Posted by: Aamir Attaa on August 7, 2008 at 9:55 AM
CIO Pakistan Magazine has been launched officially yesterday (August 05, 2007) in Karachi. CIO is considered as the world’s largest business technology leadership magazine, which is being printed in over 35 countries globally and will now be printing locally in Pakistan to help highlight and support our local technology Industry.
Besides the launch the event also included CIO “Technology Pioneer Awards” to recognize the excellence and the achievements of the best amongst the leaders of the local technology and telecommunication industry.
The details of the CIO Pioneer Awards went as following:
Pioneers in Telecommunication: Tariq Malik, CEO Wateen and Salman Ansari, CEO SATC.
Bringing global technologies into Pakistan: Humayun Bashir, Country manager IBM Pakistan and Kamal Ahmed, Country General Manager, Microsoft Pakistan.
Pioneers In Local Industry: Khurram Hanif Kalia, President and CEO Kalsoft and Khushnood Aftab, CEO Viper Technologies
Pioneer in Contributing to IT Education in Pakistan: Samina Rizwan, Regional Director Oracle SAGE (West) and Naila Kassim, Manager, Intel World Ahead Program, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Taking Technology Global: Building Pakistan’s Image Abroad: Salim Ghauri, Chairman & CEO NetSol and Dilawar Abbas Syed, President OPEN silicon valley
Pioneer in Governance: Syed Mustafa Kamal, City Nazim, CDGK and Dr.Aamir Matin, Former MD PSEB.
In Special Awards Category :
Pioneers in innovation : Monis Rehman, Chairman & CEO Naseeb Networks.
Inspiring innovation: Umer Saif, Associate Professor, LUMS
Recognizing Special contributions to the Local Industry: Jehan Ara, President PASHA.
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on July 21, 2008 at 8:15 AM
PASHA managed to fetch 20 IT companies in PASHA’s Career Expo today (July 20, 2008), in an effort to bridge the gap between fresh graduates and IT industry.
Through the platform, IT companies from across the country mainly focused on job offerings to students and at the same time representatives marketed their respective companies, products, markets trends and potential areas to attendees.
Among the exhibitors were P@SHA, IBM, Intel Pakistan, TRG, Avanza Solutions, PixSense, Etilize, BearingPoint, Online Corporation, TLS, TPS, Server4Sale, Alchemy, MIXIT and others.
Exhibitors reported that they got tremendous response in terms of resumes while students who were maybe expecting much, managed to leave the expo with relatively pleasant feeling.
It was collectively stressed by many that each college and university should have a career counseling department to aid their students in choosing the right direction depending on individual’s capabilities and market flow.
This Career Expo series will repeat in Lahore and Islamabad, which will definitely be beneficial for the Pakistan’s future.
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on July 10, 2008 at 10:16 AM
Its quite an old news, but I thought my readers my like exploring it, along with some Pics of Apple’s existence may give a better idea about This Apple’s store in Lahore. US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson herself had launched this Apple Computers store in Lahore around a month ago.
Apple’s debutant store in Pakistan, named as iStore, sits in PACE, Lahore; and it is reportedly not a big one as of Apple’s standards. Yet you may find Apple’s killer gadgets like iPod and others. Don’t expect any iPhone there, but only the flayers unveiling the glory of iPhone to Pakistani people.
It must be noted that this is not an exclusively Apple’s retail store, instead it happens to be the join venture between Raffles, Apple’s authorized distributor in Pakistan since 2006 and Apple Computers itself.
Raffles have taken Apple’s products in multiple cities of Pakistan, including, Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad and Multan. Click here for their contact details in these cities.
Tons of thanks to Irfan for allowing me to post his exclusive pictures of the iStore.
