Event
GIL hosted an awarness session by Pakistan Engineering Council-PITC on “Entrepreneurship for Engineers” on Thursday 18th March 2021.
The session was facilitated by Ms. Maryam Shahid, Manager CERBM University of Balochistan.
Attendees from GIL and University of Balochistan were present and shared their learning on the topic.
We are honored to have Dr. Zaffar Siddiqui for a mentoring session on Friday 12th March 2021 at 2:30 PM for the GIL SDG Cup 2020 Winning Teams.
Dr. Zaffar Ahmed Siddiqui is a versatile Faculty Member and Corporate Trainer. Currently working as Director at Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC), Isra University, Hyderabad. At Isra, he is also looking after the role of Entrepreneurship Center to create an environment of business and Career Development Center to develop liaison with cooperate sector, hunt jobs & Internships. .
As appreciation, Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) selected him as a core member of innovation and entrepreneurship committee to create innovative environment. One of the remarkable success of committee is to design & manufacture first ever ventilator in Pakistan during Corona Pandemic Situation. In present it’s also revamping economy by designing electro medical & general engineering products. He is an official trainer of Small & Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), he has command to conduct training sessions, workshops & seminars on different topics and fields. Besides these activities, he has the honor to train the Faculty, Staff, Students, Alumni & General Public from University of Peshawar, Institute of Management Sciences Peshawar, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, University of Science and Technology Bannu, Kohat University of Science & Technology, Karakoram International University Gilgit, University of Baluchistan Quetta, Balochistan University of Information Technology Engineering and Management Sciences Quetta, Sardar Bahadur Khan Women`s University Quetta, Institute of Business Administration Sukkur, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology Jamshoro, Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, Sarhad University Peshawar and University of Sindh Dadu campus, along with various chambers, Banks, NGO`S etc. He has served for various national and international grants, especially for Pakistan Work Force Development, a partnership project of Ball State University, United States of America (USA) in a commendable position. He worked as General Manager at Fateh Group of Companies, as a Regional Sales Manager South at Dawlance Home Appliances, and Karachi Sheraton Hotel (Movenpick). He has been an external examiner in renowned universities and also an author of few case studies. He remained as panelist and judge in various sessions and competitions and also he is member of different Boards in various Universities.
He has multiple discipline degrees. He has been honored with gold medals and incentive tours to different countries. Along with all the gratified achievements of his life, he also relished the life in uniform for Pakistan Air Force (PAF). He is experiencing the taste of entrepreneurship by owning a company.
Team Lead GIL Dr. Waheed Noor welcomed visiting guests from Chief Minister Delivery Unity (CMDU) Government of Balochistan headed by Mr. Inam Ul Haq (Project Director CMDU) at the University of Balochistan.
The delegation including FLT LT Yasir Hussain Deputy Coordinator P&M CMDU, Mr. Zakir Nasir Incharge BCOC, Mr. Adil Bughti Deputy Secretary Dev: Chief Minister Secretariat, and Mr. Nouman Saleem Assistant Coordinator MIS visited Vice Chancellor Office, GIL, and CERBM (Center of Excellence for Research Base Management).
The delegation was briefed about the innovative interventions taking place at the University of Balochistan under the supervision of Director ORIC and worthy Vice-Chancellor of UOB.
Mr. Inam Ul Haque appreciated the interventions and promised to extend the support of CMDU for possible collaboration in helping build the digital Balochistan.
Team Lead GIL, Dr. Waheed Noor welcomed at National Incubation Center Karachi by Mr Syed Azfar Hussain (Program Manager NIC Karachi).
Dr. Waheed Noor briefed about the innovative initiatives housed at the Government Innovation Lab University of Balochistan and discussion took place for establishing collaboration and linkage for fellows and graduates of NICs and GIL-UoB R&D and other possible venues.
Team Lead GIL, Dr Waheed Noor invited to Divisional Public School and College Faisalabad for a mentoring session on “Prospect of Successful Future” to the degree program students. The objective of the session was to sensitise and make students aware of the future challenges and opportunities, and how to prepare for the industry. The main focus was on freelancing and entrepreneurship. The talk highlighted 21st-century skills along with potential challenges and opportunities of 4th Industrial Wave (revolution). Some details of Artificial Intelligence, it’s market and role in the world economy was highlighted with example. Dr Waheed Noor urged students to build their skills right away in AI, IoT, Cloud computing, robotics, cybersecurity especially the final year students who should choose their final project in these fields and make themselves ready for the market..
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) constitute a global framework for achieving sustainable
development. In this nexus, Government Innovation Lab (GIL), through United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is assigned to develop a Private Engagement Strategy Framework for the province. The framework will support and assist the Government of Balochistan in achieving SDGs.
