Information is the real currency in a data-driven world

An informal reunion with an ex-boss

Muzamil opens by reintroducing his former employer at Teradata Pakistan, Haroon Kanth, describing the moment as both pleasant and intimidating. Haroon leads the company as country head, overseeing a platform that enables data analytics across multiple deployment models. The two settle into what becomes a wide-ranging conversation about the value and application of data in modern economies, starting from a familiar journalistic frame: “Data is the new oil.”

Information became money when we stopped collecting just receipts

Haroon rejects the oil analogy as too surface-level but embraces the underlying truth. “Information is the real money because I would do anything to secure my information,” he says. He traces the shift to a moment when data collection moved beyond transaction records to behavior itself: where you travel, what you watch, whom you follow, what you like and dislike. Every phone call, every Facebook interaction, every Google search becomes a data point. Those bits and bytes, once aggregated, become a form of currency that predicts human behavior and shapes decisions.

Muzamil draws the retail parallel to illustrate the power. Before, shoppers wandered aisles guided only by what stores had stocked. Now, e-commerce uses behavioral data to deliver a personalized aisle of goods most likely to match each person’s preferences. Algorithms sit between supply and demand, translating past behavior into present offers. The mechanism is invisible to the shopper, yet it transforms retail economics.

Data powers smart cities and reduces human corruption

The conversation moves to urban planning, where Haroon describes systems that use cameras and machine learning to detect crime in real time. Chinese companies have built platforms that scan footage of crowds and flag suspicious behavior. When thousands of people move through a public space, the system proactively identifies pairs who may be fighting or stealing, eliminating the need for thousands of human monitors.

Traffic management offers another example. Sensors detect vehicle volume and trigger signals to adjust timing. If congestion spikes, the signal extends the green phase automatically. When signals are networked, the system regulates flow across an entire city. Corruption drops because the algorithm cannot be bribed. Human error is replaced by data-driven rules.

Muzamil presses on Pakistan’s specific vulnerability. The country is understaffed, underfunded police forces with minimal training. A data-driven surveillance system could enforce rules without the corruption problem. Yet Pakistan has been slow to deploy these technologies, partly because of skepticism about foreign involvement and fear that opening systems to external partners might expose state secrets.

A data analysis of COVID-19 that proved more accurate than doomsaying

Haroon describes his early 2020 analysis of COVID-19 using only publicly available demographic and epidemiological data. He mapped tuberculosis prevalence, age distribution, and population density across countries. He found that regions with younger median ages and higher TB rates saw lower relative COVID mortality. He cross-checked culture and climate. By April 2020, he predicted Pakistan would see eight to ten thousand deaths within twelve months across two waves. That figure stayed closer to reality than predictions of forty thousand deaths circulating elsewhere, including the Imperial College study in the UK.

The point: responsible data analysis requires choosing the right metrics. Case counts are meaningless without population context. Deaths per million is constant and comparable. Most commentary chose sensational numbers over relevant ratios. Muzamil acknowledges that the analysis was never made public because it was Haroon’s individual effort, not his company’s projection. Yet it showed how data discipline can cut through fear.

Pakistan’s three-part gap: security, education, and talent drain

Haroon identifies the reasons Pakistan has not kept pace with India and the Philippines in IT sector growth over two decades. First, the country’s security profile deterred foreign companies from establishing operations or bringing sensitive work to Pakistan. Data exists in the air when networks are insecure, and multinationals need confidence.

Second, Pakistan’s education focus bypassed primary and secondary school. Universities expanded, but the foundation was weak. Children between ages five and fifteen need grooming in analytical thinking, not just rote memorization. Yet policy money went to universities, not to schools.

Third, dual nationality allowed talented Pakistanis to leave and stay gone. When engineers earn abroad and send money home only to parents, the country loses their productivity and their knowledge transfer to the next generation. India, by contrast, has kept that circulation tighter.

Haroon cites an example: NADRA’s multi-chip ID card was designed in 2000, but Pakistan didn’t implement it until 2017 or 2018. Eighteen years lost. The obstacle was not vision but slow government decision-making, lack of foreign partnerships, and bureaucratic hesitation about opening systems.

Data privacy and governance require enablement, not just penalties

Muzamil raises the question of data privacy, triggered by camera footage leaks in Pakistan and the global tension between Facebook and the European Union over data rights. Europe’s GDPR fines companies aggressively. Pakistan drafted its own Data Privacy Act.

Haroon makes a distinction: old Pakistani law threatened punishment without guidance. It said “do not leak data or face jail,” but gave no framework for how to secure it. The newer Data Privacy Act adds an enablement clause, telling companies how to build secure systems. That shift from pure penalty to guidance plus penalty matters because it assumes most organizations want to comply but lack knowledge.

Muzamil agrees the conversation is urgent in Pakistan, where big tech companies face government pressure to open local offices. That pressure is reasonable, Haroon argues, but oscillating from total leniency to harsh regulation requires moving to equilibrium. Pakistan started too lenient. A hard stance now is necessary before settling on fair rules.

Universities need industry partnerships to bridge the gap

Haroon criticizes Pakistan’s universities for measuring success by enrollment and graduation counts rather than R&D output and innovation. Universities in Canada require students to work in industry as part of their curriculum, giving companies trained talent without hiring cost and giving students real-world experience. Pakistan has a law mandating companies take on trainees, but enforcement is weak and university-industry collaboration is minimal.

Muzamil offers context: he worked for Haroon’s company during a graduate program designed to train fresh graduates into productive engineers. Few companies invest at that level. But Teradata built an ecosystem rather than betting on one university, he notes. The private sector can enable the system if given space.

Five years of hope for a digital Pakistan

Haroon closes on optimism. The push for a Digital Pakistan initiative, even if execution faltered, mainstreamed the idea that technology is necessary. The industry itself is now thinking of IT as a standalone sector, not an adjunct to telecom. Policies on technology zones, privacy acts, and data-driven governance are being built.

His final wish: that Pakistan’s political system will hold the course on these strategic decisions regardless of which party leads. “For the sake of Pakistan, we need to agree that this is the right thing to do,” he says. Muzamil echoes that hope as the episode closes.