Formation of startups and new companies
Commercial exploitation of science, technology, and novelty
System of laws, regulations, strategies, and funding priorities
Discovery and creation of new knowledge of the natural world
Technological Advancements in the world.
By:Athar OsamaPublished on SciDev.Net on 13 June 2012
Muslim countries need forward-looking policies to take advantage of the opportunities offered by mobile technology, says Athar Osama.
The mobile phone is recognised across the world as one of the greatest enabling technologies of modern times. The exponential growth in its penetration and accessibility has defied all expectations — the UN agency International Telecommunications Union estimates that there were more than 5.98 billion mobile phones in use around the world in 2011, corresponding to about 86 per cent of the world’s population. [1]
The almost universal access to mobile phones and other mobile devices, coupled with falling prices, has opened up new avenues for development. For the poorest of the poor in the Islamic world — many of whom live in Africa and South Asia — the mobile phone could be the only technology revolution to touch their lives on a sustained basis.
A world of possibilities
The mobile phone is so important because it acts as a platform technology to enable a number of other activities. This presents many opportunities, just as television, which was launched as an entertainment device, soon showed promise as an educational tool, and the Internet, which began as an educational tool, was soon used for entertainment and commerce.
But mobile phones succeed where the Internet and the television failed to go: in the farthest corners of the world, where electricity is scarce and Internet connectivity expensive.
Efforts to build innovation systems are too government-centric and tend to ignore a key ingredient — the private sector, says Dr. Athar Osama.
Recent years have seen a number of Islamic countries embarking on efforts to create and strengthen innovation ‘ecosystems’. But their delivery record has been mixed.
A couple of years ago, Malaysia created Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM), under the Prime Minister’s office, to bridge the gaps in its innovation system. And plans are afoot in the United Arab Emirates to create an innovation agency to supplement or replace its Technology Development Committee (TDC). While in Pakistan, efforts to create the Pakistan I...
By the Editors of Muslim-Science.com
Dr. Rana Dajani obtained a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Iowa, USA; a Fulbright alumnus, she is currently Assistant Professor and Former Director of the Center of Studies at the Hashemite University, Jordan. Her research focuses on genome-wide association studies concerning diabetes and cancer in ethnic populations in Jordan. Other research includes signaling transduction, stem cells, and bioinformatics.
She is a strong advocate of the theory of biological evolution and of its compatibility with Islam. On the broader horizon, Dr. Dajani has developed a community-based model and philosophy, “We Love Reading (WLR)...
By: Athar OsamaPublished on SciDev.Net on 9 August 2012
Muslim countries can show little impact of science on the ‘bottom of the pyramid’. But there are good models to follow, says Athar Osama.
Many Muslim countries in Asia and North Africa are among the poorest in the world. In an attempt to address challenges of economic development, employment generation, and long-term competitiveness, a number of member countries in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have invested much more in research in recent years — although at about 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), they are still below the average for the developing world.
It is hard ...
The Islamic world’s current science effort is on life support and without major ‘surgery’ could be yet another policy failure, says Athar Osama.
In 2007, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) created the Science, Technology and Innovation Organisation (STIO) to jumpstart science cooperation among its 57 member countries. Three years later, a founding meeting approved an annual budget of US$70 million, with four founding members — Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and and Syria — committing US$5 million each to the budget.
To date, 20 countries have joined STIO — but none has honoured its financial commitment, according to the organisatio...
By Zakri Abdul Hamid –
Science Adviser to the Prime Minister of Malaysia
For Malaysia, the past three decades have been a period of rapid and sustained growth. Measuring growth with the traditional Gross Domestic Product yardstick, Malaysia’s economy has increased more than a hundredfold. Over the past four decades, we have averaged nearly 7% annual growth. Poverty rates have fallen from 49%, to less than 4%. Per-capita GDP has risen from US$370, to more than US$9,000.
This growth has been matched by a fundamental change in the structure of our economy. Like many Asian countries, we have moved from a basis of agriculture and raw commodities to a multi-sector eco...
By: Dr. Athar Osama
Muslim-Science.Com met with Tan Sri Dr. Omar Abdur Rahman, Mahathir’s Science Advisor for over a decade and half and, the “prime mover” behind Mahathir Mohammed’s vision of a Knowledge-driven Malaysia. A deeply humble man, Tan Sri Omar insists that Mahathir was a science policymaker par excellence in his own right and that he would hardly have needed a science advisor. However, he played a critical role in providing scientific credibility to Mahathir’s plans and helping the Prime Minister reach out to the scientific community to build support for his policies.
As Malaysia’s first and longest serving Science Advisor – a position t...
