Dr. Umar Saif comes on the podcast for an extremely informative discussion on the state of Information Technology in Pakistan; from why Pakistani Universities are failing to produce high level graduates to how political instability is destroying Pakistan's progress, on this deep dive podcast we discuss I.T., India, I.I.Ts, Higher Education, LUMS, PITB, Punjab Government, ITU, and how I.T. was used in Government projects in Punjab.
Dr. Umar Saif is the founder and CEO of aiSight.ai (formerly SurveyAuto.com). He is the CEO of Khudi Ventures, Pakistan's largest venture studio. He works as the Chief Digital Officer of the Jang/Geo group. He is also an advisor to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Pakistan.
Previously, Dr. Saif was a cabinet member in Government of Punjab and served as the Chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB). His work led to a radical digital transformation of the government in Punjab and several of his initiatives were replicated throughout the country. He was the founding Vice Chancellor of ITU and established it as one of premier technology universities in Pakistan. Dr. Saif founded Plan9, Pakistan’s first government-backed startup incubator, as well as Punjab’s e-rozgaar program. He is often cited as one of the main forces behind Pakistan's startup ecosystem.
Dr. Saif received his PhD in Computer Science in 2001 at University of Cambridge and worked at MIT for several years before returning to Pakistan. He was the first Pakistani to be named as one of the top 35 young innovators in the world by the MIT Technology Review (TR35) and the first Pakistani to receive a Google faculty research award in 2011. He was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010. He has received the MIT Technovator Award, Mark Weiser Award, IDG Technology Pioneer Award and the British Council Outstanding Alumni Award. Dr. Saif was awarded Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 2014, one of the highest civil awards by government of Pakistan. He was named among the 500 most influential Muslims in the world consecutively between 2015-2020. In 2018, he was awarded the UNESCO Chair for using ICT for Development. Dr. Saif has founded several technology companies and serves on the board of various private, public and financial institutions.
The Pakistan Experience is an independently produced podcast looking to tell stories about Pakistan through conversations.
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The podcast is hosted by comedian and writer, Shehzad Ghias Shaikh. Shehzad is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters in Theatre from Brooklyn College. He is also one of the foremost Stand-up comedians in Pakistan and frequently writes for numerous publications.
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
2:07 His PHD from Cambridge, being a professor at LUMS, teaching at MIT, and why Pakistan is left behind compared to Indian IITs
19:14 What our universities lack, his IT university, and how universities work abroad, the quality of our PHDs
29:46 Why he felt he could make a difference and how he joined the government
43:01 Government Issues & Punjab’s digitization of land records
55:55 Shahbaz Sharif and sales tax crowdsourcing, black economies, UPI and digitization
1:09:28 How India has digitized, importance of cash in Pakistan and India’s demonetization, and our lack of import substitution
1:17:59 Atoms and how they started, IT exports, remittances, tech industry in India vs Pakistan
1:33:31 What’s stopping PayPal in Pak, unicorn culture in India,
1:38:55 Audience Questions