In this regard, on 12th February, 2021, a Panel Discussion was organised to gauge the opinions of different stakeholders and/or experts from different sectors and organisations. The panel discussion sought to answer following broader questions:
How is the government facilitating the private sector in various areas pertaining to the SDGs? What should be done in order to engage the private sector towards the achievement of SDGs?
Participants from UNDP, University of Balochistan, and Private Sector attended the event at Committee Room, University of Balochistan.
On Thursday 4th Feb 2021, Media consultant of UNDP Pakistan Country Office visited GIL and recorded interviews of young fellows who contributed in different phases of GIL Fellowship Program. These young fellows participated in development of solutions to the problems pertaining to governance and service delivery of different line departments of Government of Balochistan.
Dr Waheed Noor and Dr Junaid Babar welcomed the UNDP team and briefed about the initiatives under GIL framework.
On Friday 29th January 2021, GIL hosted the webinar on “IT in Water and Sanitation Utilities Result and Lesson” for Quetta-WASA. The national-level webinar was attended by officials from PWON Pakistan, Faisalabad WASA, Lahore WASA and Multan WASA.
Dr. Sanaullah Panezai, Mr Azhar Ayoub and Ms Sadia Lakho represented GIL in the webinar and briefed the officials about the interventions of GIL for QWASA.
Mr. Imran Hameed Durrani (QWASA), Mr. Ahmed and Mr Inam ul Haq from QWASA were present on the occasion.
The webinar started with the GIL intro video, followed by the introduction of MIS software for QWASA developed by GIL.
Mr Durrani recognised the importance of the use of technology and encouraged its use to benefit the current Government system. He further encouraged our young talent to be more efficient and productive to win recognition on national and international platforms. He greatly appreciated Azhar Ayoub’s passion-driven presentation and acknowledged the efforts by GIL team for its collaboration and management.
Officials from PWON Pakistan admired the efforts by Q-WASA and GIL to adopt the technology to measure efficient performance and appreciated the work and progress on MIS and GIS system.
Mr M.I. Khan from Multan WASA valued the work presented by Q-WASA and GIL and cherished the digitisation of the whole Q-WASA system.
Lahore WASA team praised Q-WASA and GIL for their efficient working in converting the manual system into a digital one in such a short span of time. They also appreciated the MIS and GIS system presented by Q-WASA and GIL.
Mr. Ehsan Gul, Head of Experimentation at UNDP Pakistan Country Office arranged an online Design Café for the GIL Balochistan SDG Challenge Cup Finalists.
Arslan Badini (Admin Officer GIL) moderated the online session while participants presented their ideas.
Mr. Ehsan Gul appreciated the initiatives and reviewed the ideas. He helped the finalists with ideating more innovative features for making the ideas become global.
The participants thanked the mentor and the session concluded with appreciating remarks for Government Innovation Lab for carrying out developmental initiatives for the youth of Balochistan.
GIL in collaboration with UNDP, Government of Balochistan and University of Balochistan successfully conducted GIL Balochistan SDG Challenge Cup 2020 on 23rd December 2020.
Minister Finance, Zahoor Ahmed Buledi attended the event as Chief Guest. Commissioner Quetta Division, Asfandyar Khan, Ex Minister Science & IT, Prince Ahmed Ali Ahmedzai, SMEDA Provincial Chief Mr Abdul Shakoor and UNDP Chief Zulfiqar Durrani attend as Guest of Honor.
VC University of Balochistan Dr Shafiq Ur Rehman and Director ORIC UoB, Dr Waheed Noor welcomed the guests and briefed about GIL, its initiatives and success stories.
Judges were invited from Academia (Dr Benish Malik and Dr Zaffar Siddiqui), UNDP (Mr Habibullah Nasar), Government of Balochistan (Mr Jawad Ahmed).
Dr Zaffar Siddiqui (Isra University Hyderabad) presented keynote speech to the participants and audience.
Dr Junaid Babar (Activity Lead) and Arslan Badini (Co-Lead) shared the SDG Challenge Cup activities and the process of shortlisting Finalists.
Six successful teams with the vision to create civic and social impact through innovation, from all over Balochistan qualified for the Grand Finale.
The finalist presented their Ideas in front of the audience. Judges evaluated and two teams (At Your Door led by Syed Taqi Rizvi and Digital Libas led by Akshay Kumar) were awarded with the winning prize of PKR 200,000 each.
Runner Up teams were awarded with certificates of appreciation.
GIL in collaboration with UNDP under MAPS for SDGs Project is organising SDG Challenge Cup 2020. Teams and Individuals from all over Balochistan came forward to compete and win a grant for a period of two months to ideate innovative solutions to meet Balochistan SDGs targets.
