Friday, December 22, 2006

Pakistan launches renewable energy policy

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 19 Pakistan's announced Monday the launch of the country's first formal renewable energy policy.The policy comprises three phases: short term medium term and long term, Federal Minister for Water and Power Ali Jatoi said. The short-term phase covers the period up to June 2008.The Policy for Development of Renewable Energy for Power Generation was approved by the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet, the Dawn newspaper reported Tuesday.

Jatoi said the policy provides incentives for private sector investments in renewable energy. Specifically, the country is hoping to find funding for independent power projects, spillover power projects and captive power projects and isolated grid projects.Renewable generation for small, individual use projects does not require special government permission and the incentives lie in the ability to sell the surplus power to distribution companies, Jatoi said.

Jatoi said the policy provides incentives for private sector investments in renewable energy. Specifically, the country is hoping to find funding for independent power projects, spillover power projects and captive power projects and isolated grid projects.Renewable generation for small, individual use projects does not require special government permission and the incentives lie in the ability to sell the surplus power to distribution companies, Jatoi said.END

Copyright C. PakSEF 2002 - 2006

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Women in Engineering

Women are a minority in the engineering fields worldwide. From the United States to Europe the number of women that are in the Physical Science and Engineering fields is far less that those of men. The few women that end up in these fields can find it challenging working in a predominantly male environment.

Following is a television interview that the World Business and Technology Television (WBT-TV), in collaboration with the Paksitan Science and Engineering Foundation (PakSEF) and the International Organization for Pakistani Women Engineers (IOPWE) conducted and aired in the Silicon Valley, San Jose, California: http://www.wbt-tv.com/videos.php?sid=20

In this TV segment WBT has profiled two highly successful women, one Ms Kamila Kraba a senior software engineer at Cisco Systems and Ms Hina Naqvi, who is holds a senior level engineering position at Adobe Systems and is the current president of IOPWE.

Copyright C. PakSEF 2002 - 2006

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Seminar by Prof. Fayazuddin on Evolution of Science

Prof. Fayazuddin is one of Pakistan's most eminent physicists.
Recipient of the Hilal-e-Imtiaz (2002) and the Khwarizmi Laureate
Award (2003), he is author of three well-known books on particle
physics and quantum mechanics, and to mention only one of his
contributions to modern particle physics, is the
Kawarabashi-Suzuki-Riazuddin
-Fayyazuddin (KSRF) relation describing
properties of hadrons and mesons.

Prof. Riazuddin will be speaking on the Khwarzimic Science Society platform on:

DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE AND ITS IMPACT ON SOCIETY

on Friday, 22 December 2006, 11 am at:

Centre for Solid State Physics, Punjab University, Quaid-e-Azam (New)
Campus, Lahore.

This is a public lecture and will discuss the contribution of science
to the social evolution of mankind.

A detailed abstract and poster is available on our website:

http://www.khwarzimic.org

Please do take out some time to attend Prof. Fayazuddin's wonderful
exposition of the topic and do not forget to pass on this information
to friends and colleagues.

See you there,

Dr. Saadat Anwar Siddiqi
President
Khwarzimic Science Society

Cell: 0300-4866616


Copyright C. PakSEF 2002 - 2006

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Professional Technology Publications--A Lack there off

There is so much literature, so many publications published out of Pakistan. However, you wont find many Technology oriented publications other than the Sci-Tech Review DAWN prints each Saturday and Spider Magazine, which is also a DAWN publication. And even these two widely circulated publications aren't something a professional Scientist or Engineer would read. The content of Spider and Sci-Tech is geared for your average non-tech consumer.

These are great publications, no doubt about it but just not something a professional would consider reading or publishing in, other than for his/her personal pleasure.

With little Scientific and Technical publications, how is a country of 166M ever hope to advance itself in the Scientific and technical arena? Even our neighbors like India, China and Iran for crying out loud has a vibrant Scientific culture. What have we to say, other than try and blame government, blame the radicals, blame outside powers---that is all Pakistan's are good it, or it would seem point the finger at others not realizing that reform and progress begins at home.

How much longer will we wait for some boon to fall out of the sky, someone or something to come and say "here I have the solution"? Wake up my dear country folk--wake up and smell the roses, wake up to reality. No one is going yo come and hand us the solution on a silver platter. The solution to Pakistan's Scientific Culture resides within, not without. The solution reside with the Scientific intelligencia, that is with people like you. it is you who will bring change, it is you and you alone who can turn around the despicable situation in the Scientific Culture.

Lets not wait any longer, governments can only do so much---the rest is up to us. It is up to us to make good of the situation, to work with what little infrastructure government has put in place. The government can only provide the tools, it cannot be expected to conduct the cutting edge research and development. Tools, such as funding, University buildings, labs, technology park property, etc is what the what the government can provide. The rest is up to us. We have to take the first steps and boldly venture out into the unknown world of research and entrepreneurship.

So my fellow countrymen and countrywomen, are you ready? Ready for the challenge to boldly go where no Pakistani has gone before? To take the plunge, against all odds, follow your Scientific and Techie passions and make something out of it. [Abdulrahman Rafiq]


Copyright C. PakSEF 2002 - 2007

Sunday, December 10, 2006

PakSEF's Winter Moot 2007

The 2nd Annual Karachi Winter Moot

Reviving our scientific heritage…

Come join us at the 2nd Annual Karachi meeting to strategically position the PakSEF charter for the coming year of 2007.

Click for details and to RSVP


Copyright C. PakSEF 2002 - 2006