Tag: (IBA)

Karachi, November 22, 2022 (PPI-OT):The first Social Sciences Winter School, jointly organized by the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi and Centre for South Asian Studies in Paris (CEIAS, CNRS-EHESS) was launched at the IBA City Campus. The theme of the first winter school is Cities, urban change and heritage management through geotechnologies and digital humanities. Running from November 21 to 26, the school will try to address issues at the interface between cities, urban change, and heritage management focusing on scales of interpretation, theoretical questioning and methodological frameworks, and in interaction with various local and international stakeholders.

Dr. S Akbar Zaidi, Executive Director, IBA and one of the organizers of the winter School opened the session discussing the importance of collaborations between the French scholars and local academicians. He mentioned that about 50 participants had joined the school from different locations and multidisciplinary fields to learn more about cities and urban spaces.

His speech was followed by Dr. Remy Delage, Co-director of CEIAS and organizer of the school. He discussed how the winter school was “the culmination of a long process of creation, collaboration and interchanging of ideas between scholars from both countries and that go back to discussions from the time before the COVID-19 pandemic”. He further elaborated on the three workshops that were offered during the first social science winter school: Workshop 1 – Heritage, public space and collaborative mapping: conceptions, practices and appropriations, Workshop 2 – City, architectural space and monuments: heritage perceptions, uses and management, and Workshop 3 – Interrogating the city from document to archive. He ended his speech on the hope that more of such collaborations would continue between the two countries in the coming years.

Dr. Michel Boivin, Co-director of CEIAS, elaborated on the history of the relationship between the French scholars and the research they have conducted in Pakistan. “The first French scholar came to work in Pakistan in 1950s who were archaeologists, when the CEIAS was also created with a focus on social sciences in South Asia. The winter school, therefore, is a symbol of achievement and is a very important event for us as it is a reminder of the evolution and continuation of the relationship between the Pakistani and French scholars”.

Mr. Arif Hasan, Architect and Chairperson, Karachi Urban Resource Centre, delivered the keynote address titled, “A yet undefined city”. His speech was focused on the way Karachi has evolved over the years and the role migration has played in expanding the city. He discussed how rapidly changing circumstances due to changing nature of migration have made it difficult to define the city and therefore difficult to identify, manage and conserve the city’s tangible and intangible heritage.

Additional plenary sessions were also organized to explore different themes unique to each workshop. Speakers included Dr. Anila Naeem, Professor and Chairperson, Department of Architecture and Planning, NED University of Engineering and Technology; Dr. Eric Denis, Co-director, CEIAS, Paris; and Yves Ubelmann, Architect, ICONEM, Paris. Dr. Naeem discussed the complexities of identification and recognition of heritage assets in urban centers and the need for the support systems to manage these historic assets in cities.

Aimed at students, emerging scholars and young professionals, the winter school will use advanced methodological and technological tools to provide intensive training to tackle urban questions from different angles and to explore the nexus between cities, urban change and heritage management. Multidisciplinary workshops like these impart valuable skills and prepare participants to use digital humanities and geotechnologies to design proposals and recommendations in the field of urban planning and heritage management.

For more information, contact:
Executive, Communication and Public Affairs,
Institute of Business Administration Karachi (IBA)
Main Campus: University Road, Karachi – 75270, Pakistan
UAN: +92-21-111-422-422 (Ext. 269)
Fax: +92-21-99261508
Email: raza.lakhani@khi.iba.edu.pk
Website: https://www.iba.edu.pk

Karachi, November 14, 2022 (PPI-OT):Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Mr. Jameel Ahmad showed optimism that academia would help improve financial literacy to not only students but also to wider sections of society through innovative means. He pointed out that this is an area where the regulators and academia can potentially partner and bridge the gap by working towards a common goal of inclusive growth. He was delivering his keynote address as the Chief Guest at the School of Business Studies (SBS), Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi at the inauguration of the Finance Lab.

It is to be noted that SBS in collaboration with Alpha Capital Securities (Pvt) Ltd. has setup a Finance Lab at the Main Campus of IBA in line with its mission and as per Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation standards of providing quality education by offering innovative and technology-focused action learning opportunities. The IBA was represented by Executive Director, Dr. S Akbar Zaidi; Dean, School of Business Studies (SBS), Dr. Abdullah Z. Sheikh; Registrar, Dr. Asad Ilyas; Chairperson, Department of Finance, SBS, Dr. Sana Tauseef; and Assistant Professor and Head of Finance Lab, Dr. Mohsin Sadaqat. Industry Partner and CEO, Alpha Capital Securities, Mr. Azfer Naseem, represented his respective organization. A large number of students and faculty members attended the event.

