Daily Times

DADU: A renowned research scholar of Science Technology and Innovation (STI) policy Prof Dr Asif Ali Shah said that proper policy frameworks and governance need to be developed and enforced so that STI policies can impact the society for prosperity.

“Unfortunately, we lack such systems here,” he said. He claimed that most of the STI policies are formulated by bureaucrats in isolation, without any appropriate inputs from policy experts, academicians and stakeholders.

He outlined the capability of STI to eradicate poverty and even achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Dr Shah in his interview to Daily Times on Saturday, highlighted many developments on STI policies those are underway. He counseled researchers to develop STI policy in the country.

Dr Shah has an honour to be the first STI Policy Phd scholar in Pakistan. He has conducted a remarkable research that has set an example for students and research scholars to follow.

He presented his research work at many international conferences in USA, Italy, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other western countries.

Currently, he holds the charge of additional director of quality enhancement cell besides being an assistant professor at Mehran University Institute of Science, Technology and Development (MUISTD) in Jamshoro.

He completed Ph D (Science and Technology Policy) in 2014 from MUISTD. He passed MSc in Physics from Sindh University in 1998.

Talking on the key issues of Science Technology and Innovation policy in Pakistan, he said lack of consultation of policy experts and concerned stakeholders, shapes inadequate STI policies.

He said that countries with good economies have achieved significant progress by advancing in core segments of STI policies.

He highlighted some of the areas as innovation in science, strategically expanding opportunities for universities for cooperation with industry and society, promoting internationalization, creating an innovative friendly framework, strengthening innovation in SMEs and support for innovative start-ups

He said that our national level policies fail miserably in synchronising with each other. He gave an example of National STI policies that couldn’t synchronise with national, educational and poverty reduction policies.

He emphasised that a top level political support is required for long term development in Pakistan instead of short term deliverables.

He mentioned the top priorities of STI policy as the design of a national STI policy along with the availability of each provincial STI regional policies, integration of STI policy into a national vision and development plan, involvement of policy expert and wider circulation of policies draft, more focus on action based community research to solve major issues of community are some of key areas of STI policies. He said that once Pakistan’s national and regional innovation systems are in order, advanced layers of development would then be unfolded.

In his reply to the question how do you feel being first PhD in STI Policy in Pakistan? He said “It is an honour to be known as first STI Policy PhD but at the same time, it brings more responsibility towards me for the issues like poverty, which is essential component for achieving SDGs”.

“I think the main credit goes to Dr SM Qureshi (former federal Secretary) who supervised me and even established MUISTD,” he remarked.

He claimed that MUISTD is evolving into one of the major hubs for policy studies.

Advising on STI policy, he said that the umbrella of STI policy should be extended to industrial and human development strategies of Pakistan. A national debate must be held to identify key parameters and focus areas for STI growth.Talking on current research on renewable energy, he said that in order to sketch Sindh’s RE (Renewable Energy) based scenario, it is vital to trace the dynamics of simplest RETs (Renewable Energy Technologies) such as STTs (Solar Thermal Technologies).

Published in Daily Times, April 22^nd 2018.