land lords/merchants who wanted the colonial masters out of the country so they could regain their own financial and political influence in the region. As history knows it, one group failed to gain any independence, while another group of men went forward to write a unique history.

In the Indian subcontinent, the landlords/Sultans were ridden of their lands and power by the British sue to their superior armies and organization. Whereas, in the USA, the local merchants of USA were not allowed to expand as British products were strongly protected in the USA market (hence not much demand for US made products).

The founding fathers of USA, and the main supporters, all were good economists. They knew how a nation's economy is run right away. They put up protectionist tariffs against British industries to protect the much fragile industries there in the USA. Then they introduced the patent system under which any invention of an inventor may be protected under the US law so the proprietor shall capitalize on the invention.

This tendency of the US founding fathers to run a nation-state like a "big company" is one of the reasons why slavery flourished in the Southern states and bad working conditions marked the life of workers up North in the industrialized Northern USA.

USA walked on a unique path highlighted by strong industries, consumerism and mercantilism. USA soon became a big source for all global inventions and products. This mass production also led the USA into making for herself, the strongest Army, the face of Earth had ever seen.

Eventually, the US became the superpower after the WWII and a Hyper-Power after the end of cold war. The nations like USA can only be countered with nations that act like 'large industries'. Such an example is that of China. However, much of the innovation in the USA is originated and owned by the indivisual, whereas in China, it is promoted and owned by the government. Lets see which system survives in the future.

As far as comparison to Pakistan is concerned, I think it would be much better to compare her to Israel. We are both surrounded by hostile enemies and require a superpower to look out for us. The two nations were also born around the same time. But if one compares the Applied Sciences of Israel to Pakistan, there is literally no comparison. Israeli software, financial services, computational research, medical research, tech startups, defence equipment and AI research are much more superior to even the most resourceful middle income countries. Here, I think Pakistan will have to give a serious thought as to where we as Pakistanis fail. Why is that a jewish graduate from Harvard goes on to make a billion dollar company whereas a Pakistani Harvard graduate becomes a politician by joining a political party affiliated with his/her province in Pakistan?

I think that our failures in Science and Technology are a problem of not our technical knowledge, but our upbringing and temperament with regard to what we want to do with that knowledge. We employ foreign graduates not to innovate, but to decide from where in the world we buy things from.

We seriously need to think about that. Thank you @AZADPAKISTAN2009 for bringing this into attention.

 

[Slav Defence]

Pakistan and On Going Challenges

Topic: Pakistan’s Faliure in Applied Science Domain

By AzadPakistan2009

There was a time when people imagined the world and they rationalized it with stories of Magic and conjurers. With evolution of society, people started to gather together and started to rationalize the world around Humans. Along with the culture of awakening of mind , people started to observe the world around them , and they started to study it with great interest. First there were Philosophical studies , and later a branch emerged which focused on None Philosophical Approach for defining the world around us , by rationalization and meaning. They called it “Science” a study of world around us with experimentalism and proof of concept. Applied Science is simple the Application of Theory aspect and a practical application of scientific concept which is theorized. Pakistan has fallen behind the world considerably when it comes to Applied Science, not by choice by due to bad national policies and lack of protection of its local Industries.

Pakistan is almost 73 years old as a nation, and if we observe each of the decades Pakistan has considerably been behind the world in adoption of Technology. Countries such as USA and Europe were building Mechanical Engines , and setting up massive sky scrapers since early 1900’s all of these advancements were possible due to few main reasons , manpower , strong scientific base and solid interest in applying concepts towards application. People such as John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) were willing to invest money into ventures such as Oil exploration, while entrepreneurs such as Ford ventured off to setup manufacturing of engine [ii] and The Wright brothers – Orville and Wilbur in December 17, 1903 created first machine to fly above the ground. Pakistan unlike many examples of the world has traditionally opted to buy it’s technology and inventors are never fully appreciated and cherished for their creativity and ingenuity. Why is it that Pakistan has yet to produce an inventor or research who is credited with a discovery of unique invention. The idea of Pakistani Inventing something new, confuses many Pakistanis, whose first remark is always a sense of disbelief. This is swiftly followed by a Joke that this can’t possibly be true. We can ask, so where are these Pakistani investors who are willing to invest in a new idea or to be the first to bring a new product to the market which is not yet available in World ?

