PASHA’s Jehanara doing a great job by developing video resources on entrepreneurship in Pakistan

PASHA's Jehanara deserves a lot of praise for her efforts

Jehanara is not unknown to anyone familiar with the Pakistani IT scene. She has laboured and toiled for years to promote IT in Pakistan, in both her official capacity as the President of the Pakistan Association of Software Houses (P@SHA) as well as in her individual capacity as blogger, journalist and interviewer.

One of her most recent endeavours, the ITLoW project, or “In the Line of Wire”, is fast becoming a wonderful resource for entrepreneurs, students and technologists in Pakistan. I particularly enjoy her interviews focused on promoting entrepreneurship in Pakistan. Here’s a selection of some interesting interviews:

As muslim countries progress, why do so many in the west react with anger and jealousy?

A futuristic classroom at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. KAUST is becoming a jealousy magnet.

TechCrunch just published a piece about the inauguration of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology(KAUST). This institution is absolutely marvelous by all accounts. Not only does it have a $10BN endowment, one of the largest of any institution in the Islamic world,  it also has state of the art facilities, ranging from the world’s 15th most powerful supercomputer (Shaheen), to a nano tech fabrication lab  and the world’s highest resolution immersive visualization display. And these wonders are just the beginning. A lot more lies in wait for students and researchers. Shaheen, for example, will continue to be upgraded and will climb the world supercomputer rankings rapidly. Last but not least, the campus itself, built on 30 sq km, is beautiful.

So, when TechCrunch sent a correspondent to cover the launch of the University and King Abdullah’s inaugural address, I expected that the event would attract the right sort of attention; folks interested in education, and happy to see progress and development. Unfortunately, the reactions on TechCrunch have been largely ugly, to say the least.

Pakistan develops new cruise missile – NYT can’t bring themselves to believing it

Pakistan's Indigenously developed Babar Cruise Missile. This is now being integrated with Pakistan's Naval Ships.

This really got my goat! A friend just pointed out that the NYT has published a highly accusatory article about Pakistan’s latest ship launched cruise missile tests. The basic thrust of the story is that Pakistan has developed a new missile which was recently tested, but not officially announced. US officials ”leaked” the news to the New York Times (gotta love those leaks!!), stating that what was tested was most likely an “unauthorized” modification of a Harpoon missile. These are the very same Harpoons President Reagan had delivered to his comrade, that staunchest of staunch allies, President Zia of Pakistan, in the early 1980s.

Of course, in typical NYT style when it comes to articles about Pakistan, the accusation is not justified with even a shred of evidence beyond the “leak”. But why do they need proof, I ask? I mean it’s not like those brown skinned idiotic Pakistanis are capable of inventing anything? Right? I mean it’s not like they’ve developed nuclear weapons, IRBMs, fighter aircraft, UAVs, tanks or other sophisticated military gear?!

So, though I want very much to tell the NYT where they can stuff their nonsense, instead, let me attempt to reason through this.

Riots break out in India again, Obama slams Bombay, firms losing revenue… what’s next for IT in India?

Yesterday, riots again broke out across Indian cities, causing Wal*Mart to delay the opening of its store

The going hasn’t been very good for Indian IT firms recently. First, there was the Satyam scandal which exposed many of the fundamental issues with Indian IT companies, corporate espionage, board level corruption, scamming of shareholders etc. Then, what was left of Satyam was to be taken over by a Government-appointed board, but there was a loss of customers and soon after came a significant drop in revenues for almost all major IT companies in India. But that wasn’t all, newly appointed US President, Barack Hussein Obama then pretty much declared war on outsourcing to India by making his now famous, “Say NO to Bangalore” speech. Obama’s war on Indian IT has led  NASSCOM to voice fears that, “[the] clouds are getting darker for Indian IT companies“, while the mainstream Indian press is proclaiming that, “Obama torpedoes Bangalore again“. Meanwhile, the anti-Indian outsourcing sentiment is growing in other parts of the world, including Australia.

6,000 Pakistani companies operating in the UAE. Pakistanis have invested 6.7B Dirhams in Dubai real estate.

Emaar UAE's Pakistan subsidiary is building Crescent Bay in Karachi

There is little doubt in the fact that the UAE and Pakistani economies are increasingly inter-twined. On this very blog, we’ve talked about substantial UAE investments in Pakistan, in particular in real-estate, Banking and Telecommunications. And of course, in one of the most important new projects under construction in Pakistan, the $5BN Khalifa Refinery.

This, however, is the flip side of that story. Economic integration comes when you have a symbiotic relationship. And that’s where Pakistan and the UAE are headed. According to statistics published in The News today, Pakistanis have already invested Rs. 190BN in UAE real-estate, and over 6,000 Pakistani companies are now registered and operating in the United Arab Emirates. A few months ago, we alerted you to Netsol’s (a Pakistani software company) listing on the Dubai Stock Exchange. Looks like there will be a lot more of this happening in future!

