Work on Your Startup in Silicon Valley with BlackBox Connect Program

Do you want your startup to avail the best facilities that Silicon Vallley has to offer? Then it’s time for you to register for BlackBox Connect program. This entrepreneurship program has been brought for Pakistani startups by The Nest I/O, the Karachi-based incubator and accelerator.

What is BlackBox Connect?

BlackBox Connect is a program offered by Google for Entrepreneurs. It is currently in its 17th edition, inviting applications for startups all around the world to gain access to Silicon Valley experts, investors and industry insiders.

It offers the chance for non-US startups and entrepreneurs for a fully-funded trip to Silicon Valley where they can meet like-minded entrepreneurs. There’s also lots of workshops, meetings and networking opportunities with investors, experts, and executives out there.

The program will select 16 startups with potential from around the world, for a 2 week all-expenses-paid trip to Silicon Valley. Qualifying startups can accelerate their business after gaining exposure on a global level.

Registration Deadline and Other Details

The deadline for applying for Google for Entrepreneur’s powered event is 12th August 2016. You can apply for the program here.

The Nest I/O, P@SHA’s tech accelerator will be selecting the qualifying Pakistani startups based on their potential.

The BlackBox Connect Program will commence on November 7th2016 and run till 18th. Get registered today for a chance to tour Silicon Valley and meet some remarkable people from the other side of the world

Elevate the Youth is a Social Empowerment Program for Pakistanis [Interview]

Pakistan is slowly but surely waking up to the potential and opportunity that entrepreneurs bring for a country’s society, culture and economy. Social innovation can help Pakistan make better use of its untapped human capital, which is why programs for spearheading such initiatives are very much needed.

Elevate The Youth program is one such initiative that is geared to help Pakistani youth contribute significantly to the country’s entrepreneurial landscape. It was the brainchild of Sadaffe Abid, who is also the co-founder of CIRCLE, a social enterprise that works on women’s advancement, leadership and youth entrepreneurship.

Sadaffe Abid, Co-Founder of CIRCLE

Profile of Sadaffe Abid

Sadaffe Abid is the former CEO and COO of Kashf Foundation, one of Forbes Top 50 microfinance institutions. She helped the company grow from a pilot in two rooms to serve 300,000 women clients in Pakistan. During her tenure, Kashf received the AGFUND International Prize and Grameen Trust Microfinance Excellence Award.

She completed her Masters at the Harvard Kennedy School, Advanced Management Program at INSEAD and her B.A. at Mount Holyoke College. She is a recipient of the Mount Holyoke Alumni Achievement Award and a TEDx INSEAD Speaker.

Elevate Team with Senator Sherry Rehman

We recently reached out to Saddafe about Elevate the Youth (ETY) initiative, her thoughts on how women are faring in entrepreneurial ventures in Pakistan, and how CIRCLE is helping in empowering Pakistani women.

Tell us about the beginnings of Elevate the Youth program and some of its main features.

Elevate The Youth (ETY) began as an idea by CIRCLE, a social enterprise working on women and youth advancement, advocacy and entrepreneurship. We were inspired by the vision to inculcate key values and capacities within Pakistani youth so they can thrive in today’s complex world and bring their ideas forward to create impact for Pakistan.

Our model provides professional experiences to students through internships with our partner companies which range from start ups, corporates to leading social enterprises; alongside this our Fellows have the opportunity to attend specially designed workshops and seminars that inspire and facilitate their development.

Another key feature is a Social Innovation Project where ETY Fellows collaborate in teams to create innovative, sustainable and technology based entrepreneurial solutions for Pakistan’s challenges. This is the main crux of the ETY Accelerator where we also have mentors who work with the teams.

Through the accelerator, we encourage the youth to be aware of world issues, be solution centric, inclusive and adaptive in their approach. These values are the backbone of our program.

Last weekend on July 26, our Fellows worked on a community service program with Robin Hood Army where they helped feed 600 meals in a hospital. This unique feature of our accelerator aims to instill public service in each member of our society and to celebrate the life of Abdul Sattar Edhi Sahib by making volunteerism a part of our regular life. If each Pakistani gave 5 hrs every month for service to humanity, we can make such a significant difference as a nation.

In a place with so many incubators and accelerators already, how is Elevate The Youth different?

We believe ETY is unique. It’s a holistic program that is not only providing professional and personal development for the Fellows but also broadening their exposure to ideas and innovative projects locally in Pakistan and globally to expand their vision of what is possible.

We don’t want the Fellows to be content being job seekers; we want them to inspire them to be job creators and make an impact through their work so that society as a whole benefits from it. Every year we have 4 million youth entering the workforce and there are not enough jobs for them. Moreover, we hope that we build their resilience and capacity to deal with failure and life events.

