HIGHLIGHTS
Pakistan Fast Growth 25
In a first for the IT industry, the Pakistan Fast Growth 25, a ranking of fast growth companies, listed 10 IT companies on its index. The Pakistan Fast Growth 25 is a program of the AllWorld Network in partnership with Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter, launched in collaboration with JS Bank Limited.
Official Game for ICC 2011 Cricket World Cup
Local development company, Mindstorm Studios developed the official game for the ICC 2011 Cricket World Cup.The browser-based 3D game, “Cricket Power” features all 14 official teams along with players, stadiums and kits.
Pak-India ICT Firms to enhance trade up to $5b
Pakistani and Indian IT committees held bilateral talks separately on both sides of borders in March – aimed at enhancing trade ties in the field of IT. In the talks, both countries agreed to boost mutual trade in the IT sector by $5 billion through joint-ventures, investment and exchange of expertise.
Netsol deal in India
Local ICT company Netsol engaged with Indian companies to provide applications for financial services. It signed an agreement to sell its product “Netsol Financial Suite” to a global auto leasing company operating in India.
Google grants to social innovators
In another first for Pakistan, Google has granted seed money to a local association for social causes.
Google granted $250,000 to Pakistan Software Houses Association that launched Pasha Fund for distributing the amount to talented innovators. So far four individuals were selected to receive funds.
Pepper.pk mobile apps triumph
Local app developers, Pepper.pk hit the number one spot in Blackberry App World. Their application, LED Notifier Pro, has been immensely popular since its launch and ranked among the best selling Blackberry applications in the world. Additionally, their app, Photo Editor for BlackBerry has occupied the number one rank on App World twice in the past three months.
TenPearls wins Nokia contest twice
Pakistani IT firm TenPearls marked another record, beating out 800 entrants to bag second position and received a $50,000 cash prize at ‘Nokia & AT&T Innovators 2011 Contest’.
This is the second award TenPearls has received for its mobile app named “Animal 101” within a year. Their first award was first prize for their app uTrack mobile earlier in 2011 for the same platform in Pakistan.
Pakistan Shines at APICTA
Pakistan was declared the winner of two gold and five silver awards at the 11th annual Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) 2011 in Pattaya, Thailand. Pakistani firms secured two gold awards in the e-health and e-logistics and SCM categories and five silvers in the communication, financial, security, e-inclusion and e-community and e-government categories.
Pakistan’s team comprised of 18 products which competed against 162 different products from the Asia Pacific region.
A version of this post originally appeared on ProPakistani.
COMMENTS (48)
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Mashallah I am very happy to read this!!!
Game View Studios (GVS) has the second most grossing app on Android Marketplace in the entire world. This is HUGE!!! Looking at the mobile app industry the world over it is very clear that Pakistan is second to none! And since the future is all about mobile devices, we all know where Pakistan is headed!
Well done GVS and Pepper.pk. You've made us proud!
India is a giant in IT and right now nobodys taking that away from it, but then if there is some success in pakistan despite the hurdles we face,why should India come and ramble here? be happy and let others be happy too, specially your power starved neighbours, Pakistanis. every single dollar earned is an acheivement, many congratulations you IT guys. may you make the country proud even more.
Surprised that Netsol is still there. I invested in it when it was a penny stock here and then i bailed out after i heard it was controlled like a family business and they are fooling investors. Anyway, good to see them doing well..
@USMANm: Dude, ET (Dawn & Daily Times too) carries news of Indian movies, Indian IT industry, Indian businesses, Indian Television, etc. every day. You guys seem to follow our Tamil song also...Kolaveri di. Isn't it a Pakistani newspaper? Why does it carry Indian news? BTW, this reaches out to millions in print alone (not to mention the internet). A handful of Indians respond to the India-related stories, and you call it 'an obsession'. If this is obsession, then what is the latter called? @Naeem Siddiqui: Again dude, when one you call him "naive", then why do you take him seriously. I was one of the first to condemn his remarks. There are sensible people on the other side of the border too. Whom you choose to respond, the choice is yours. @Surya: The Chinese analogy was only for that purpose "analogy". No need to throw in jargons and data. We can keep the discussion simple that way.
@ Surya,
I read the whole article and did not find any comparison of Indian and Pakistani IT industries. It did mention about the cooperation among them.
I have been in Pakistani IT Industry for more then 7 years and know its capacity and capability very well. It did make significant progress in a very short span of time.
And you will have to accept it was Nitish who first started comparing followed by some of my countrymen.
No doubt Indian IT industries did a marvolous job in last 20 years and have shown un-comparable growth. Anyone who is comparing can only be called naive at best.
Indians,
Do Americans or Chinese come to Indian newspapers to tell you how much better they are than you?
Do Pakistanis go to Tajikistan newspapers to tell them how much better they are than them?
