Big Data and Urban Planning in Pakistan: A Case Study of The Urban Unit

This Major Paper presents research on the use of big data for urban planning and smart cities in the global South. It does so through a case study of the use of data at the Urban Unit in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. Based on a series of interviews and extended literature review, I trace the evolution of a science of cities and the growth of urban informatics and smart cities. I then define big data and discuss its related opportunities and limitations. The bulk of this Paper consists of a case study of the Urban Unit and research findings regarding the use of data in planning in Pakistan. A number of challenges to the use of data are identified, classified into challenges regarding data access and reliability, data literacy, and institutional challenges. A major finding is that the practice of urban planning in Pakistan is quite limited in a number of ways. The final chapter shares recommendations from interviewees and reflections on research findings, focusing on the politics of data. The paper ends by discussing future research directions

An Arrested Virtuous Circle? Higher Education And High-Tech Industries In India

We provide a brief but comprehensive overview of linkages between higher education and the high tech sector and study the major linkages in India. We find that the links outside of the labor market are weak. This is attributed to a regulatory structure that separates research from the university and discourages good faculty from joining, which erodes the quality of the intellectual capital necessary to generate new knowledge. In the labor market, we find a robust link between higher education and high-tech industry, but despite a strong private sector supply response to the growth of the high-tech industry, the quality leaves much to be desired. Poor university governance may be limiting both labor market and non-labor market linkages. Industry efforts to improve the quality of graduates are promising but over reliance on industry risks compromising workforce flexibility. Addressing the governance failures in higher education is necessary to strengthen the links between higher education and high tech industry.

Otto Königsberger and Global Architectural Histories

Otto Königsberger was a German émigré architect who worked as the state architect in princely Mysore in British India in the 1940s. Upon emigration to London in 1951, he subsequently became an educator of Tropical Architecture (1954-1971) at the AA School of Architecture. This paper examines how Otto Königsberger’s career can illuminate “global” as a paradigm in Modernist historiography

Museum Collecting and Constructions of Identity in Indian Punjab,1947-1970

This thesis takes an original approach to twentieth century south Asian history by linking long established research on partition and postcolonial nation building, with a new domain of enquiry and material: museum historiography and practice. If unpacking colonial museums and collecting practices revealed the workings of colonialism and the colonial state, what can studying postcolonial museums and collecting practices tell us about the nation-state? What sort of national discourse did they generate in these early years, especially when located away from the centre in a region like Indian Punjab? Collecting for a Punjab museum continued throughout the region’s unique experience of changing boundaries and polities from 1947-1966, beginning with partition, and ending with the linguistic reorganisation of states, with a phase of princely federation in between. These events and their implications impacted the ways in which the collections were acquired, and subsequently interpreted. Competing, conflicting narratives and motivations emerge, including nostalgia for a pre-partition past, and princely legacies offering alternative national imaginaries, set against an Indian art historical project that projected art from the Kangra Valley as the pinnacle of not only Punjab’s but India’s artistic heritage. How did the Punjab Museum — which later became the Chandigarh Museum — present Punjab to itself, to India, and the world? I approach these questions by using personal correspondence and archival material to reveal the previously unconsidered transnational networks that animate this history, which challenge our assumptions about the people and processes that shape a nation.Major funding provided by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and Cambridge Trust (RGCS). Additional funding and sponsorship provided by: Faculty of History, Smuts Memorial Fund, J. N. Tata Endowment, Nehru Trust, Royal Historical Society, Charles Wallace India Trust, Girton College, Gilchrist Educational Trust, Commonwealth Association of Museums, European Association of South Asian Studies, Bryn Mawr College, Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland

Solar PV rural electrification and energy-poverty: A review and conceptual framework with reference to Ghana

In spite of the intention of governments to increase the use of renewable energy in electricity supply, particularly the use of solar photovoltaic (PV) for energy poverty reduction in rural and peri-urban areas of Africa, there is relatively little information on how solar PV electrification impacts on energy poverty reduction. Therefore, there is a gap in the literature and hence the need for continuous research. Using Ghana as a reference country, the historical trend, donor cooperation and other aspects of solar PV rural electrification are discussed . The paper illustrates the intersectoral linkages of solar PV electrification and indicators on education, health, information acquisition, agriculture and micro-enterprises. It also reviews sustainability related issues including costs and market barriers, subsidies, stakeholders involvement, political and policy implications, which are critical factors for sustainable market development of solar PV and other renewables. Finally, a common framework is developed to provide a basic understanding of how solar PV electrification impacts on energy-poverty. This framework provides a structure of the interrelated concepts and principles relevant to the issues under review.Rural electrification; solar PV electrification; energy-poverty; renewable energy; economic development; Ghana; Africa

Productive employment generation: an effective way to revitalize informal settlements in Pakistan

