Experts call for accelerated efforts to meet SDGs for sustainable progress

 

ISLAMABAD, JUN 13: In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), representatives of civil society at a consultation session have called for accelerated efforts to meet these goals within the stipulated timeframe as it would ensure sustainable progress.

They highlighted and discussed the bottlenecks, lacunas and challenges in the budgets, policies and strategies towards achieving the SDGs.

Purpose of the consultation, organized jointly by Awaz CDS and UGOOD in Islamabad, was to review the progress on government’s official Voluntary National Review (VNR) through Peoples Scorecard and collect input from the civil society organizations on the subject.

The event was part of the series of consultations which will be organized countrywide to gather information from informed civil society about the government’s performance on achieving the SDGs.

Around 35 members from civil society organizations (CSOs) participated in the consultation, mostly from organizations led by women, youth, transgender, people living with disabilities and minority groups. The consultation was supported by Sightsavers Pakistan, VSO and A4SD.

In his opening remarks, CEO UGOOD Syed Ishtiaq Gilani appreciated the participants for attending the consultation and hoped their valuable findings would help in shaping the accurate data base on SDGs. 

Participating in the consultations, Country Director Sightsavers Munazza Gillani praised Awaz CDS-PDA and UGOOD for arranging such an inclusive event representing all, PLWDs, trans genders, youth and men and women.

She shared Sightsavers’ initiatives and collaborations with both CSOs and government to make the entire SDGs process inclusive. She emphasized on inclusion as well as availability of PLWDs disaggregated data for all goals.

Chief Executive Awaz CDS Pakistan Zia ur Rehman gave a detailed orientation about the event’s objectives and deliberations. He informed the participants about AwazCDS and Pakistan Development Alliance (PDA), on behalf of civil society, are in the process of developing a spotlight report on SDGs parallel to government’s official VNR report which it intends to present in the UN. 

Similarly, the spotlight report which will be developed through gathering information from people and depicting real, on ground situation with regard to performance and progress of Pakistan on SDGs at the same forum, he said.

Zia ur Rehman also apprised the audience that the process of data collection was a two-pronged activity, an online survey which has been uploaded on PDA website and a series of consultations in provincial capitals and regions i.e. AJK and GB.

He shared that AwazCDS is engaging with civil society through people’s scorecard to reach out to informed citizens who are unable to contribute to national or official VNR report process. The spotlight report will collect voices of citizens to achieving SDGs whereas the official process relies on secondary data.

He expressed concern over the delay by the government in making the VNR public and called for speedy completion of this process.

He gave a quick rundown of the online survey and the indicators which would be used to assess specific goals CSOs are working on. He shared the link and urged the audience to fill up the online survey as well.

An hour-long group work was also conducted where findings, views and assessment of the discussants were presented. Overall they depicted dismal picture of performance of the government on SDGs they are working on. The information gathered in this consultation will be combined with the findings of planned consultations and consolidated spotlight report will be developed.

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Indian police crack down on protests over anti-Islam remarks

 

NEW DELHI, JUN 12: Indian police cracked down on protests on Sunday that erupted across the country over derogatory remarks against Holy Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) by members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Muslims have taken to the streets to protest against anti-Islamic comments made by two members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent week.

Earlier this month, the BJP suspended its spokeswoman Nupur Sharma and expelled another leader, Naveen Kumar Jindal, for their controversial comments about the Prophet (P.B.U.H) that also angered several Muslim countries, causing a massive diplomatic challenge for the Modi government.

Police cases have been filed against the two former BJP officials.

Countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, and Iran, which are key trade partners for India, lodged protests through diplomatic channels and used social media to demand an apology from the government.

India’s foreign ministry said last week that the tweets and comments do not reflect the views of the government.

Clashes over the remarks simmered across the country, as some in the minority Muslim community see them as the latest instance of pressure and humiliation under BJP rule on issues ranging from freedom of worship to the wearing of hijab head scarves.