If we review back to 60’s and 70’s Pakistan clearly missed the Electronic revolution, while Pakistan had a fantastic emerging educated class , they failed to capitalize on the Labour force’s potential to dominate the Electronic segment. In the 80’s an 90’s Pakistan missed out on the Computer Hardware and Computer manufacturing segment , it can be argued that yes not many people understood what computers were however USA have been using Computers since Moon Missions [iii]. Similarly Pakistan was just too late to understand the importance of Computer Chip manufacturing and Electronic gadget craze of 00’s and Present. Pakistan’s education system has taught the theoretical aspect of a concept to students over generation but the mechanism does not exists to fully push the student to “create” a new product which is based on the principles learned in Universities and Schools. Furthermore there is a lack of Industrialization of the concepts.

For Pakistan it has not been helpful that majority of the country’s population is working in Farm Lands , and many a high % does not gets formally education in schools. UNESCO estimates the figure to be around 60% literacy rate [iv] . Due to majority of population working in farms or not valuing education , not enough people are available to research, as many who graduate opt to target becoming Doctors, Engineers or Software Programmers. The remaining educated class focuses on Service sector such as banking or financial segment or Telecommunication. For many people who are asked about their career choices they are driven by the desire of their Parents to study something which will yield a “Job” so the person can make a transition into a married comfortable life. There are not many people who claim they want to get educated in order to “Invent” or “to create”. For most the high cost of invention realization into reality is a factor which stops them from inventing or applying their education towards an application of idea.

Government of Pakistan of course does not have any major programs to promote a massive push towards creating Industries which create “New” products or technology. The Banks are always reluctant to invest in unproven people coming out of University, so there is a general air of mistrust. You have to put your home or property as a Collateral in order to secure a Business Loan. Long story short , the lack of Financing needed to help mature a business does not exist in Pakistan. Financing is never an issue for big politicians or people with contacts in Political position. However that benefit does not exists for the everyday Pakistani. That is why we don’t see a Pakistani Entrepreneur taking over the market, locally or globally. Availability of Financing to Youth and Young businesses is vital in order to promote an environment which helps or nurtures application of science. Many of the Government of Pakistan’s initiatives are focused on farmers to attain a Tractor or farming equipment or fertilizers. There is lack of strategy in order to incubate Business which focuses on researching in the applied science arena.

Pakistan needs to allocate % of their GDP towards growth of individual businesses with financial incentive at early stage and and then follow up financing for continued growth phases for a new organization. Regardless of profits or loss margin, the continued sustained investment is needed in order to build up Applied Science segment, in various fields of society. The mentality needs to shift away from thinking that the businessman will run away with money but trust needs to be constructed so financing is available for Young Businessman to setup and environment where young researchers can implement concept of science.


i https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/john-d-rockefeller

[ii] https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/henry-ford

[iii] https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/underappreciated-power-apollo-computer/594121/

