IT industry tops ‘Pakistan 100 business’ Index

STAFF REPORT IBD: Pakistan’s IT industry has been showing a tremendous performance in terms of fastest business expansion, revenues growth and employment generation in the short period of time.
This is evident as number of companies offering software services and products, computer networking and development solutions are leading the ‘Pakistan 100 business index’.
These companies have gained a limelight and secured positions in the recently announced ‘Pakistan100 index’ of AllWorldNetwork for the year 2012 showing a high revenue growth potential with constant success and recognition at global platforms in the recent years.
According to the report, there are 12 companies categorized under software services and products that have been listed and ranked in the Index.
The software companies have generated a total revenue of $46.491 million last year and secured sixth position in terms of turnover among different other sectors. There were four emerging companies in this sector with total turnover reached at $19.64 million registered in 2010.
These companies have continued to impart a remarkable contribution in the economy with introduced advanced solutions and applications in services and different business. The companies have not only created direct and indirect jobs but also allied businesses, shaping growth and trends in the market as emerging potential companies in the country. 

Geek Week Planned in Lahore on March 30th

The ACM Society of FAST-NU, Lahore is organizing the 1st International Geek Week from 30^th March to 1^st April, 2012 with prize money of more than Rs. 450,000.

Geek Week is likely to be one of the biggest Computer Science and Information Technology extravaganzas in South Asia.

It is the 1^st Indo-Pak event being organized by the collaboration of Pakistani and Indian students in the field of IT.

The Pakistani and Indian chapters of ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) are conducting this event simultaneously in five different universities. Students and professionals will bring forth their work and well-known researchers and academicians have been invited to judge the competition.

This session has many competitions. These 3 being its biggest highlights:

• Asia Cup: An International Distributed Programming Competition
• DevFest: 24hr App Development Contest (being held for the first time in Pakistan).
• Custom PC: Opportunity to exhibit the customized machines.

GEEK WEEK would be held in collaboration with 3 Pakistani ACM chapters in different institutions in Pakistan including Fast-NUCES and 2 Indian ACM Student Chapters. The institutions collaborating for GEEK WEEK 2012 are:

• NUCES ACM Lahore, Pakistan
• PUCIT-ACM Lahore, Pakistan
• GCU-ACM Lahore, Pakistan
• Indian Inst. of Tech/ New Delhi ACM , India
• SVCE-ACM, Chennai, India

The occasion will consist of the following competitions.

• Asia Cup
• Gaming contest
• Development Fest
• Custom PC
• Technology showcase
• ACM Logo Designs

Shahbaz Claims Better Government through E-Governance

Chief Minister Punjab Mian Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif has claimed of implementing better government through E-governance in the province, which has benefited the masses.

Talking to a four-member delegation led by Zong Chief Executive Officer in Pakistan Mr. Fan Yunjun, CM said Punjab government is working on a comprehensive program to boost Information Technology (IT) industry in the province.

He further outlined that a world class IT university is being established in Lahore where the students would be given world class education in various departments of Information Technology (IT) which would fulfill the required demand for IT professionals in the country.

Shahbaz Sharif said there is a lot of room for development and expansion for IT industry in Punjab and investment in this department is appealing as well as safe.

Zong Chief Executive officer in Pakistan Mr. Fan Yunjun appreciated the Punjab government steps to boost IT industry in the province and said his company would continue co-operation in this regard.

Mr. Fan Yunjun outlined that his company is setting up branch less banking in the province and an endowment fund for the students as well.

PTCL 1Mbps DSL Upgraded to 2Mbps for Free

PTCL has decided to upgrade 1Mbps DSL broadband package holders to 2Mbps till May 31st, 2012 for free.

After the expiry of the promotional period, normal tariff of 2 Mbps “Rs. 1,499” will be applicable.

Price for 1Mbps DSL broadband is now Rs. 1,250.

It merits mentioning here that you can downgrade back to 1Mbps during the promotional period (if upgraded automatically) or you can opt not to be upgraded if asked, however, after May 31st – if not downgraded – you will be charged usual 2Mbps rates.

PTCL said this promotion will not be applicable for:

• Broadband student package holders.
• Those customers who are currently on packages like double up, double impact andtriple play packages
• Those customers who opted out of the promotion last year,
• Those customers whose line currently does not support 2 Mbps speeds.

Below are the PTCL Broadband packages available for customers:

• 1Mb     @ Rs 1,250
• 2Mb     @ Rs 1,499
• 4Mb     @ Rs 1,999
• 6Mb     @ Rs 4,999
• 8Mb     @ Rs 6,999
• 10Mb   @ Rs 9,999

PTCL Smart TV gains 30% increase in subscriber base

akistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has achieved a 30% increase in the subscriber base of its IPTV service also known as Smart TV, claimed an official statement without reveling the number of subscribers.

This increase has been a result of PTCL Smart TV’s aggressive content acquisition strategy, which led to swift content enrichment as well as higher focus on improved quality of service and enhanced customer care.

PTCL Smart TV has recently added PTV’s hit dramas such as Fifty Fifty, Aangan Teraah, Aahat, and Dhoop Kinary to its VOD service. In addition, a wide range of Hollywood movies, children’s content and Bollywood movies have also been added to this service.

Nine percent of the world’s broadband homes now subscribe to an IPTV service and PTCL is striving to achieve the same level in Pakistan. Smart TV is also enriching the television channel list by positioning the channels as per consumers’ demand.

The digital and high quality Smart TV with its advanced and unique features such as rewinding live channels through time shift TV, parental lock and an enriched digitally mastered VOD library has created a favored spot for PTCL Smart TV amongst consumers.

“PTCL is rapidly increasing its high-end services subscriber base by providing efficient and state of the art telecom services to its customers all over the country,” said Senior Executive Vice President Commercial, Naveed Saeed. “Smart TV will always make efforts to bring the best service features and highly entertaining content to its valued subscribers.”

“We are giving our customers innovative services and sound packages with a clear strategic direction to facilitate them,” said Executive Vice President Wireline, Aasif Inam. “PTCL constantly strives to renew and enhance its networking, products, services and capabilities bringing the latest technology for the customers at their doorsteps.”

Firefox's plans for 2012: Silent updates, sharing on social networks

After releasing a new version of its browser, Firefox11, the Mozilla foundation has laid out its plans for 2012, and there are definitely some interesting things in the works for one of themost popular web browsers out there.

Part of the plans Mozilla mentions have already been achieved in Firefox 10 and 11. To resolve problems with old add-ons not working in (now very frequently released) new versions of the browser, they were made compatible by default. Also, from Firefox 11 you can now also sync add-ons across several computers.

However, the full Firefox roadmap reveals several other important updates planned for later in 2012.

One that caught our attention is silent updates, which will be downloaded and installed silently in the background,for more....

New iPads hit stores Friday

The latest version of Apple's iPad, the genre-defining tablet computer that has outperformed virtually everyone's expectations since first released in 2010, goes on sale Friday starting at 8 a.m. local time.

As such, thousands of Apple diehards were already lining up Thursday to be among the first to get their hands on a gadget that was already earning raves from reviewers.

"Since it launched in 2010, the iPad has been the best tablet on the planet," wrote Walt Mossberg for All Things D. for more....