Faizan Siddiqi Profile picture
I Contemplate Extra Toppings

Feb 25, 2020, 10 tweets

This whole #DigitalPakistan needs a re-think. This will keep getting lost in translation, if we confuse the objectives of the journey. No one needs any one to make Urdu cool again. Govt accountability beyond photo ops and stories of inclusion is the need of the hour.

Doing things that create value is what we need. Just glamorising startups in an economy where basic items need govt support, will lead an entire generation of young adults down a rabbit hole that is not funded by VC . We need to encourage workforce mobility via digitization

If the benchmark of success is putting out a crowdsourced Urdu doc after being called out for not putting a text version of English let alone Urdu, then fingers crossed on what KPIs this group intends to deliver on.Less optics more real actions, this vision still makes no sense

It continues to feel like industrial level "group think". Focus on the work, work on the addressable market of free lancers & others who already communicate in English and earn FX, in parallel build, up-skilling programs where 100% up-skill using Urdu and make people deployable.

Addressing people in Urdu and celebrating it, is not not a national level win. We need policy clarity we need to liaise with & court global players, we need to roll out legal and infra reform, we need quick incorporation help, we need bankruptcy laws, we need to enable people....

essentially to fail fast, also to have access to capital. Kamyab jawan stuff monies need to be linked to digital up-skilling , govt needs to make up its mind who its audience is and who are these loans for because the call to action on the site is near impossible to figure out

then we have other ministers announcing postal related youth/general employment, get a franchise on a 300m$ + subsidised money loosing behemoth to create more dependence by a new generation of people, by subsidising their livelihood on the back of tax payers of this country.

We are going from joke to joke, scheme to scheme, no central planning, some one should get all these SAMPs and ministers in one room and come up with a consultative national policy. The content put up by DigitalPakistan and the rest of the govt machinery is like circular debt

Every ones doing what they think is right and apparently one govt dept is churning apps/sites for every one & every initiative and I am guessing they think half of the govt is now digitised:) We continue to go down this path of optics and self serving agendas.

Some one needs to sit every one down and define the "exam question" what is every one solving for across the govt and how can DigitalPakistan initiatives enhance every ones Quality of Life? If not, be prepared for a #DigitalJuloos bit.ly/2P7Vakz

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