[iv] http://uis.unesco.org/en/country/pk



@Slav Defence or @webaster or @Horus or @WAJsal or @Irfan Baloch

Excellent write-up.
Pakistani youth is very talented and the problem lies with Pakistani system as whole. Let us start with educational system. The students who enrolled in Pakistani Universities are more getting theoretical based education than practical based till grade 16th. This means that an any student who gets his graduation from Pakistani University cannot apply for any good posts in any scientific or pharmaceutical company. In addition to that even students who want to do something in science are left with only two options (1) Either they apply abroad (2) Stay here and apply for m.phils
Hence, very less number gets opportunity as fund, family responsibility etc comes in their ways.Now when M.phil students start to make progress then in many cases their funds are exhausted before their research completed or due to political shifting or faculty problems or lack of guidance and in some cases the government alotted funds are withheld . Hence at the end of day, many good brains are left with poverty and joblessness.In case if students make it to m.phil or masters than again they ended up looking for jobs and that too contract based with very less salary and many remain jobless.
Forget graduate science students, their lives are ruined as either they get small jobs which do neither match with their defined fields nor companies in question offer proper professional growth to them. You will find them doing blood tests or taking x Ray's though have done their education in specialized fields.
This is the true fact which I am telling you.So last option left is to start a business and for again starting a business the student needs those people who are professional to some extent. Hence, what a science graduate ended up doing (1) m.phil if he crosses all hurdles but is now jobless (A science graduate who wants to seriously do research cannot do research in evening as all good Universities offer research based courses in the morning , so any student who wants to do job to support his fundings has to do it in night but brown family system does not support it and if you talk about women then they are mostly forced to get married)
Now those students who apply to tada Universities that offer evening m.phils do not serve the purpose of m.phil correctly.
Hence ungroomed and unguided child is even in case sent abroad then has to rely only upon his intellect. You must appreciate how till now what I have heard from experience of previous badges, they were quite supported by the foreign faculty but again lack of grooming is something that student needs to "fix" along with practical education which many Pakistani students don't have.
Many students who were lucky and made to a good degree abroad realized what they were lacking and have returned to Pakistan. They have opened their respective research centres but again we have a huge problem. It is only for students who want to do m.phils or phds. For graduate again they offer absolutely nothing.Also, the greatest tragedy of genuine m.phil student is that his research paper should have ghost authorship (the credit of his hardwork should be also "given" to the director of the research study group)
Look what the system is doing with young and most talented child, they give them theoritical knowledge and not practical knowledge. The young man who would have gone half mad by learning half of the obselete concept do not know new techs and is thinking about his incompetence though it is system and luck and partly his or her own family structure and system preventing him.
Rest you wrote comes after that!
Thread set as featured and included in competition.
Add pictures, why picture is not added? Add any relevant picture please!
Regards

 

[PAKISTANFOREVER]

Pakistan and On Going Challenges

Topic: Pakistan’s Faliure in Applied Science Domain

By AzadPakistan2009

There was a time when people imagined the world and they rationalized it with stories of Magic and conjurers. With evolution of society, people started to gather together and started to rationalize the world around Humans. Along with the culture of awakening of mind , people started to observe the world around them , and they started to study it with great interest. First there were Philosophical studies , and later a branch emerged which focused on None Philosophical Approach for defining the world around us , by rationalization and meaning. They called it “Science” a study of world around us with experimentalism and proof of concept. Applied Science is simple the Application of Theory aspect and a practical application of scientific concept which is theorized. Pakistan has fallen behind the world considerably when it comes to Applied Science, not by choice by due to bad national policies and lack of protection of its local Industries.

Pakistan is almost 73 years old as a nation, and if we observe each of the decades Pakistan has considerably been behind the world in adoption of Technology. Countries such as USA and Europe were building Mechanical Engines , and setting up massive sky scrapers since early 1900’s all of these advancements were possible due to few main reasons , manpower , strong scientific base and solid interest in applying concepts towards application. People such as John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) were willing to invest money into ventures such as Oil exploration, while entrepreneurs such as Ford ventured off to setup manufacturing of engine [ii] and The Wright brothers – Orville and Wilbur in December 17, 1903 created first machine to fly above the ground. Pakistan unlike many examples of the world has traditionally opted to buy it’s technology and inventors are never fully appreciated and cherished for their creativity and ingenuity. Why is it that Pakistan has yet to produce an inventor or research who is credited with a discovery of unique invention. The idea of Pakistani Inventing something new, confuses many Pakistanis, whose first remark is always a sense of disbelief. This is swiftly followed by a Joke that this can’t possibly be true. We can ask, so where are these Pakistani investors who are willing to invest in a new idea or to be the first to bring a new product to the market which is not yet available in World ?