PASHA is saying that they are in effort to couple ICT industry of Pakistan and jobseekers to develop a better match for both the groups. For the purpose they are organizing a series of Job fair in Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore. Venues and dates are mentioned below
Marriott, Karachi July 20, 2008
PC Hotel, Rawalpindi Aug 2, 2008
Lahore Venue TBA August 9, 2008
So if you are looking for a job in ICT sector, you must give this expo a try, where you can
Apply for Job Openings posted by participating companies
Appear for on-the-spot interviews
Listen to eminent speakers
Interact with CEOs, CIOs and HR heads of ICT companies and organizations with large IT departments regarding career opportunities
Learn about the different career tracks in various segments of the ICT sector
Participate in Interactive Workshops
Listen to company presentations
Attend Career Counseling sessions
PASHA website has no details till now about the sponsors or the companies that will offer jobs in this expo, however, we should expect some halla gulla around while eying their previous annual expos.
PTCL in an email has notified all Internet Service Providers that PTCL’s ITI International connectivity with SMW-4 is down due to cable cut in Segment 2.2, 18 km from SMW-4 Karachi Cable Station.
Consequently, all International Internet Traffic has been shifted to SMW-3. Due to this shifting internet users will experience some latency or delay in accessing sites via the Internet.
No deadline was told by the authorities for clearing the cut and restoration of SMW-4.
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on July 8, 2008 at 10:14 AM
Google has announced added security features for Gmail that will enable its users to find out if their Gmail account is logged in at any other computer or not. For example, if you checked your Gmail account at your campus library and you moved away without signing out of your account then you may find this new feature very handy through which you can sign out of your Google account from that computer even remotely from your home.
Additionally, you can track your recent sessions, IP addresses of recent sessions and ability to signout of any previous open sessions remotely.
Google is saying that they are in process of integrating this feature in Gmail’s latest version, and will be online soon.
At the bottom of your inbox, you’ll see information about the time of the last activity on your account and whether it’s still open in another location:
You will be allowed to see more details about your recent activity by clicking on the Details link.
Through NetExpress, we have learned about this development competition, organized by Google in which any one can participate and earn fame, name and money too.
Primarily, Google Code Jam is a coding competition for those who enjoy solving critical and challenging coding problems, specifically for those youngsters who have got the craze and passion for development. So if you think you are the one, then don’t delay and get your self registered here…!
I hope that lot of Pakistani coders would be jumping into the pool and would outshine everyone.
Mind you that registrations are open till July 17th 2008 only.
About Google Code Jam
is a coding competition in which professional and student programmers are asked to solve complex algorithmic challenges in a limited amount of time. The contest is all-inclusive: Google Code Jam lets you program in the coding language and development environment of your choice.
Google Code Jam begins in July and continues in August, when you will compete in online rounds against contestants from around the world. The Top 500 participants will advance to onsite competitions at a local Google office to compete against those in their region (Asia Pacific; Europe, Middle East and Africa; and the Americas). The Top 100 will participate in the final round at the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California on Friday, November 14.
Don’t be left out! Make sure to register between June 17 and July 17, and show your coding creativity in Google Code Jam.
Yes there is money in the game too, top 100 finalists will divide over $80,000 in prize money:
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on July 3, 2008 at 11:57 PM
Few days back, Mr. Adnan Saeed, Project Manager, MoITT sent an email to a public forum, in which he put forward a message that read like below
Government of Pakistan has initiated a broad based consultative process to formulate National IT Policy for the next five years. In order to make a realistic and practical policy the Government intends to involve all the stakeholders in this consultative process.
Kindly send your comments to asaeed@moitt.gov.pk latest by 31st of July 2008. You can post your comments as well on virtual group at http://www.nidu.gov.pk/forum
Syed Muhammad Anwer
Project Director
National IT Development & Promotion Unit(NIDU)
Director Legal, MoITT
Ph: 051-9218967, Fax: 051-9201012
Email: smanwer@moitt.gov.pk
So now you are not in any position to complain that the Ministry of IT and Telecom hasn’t asked the opinion of private sector while revamping IT policy. They did their job; now Gurus are requested to come forward with your feedback and let’s dictate the fate of Pakistan’s IT industry for at-least coming five years.
Call Centers, IT industry, investments, taxes on businesses, role of PTCL and broadband in the country are few of many elements which should be addresses in new IT Policy
Read it out, and have your say. I will also come up with another post in few days with suggestions from the people I know.
PASHA 