A Workshop with Elevate

In a recent session with our learning partner, Carnelian, we encouraged the ETY Fellows to find what’s missing in their world and use that as motivation to create their purpose and fill the gap. Through these experiential exercises, the youth will be utilizing their skills to do something about a problem they feel passionately about or a solution they would like to bring.

Every year we have 4 million youth entering the workforce and there are not enough jobs for them.

Another exciting feature is that our accelerator draws on the insights and experiences of the youth to co-create the program. Our core team brings a variety of experiences and are all under 21 except for the Founder.

Can you tell us a bit about the participants at the recent Elevate The Youth program?

The participants of the program are students from universities and Colleges such as FCC, LSE, COMSATS, University of Punjab, SICAS etc. We have a group of 16 Fellows for this cycle that are interning in Partner companies such as Nestle, Berger, Kashf, Citropak and Kualitatem, and in startups such as BeautyHooked, TazaDaily, Pine.pk and Pakshine.

The group is managed by our Core Team in Lahore who are all also students from different backgrounds and fields, ranging from Political Science to Engineering.

Tell us something about other initiatives taken by the CIRCLE team.

CIRCLE launched our flagship campaign, Elevate in Karachi this year, with the idea to bring women’s perspectives on panels and forums. Male and female leaders pledged to ensure that panels of three or more speakers are balanced and must include a woman panelist making the conversation richer, more inclusive and diverse.

According to our initial research, in the top conferences held in last six months in Pakistan, women speakers made only 15% of the overall speakers. Conferences are highlighted in the media and recognized as a place where successful people gather together to discuss matters of significance.

Lack of women representatives on these platforms represents that only men’s perspectives matter, makes the audience less diverse and the conversation and solutions not as inclusive. We believe women’s participation and gender diversity leads to more robust, inclusive results which boost the bottom line of companies, advance communities and nations.

For Pakistan’s progress, we must invest in women.

That is why we started this campaign. We have now received over 200 pledges and are aiming at 500 by the end of summer. We would love to welcome more supporters for Elevate.

We are also supported by CEOs such as Michael Foley, Kimihide Ando, Amir Iqbal, Ahmad Jalal, Shazia Syed, Asad Khan, Ziad Bashir, Muhammad Azfar Ahsan and several other leading corporate and social sector leaders and students.

What can you tell us about the state of women entrepreneurship in Pakistan? Any examples of women entrepreneurs who have thrived here?

Women have a great sense of social responsibility. For example, DoctHers provides medical services to rural areas using technology and business solution, at the same time enabling female doctors (who are currently not actively engaged in work) to provide medical consultation from their homes.

Paimona, another start up kicked off because the founder discovered that the furniture sold in international market is seldom made in Pakistan and she wanted to highlight Pakistan’s potential.

There are others like Sheops which provides a platform for home based workers to get connected to the market. These are exciting start ups with potential for growth and to transform Pakistan.

Women are more than willing to help each other out. They mentor other female entrepreneurs, and they even think of empowering women as one of their goals.

Women entrepreneurs are in every industry, e-commerce, fashion, education, everything you can think of. At the same time, there are several challenges. Capital is very much needed, it is hard to find suitable employees, and entrepreneurs need more skills in marketing and financial management.

They also face doubt from society, whether they have the ability to balance work and life. There are more and more young people willing to start their own business, it is on us to mentor them, families to be supportive and for them to be resilient and willing to fail.

What do you feel are some of the most pressing issues for entrepreneurial ecosystem here?

Incubators and accelerators have started in Pakistan which is terrific and will lead to tremendous learning. They are not mature yet but open to ideas and partnerships to deepen impact. Another aspect is that not many people are willing to work for startups, not many are interested in entrepreneurship, etc. It takes time to build an entrepreneurship eco-system. We have to pave the way together.

HEC Starts Accepting Applications for its Tech & Development Fund

HEC, in a positive effort to encourage and nurture entrepreneurship and socio-economic development, has introduced a Technology Development fund which will provide viable projects with the resources required to develop their products/services.

Which Projects Will Qualify?

The projects funded through the Technology Development fund will be expected to develop their product/service which should positively impact the society, solve a problem, utilize raw materials of local origin, move existing products along the chain of value, meet the need in a particular product/service market or can contribute to the economy by creating a business and indirectly creating jobs for people.

Projects should preferably be in these areas:

• Information and Technology/Computers (applications in government, services, health, textile, agriculture, dairy etc.)
• Micro-electronics
• Biotechnology (in government, health etc.)
• Material Sciences/Manmade Material
• Telecommunication
• Robotics
• It could also be of “any other discipline conducive to success of products developed in the above areas.”

Furthermore, the projects need to be created in a joint academia-industry partnership.

