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.
Dr Saif joins an elite group of researchers and entrepreneurs selected over the last decade. Previous winners include Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, Jonathan Ive, the chief designer at Apple, David Karp, founder of Tumbler; Harvard Professor Alán Aspuru-Guzik for his work on Quantum computers, and MIT Neuroscientist Ed Boyden, one of the inventors of the emerging field of optogenetics, which makes it possible to control neurons with light.
MIT Technology Review selects the top innovators after a rigorous evaluation process. The judges, who are leading experts in their fields from universities such as MIT, Stanford and Harvard, consider hundreds of high-impact researchers and entrepreneurs from all over the world, out of which top 35 are chosen for the award.
“This year’s group of TR35 recipients is driving the next wave of transformative technology and making an impact on the way we live, work and interact”, said Jason Pontin, editor-in-chief and publisher of the MIT Technology Review.
Dr Saif has won numerous awards for his innovative technology solutions for the developing-world. He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2009. He is a recipient of the MIT Technovator Award, Mark Weiser Award, Digital Inclusion Award from Microsoft Research and the IDG Technology Pioneer Award.
Before moving to Pakistan, Dr Saif worked at MIT and received a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust.

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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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”.

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.

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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Pakistan faced many difficult situations since its birth in 1947, but in all these situations Pakistan has came up very positively. Even today despite of the fact Pakistan is in war against terrorism, the country has shown a huge progress in different fields including IT industry. It has now  become the 20th most attractive outsourcing destination. According to the report by A.T. Kearney released on May 18th, 2009, Pakistan has improved its position from 30th in 2007 to 20th in 2009. Report says that as a region, the Middle East and North Africa are becoming more attractive in the ever-shifting geography of popular outsourcing places.

IT industry is one of the most progressing industry in Pakistan, along with Telecom Industry and Tourism.

Google Map Marker

Pakistan is showing fast growth in it’s IT sector these days. It’s online users are growing at a very fast rate. Pakistanis are coming up with many online business models and contributing to over all Internet achievements. Not only in IT Industry but even in Telecom industry Pakistan’s growth has been remarkable in recent year and its progressing continuously.

Since the release of Google Map Maker,  a service that allows you to create a map by adding or editing features such as roads, businesses, parks, schools and more. Pakistanis have contributed a lot in populating its maps in Pakistan.

Recently reported by a news agency ANI, citing Bangalore-based ‘Lalit Katragadda’, the founder of “Map Maker” says:

“Pakistan netizens are posting more localized information and data to the Google’s ‘map maker’ than the web users of any of the 160 countries which are using the leading internet search engine’s experiment.”

Below is the full press release by ANI:

Silicon Valley (California), May 23 (ANI): Pakistan netizens are posting more localized information and data to the Google’s ‘map maker’ than the web users of any of the 160 countries which are using the leading internet search engine’s experiment.
Lalit Katragadda, the founder of Map Maker software informed that a particular Pakistani based in London has posted most frequent edits to the Google’s Map Maker,  a user-operated software.
Katragadda, who is based in Bangalore, told The Nation via teleconference that the software updates information instantly after a user sitting anywhere in theworld within 160 countries posts an edit to the live Map Maker.
When questions were put forth regarding the authenticity of the data provided by any of the net users, Katragadda said, it can always be verified by the software.
“We can always verify from authentic as well as independent sources within an hour’s time,” he added.
Any such experiment, related to a country’s geographical territory can always be a sensitive issue, and could have some implications, but the Google’s Map Maker had not come across any political issues till now.
“We have not faced any political issues so far,” Katragadda said. (ANI)

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IT Industry in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s global IT revenue, with an average growth of around 50% per annum, is expected to realise targets by the end of financial year 2009-10. Country’s IT sector, over the last few years, has been growing at a remarkable rate and to meet the future objective, Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) is focusing on the growth of skilled human resource.
Keeping in view its prime objective – the development of future workforce, the Board has devised an open-door policy for the provision of financial subsidies, technical support and partnerships, not only for the IT companies, but also for the educational institutions.
In this respect, PSEB is working with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to augment the influx of quality graduates into the industry, said an official at the Board.
It had launched an Internship Programme to undertake match making between fresh IT graduates and IT companies and to provide grooming to graduates where necessary.
This programme is also aimed towards the development of confidence amongst the Pakistani IT business managers regarding the output of IT-oriented educational institutes.
So far, more than 3300 graduates from 220 universities and institutes across the country have been placed in 250 IT companies and IT departments of public and private sector organisations for a period of three months.
The retention rate by the IT companies has been more than 80%, another 10-50% received job offers from other organisations because of their internship experience. This permanent retention rate is the highest of any Internship Programme in the country.
In Internships Phase-III, interns are being paid a revised stipend of Rs6,000 per month, for a period of 3 months.
Over 1,600 students will benefit from this revised programme in the next one year. A web portal will also be established to further streamline the process.
According to the official, PSEB is also facilitating the graduates as well as the IT companies by acting as a liaison point for the provision of quality graduates that match the companies requirements.
It also provides ongoing trainings and industry-standard certifications to professionals, and undertakes research to benchmark IT professionals and graduates in the country.
The official said in order to sustain and improve growth, IT companies in Pakistan need around 235,000 working professionals by the end of year 2009-10. Currently, that number is a little above 100,000 and approximately 135,000 more professionals are needed in the next two years. – APP

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