Dissertação de mestrado em Administração PúblicaOne of the major concerns of government trying to devise sustainable urban policies is rapidly growing informal settlements in and at outskirts of cities. The problem is highly prevalent in developing countries and needs urgent attention. Informal settlements are the most disadvantaged sections of the society that suffer extreme poverty conditions and are excluded from social, spatial and economic developments. The study is undertaken for Pakistan with the intention to find the best possible way through which quality of life of residents of informal settlements can be improved. Informal settlements from three provinces Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan are scrutinized in detail to reveal the current conditions of these residents in terms of health, education, crime, social capital and happiness. The study shows the deviation between the life of affluent classes and the poor classes and touches the important subject of income inequality and its implications. It simultaneously explores a link between unemployment, underemployment, informal sector and informal settlements. The roles of the federal, provincial and local governments as policy makers and implementers are highlighted by studying urban policies adopted post partition of the subcontinent and the effectiveness of each policy is analyzed to understand their impact on the lives of these residents as well as on other civilians. Lastly, the importance of productive employment is examined in search of an effective long-term sustainable solution.Uma das principais preocupações do governo em relação a conceção de políticas urbanas sustentáveis é o rápido crescimento dos urbanizaçõesinformais nas cidades e nas periferias. O problema é particularmente prevalente em países em desenvolvimento e precisa de atenção urgente. As urbanizações informais são os setores mais desfavorecidos da sociedade sofrendo de condições de extrema pobreza e são excluídos do desenvolvimento social, espacial e econômico. O estudo é realizado no Paquistão, com a intenção de encontrar a melhor maneira possível de melhorar a qualidade de vida dos residentes de urbanizaçõesinformais. As urbanizaçõesinformais de três províncias, Punjab, Sindh e Khyber Pakhtunkhwa no Paquistão, são examinados em detalhes para revelar as condições atuais dosresidentes em termos de saúde, educação, crime, capital social e felicidade. O estudo mostra o desvio entre a vida das classes abastadas e das classes pobres e aborda o importante tema da desigualdade de rendimentoe suas implicações. Simultaneamente, explora uma ligação entre desemprego, subemprego, setor informal e as urbanizaçõesinformais. Os papéis dos governos federal, provincial e local como formuladores e implementadores de políticas são destacados pelo estudo das políticas urbanas adotadas após a partição do subcontinente. A eficácia de cada política é analisada para compreender o seu impacto nas vidas desses residentes, bem como nas outras esferas civis. Por fim, examina-se a importância do emprego produtivo na busca de uma solução eficaz e sustentável de longo prazo

Contribution of Onion Seed Production to Poverty Reduction: A Case Study of Malakand Division, Pakistan

According to the latest estimates, roughly one-third of the total population of the developing countries live in poverty, majority of which are rural inhabitants (as reported 35 percent of the Pakistani rural mass). In Pakistan, the income distribution has worsened in the rural areas while it has marginally improved in urban areas during the period 1979 through 1996-97 [Pakistan (2001)]. The rural poverty is continuously feeding unemployment through migration of unskilled people to the urban areas. Poverty reduction is a priority area for Pakistan. The government is taking measures for addressing problems of the poor who are the most vulnerable amongst the different socioeconomic groups. Poverty alleviation is the main focus of the government in addition to develop physical infrastructure in rural areas and remove income disparities between income groups and regions. The government of Pakistan has initiated measures to poverty reduction through establishing number of institutions namely Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, Micro-credit Bank (Khushali Bank), Pakistan Baitual Mal, Income Safety Nets, and launching Khushal Pakistan Programme and Food Support Programme. All these programmes are aiming at helping poor and hungry people by providing them food for temporary relief and micro credit for initiating sustainable economic activities. Since the majority of our population is living in rural areas, so the government is diverting more resources to improve the access for rural services and encourage greater participation in economic activities through creating employment opportunities. The programmes in education, health and population sectors have been specifically designed to extend socioeconomic opportunities to rural poor.

Benefits and challenges of Enterprise Resource Planning for Pakistani SMEs

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is used to combine all the functions happening inside the organization with the help of one software. All the data is centralized which makes it easy to manage information for all participants. The literature on ERP is studied thoroughly the whole process of adoption till the implementation and final evaluations. But studies that focus on small and medium sized enterprises are limited in number when compared to the large scale enterprises. In case of Pakistan, research is very limited. In this thesis, the author tries to analyze the current status of SMEs usage of ERP system. The benefits obtained and challenges faced by SMEs of Pakistan are studied. Framework presented by Shang and Seddon (2000) is used to understand the benefits obtained by the SMEs in Pakistan. This is a comprehensive framework that classifies the benefits obtained by the ERP adoption, into five categories: operational benefits, managerial benefits, Strategic benefits, IT benefits, and Organizational benefits. The results show that SMEs of Pakistan are also getting many benefits after adoption of ERP. Most of the firms had implemented SAP software. Operational benefits were mentioned by all the firms. The most important benefits were report generation, quick access to critical information, better product and cost planning. Respondents also mentioned that they had reduced corruption as a result of ERP implementation. It is also an important benefit considering high corruption rate in Pakistan. Along with benefits, challenges faced by Pakistani SMEs included infrastructure problems like electricity, difficulties with integration of one module with other module, costs of adoption and lack of skilled ERP consultants. Further studies in this regard can be conducted on cloud based ERP which is fast growing all around the world

The Encyclopedia of Neutrosophic Researchers - vol. 3

This is the third volume of the Encyclopedia of Neutrosophic Researchers, edited from materials offered by the authors who responded to the editor’s invitation. The authors are listed alphabetically. The introduction contains a short history of neutrosophics, together with links to the main papers and books. Neutrosophic set, neutrosophic logic, neutrosophic probability, neutrosophic statistics, neutrosophic measure, neutrosophic precalculus, neutrosophic calculus and so on are gaining significant attention in solving many real life problems that involve uncertainty, impreciseness, vagueness, incompleteness, inconsistent, and indeterminacy. In the past years the fields of neutrosophics have been extended and applied in various fields, such as: artificial intelligence, data mining, soft computing, decision making in incomplete / indeterminate / inconsistent information systems, image processing, computational modelling, robotics, medical diagnosis, biomedical engineering, investment problems, economic forecasting, social science, humanistic and practical achievements