What is your obsession with our most mundane matters?
You are big.. but you think small.
hey Nitish n Surya...if you people are so riding high tides, then why do you even care to come to a Pakistani newspaper site and waste ur time and energy in showing Pakistanis what they are?
India cannot survive without Pakistan! read your analsyt's reports.
@Haris Javed:
I am glad (unlike silly comment by Nitish) that Pakistani IT industry is developing which i still believe Indian IT companies can leverage (just like they do in China)..
Thumbs UP for IT achievements ! Pakistan Zindabad!! and to all Indians, (notwithstanding to some immature comments) i'm really happy to see that you guys are reading our accomplishments.. :) Thankyou :)
On behalf of most Indian readers can i say ignore the idiotic post of Nitish. He represents all things stupid about us people from the subcontinent ! the 'frog mentality' .. Its so refreshing to see these sort of news coming out of Pakistan. As an Indian can i please request some of my fellow desi's to stop with the schadenfreude and juvenile trash that they seem to post ? i wish most of us Indian posters can adapt a pragmatic and rational approach to their views. And yes i wish the same from the Pakistani guys too. Isn't it time to see the comments thread on Indian, Pakistani and other international websites being more rationale and objective ? enough of this false bravado and jingoism, remember you guys are no different then the politicians you all love to hate !
India is king in IT everyone knows that!!!!!! pakistan should and is learning from India.
No harm in learning this is how the world moves.
lets keep the Indo-PAK hatred out for another relevant topic like cricket :)
@Surya, Thanks, you have given more weight to my claims. CMM level 5 is nothing but a standardization, There are CMM level 5 comapnies in Pakistan as well. it does not prove that india is producing big companies or even products, so giving spin to things just to prove your point does not prove anything... DataWind creatd Aakaash, otherwise Pakstanis would be claiming that a Toyota corrolla in Pakistan with 'CNG' fitted kit is produced by Inuds Motor Pakistan and a japanse company called Toyota.. Give me a break and be realistic.. Reality is India has the biggest poverty ratio per given density of people,, there are insurgencies in Assam, Kashmir, Nexalite regions, Bengal and even Punjab.. There is corruption in all aspect of indian political, social and economic levels.. Point is We Pakistanis hate our president and agree there is a mess in the country and we don't go on indian websites and try to show Pakistan otherwise as hoodwinked indians do.. So next time before commenting on Pakistani website, make sure you remember the commercially viable 'SLUM' tag that one associate with india... peace out.
@Pakistanis Lol Do you think we answer only phone calls in Infosys,TCS and Wipro. What do you think MNC's in India are for?Since you pakistanis cannot come anywhere near what we have achieved in IT,you have to someway slander us Indians to make yourself feel good about your tiny small achievements.I just wonder what Pakistan IT is doing? Do you have any IT company on the lines of Google,Microsoft or yahoo for that matter.
Most us Indians in India who work in Google,Microsoft,Facebook and other MNC's do some development work.For example Microsoft Hyderabad was involved in Windows 7 development.Facebook is aggressively hiring cream of crop Indian computer geeks for salaries of more than $100,000.They have office too in India.Add to that there are so many start ups in the silicon valley Bangalore.Flipkart is one of those which started its operations in 2007,now closing in on billion dollar market cap.Do remember it was Indian who invented E-mail Sabir bhatia.
@Nitish: stop comparing pakistan with India, and are you real Indian? @Lord: @aslam: dream on
Sorry for Nitish's comments guys...most of us indians would be happy and proud to see our neighbours doing well. Peace and all the best!
Great news, may there be a bright future for Pakistan IT industry!
These Indian comments are in very poor taste. The comparison between India and Pakistan is not realistic. They are very different societies (with Pakistan in deep trouble literally in every facet) and generally the size of both countries. With that in mind, I think these achievement (however little they might be) do matter to give hope for future growth. As for India, they have a good two decades, but their growth rate and trends are unique to them and can't be applied to us based on our situation and geography. I think within next 30 years we wouldn't have anything common with India as far as the fabric of the society is concerned, for better or worse. So these comparison would die down eventually.
The is the right direction we need to move in
@Nitish: I have so many great indian friends, but none of them is so condescending. If the educated elite of our nations behaves like this, how do you expect the less informed ones to behave?
Having said that, this is a great news. Great work IT folks. Keep it up. We are proud of you.