If we review back to 60’s and 70’s Pakistan clearly missed the Electronic revolution, while Pakistan had a fantastic emerging educated class , they failed to capitalize on the Labour force’s potential to dominate the Electronic segment. In the 80’s an 90’s Pakistan missed out on the Computer Hardware and Computer manufacturing segment , it can be argued that yes not many people understood what computers were however USA have been using Computers since Moon Missions [iii]. Similarly Pakistan was just too late to understand the importance of Computer Chip manufacturing and Electronic gadget craze of 00’s and Present. Pakistan’s education system has taught the theoretical aspect of a concept to students over generation but the mechanism does not exists to fully push the student to “create” a new product which is based on the principles learned in Universities and Schools. Furthermore there is a lack of Industrialization of the concepts.

For Pakistan it has not been helpful that majority of the country’s population is working in Farm Lands , and many a high % does not gets formally education in schools. UNESCO estimates the figure to be around 60% literacy rate [iv] . Due to majority of population working in farms or not valuing education , not enough people are available to research, as many who graduate opt to target becoming Doctors, Engineers or Software Programmers. The remaining educated class focuses on Service sector such as banking or financial segment or Telecommunication. For many people who are asked about their career choices they are driven by the desire of their Parents to study something which will yield a “Job” so the person can make a transition into a married comfortable life. There are not many people who claim they want to get educated in order to “Invent” or “to create”. For most the high cost of invention realization into reality is a factor which stops them from inventing or applying their education towards an application of idea.

Government of Pakistan of course does not have any major programs to promote a massive push towards creating Industries which create “New” products or technology. The Banks are always reluctant to invest in unproven people coming out of University, so there is a general air of mistrust. You have to put your home or property as a Collateral in order to secure a Business Loan. Long story short , the lack of Financing needed to help mature a business does not exist in Pakistan. Financing is never an issue for big politicians or people with contacts in Political position. However that benefit does not exists for the everyday Pakistani. That is why we don’t see a Pakistani Entrepreneur taking over the market, locally or globally. Availability of Financing to Youth and Young businesses is vital in order to promote an environment which helps or nurtures application of science. Many of the Government of Pakistan’s initiatives are focused on farmers to attain a Tractor or farming equipment or fertilizers. There is lack of strategy in order to incubate Business which focuses on researching in the applied science arena.

Pakistan needs to allocate % of their GDP towards growth of individual businesses with financial incentive at early stage and and then follow up financing for continued growth phases for a new organization. Regardless of profits or loss margin, the continued sustained investment is needed in order to build up Applied Science segment, in various fields of society. The mentality needs to shift away from thinking that the businessman will run away with money but trust needs to be constructed so financing is available for Young Businessman to setup and environment where young researchers can implement concept of science.


i https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/john-d-rockefeller

[ii] https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/henry-ford

[iii] https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/underappreciated-power-apollo-computer/594121/

[iv] http://uis.unesco.org/en/country/pk



@Slav Defence or @webaster or @Horus or @WAJsal or @Irfan Baloch

Not helped by the fact that we have excelled at applied "retarded low IQ Mullahism".

 

[Slav Defence]

Not helped by the fact that we have excelled at applied "retarded low IQ Mullahism".

Just recently the Taxila mosque students received prize for their eng project. Faith makes people more responsible and serious. It is politics and corruption even in religious brigade (ah! One of its own kind) that has caused Pakistan to stay back.We need system that offers citizens of every level to gain practical experience.
Regards

 

[Dr-who]

Our Baba's sitting on the top echelons of bureaucracy have backward, negative thinking and this is what's stopping from new thinking and concepts from emerging.
Just think of it, a tasty samosa cooked in some unique way in a special month of Ramadan where samosa would clearly give you good profits, and they get arrested for charging an amount not specified by the govt.
We are a mixture of socialist and capitalism with babu on top more confused then us

 

[Gentelman]

People are there,
Environment is not...
Worst people with political agendas and support are at the top, just look at SUPARCO's chief...
Moreover, the indistrial base is also missing, even 3D printing isn't allowed.
Lastly, if someone is insane enough to develop a product, his file will take 3x the years spent in developing that product.
Problems don't end here, its the start....