How to Download & Send the Application:

You can download the application forms from here.

The applications must be sent to HEC on the following address through the Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) of the particular University the applying team is located.

Noshaba Awais

Director R&D

Higher Education Commission

Sector H-9, Islamabad, Pakistan

Applications can be sent until December 2016 and will be evaluated on a first come first serve basis.

Pakistani FinTech Raises $1 Million in Seed Funding

Finja, a FinTech startup founded by Qasif Shahid, Monis Rahman and Umer Munawar, announced today that is has raised $1 Million in seed funding round led by Stockholm based Vostok Emerging Finance.

Finja said that it will use the investment for a mobile wallet product that they are hoping to launch commercially later this year.

Finja said that its goal is to offer innovative financial services to Pakistan’s rapidly growing digitally literate population by displacing cash.

When asked that how Finja’s mobile wallet will be any different from other available products in the market, Qasif Shahid told ProPakistani that his startup is aiming to disrupt the mobile wallet industry at three levels:

• Price
• Process
• Functionality

Qasif explained that his mobile wallet will be come without any service charges (unlike currently available wallets that come with a fee for doing transactions) for both the senders/receivers or for both the buyers and the sellers.

He went on to claim that his startup is also smoothing the process for customers to get onboard and finally making it more lucrative and viable for consumers through added functionality that’s otherwise not available in the market.

Qasif said that as Pakistanis continue to rapidly adopt digital mediums, there is an opportunity to transform lives by re-inventing business models and removing friction through digital interventions.

Monis Rehman, a co-founder at Finja, commented on the funding and said that this initial seed financing round will enable Finja to demonstrate the power of digital-by-design financial services and is just the beginning of their journey.

As a result of the round, Vostok Emerging Finance Managing Director, David Nangle, will join Finja’s board of directors and play a key role in helping guide the company with the fund’s extensive experience in growing FinTech led initiatives in emerging markets.

“We are delighted to partner with a truly world-class team in one of the most exciting FinTech markets globally with massive untapped potential,” said David Nangle, “Pakistan’s rapidly growing 3G/4G enabled smartphone subscribers, supported by a progressive regulatory framework, are a game changer for providing digital financial services to the country’s 200 million under-banked population.”

Finja will partner with a Micro-finance bank for rolling out its mobile wallet. While the pilot has been deployed already, the commercial launch of Finja’s wallet should surface around Q4 of 2016.

International Training Program Concluded in Islamabad

The three days International Training Program (ITP) organized by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in collaboration with International Telecommunication Union (ITU) concluded in Islamabad today.

The program, which ran from 20-22 July, 2016 featured several sessions with national and international speakers.

These sessions focused on new ways and means to address issues and challenges popping up in the ICT sector of the Member States.

Representatives from several countries from Asia Pacific Region including Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Maldives, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Samoa, Salomon Island, Timor Leste, Vietnam participated in the event.

During three days, Director Generals of PTA and senior officials of the telecom operators conducted training sessions on different topics such as biometric verification of SIM users’ data, spectrum management and auction in Pakistan, competition issues in telecom market, online child protection, broadband for networked society, digital financial inclusion and mobile apps, cyber security, consumer protection & quality of Service, OTT players and ICTs for persons with disabilities & women empowerment.

The training covered principles, practices and recommendations which are expected to assist regulators in the Asia-Pacific region in addressing the telecommunication/ICT regulatory challenges.

Mr. Sameer Sharma , Senior Advisor ITU Regional Office for Asia-Pacific said that deliberations through such conferences are helpful in providing international experiences with a focus on current issues and challenges in ICT sector. He said these events have been able to showcase the achievements of Pakistan telecom sector. He appreciated Government of Pakistan for doubling its contribution to ITU. He also thanked PTA for making excellent arrangements for the events.

On this occasion, Chairman PTA Syed Ismail Shah said that this conference was very helpful in highlighting the policy and regulatory issues in the region. He said PTA will continue to host such events in future also to have fruitful discussions. Participants from various countries including Nepal, China, India and Papua New Guinea appreciated hospitality extended to them by the host country.

Senate to Pass Cyber Crime Bill Next Week

The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication is all set to pass the amended “Electronic Crime Bill 2016” on Monday, proposing a maximum punishment of 14 years with fine of Rs 50 million for cyber terrorism to deal with the growing cyber threats.

The amended Bill will be moved to Senate of Pakistan on Tuesday and will be passed from the House during the same week, told us sources who are directly aware of the situation.

It must be noted that bill must get passed from senate with-in next week or it will expire as Senate will meet again from August 18 for new session, when the deadline will lapse.

According to the amended Bill, it will also apply to any act committed outside Pakistan by any person if the act constitutes an offense under this Act and affects a person, property, information system, data or device located in Pakistan.

