Development 2.0--by Nadeem Ul Haque

Every few days former HEC officials lament the lack of funding to HEC in the context of a burgeoning youth population. No amount of money is enough for these people, demands range from Rs 120 billion to over 300 billion per annum.   We have been on a university building binge for the last decade or more and now have about a 128 universities.   Yet a former HEC chief writes that we only have about 7000 PhDs in these. That means that there are about 55 PhDs per campus. And they tell you that a majority of these are fresh PhDs. That experienced and competent professors are few and far between. They are also quite clear that university education has to be permanently and fully subsidized in the country. They are very good people and well respected and far be it from me to challenge them or to doubt them. And I do not. However, I do think that HEC is working on a flawed model. Let us see how. First, let us review what a university is. When most of us chos...

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-216556-Cities-can-save-us http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-216748-Cities-can-save-us

Although I was cut off, worth looking at. Our anchors must stop favoring politicians. It is making them arrogant and less accountable. Politicians and experts must be given equal time. http://www.zemtv.com/2013/11/26/bay-laag-planning-commission-ki-kar-kardagi-25th-november-2013/  

Old narratives die hard Dr. Ikram describes rent seeking in urdu superbly. Watch! Although anchors took it in wrong direction. Does not matter what amounts lying outside and tax/gdp ratio.   Issue really is to plug the problem at home which is plots/perks. http://t.co/Tvdm7SzGUq

http://magazine.thenews.com.pk/mag/moneymatter_detail.asp?id=6640&magId=10&catId=12

I have been lamenting for a while that we do not have conferences in Pakistan but Tamashas where VIPs come not to learn but read a prepared speech and receive garlands The whole conference organized to please VIPs and donors leaving learning out of the picture.  People are asked to present and put on stage not because of their knowledge or ideas but only to adorn panels.  Stray subjects or people are put together without a clear coherent theme emerging for the conference.  Speakers ramble and time overruns are frequent. Debates neither happen nor are encouraged and if they do they turn nasty. People from the floor if they speak make speeches whether or not they are related to the subject. Audiences are thin and often consist of people who are there for reasons other than to learn. Conferences or forums as a desirable learning activity is too distant from us. Yet part of development is to inculcate this culture. In developed countries this has been a glorious t...

On developing a knowledge community Farrukh Pitafi one of our leading media personalities has recently been lamenting our lack of creativity on twitter. This has been a passion for me and I welcome a debate of this. I recalled a debate many years ago that I had with Akmal Husain and Ejaz Haider on something similar and I dug out what I had written then. Here it is: “To achieve serious reform and enlightened thinking in society, debate is essential. But what is debate? A debate occurs when several leaders of intellectual thought participate fully on a subject at a time in a concentrated manner. They actively confront each other’s ideas acknowledging contributions with the sole purpose of advancing knowledge. The audience of the debate gets increasingly involved and eventually owns the emerging knowledge. Let us try to understand this proposition and see how we can judge the standard of liberal debate in Pakistan? Developing leaders of intellectual thought: They stand ou...

Way out: Reforms of the FEG Following earlier research done at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Planning Commission Framework for Economic Growth (FEG) highlighted urban reform as central to any strategy for sustainable reform in Pakistan Cities become engines of growth and development when they are allowed to function as decentralized, coherent administrative units for the advancement of commerce. To achieve this: 1.      Policy, research and thinking needs to move away from a spaceless approach to development by integrating the role of cities as engines of growth. 2.      Fiscal federalism needs to be urgently adopted for city growth and to allow cities adequate ownership of their land and resources. This must mean an adequate definition of city limits with exclusive city ownership of its resources. Federal, provincial governments, and the defense agencies should not affect city administration. 3.  ...