Lahore School of Economics’ Ninth Annual Convocation was held at the main campus on Jan 14, 2012. Sardar Latif Khan Khosa, the Governor Punjab conferred degrees and awards to 809 graduating students of MPhil, MS Economics, MSc Economics (11), Masters in Business Administration (180), BSc Economics, Bachelors of Business Administration (600) and Master of Business Administration (Executive). Sardar Latif Khosa lauded the role of Lahore School of Economics in core specilization of Economics, Finance, Business Administration and related fields of studies including Social Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Environment, Media Studies and Art and Design. The Governor also notes the Lahore School of Economics Research Program that is focused on improving the economic well being of the people of Pakistan.

The Lahore School’s faculty and student body are also engaged in undertaking important research. The Lahore School publishes a two academic journals viz. a leading economics journal – The Lahore Journal of Economics – and an important policy studies journal – The Lahore Journal of Policy Studies. It is engaged in a number of international research studies including with Colombia and Yale Universities. The Lahore School also has hosted since 2004 an “Annual Conference on the Management of the Pakistan Economy” with the 8th Annual Conference now scheduled for May 2012.

The Lahore School’s Annual Conferences on the Management of the Pakistan Economy are significant in that they provide the theoretical basis for policy making. As an example I would like to place on record that it was at the Annual Conference in April 2008 that the Lahore School recommended that an appropriate security blanket for the poor would be an old age pension scheme of Rs.1000 per month for widows. A number of influential policy makers were at the conference and we would like to believe that it contributed in a small manner to the development of the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) introduced in 2008-9 and which is widely acclaimed the world over. Incidentally that conference also recommended a school feeding and health care program in the field of education and hospitalization insurance coverage for serious illnesses in the health sector to complete a social security blanket for the poor. We hope sir, that you will consider these remaining two policy proposals to benefit the ordinary people of Pakistan in the future.

The Chairman thanked the Lahore School Board of Governors for their guidance and support. Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry also placed on record the services of Mr. M.A.K Chaudhry, who served as the Chairman, Board of Governors for 16 years and who recently passed away. His contributions to the development of this institution were immense.

The campus was very tastefully decorated and the Convocation was attended by a large number of parents.

Lahore School of Economics is hosting the first Junior World Entrepreneurship Forum on July 27-30, 2011. The Form aims at gathering the best students, politicians, entrepreneur and social entrepreneurs from Pakistan to contribute to the vision of entrepreneurship as a means of creating wealth and social justice. Here are the topics that will be discussed:

This aspect of the Forum’s work is closest to the traditional understanding of what entrepreneurship means. Sustainable long-term economic prosperity will depend on our ability to create significant numbers of new jobs, which means developing hundreds and thousands of successful new businesses – businesses that are agile, innovative, and above all, fast growing. The Forum adopts the same definition of high-growth firms as that espoused by the International Consortium on Entrepreneurship: enterprises with an average annualized growth in employees greater than 20% per annum over a three year period.

A recent publication of The Economist stated, “The World today is at ‘ground zero’ in its struggle to create hundreds of innovative new products for the bottom of the pyramid and in the process create millions of jobs to deal with the new population bomb.” The phrase ‘base of the pyramid’ dates back to the 1930s, but has gained particular currency in the last decade or so, as a way of describing the 3 billion people who survive on less than $2.50 a day. Eradicating such extreme poverty remains one of the World’s most intractable challenges, and playing our role in doing this is a key objective of the Forum.

Designing entrepreneurial cities

There’s one thing we do know about the World of 2050: it will be a World of cities. Cities now account for over 50% of World population, and this will rise to nearly 70% by 2050. And as people concentrate in cities, other resources like healthcare, culture, knowledge, and money will follow. But there is a price to pay: cities are already responsible for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions and this can only worsen as the World gets ever more urban. Cities, then, are at the heart of some of the key questions we have to address by 2050; but they could help us find the answers. This is because cities have always been the centers of commerce, knowledge, creativity, education, and innovation.

Just as entrepreneurship spans both wealth and social justice, so entrepreneurship education covers both formal education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, and lifelong informal and formal learning. We need to inspire young people with the desire to run their own businesses, or to become more entrepreneurial – or ‘intrapreneurial’ – inside larger corporations. We also need to give more experienced managers the ability and agility to face new business challenges throughout their lives.