Two teenagers were killed when police opened fire on protesters in the eastern city of Ranchi last week.

Sporadic riots in northern Uttar Pradesh state led to the arrests of over 300 people.

In the eastern state of West Bengal, authorities enforced an emergency law prohibiting public gatherings in the industrial district of Howrah until June 16. At least 70 people were arrested on charges of rioting and disturbing public order, with Internet services suspended for over 48 hours after the latest communal violence.

In occupied Kashmir, police arrested a youth for posting a video against Nupur Sharma, a former spokesperson of India’s ruling party who had made derogatory remarks about the Prophet (P.B.U.H), officials said on Sunday.

The video, circulated on YouTube, has been withdrawn by authorities as part of a wider attempt to curb religious unrest that has spread across the country.

BJP leaders have issued instructions to several senior members to be “extremely cautious” when talking about religion on public platforms and the government continues to tighten public security. The report also said police raided the home of student leader Afreen Fatima, arresting her father Mohammad Javed, mother and sister. They have accused her father, who is diabetic and needs insulin daily , of “masterminding the protests”.

“First a police party came at around 8:30pm and took away my father and then they came at 11:30pm and detained my mother and sister. Third time they came at 2:30am to detain me but we resisted and since then the policemen have cordoned off our house,” Fatima told.

“We are only women and children at home. We feel cornered and traumatised. The police have asked us to leave the house locked.

“I have no idea where my father, mother and sister are. I am worried about their safety. My father is a diabetic and he needs insulin injection every night.”

Pakistan condemns ‘brutal treatment’ of Muslims protesting in India

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Saturday strongly condemned the “heavy-handed treatment by the Indian authorities of Muslim who were registering a peaceful protest after Friday prayers”.

In a statement issued on June 11, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that the “indiscriminate and widespread” use of brute force by the Indian authorities across various states in India had resulted in killing of two innocent Muslim protesters and critically injured thirteen others in Ranchi city.

“The footage of Indian forces unabashedly opening fire on unarmed protesters in Ranchi city is horrific beyond belief. This is a new low in the Indian government’s repressive ‘Hindutva’ inspired majoritarian policy aimed at demonizing and persecuting minorities, especially Muslims,” it said.

“Pakistan denounces this shameful treatment of Indian Muslim citizens by the Indian government and expresses its solidarity with the Muslims of India in these testing times.”

The ministry called the situation in the neighbouring country alarming, continuing that despite the global condemnation of the BJP officials’ sacrilegious remarks, the Indian government’s reaction had been muted, while on the other hand the BJP-RSS regime had persisted in its Islamophobic actions and had shamefully chosen to handle public protest with brutal and indiscriminate use of force.

“The Indian Government’s apathy to the grievous situation and the vicious cycle of communal violence may lead to further marginalization of the Indian Muslims,” it warned, urging the international community to take immediate cognisance of the grievously aggravating situation of Islamophobia in India.

India must be held accountable for stifling the rights of the minorities, especially Muslims, and ensure that Muslims living in India are not victimized for practicing their faith and religious beliefs, the ministry added.

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COURTESY DAWN NEWS

National Electronic Health Record system holds key to future

 

National Electronic Health Record System Technology exported from Pakistan to US

• Tech advancement may lead to efficient healthcare services

Islamabad, JUN 11: Pakistan’s healthcare system by adopting modern-day techniques and innovative technology, may serve the masses in a much more efficient manner, said healthcare and technology experts while sharing their views during a panel discussion on “Evolution of Healthcare & Education in Pakistan.”  

Experts at the panel discussion organized by the Karachi Council on Foreign Relations (KCFR) in collaboration with the Swiss Asian Chamber of Commerce (SACC) at Pakistan’s Pavilion of World Economic Forum in Davos urged the authorities to establish a National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) to provide medical officials access to patients’ medical history whenever they seek medical assistance.  