The shortlisted participants are first trained/mentored and then judged in successive sessions of Mentoring, where shortlisted ideas will go forward until the final pitching event.
GIL successfully organized a 2-Days Design Thinking Workshop on 17th and 18th of December.
Experts from Academia and UNDP were invited to mentor the ideas and evaluate.
Mr Arslan Badini and Dr Mir Dost conducted a Design Thinking training for the ideas to be aligned with the process of design thinking. Dr Junaid Babar (Activity Lead) welcomed the participants and guided them about the processes.
Dr Qurat Ul Ain (Assistant Professor, BUITEMS), Dr Sohail (Assistant Professor, UOB) and Mr Habibullah Khan (UNDP) were invited as judges.
Vice Chancellor, University of Balochistan appreciated the participants and team efforts. Certificates were distributed to participants and shields awarded to judges.
GIL in collaboration with UNDP, Government of Balochistan and the University of Balochistan conducted Ideation Workshop for the shortlisted applicants of Balochistan SDG Challenge Cup 2020 on 15th December 2020.
Dr Mir Dost, who is a renowned global entrepreneur trainer and mentor, helped the participants in learning to develop the ideas into innovative solutions for the society.
Judges from UNDP, Academia and Development Sector were invited to evaluate and groom the ideas.
Mr Habibullah Nasar (Social Policy Analyst UNDP), Ms Sana Durrani (Chairperson Balochistan Women Business Association), Mr Muhammad Javaid (CEO Reliable Innovative Technologies) and Mr Imran Ali (Assistant Professor, University of Balochistan) were present on the occasion.
Participants were shortlisted among a massive pool of applicants from all over Balochistan.
Dr Junaid Babar (Activity Lead) and Arslan Badini thanked the judges and participants. Souveniers and certificates were distributed among the judges and participants.
GIL in collaboration with the Computer Sciences Department, University of Balochistan arranged a mentoring session on Data Sciences by Mr Imran Ali (Lecturer at the University of Balochistan) on Wednesday 25th November 2020.
The session was attended by GIL Team and the staff of Line Departments, Government of Balochistan including QWASA, Colleges Higher & Technical Education Department, Science and IT Department and Local Government Department.
Participants were given a presentation on Data Science techniques, tools and new developments in the relevant field. They shared their queries on the developing challenges raised due to data exploration, advancements and Artificial Intelligence supported with the help of data sciences.
Dr Junaid Babar (ICT Specialist GIL) thanked the audience for their interest and participation in the mentoring session.
GIL in collaboration with CYDEA Tech Islamabad and Computer Sciences Department University of Balochistan held a workshop on “Cyber Security Techniques”.
Mr Zohair Mustaqeem from CYDEA Tech Islamabad discussed techniques in Cyber Security and future prospects as potential services market for freelancing.
Dr Ihsan Ullah from Computer Sciences Department, UOB was present on the occasion. Final Year Students from CSIT Department along with GIL Fellow Developers attended the workshop and shared their learning with the mentors.
GIL held an executive committee meeting with Colleges Higher & Technical Education Department (CH&TED), Government of Balochistan. The meeting was chaired by Secretary CH&TED Mr Hashim Ghilzai and attended by CH&TED officials; Mr Aamir Naeem, Mr Zain Ul Arifeen, Mr Noman Sabir, Mr Raza Muhammad Soomro, GIL Team Lead, Dr Waheed Noor, GIL Social Sector Specialist Dr Sanaullah Panezai and GIL ICT Developers.
Principals of all major colleges of Quetta were invited and the meeting was attended by; Mr Malik Daad (Principal GCT Qta), Engr. Arifa Ali (Principal Govt. Polytechnic Institute for Girls), Ms Furqana Tarranum (Vice-Principal Govt. Girls Degree College Qta Cantt.), Professor M. Hussain Baloch (Principal PCG Qta), Mr Hameed Ullah (Assistant Secretary Education), Mr Barkat Ismail (Deputy Director Academics), Ms Rubaba Hameed (Director Colleges), Dr Siraj Ahmed Kakar (Principal Science College Quetta).
The agenda of the meeting was to discuss the development of the Online Admission Portal to provide students of Balochistan with merit-based admissions & provision of reserved Engineering seats (nationally) over the portal. Dr Waheed Noor presented a briefing about the GIL interventions & current progress of the proposed system meanwhile taking all the patrons in discussion for the unsolved parameters within the system. The participants apprised the problems they face during the merit-based admission process & suggested solutions.
The meeting lasted in a conducive environment and ended with the commitment that the GIL team will come up with a better picture of the areas identified in this meeting & facilitate CH&TED with the development of an official website and Online Admission Portal, with modern design and UX.