The Lahore School of Economics Seventh Annual Conference on the Management of the Pakistan Economy [May 4th, May 5, and May 6th] concluded  at the Burki campus today. The theme of this year’s conference was “Financial Sector Development and Management’. The conference brought together a group of distinguished researchers and policymakers from across Pakistan and internationally. The underlying objective of the conference is to promote discussion on key policy issues in financial sector development and in macroeconomic management. The conference was opened by Dr. Shahid Amjad Chaudhry, Rector Lahore School of Economics. Mr. Shahid Kardar, Governor State Bank of Pakistan will deliver the inaugural address. Researchers from PIDE, Quaid-e-Azam University, NUST, IBA Karachi, IBM Karachi, LUMS, Lahore School of Economics as well as a number of international universities participated in the conference.

The conference span three days and consist of five sessions. The first session covered matters concerning macroeconomic management and the role and effectiveness of instruments of fiscal and monetary policies in controlling inflation while ensuring growth. The second session included papers that evaluate the impact of financial sector reforms on the efficiency and effectiveness of financial intermediation and in reducing financial repression. The issues of the linkages between financial sector performance and monetary policy were the focus of the third session, while capital markets, their governance and performance were discussed in the fourth session. The last session brought together a group of international academics to discuss development experiences in other growing countries and their relevance for Pakistan.

The papers presented at the conference and the discussions held shed light on the policies and practical measures that can help the country to develop an effective monetary management system and an efficient and inclusive financial sector, for supporting sustainable growth in the future. [On the side line of conference]

Read the story in Urdu here

The small mud house stands rather intelligently and provocatively against the monumental brick construction at BNU Tarogil Campus of Beacon House National University and points to a new problem area: How are the students supposed to gather their experiences, because the next catastrophes will surely come. Are we in Pakistan supposed to always wait for foreign help. Students of architecture must gather practical experience. Knowledge is Power, but knowledge comes out of practical experiences! This was amply recognized by the audience, mostly students of BNU and the Punjab University in addition to faculty members and others interested in Appropriate Technology.

Exhibition served to point out the problems very loudly. Discussion partners were available for some possible solutions. They included people like the construction contractor Iqbal from Harappa to Omar Hassan, Professor at the Beaconhouse National University.

The German architect Arne Tönissen who is currently involved in the construction of a traditional building in Sheikhupura using mud as construction material was also present. Shakeel Amir arrived with Farooq Ahmad from district Okara in order to demonstrate his Kite project, which revolves around using wind energy for charging a battery for operating a desert cooler in the health station of the village Thatta Ghulamka Dhiroka.

 

After a visit and discussion at site, a workshop was conducted in the seminar hall of the BNU, in which the architect Arne Tönissen presented an introduction of his work and another presentation by the young researcher Shakeel Amir where he explained start of work by the Institute of Experimental Construction (IEC). Both the presentations were followed by question answers session.

Taking advantage of the occasion, Environment Protection Award by Foundation for Promotion of Academic Collaboration was presented to Architect Ghayyoor Obaid to acknowledge his work. The president and secretary general as well as some founding members of the foundation were also present on the occasion.

The event was made possible through the cooperation and permission of the BNU for the experimental construction, which hopefully will allow the students of the PU, COMSAT, NCA, UET to carry out experiments not only for fun but also to gather valuable necessary experiences.

The network of organizers and support organizations (German Embassy Islamabad, Senior Expert Service Bonn, Society for the Promotion of Art and Culture, Lahore) for the event was woven by a wanderer between the worlds, who was nominated as Senior Research Fellow by the FPAC in recognition of his services. He is so to say the founding director of the Institute, which will be meaningfully active only after involvement of the local colleagues. Prof Dr Norbert Pintsch is also president of the Royal University Centre, Cameroon. He reported and discussed with students his experiences at MIT in Boston and at the University of Stuttgart, suggesting for example a transport of cartons and foils from the Tetrapak-Company, located nearby, providing interesting working material to the students for using in experimental construction.

 

The Lahore School of Economics, chartered in 1997, has grown to become a mature institution of higher learning. This is reflected in its present strength of 181 faculty and 3154 students – 2741 Undergraduate, 339 Postgraduate and 74 MPhil / PhDs candidates – in Economics, Business Administration, Social Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Environmental Sciences and Media Studies, Art and Design.

