ISLAMABAD: The first-ever cloud policy of Pakistan introduced by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication to compute the official data will provide an opportunity of investment to international entrepreneurs, WealthPK reports.
Most countries across the globe utilise digital data in every sector because it is accurate and allows them to save money on offline analytics. The introduction of cloud policy is expected to help the authorities to devise efficient strategies for socio-economic uplift of the people.
Dr. Tahir Mumtaz Awan, the head of China Study Centre at Comsats University, told WealthPK that data computing was the main feature of the world of technology. “Unfortunately, unnecessary confidential trends are going on in Pakistan that have no reason to be adopted,” he added.
He said that call detail record (CDR) was public in other countries of the world. He said that CDR was used by different sectors and companies to develop their socio-economic strategies. He added that seven of the top 10 companies of the world were Chinese that worked on digital data. “It shows that how Chinese technical brains are interested in data computing,” he added.
Dr. Tahir said that the data computing technology helped the entire ecosystem of the country. “Unfortunately, Pakistan has not been going in the direction that it can adopt a data computing system. We can only predict about different sectors including economy on the basis of acquired information,” he added.
He said that availability of data was more important. The data contains features, functionality, tools, analyses, results, estimates, recommendations and other information generated, published, displayed and transmitted.
“We always welcome when the data comes from outside. If we see the data of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), it presents a complete picture of Pakistan’s social and community system. Similarly, the data of schools and colleges can help to predict about the future of Pakistan’s education system,” said Dr. Tahir.
He said that appropriate policies for different sectors could be chalked out with the help of big data system. “For example, it can strengthen the health economy if we know that how many doctors are produced in the country every year. Health data can show the prevalence of a disease and expert opinion about it,” he added.
He said that other countries were using the data and information of Pakistan. He said that Pakistanis experts were hired by institutions of other countries for the purpose. “Recently, Cambridge University hired a professor of LUMS,” he added.
He said that data in Pakistan was scattered, unknown and unutilised. “That is why our prediction system is so weak. Some big think tanks of Pakistan show very ordinary data. Pakistani universities should come forward to establish data research centres. “Our universities have the capability to generate accurate and useful data,” Dr. Tahir told WealthPK.
-INP