Eminent healthcare and education experts including Dr. Linda Zangwill, Professor at University of California, Ali Shah Asani, CEO iPath, Dr. Huma Baqai, renowned educationist & Senior Vice Chairperson KCFR, along with Marc Siegel, world’s leading supply-chain expert discussed basic facilities in the healthcare and education sectors of Pakistan.   

Expressing his views on the use of modern technology in the public health sector, iPath CEO, Ali Shah, said that using innovative information technology could improve the performance of health sector manifold. 

He briefed the audience about projects led by his team including the United States. Ali shared some interesting facts and their impact on patients’ care by saying that the lack of Healthcare Data Interoperability and Interchange on sharing patients’ medical records across other caregivers not only increases costs but prolongs their miseries as well as risks their lives. 

He said that it had been very difficult for patients in the United States to get access to their medical records from their doctors, and even healthcare networks lacked sufficient means to share medical records of patients with other healthcare facilities. The problem is amplified if a patient is attended by different healthcare providers across various sites as per specialty.

In such a situation, Ali Shah said that his team launched a Patient Health Record Integration Platform enabling Healthcare Data Interoperability and integration of medical records in a centralized view stored across various Healthcare touch points during patients’ lifetime. Since the doctor has access to complete medical history of patients, it helps them in accurate diagnosis, saves decision time in critical situations and saves costs. The patient might save money by avoiding the repetition of same tests on instructions of his/her new doctor due to unavailability of previous record, while having a detailed and ready-to-observe medical history also saves time. 

Ali Shah urged the authorities in Pakistan to establish a NEHR for efficient healthcare services. He said that such systems can link healthcare records to the CNIC of every citizen and be made accessible to healthcare providers so that every citizen of Pakistan might avail the benefits across the country.

Dr. Linda Zangwill shared her valuable thoughts on this occasion by saying that modern day technologies might become a savior to humanity. 

She said that developing countries by using technologies like Artificial Intelligence were improving their healthcare systems and huge investments were being made in such areas.  

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Sherry Rehman favours ban on marriages of minors

 

• Federal Minister’s talks on women’s suffering during pandemic

Islamabad, JUN 10: The global pandemic was an existential crisis for all, indeed, but during such a turmoil and conflict, women were at the epicentre of all intersects, stated federal minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman while shedding light on the atrocities faced by women during the pandemic.

Federal Minister shared her thoughts while speaking at an exclusive Power Talk session titled ‘Women, Power and the Ghost of the Pandemic, hosted by Pathfinder Group of Companies in collaboration with Martin Dow Group at Pakistan Pavilion during the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. 

Renowned educationist and Senior Vice Chairman Karachi Council on Foreign Relations (KCFR) Dr. Huma Baqai moderated the session. Huma commented that while she considered girls dropping out of school a tragedy the minister informed her it was the domestic violence during covid. Senator Sherry Rehman stated that during the pandemic, women found their homes, a place that is supposed to protect you, to be a place of violence and fear instead. 

She said, “We are taught in schools about public policy and liberal democracy but what we are not taught is that it isn’t about seeking redistributive justice. It is about levelling the social pyramids and that includes patriarchy as well.”

She continued, “In our carelessness towards women, we are creating an Armageddon in our everyday lives. Our patriarchal society strips women of the autonomy to make decisions about their lives, bodies, future, access to education, and opportunities.”

While talking about the rights for women and how they have been terribly exploited by the structure of our society, Sherry said, “The right to education is seen as a privilege for girls, while for boys, it is considered a necessity.” She further added that women need to step out of their comfort zones to change that narrative.

 The income gap between women and men is still huge in workplaces. The stats show that only 20% of our total population make up the women in workplace while the fact that they work in fields, fisheries, factories, garment sweat shops and other such places is totally overlooked, she said Though women in Pakistan even in the remote areas are empowering the economy yet they are not provided the autonomy and recognition they deserve, she added

While replying to a question on rising divorce rate, Sherry Rehman mentioned a bill she was trying to get passed with the Federation allowing the women to choose who they marry or at least banning the marriages of minors. However the said bill has only been approved in Sindh so far, she said.

