PR: Technology and Business Incubation Centers have changed the whole scenario of marketing in this era. Their main perspective is to facilitate the potential entrepreneurs with sparkling ideas based on market need. Concept of Incubators is not new in the world. They have formally existed for over 50 years, but in Pakistan Jinnah University started talking about them only recently.
In Pakistan, the first business incubation center was founded in 2005 at National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad. Jinnah University has been working really hard to provide maximum facilities to the Women of Pakistan, Inauguration of JUBIC: Jinnah University Business Incubator is a part of it. JUBIC will provide women proper guidance regarding pitching their ideas in the market and will help them through maintaining proper linkage between industry and academia.
The ceremony was started with the recitation of Holy Qur’an. Prof. Dr. Ghufrana Nadeem, Registrar Jinnah University for Women, started the event with greeting all the honorable guests and Chief Guest, Dr. Hasan Sohaib Murad. Dr. Hasan S. Murad is the Chairman of Ilm Trust and NBEAC as well as former Rector UMT. He is also a Founding Chairperson of Association of Management Development Institutions in Pakistan (AMDIP).
Mr. Wajeeh uddin Ahmed, Chancellor JUW appreciated the enthusiastic efforts made by the University management for empowering and facilitating women. He shared his thoughts that JUW has played a vital role in promoting women education since beginning and it will keep moving forward in this mission in future too. Mr. Wajeeh uddin appreciated the talent and passion of the young girls in Jinnah University for Women in regard of becoming a successful entrepreneur.
After a short introduction of vision and mission of JUW Dr. Rashida Rahmat Zohra, Director ORIC JUW presented the idea, vision and mission of the business incubation center. She explained how JUBIC will facilitate the potential women entrepreneurs of JUW. The facility program of JUBIC is specially designed for the women of JUW and it has 3 stages including 03 months pre-incubation, 03 months incubation and 03 months acceleration. In the first two stages all the gathered and shortlisted startups from the university will be provided trainings for free while the best potential idea will enter in the acceleration stage that is the final one.
The main objective of JUBIC is to interlink faculty, students and industry so the students will have a strong idea of how to enter in the market and how to present their idea to the market. JUBIC has support of Institute of Research Promotion (IRP) Lahore, Shaoor Foundation Virtual Incubator, Islamabad, and Momentum (Project of eOcean Pvt. Ltd, Karachi) in setting its base.
These organizations have ensured their full support in training students and marketing potential startup ideas. Dr. Rashida shared an ideal framework for an entrepreneurial university.
The Chief Guest, Dr. Hasan Sohaib Murad appreciated the hard work of Late Al-haj Riaz uddin, The Founder of Jinnah University for Women. He stated that women have been proving themselves since ages but there are very less opportunities and institutions for them. Jinnah University for Women has played an important role in empowering women by providing a platform where they can learn and explore their capabilities in a secure environment.
Dr. Hasan gave a brief lecture on “Building universities responsive to society & science”. He explained what role a university can play in bringing betterment in the society. There is an utmost need for the universities to design their objectives according to the need of society.
Their main objective should be to prepare students to enter in the industry, to prepare their mind set that they are the future of the society and they will have to make it better. If we craft and mold their capabilities according to the need of society we can move forward towards industrialization, economic progress, developed society and a nation which will a source of pride for us.
To make our society self dependent we, being the academia need to make our target strong and should willingly spread knowledge and be ready to learn too. He elaborated his point of view that whatever they society faces either loss or gain is the reflection of what universities and academia does to the youngster because university is a location where future resides. They are supposed to be knowledge banks as they accumulate knowledge in the form of good faculty and their services. In the end of his lecture he concluded that we live in an era where the students hold more and easy access to the knowledge as compare to the faculty.
They do not need to unlearn what they have learnt but the faculty has to. Faculty’s identity is not the job they are doing but their services they are providing to the students to build a better society. It is the time when our development depends not just on our degrees but on our learning and knowledge.
After the Chief Guest lecture, award distribution ceremony took place. Jinnah University for Women has won technology awards in 2nd Invention to Innovation Summit Sindh, 2017, including 03 cash prizes of Rs. 25000, Rs. 15000 and Rs. 10000. It is undoubtedly a massive achievement by JUW and the award distribution is to acknowledge the hard work by the faculty and the winners. Chancellor JUW, Mr. Wajeeh uddin Ahmed also presented Souvenir to the Chief Guest, Dr. Hasan Sohaib Murad.
JUBIC was inaugurated by Dr. Hasan Sohaib Murad and right after the inauguration 03 major startups by the students of JUW were presented to the Chief Guests and guest from other universities too. Guests from other universities as well as Government and non-government organizations including NED University of Engineering and Technology, Momentum, University of Aj&K, SMEDA, 10xC, ICCBS, Mehran University, Bahria University, Karachi University, Baluchistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences, PAF KIET, Dow University of Health Sciences and University of Haripur attended the ceremony and appreciated the startups presented by the students of Jinnah University for Women.