In his convocation address, Dr. Shahid Amjad Chaudhry summarized the Lahore School’s academic activities and programs. The School admits students every year into the Undergraduate program after an extremely selective admission process. After a common first year involving intensive training in mathematics, statistics, basic economics, English language skills and computing these students then specialize in economics, social sciences and business including finance and marketing – often with double majors in these disciplines or with strong minors in mathematics and statistics, environmental sciences and media studies, art and design. As a result students emerge with extremely high level academic skills which provide a basis for both further academic studies and or immediate employment. The Lahore School also offers a range of Graduate Programs in Economics, Business Administration and Environment Studies which range from M.Sc. in Economics and MBA to MS and PhD in Economics, Business Administration and Environmental Sciences.

There are currently 40 students doing M.Sc./MPhil leading to PhD in Economics, 43 students doing MS/MPhil leading to PhD in Business Administration and 9 students doing MPhil leading to PhD in Environment Studies. In addition the School has 321 students enrolled in its MBA Programs.

The Rector said that the Lahore School encourages both its faculty and student body to undertake research which is supported by a specialized Centre for Research in Economics and Business. The Lahore School has excellent research support facilities including specialized libraries and electronic data bases, the JSTOR archives and EBSCO Business and Econ Lit which provide up to date full text access to the world’s leading journals in these disciplines. All undergraduate students are required to write an original paper before they graduate and faculty members are expected to write two first authored research papers and one second authored research paper each year.

The Lahore School also places great stress on extra-curricular activities, particularly in Sports, Debates, Dramatics, Music and Art. Our Sports and Debating Teams are amongst the best in Pakistani Universities in large part due to the fact that these activities are a regular part of the daily activities of the campus.

All of these efforts have led to extremely successful job placements for our graduating students. At the same time, our graduates are entering some of the finest academic programs in the world for further studies. “I am also proud to see that our previous graduates are reaching the highest levels of the financial and corporate sectors and I am sure that this graduating class will exceed the accomplishments of previous graduating classes,” said the Rector.

Dr. Shahid Amjad Chaudhry also noted the Lahore School’s Board of Governors, Faculty and Student body has been touched as has every Pakistani by the enormity of the damage done by floods this summer and has accordingly made a serious effort to assist the flood affectees. In addition to provision of active flood relief during the floods by the faculty and students, the faculty and staff have contributed one day’s salary to the Government’s Relief Fund and the students have collected a considerable sum of money which is intended for flood relief. The students supported by the faculty have decided to utilize their collected funds (which is an ongoing process) together with a matching grant from the Lahore School to reconstruct about 20 single room dwellings in the poorest area of the Town of Jampur, District D.G. Khan. We hope to construct more such dwellings in the future. The Centre of Environmental Sciences deserves recognition for coordinating the efforts in this regard.

Dr. Shahid Amjad Chaudhry congratulated all the graduating students and the parents for their remarkable achievements. “The strength of any academic institution lies in their students, and the strength of these students lies in their parents. Both the graduating students and their parents should be proud of themselves just as the Lahore School of Economics is proud of you,” the Rector said.

The Convocation was attended by a large number of parents.

The topic of the seminar is: Pakistan 1951-2001: The Forgotten Asian Economic Success. There is an almost uniformly negative perception of Pakistan’s economy in current media and academia, this view is sharpened by the very positive reporting of India – the new Asian Giant/ Miracle. It is firstly interesting to remember how such images have changed dramatically over time. In the 1960s for example Pakistan was widely seen as a ‘miracle’ economy with a modernizing and pro-western leader and India as a country becoming increasingly impossible to govern and facing a future of likely mass famine.

Making a judgment about whether a country/ economy has been a ‘success’ or ‘failure’ is too often based on media perception and heavily weighed by recent economic events. There are more rigorous means of making such a judgment about Pakistan since 1947. Those included in this seminar are a comparison with Pakistan’s own history before 1947, a comparison with similar developing countries after 1947 and a comparison of Pakistan’s development after 1947 with the initial conditions and constraints prevailing at independence. Using these more substantial and rigorous measures it can be possible under certain circumstances to say that Pakistan is indeed ‘the forgotten economic success of Asia’ of the last sixty years.

Dr Mathew McCartney is visiting CREB for two weeks. He is currently a lecturer in Economics and admissions tutor in the department of Economics, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London). He has an MPhil from Oxford and a PhD from SOAS. He has also taught at Korea University in Seoul and JNU, New Delhi. His recent publications include ‘India-The Political Economy of Growth Stagnation and the State, 1951-2007’, London, Routledge (2009), ‘Political Economy, Growth and Liberalization, in India 1991-2008’, London, Routledge (2009). His research interests are “role of the state in late development, industry and industrialization, economic growth, comparative political economy of South Asia, India and Pakistan since independence.” {Via Logic is Variable}