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NATIONAL SCENE: S&T to be integrated in uplift plans: minister
THE FEDERAL Minister for Science and Technology, Chaudhry Nouraiz Shakoor, says Pakistan’s top leaders are committed towards integrating science and technology in the country’s development process so that it becomes sustainable.
Addressing the eighth session of the Commission on Science and Technology on Development, held recently in Geneva, he pointed out that in the last five years budgetary allocations for science and technology had increased tremendously.
Talking about the Millennium Development Goals, he said his ministry had launched an initiative to ensure the availability of safe water for every Pakistani within the next five years, by establishing a network of quality monitoring laboratories in the country.
In an effort to bring about socio-economic development, Pakistan had launched targeted programmes which included several public-private projects. The minister also suggested that an international network of research institutions should be established to enable trained scientific personnel to continue working in their own countries. — APP
Pakistan-US programme
The Higher Education Commission has invited research proposals from the faculty members of public-sector universities for the second phase of the Pak-US Science and Technology Cooperative Programme.
Under the programme approximately $5.5 million is expected to be made available in the coming year. The research proposals have been invited as part of a cooperation agreement signed between the two countries which established a framework to enhance cooperation in science, technology, engineering and education for mutual benefit.
The agreement is intended to enhance the level of cooperation and strengthen linkages between Pakistani scientists with their counterparts in the United States. — PPI
PhD for Adib Rizvi
Well-known Pakistani surgeon Professor Adibul Hasan Rizvi will receive an honorary PhD degree from the University of Massachusetts, at its 32nd commencement, on June 5 in Worcester.
Announcing this, the university’s board of trustees said: “It would be a tribute to Dr Rizvi’s magnificent humanitarian contributions to medicine and science”. It added that the honour was well deserved, as Prof Rizvi’s profile and list of accomplishments were impressive. — APP
E-government
The NWFP Minister for Information Technology, Hussain Ahmad Kanju, has claimed that all the provincial government departments had been linked electronically through the internet.
Speaking at an IT exhibition and conference recently, he said arrangements had been made by experts in the IT wing of his ministry to webcast the upcoming budget speech, to be made by the provincial finance minister.
He said four IT projects would be completed during the current financial year, adding that Peshawar remained the gateway to Central Asian countries. “This is why we intend to make the city the IT hub of the region,” remarked Mr Kanju. — PPI
Forensic DNA lab
The Higher Education Commission will establish a forensic DNA laboratory at the Punjab University’s National Centre for Excellence in Molecular Biology in Lahore at a cost of Rs36 million.
The proposed facility will serve to upgrade the existing nucleus DNA typing capabilities at the centre. — PPI
IT centres
Sindh’s minister for information technology has claimed that 800 centres would be established in the province which would try to create awareness about IT. Thirty-five such centres have already been set up.
Mustafa Kamal announced this while speaking at the concluding ceremony of the event marking the golden jubilee of Karachi University’s department of chemistry in Karachi the other day. The vice chancellor of the university and the president of Allied Bank also spoke on the occasion. — PPI
Science and mass media
In an effort to create awareness about science and technology among journalists, the Burhanuddin Institute of Genetics, University of Karachi, is organizing a three-day workshop which will commence on June 7.
Prof Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, chairman of the Higher Education Commission, and Prof Farid A. Malik, the chief of Pakistan Science Foundation, will both attend the opening ceremony of the event, said a press release. — APP
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