@aaakaash: yes I Know what the difference is between BPO and IT. but when Indian IT export figures are quoted it includes both BPO and IT industry figures inclduing Medical transcription related jobs ad even call center for IT companies. If you don't know this then please do some research on it.. Now as for R&D work being done in India, there is no doubt there's got to be some work done, but to the extent where it is commendable other after 15 years of 'shining india' slogan, there would be at least one Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Google type genuine IT company, not an infosys where 50 people are there to work on disaster recovery outsourced work.. oh yes, even the 'aakaash' tablet is designed and owned by a british company named DataWind, so is Slum dog millionaire... Advice: Indians need to come out of this false mirage of big achievements. West is so nice to India because they want to sell their products to 1 billion plus indians, which is a huge market, but at the cost of keep indian in sweet coated blindfold.. After we all need subservient nations to work for us.. If only you know what I am saying.
Congrats.. Finally we've got some good news about Pakistan!
Go India. Go Pak! with our talent and sincerity, together we can take on the world. I hope we Pakistanis continue to improve, and I'm sure Indian help can give us huge boosts along the way.
It would be nice if Indians would not stifle discussion on every topic in pak newspaper. I would like to be able to other pakistanis but instead all discussion is derailed.
Really felt sorry for some of the Indian comments here. @Pakistanis: Good achievement guys! We definitely would like competition. :) We can do wonders.
I work for an Indian software giant. I'm currently working in Riyadh for a Saudi client, where all the staff of that company is against us getting a new contract except one Pakistani official! :)
these indians are so proud of receiving phone calls
what these people fail to see is that our country is at war for past 10 years and we are seeing worst government in the history of this country. even with all the negative odds, we keep going on and on towards betterment and i bet one day if not us but generations will witness it what we dreamt for.
@Ali
No dear , IT industry and BPO-Call center are two different industry , while India is facing tremendous competition in BPO sector from Phillipines (but yet growing by 10% ) ,IT industry is rock solid and huge R&D works does happen in India , almost all IT giants have set up R&D center in India.Anyways good to hear about your achievements. Anything for prosperity and peace in the region is welcome.
I don't understand, do Indians post on our news so it can make them feel better ? Clearly, economies of scale will tilt the scale in India's favor in every section but knowing the troubles Pakistan is going through, all the achievements are remarkable.
Chinese IT industry is about r&d not answering phone calls.
Great news. However, I am disappointed to see comments by Indians even though report mentions India Pakistan collaboration in IT which is a big and fantastic news.
Indian IT industry is mainly based on BPO and call center work there is hardly any R&D work. Richer nations get the trivially problematic work done in India cuz indians would work for any money as there is so much poverty in the country. Pakistan is doing very close, good or even much better in any aspect of social, economic spectrum.... since india has a population 7.5 times of Pakistan, do this keep this factor in mind and do the math. Also, keep in mind PPP based GDP rather than misleasding nominal GDP figures.. Indian economy $4 trillion, Pakistan's economy $560 Bn, (remember india uses higher PPP coeficient than Pakistan, which gives India advantage on paper figures) Per capita income for both country's is around $3100 each. (LOOK FOR GOVRNEMNT ISSUED FIGURES RATHER THAN WIKIPEDIA)... Pakistan has around 1.9 million broadband users, india has around 13 million, Pakistan cellphone user base around 110 million, indian has around 600 million.. so please do the math... Although II wish India and Pakistan both to acheivement better results.
@Mustafa Hanif: Guys like you are the silent heroes of the nation, keep it up!
Well done!!! Pakistan IT Zindabad.
@aslam: While Nitish's comments are a bit unwarranted, i would advise you to do some research on on IT industry before making immature comments..
@Iceman: The last time i checked the entire IT software industry of China is equal to that of India's 4th ranked IT company. I agree that we should not compare ourselves even with China let alone Pakistan. Even 40% of China's software industry are controlled by Indian IT companies.
As for US, that's incomparable for obvious reasons..and tell me one country which can compare/compete with them in the IT industry. Please know that a large number of US IT MNCs have major % of their workforce in India. e-g. 25% (1,00,000) of IBM's workforce are in India..
That said, i am happy that Pakistani IT industry is growing but then i am amused to see some commentators here seem to warn India of potential competition where even Chinese couldn't. The only real competitor to India is now Philippines (Call center, BPO segments) but not in other segments of IT value chain software development which is pretty hard to compete given India's national competitive advantages..
@Nitish: And the entire turnover of $60-80 bn of our IT industry is less than that of one single company (microsoft). Stop bragging buddy. Look at the Chinese/Americans for comparison/competition, not Pakistan.
@Nitish: ok, keep your hatred to yourself, we are coming up and will leave india behind one day inshallah.
@Nitish: This achievement means watch your back we are coming.Get ready for competition bro. :)
So refreshing to learn some good news from Pakistan. Well done to all in the IT industry of Pakistan
Our media should highlights achievements like this more often and keep them in the limelight instead of shoving depression down our throats 247. Welldone!
This seems to be a report card of IT development at just one IIT in India.. :) What an achievement you guys! :)
Big props to all our hard working educated youths trying to make a better tommorow
Impressive!