“Young women, when coerced into a marriage, are not empowered enough or informed enough, (or both), to make health choices. If you do not have the basic information on when to space your pregnancies, you will have high mortality rate, which is extremely high in Pakistan already,” said Sherry.

While concluding her talk, federal minister said that our entire culture is built around putting the women into child bearing process, whether they are willing or not. That is a basic right that needs to be provided to our women. 

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Huawei Announces New Inventions to Revolutionize AI, 5G, and User Experience

 

• Company discloses progress in IP, innovation at themed event

ISLAMABAD, JUN 9: Huawei announced a batch of key inventions as part of its biennial "Top Ten Inventions" Awards at the "Broadening the Innovation Landscape 2022" forum held at its Shenzhen headquarters. 

The award is designed to recognize inventions that could create new series of products, become important commercial features of existing products, or that generate considerable value for the company and the industry.

The awarded inventions range from an adder neural network that significantly reduces power consumption and circuit area to a game-changing "optical iris" that provides a unique identifier for optical fibers. It is designed to help carriers manage their network resources, cutting time and costs associated with broadband deployment. 

The announcement came in the context of intellectual property rights, the protection and sharing of which Huawei believes is critical to the tech ecosystem. 

"Protecting IP is key to protecting innovation," said Huawei’s Chief Legal Officer, Song Liuping. "We are eager to license our patents and technologies to share our innovations with the world. This will help broaden the innovation landscape, drive our industry forward, and advance technology for everyone," he added. 

"Huawei is constantly changing itself, and constantly showcasing to the world the value of IP from China," said Tian Lipu, President of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property’s China Chapter.

By the end of 2021, Huawei held more than 110,000 active patents across over 45,000 patent families. It has more granted patents than any other Chinese company, has filed the most patent applications with the EU Patent Office, and ranked fifth in terms of new patents granted in the United States. For five straight years, Huawei has ranked No. 1 worldwide in terms of Patent Cooperation Treaty applications.

Alan Fan, Head of Huawei’s IPR Department, said the value of Huawei patents has seen wide recognition in the industry, especially in mainstream standards such as cellular technology, Wi-Fi, and audio/video codecs.

"In the past five years, more than two billion smartphones have been licensed to Huawei's 4G/5G patents. And for cars, about eight million connected vehicles licensed to Huawei patents are being delivered to the consumers every year," Fan said. 

Huawei is also working actively with patent license administration companies in offering "one-stop" licenses for mainstream standards.

"Over 260 companies—accounting for one billion devices—have obtained Huawei's HEVC patent licenses through a patent pool," Fan said. He added that the company is in discussions to establish a new patent pool to give the industry “quick access” to Huawei’s patents for Wi-Fi devices worldwide.

Huawei is also discussing joint licensing programs for 5G patents with licensing experts and other leading industry patentees.

Liu Hua, Director of World Intellectual Property Organization Office in China, praised Huawei’s sustained focus on innovation, saying: "We look forward to seeing Huawei continue to take part in high-level global competition with innovation at its core."

For Manuel Desantes, former Vice President of European Patent Office, given the vast number of changes in the world these days, what matters most is no longer the number of registered patents or inventions. "The IP system should assure that the creations that merit protection are those that bring actual value," he said.

This marked the third innovation and IP-themed event Huawei has hosted on its innovation practices. Every year, Huawei invests over 10% of its sales revenue into R&D.

In terms of R&D expenditure, Huawei ranked second in the 2021 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. In 2021, the company increased its R&D investment to CNY142.7 billion, representing 22.4% of our total revenue. Over the past decade, Huawei’s total R&D investment surpassed CNY845 billion.

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