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World’s Top Young Innovators From Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - Associate Professor, School of Science and Engineering, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) Dr Umar Saif has been recognized by MIT Technology Review as one of the top 35 innovators (TR35) in the world.
He is the first Pakistani scholar to have been selected for the prestigious TR35 award in the last decade, says a press release.
“The TR35 recognizes the world’s top 35 young innovators that are radically transforming technology as we know it. Their work – spanning medicine, computing, communications, energy, electronics and nanotechnology — is changing our world”, according to MIT Technology Review.
Dr Saif has been honoured for his work on technologies for the developing-world. Technologies developed by Dr Saif’s research group and startups are used by millions of people in the developing world, especially BitMate, that enhances the speed of Internet in the developing-world using peer-to-peer technology, and SMSall.pk, Pakistan’s largest SMS Social Network which has sent close to four billion SMS for users in Pakistan. Read the rest of this entry »

Pakistan’s Exports Increase By 33 Percent

ISLAMABAD: The exports of Pakistan in May 2011 increased by 33 percent over the exports in May 2010, according to the provisional trade statistics released by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

For the first time, country’s exports for the 11 months of the financial year2010-11 are reported at Rs1.95 trillion (US$ 22.7 billion) which is well above this year’s targets of US $ 21.2 billion.

The exports as percentage of imports have increased by 6 percent in the current year trace over last year.

It is expected that the country, for the first time would be able to export goods worth $ 25 billion in this year, said a statement issued by Ministry of Commerce here on Thursday.

On the other hand imports increased at a rate of 16 percent and were reported at US $ 36.5 billion in July-May 2010-11.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011

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Taxi Driver Asif Hussain Shah – For Hire

As I have mentioned in some of my previous posts that the use of internet in Pakistan has increased rapidly. Another example of this fact is the taxi driver Asif Hussain Shah. This taxi driver is very popular in Pakistan these days for using Google to advertise his taxi business and his book “For Hire”. Asif Hussain Shah wrote his book in Urdu and used a very interesting way to attract people and market his book. “For Hire” is a 120 page book containing 35 real life stories of Asif Hussain Shah. The book is released by Ferozsons and is available for a minimal price of Rs. 150. Hats off for Mr. Asif for his efforts, hard work and passion.

Following is a clip by Asif Hussain Shah, introducing himself and his book – “For Hire”.

Youngest Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) – World Record

Born on 2nd March, 1997, Babar Iqbal of Dera Ismaeel Khan, Pakistan has made his fourth World Record in the field of Information Technology (IT) , by becoming Youngest Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) at the age 12. Pakistani kid already have three world records under his belt including Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) at the age 9 years, Youngest Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA) at the age 9 years and Youngest Certified Web Professional Associate (CIWA) at age 10 years.

In his recent world record Babar outclassed all the participants of the competition aged 20 to 35 years. Babar is providing his services to the university students in Dubai these days, and also working with Microsoft.  Babar said that he would be more than happy to help and prodvide services to any Pakistani or Pakistani companies. Babar’s two brothers and sisters are also Microsoft Certified Professionals. Thumbs up to this Proud Pakistan.

250MW Power Unit Dedicated To Textile Mills

ISLAMABAD: A power unit of 250 megawatts is being installed in Faisalabad to provide uninterrupted power supply to the textile industry, which will be operational by the end of the current month.
This was stated by the Federal Minister for Textile Industry Rana Muhammad Farooq Saeed Khan while chairing a meeting regarding energy issues of the textile sector here on Wednesday.
During the meeting, the overall situation of the textile sector and the problems faced by it due to energy crisis came under discussion.
The participants expressed deep concern over high tariffs and said that special tariffs should be introduced for the textile sector. They also apprised the federal minister about bank-related matters in detail and BT cotton and R&D-related matters were also discussed.
Participants gave different proposals and suggestions to help overcome different crisis faced by the textile sector. They mentioned that our economy mainly depends on the textile sector. Therefore, the government has to take concrete steps in this regard.
Federal minister for the textile industry said that textile is the most important sector of our economy and the government is committed to resolving all textile-related issues on priority basis because it is our export oriented sector. He said that the concerns of participants, along with their proposals and suggestions are most valuable, which is why all possible remedial measures would be taken in this regard.
Maximum relief will be provided to the textile sector, he said, adding that different meetings with NEPRA, WAPDA, OGRA, SBP and Federal Minister for Food would be arranged to settle maximum issues.

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