Governor SBP congratulated the management of IBA, Karachi, on this achievement and hoped the Lab would bridge the gap between industry and academia, and between theory and practice in the area of finance by providing students an opportunity to immerse themselves into real-world problems. He stressed the need for establishing and strengthening a formal collaboration mechanism between academia and industry, for designing courses and setting a research agenda, which serves the objectives of both businesses and academia. He suggested that trade organizations should play an instrumental role in providing a consultative platform as well as arranging funds to finance academic research, given their ability to identify key areas of research, and pool-in required resources.

The Governor SBP said that the Finance Lab should consider collaborating with related disciplines to conduct studies on business processes, market sizing and value chain assessments of various products from the perspective of growth and innovation. The Governor, SBP also suggested collaborating with credit bureaus to test and to create credit scoring models, especially those based on alternate data or otherwise aimed at the segment of individuals and businesses that have no collateral and little or no credit history. He said that the Finance Lab should also focus on increasing the awareness of individual savers across the country to understand the risks and returns associated with different avenues and increasing retail investments in government debt papers and corporate bonds.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Executive Director, IBA Karachi, Dr. Zaidi said the use of technology has revolutionized the conventional financial education. He said the Finance Lab will play an instrumental role in inculcating financial literacy among the students, which is an integral component of the academic curriculum.

Dr. Sheikh stated that the Finance Lab bridges the gap between theory and practice. He further added that the Finance Lab is useful for instructors to ensure active learning, demonstrating how theoretical knowledge is related to the real-world phenomenon and explaining the complex financial concepts through real world data. It also provides an opportunity for students to understand how classroom learning is applied in the industry, enhance data analysis skills, and deepens their understanding of financial knowledge.

Dr. Ilyas briefed the audience about the Lab and said that the “IBA Finance Lab is a platform through which we can bridge the gap of fintech development between Pakistan and our neighbours. We need to realize our laggard status and commit to removing this distance. Without financial innovation Pakistan will never overcome its problems. This is the starting point and cuts through all other developments. Additionally, blockchain is a reality and a matter of time. It will disrupt every single industry and we need to be open to it rather than our reflexive resistance which comes with every new global innovation”.

Dr. Sadaqat said that “Competency is what the industry desires. Finance Lab provides state of the art learning opportunities to students to enhance the competency level through the application of finance knowledge in the real-world settings”. Shedding light on the collaboration, Mr. Naseem said that Finance Lab is a wonderful initiative to bridge the gap between academia and industry and Alpha Capital is excited to partner with IBA in this initiative. It provides an opportunity for the students to apply the tools and concepts they learn in their curriculum to real life business problems”.

Dr. Tauseef stated that the Finance Lab will provide the advantage of real-world learning experience to our business students. Analyzing critical financial data and undergoing financial simulations, in addition to the strong theoretical knowledge, will make our students more competitive in the job market.

To enhance students’ exposure, the Finance Lab plans to organize student competitions namely IBA-SBS Equity Research Challenge and IBA-SBS Trading Challenge. The theme of this challenge would be to select a listed company and give buy/sell recommendation for its stock. Students would be required to build a complete financial model and write an equity research report to be evaluated by industry experts.

The winning team will receive a cash award of PKR 50,000 sponsored by Alpha Capital Securities and the runner ups will receive PKR 10,000 from IBA-SBS Finance Department. In IBA-SBS Trading Challenge, students will use virtual currency of PKR 1,000,000 for trading at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), their performance will be evaluated by a panel of experts. The event culminated with a ribbon cutting ceremony and the official inauguration of the Finance Lab.

For more information, contact:
Executive, Communication and Public Affairs,
Institute of Business Administration Karachi (IBA)
Main Campus: University Road, Karachi – 75270, Pakistan
UAN: +92-21-111-422-422 (Ext. 269)
Fax: +92-21-99261508
Email: raza.lakhani@khi.iba.edu.pk
Website: https://www.iba.edu.pk

Karachi, October 05, 2022 (PPI-OT):School of Mathematics and Computer Science (SMCS), IBA and the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Aga khan University (AKU) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop the model proposed under the project title ‘Prediction of Outcomes Using Recurrent Neural Networks in Critically Ill Children’. The MoU signing ceremony was held at Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, AKU.

Dr. Shakeel Khoja, Dean SMCS, IBA, and Dr. Fyezah Jehan, Chair, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, AKU, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective institutes. This collaboration aims to develop a deep learning methodology, namely a long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network (RNN) for the continuous assessment of critically ill paediatric patients and to predict the risk of mortality of critically ill children using the recurrent neural network system.

The IBA-SMCS team included Dr. Tariq Mahmood, Professor and Program Coordinator, MS CS and MS DS programs; Hira Zahid, PhD Scholar, Department of CS; and Mr. Usama Qadeer, Senior Executive, Industrial Linkages SMCS. AKU was represented by Dr. Naveed ur Rehman, Project Lead; Dr. Qalab Abbas, Project Co-Lead; Dr. Zainab Samad, Chair, Department of Medicine, Director, Health Data Science Centre, AKU; Dr. Imran Nisar, Vice Chair, Research, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health; Ms. Salima Sherali, Manager, Research and Grants Administration, Paeds; Mr. Haseeb Khan, Assistant Manager, Research and Grants Administration, Paeds; and Mr. Akber Madhwani, Sr. Coordinator, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health.