Postmodern Pakistan

The Karachi Creek Marina - under construction now and rising fast!

Pakistan is such an absolutely amazing place. If you put that copy of Newsweek down for a moment and think what we’ve built in the last 60 years, I think rationality would require you to be close to awe-struck. Today we are a country on the verge of ascent into globally acknowledged greatness. We were born under circumstances that were supposed to lead to our demise inside of 12 months, according to the Nehru/Mountbatten calculus. Not only are we still around, we are 170 million strong, with consistently increasing GDP, a resilient economy, amazingly intelligent people, brilliant businesspeople and an ever-increasing global role.

Yes, we have our problems, but these are absolutely nothing compared to what we have already surmounted and what we are about to achieve. Let me break it down like so: what are our problems today? Or let me ask this another way, what if we achieved the following:

1) 100% literacy, up from the current 50-60% levels
2) Completely indigenous power production for 100+% of our needs
3) Reduction in population growth to 1.2%, with further annual reductions from there on
4) Control over fringe nihilist elements let loose in our society by X, Y and Z.
5) Impenetrable external defences
6) An economy that produces a trade surplus
7) A quadrupling of GDP (and per capita income)

Should the economic catastrophe in the US cause Pakistanis to re-think their lifestyles?

Family belongings are put out on the street after a home was foreclosed in Waco, Texas. Image courtesy: SF Sentinel.

This is a bit off the usual technology topics, but interesting nonetheless. As the economy continues to shrink in the US, jobs continue to be lost and homes continue to be foreclosed. Some people are forced into it and others are proactively taking the opportunity to rethink their lives, their needs and wants. One such story was posted on CNN today. Leah and Ed Wright, after many years in go-go L.A. have decided to sell their house, move into a 300 sq ft trailer and head to a rural farm. Ed recently lost his job, you see, and they figured there was no way he was going to find another one any time soon. Employed or not, it still costs an arm and a leg just to subsist in L.A.

On the Oregon farm, on the other hand, they find they can provide for most of their needs without much money. They are spending more time with each other, becoming closer as a family, and are peering into the bejewelled night sky, far, far away from the city lights.

Pakistan’s forex reserves grow to $10.21BN: IMF says goals being met and China provides additional $500M

China remains Pakistan's all-weather ally

Pakistan’s forex reserves continue to see healthy growth with the latest figures showing a $260M increase since the 1st of January, 2009. The total pool of reserves now stands at $10.21BN. With additional measures being taken to shrink the trade gap – which has already seen a major reduction – the reserves are expected to continue to rise. The $10.21BN amount does NOT include the bulk of the IMF package approved for Pakistan. An additional $4.5BN is still to be released by the IMF.

China has injected an additional $500M into Pakistan’s economy. Chinese businessmen and companies have been visiting the country frequently over the past several months, and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s successful trip to China also sealed several joint venture deals between the two countries. Chinese investments in Pakistan over the recent past now stand at $1.3BN.

Multiple factors are in play, which need to be taken into account to form a picture for where we will stand from the point of view of our economy, over the next year. Here is what we can look forward to:

Calling all Makers, Hackers, Inventors and Builders in Pakistan

This interesting looking taxi is made in Pakistan. Mods, hacks, rebuilds, anyone?

One of the things I’ve always felt Pakistan needs a LOT more of is the “Do it yourself” culture. For one reason or another, while there is invention happening out of necessity, whether it is in the defence labs of NDC or ordinary villages where an everyday problem needs to be addressed, “doing it yourself” still isn’t prevalent in our culture and it doesn’t come naturally to us. Quite the opposite, some would argue. Like it or not, we are still dealing with leftover “Baboo’ism” from the colonial era.

Why is DIY so important? Why is it more than just a hobby? Why is it a critical need for any nation wishing to stay relevant? I’ve written about this many times before, so I won’t bore you by regurgitating what I’ve already said in my series of Maker Faire articles. You can read them here:

World Bank slaps Satyam with 8 year ban. Is the Indian Government complicit in cyber espionage?

Raju: In a heck of a lot of trouble. Or is he?

If the title confuses you, let me quickly catch you up on this story. Satyam is one of the largest IT companies in India and has been the darling of the Indian outsourcing industry for some time now. The company is/was run by Ramalinga Raju, who has been hailed as one of the leading lights of Indian enterprise. Well, it so happens, that the World Bank was one of Satyam’s customers, and their experience brought out into the open what we’ve been hearing various murmurs about; that outsourcing to India is becoming increasingly dangerous, and the service delivered by Indian IT companies is continuing to decline. Not only is this reflected in the quality of output, but also in the free-falling standards of plain old-fashioned business ethics.

While working with Satyam, the World Bank discovered that Satyam had been stealing proprietary World Bank information. Yahoo News! had this to say:

“The World Bank move came after bank investigators discovered that spy software was covertly installed on workstations inside the bank’s Washington headquarters”