This was stated by senior PBS officials while briefing Secretary Planning Development and Special Initiatives, Mathar Niaz Rana during on his visit to the Bureau. Secretary also chaired a meeting on the activities and initiatives taken by PBS regarding digital transformation. Sarwar Gondal, Member Support Services and Resource Management PBS briefed the Secretary about the activities of PBS and major initiatives taken by PBS during last two years regarding digital transformation. Secretary was informed that PBS has shifted from manual data collection to electronic data collection and has achieved an in House capacity to develop Android Based data collection software, Mobile Aaps and Dash Boards. It was further informed that PBS is developing decision support systems and data dissemination systems which would enable the policy makers to take evidence based decision making. PBS officials briefed the Secretary that PBS has successfully conducted census and survey such as Mouza Census, PSLM/HIES Survey etc and the data will be disseminated to the policy makers and general public through Dash boards in a user-friendly manner. Secretary Planning appreciated the efforts of PBS and said that reliable and timely data helps the policy makers to take informed decisions. He said that PBS has vast repository of data and specialized research activities should be started within PBS to provide the policy makers’ evidence based information. Secretary emphasized that PBS should complete all the bodies formed under the General Statistics Re-organization Act 2011 and should fill up all the vacant posts. He further directed PBS to come up with the issues faced by the department and make a road map of the activities with timelines and specific objectives to achieve for the next year.