The event commenced with the attendees introduction, after which Dr. Rehman and Dr. Mahmood discussed the collaboration between the parties. Sharing his remarks Dr. Khoja said that “The School of Mathematics and Computer Science is excited about establishing research links with AKU”. The ceremony ended with a souvenir distribution.

For more information, contact:
Executive, Communication and Public Affairs,
Institute of Business Administration Karachi (IBA)
Main Campus: University Road, Karachi – 75270, Pakistan
UAN: +92-21-111-422-422 (Ext. 269)
Fax: +92-21-99261508
Email: raza.lakhani@khi.iba.edu.pk
Website: https://www.iba.edu.pk

Karachi, October 05, 2022 (PPI-OT):The Department of Economics, School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS), IBA held an engaging and interactive session on Charter of Economy with distinguished guest speaker, Dr. Nadeem ul Haque, Vice Chancellor, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Islamabad.

The session was graced by Dr. S Akbar Zaidi, Executive Director, IBA Karachi, Dr. Asma Hyder, Dean, SESS and other distinguished faculty members. The IBA students also attended the event. The session began with Dr. Asma delivering the opening note and introducing the guest speaker.

The speaker, Dr. Haque, highlighted the flawed development policy of Pakistan, the misplaced focus upon politics, and the lack of opportunities for the youth. The session emphasized the need for having a Charter of Economy based on the exchange of ideas and developing a culture of healthy debate. An interactive Q and A session ensued after the session. The event concluded with which Dr. Asma presenting the memento to Dr. Haque.

For more information, contact:
Executive, Communication and Public Affairs,
Institute of Business Administration Karachi (IBA)
Main Campus: University Road, Karachi – 75270, Pakistan
UAN: +92-21-111-422-422 (Ext. 269)
Fax: +92-21-99261508
Email: raza.lakhani@khi.iba.edu.pk
Website: https://www.iba.edu.pk

Karachi, September 09, 2022 (PPI-OT):The Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi organized a discourse on ‘Startup Landscape in Pakistan – Tales of Failures and Successes’ at the IBA Main Campus. This was the third session conducted under the dialogue series ‘CEO Forum’. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Saima Husain, Assistant Professor and Director QEC, who was in conversation with founders and corporate leaders, including Mr. Ehsan Saaya, Managing Director, Daraz; Ms. Halima Iqbal, CEO and Co-Founder, Oran; Mr. Hamza Rauf, Co-Founder and Director, Telemart; and Mr. Ahmed Ayub, Co-founder, Airlift. Attendees included students, faculty, academicians, media personnel, business owners, and members from the corporate sector.

Initiating the dialogue, Dr. Saima Husain inquired about e-commerce, its relevance, significance in the local ecosystem, and its evolution over time. Mr. Rauf provided insights into his journey, his early start due to family circumstances, and his understanding of e-commerce holding a miniscule share locally and as compared to other countries. He said that e-commerce cannot grow in isolation and that all systems, infrastructures and technologies must make it easier to operate.

Mr. Ayub voiced that there was no concept of e-commerce back in the day. He mentioned that e-commerce flourished during Covid. He reflected on the Karachi market and how different it is, there are problems that need solutions across the board. He stated that if we are not bogged down by setbacks and have the determination to do something to create mass level impact, then there are a lot of things that can be done.

Dr. Saima Husain asked whether the underserved in society refer to the female segment, to which Ms. Iqbal pointed out the disparity in banking use between the genders. She added that this is due to the socio-cultural factors and widespread mistrust of the formal economy. Her organization spent months trying to figure out what problems their target audience was facing to be able to help them through digitization.

Mr. Saaya highlighted the wealth of knowledge and investment that Alibaba has obtained through the acquisition of Daraz. He pointed out that their business is data-driven and quick to assess and analyse failures and offset them in a timely manner.

The unanimous opinion was that start-ups not only help to channel money to the country, but that they fuel hope and bring change to the local ecosystem. The panellists collectively opined that students need to focus on learning, reading, and learning when looking for a job instead of focusing on the initial pay cheque and their next promotions. The dialogue concluded with a Q and A session between the speakers and the audience.

For more information, contact:
Executive, Communication and Public Affairs,
Institute of Business Administration Karachi (IBA)
Main Campus: University Road, Karachi – 75270, Pakistan
UAN: +92-21-111-422-422 (Ext. 269)
Fax: +92-21-99261508
Email: raza.lakhani@khi.iba.edu.pk
Website: https://www.iba.edu.pk