ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), under Research for Social Transformation and Advancement (RASTA) program, started its third RASTA conference here on Thursday.
The research moot featured diverse themes including energy issues, urban development, technology, public service delivery, social sector development, markets and regulation, the political economy of development and reform, and sludge-the administrative burden.
Inaugurating the conference, Vice-Chancellor PIDE and Chairman RAC, Dr Nadeem ul Haque stressed the need for conducting applied research saying country’s research was primarily driven by actors that are alien to our situation.
“Outsiders are driving our research, with perhaps vested agendas.” he said. He said RASTA was a platform that provided space to local researchers to come up with innovative ideas and local solutions.
Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Dr Faheem Jehangir Khan said RASTA was a multi-year competitive grants program for policy-oriented research in Pakistan which was aimed to develop an extensive research network of academia and think tanks across Pakistan.
He said, it was producing high-quality, evidence-based policy research to inform Pakistan’s public policy process.
On the occasion, Senior Research Economist at PIDE, Omer Siddique, presented a detailed report on ‘The State of Commerce in Pakistan’ during his presentation while session on ‘Urban Development and Industry’ was led Professor of Economics at Quaid e Azam University, Zahid Asghar.
Secretary of the Tourism Department in AJ&K, Khalid Chauhan delivered his presentation on Law and Judiciary while Noreen Mujahid, the Director of the Applied Economics Research Centre (AERC) at the University of Karachi, gave presentation on Human Capital and Opportunities.