The committee met with Shahi Syed in the chair here on Friday to consider the prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill 2016.

Bill Must Get Passed Next Week or It May Lapse

It maybe recalled that different stakeholders — including social media and civil society  — had given written proposals/suggestions to the committee and it decided to consider and incorporate the recommendations that are appropriate by Monday next week.

Social activists are fearing that their concerns may largely remain unaddressed and amended bill won’t be any different from original bill.

However, some Senators raised serious concerns over the proposed legislation, while saying that common men has not been given due safeguards.

The amended proposed law will not be applicable provided that where the violation is committed by a licensee of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the same shall be deemed to be a violation of terms and conditions of the licensee and shall be treated as such under the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act, 1996.

Senator Shibli Faraz said that the proposed legislation seems to be a sweeping one where no check has been made to protect general public rights.

Senator Fahatullah Baber raised concerns on the chapter dealing with international cooperation while saying that we should move very cautiously and safeguards are needed. He proposed that requests from outside world should come through a designated agency and should not be received through multiple agencies.

He further proposed only that Judiciary (High Court) should also be involved before releasing any requested information to an out-side country.

Baber further proposed that federal government should require the foreign governments, any foreign agency or any international agency to keep the information confidential or use it subject to some conditions.

He further proposed that all the requests should be routed through Foreign Office and Embassies while Attorney General should be bound to public that how many requests were received and how such requests were treated after every six months to avoid blackmailing through agencies.

Committee Chairman appreciated the efforts of the Ministry while saying that the law should have passed ten years ago; however, he said that it is still better to frame such law and overcome cyber crimes.

He said that such laws are the requirements of the age.

The committee also saw an awkward situation at one stage, when Committee Chairman and Senator Kareem Khawaja exchanged harsh words, and asked each others to shut their mouths and the former suspended the meeting.

Khawaja accused the chairman for supporting the IT ministry Bill blindly while ignoring his Bill. However Shahi Syed clarified that it was not his own Bill.

However other Senators went after and brought back both the legislators and resumed the proceeding of the committee.

The committee would meet again on Monday to finalize and pass the Bill.

Mobile Phone Imports Grow Marginally in 2015-16

Mobile phone imports in Pakistan increased by 4.23 percent during the financial year 2015-16 as compared to the same period of previous year.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), total imports of mobile phone stood at $753.22 million in 2015-16, slightly up from $722.622 million in the same period previous year.

Overall telecom imports saw decline of 0.86 percent during July 2015 to June 2016 as compared to the same period in the previous year.

Total telecom imports were recorded at $1.365 billion in 2015-16 compared to $1.377 billion in the same period of previous year.

Other telecom apparatus import also witnessed significant decline of 6.48 percent during this period as it stood at $612.113 million during July-June (2015-16) against $654.508 million during the same period of last year.

Smartphone Penetration During Next Few Years:

According to analysts, telecom sector has come to a brim with respect to infrastructure investment and other apparatus, therefore decline in overall telecom import is justifiable.

However, mobile phone import bill is likely to grow during years to come. Early adaption of 3G/4G service — that now account to some 29 million subscriptions — is majorly consumed by users who were already smartphone users.

This trend is changing with time as more and more consumers have already started to shift to smartphones, mainly to access 3G and 4G services or even otherwise to use OTT services (such as Skype, Whatsapp) over WiFi.

Other incentives for smartphone adaption include better user experience and value added services such as video streaming, better photography and gaming.

Predictions suggest that smartphones are expected to cross 50 percent of mobile phones in Pakistan in next three years.

With three 4G players now — Zong, Telenor and Waird/Mobilink — a big jump in 4G smartphone is also expected during next 2-3 years.

Zong alone, and partly Warid, couldn’t generate such buzz and demand for 4G, however with Telenor and Mobilink jumping into race this trend is going to shift and more 4G handsets are likely to start emerging in Pakistan, indicating a rapid increase in import bill of smartphones as imminent.

Pakistan Among Countries With Lowest Internet Penetration: ITU

Pakistan ranks among the countries with lowest internet penetration in the world, indicating that the recent internet uptake during past two years isn’t enough and a lot is still to be done.

Recent most ICT Facts and Figures (2016) released by International Telecommunication Union reveal that Pakistan — with some 18% internet users — is ranked alongside African countries for internet penetration.

Pakistan specific stats reveal that majority of internet users are connected with wireless broadband (3G and 4G) while fixed broadband (DSL, FTTH) still accounts for less than 3% of Pakistan’s population, as compared with 10-12 percent in fixed broadband globally.

World’s Offline Population

ITU emphasized that a 53% of global population, especially in developing worlds, remains cut-off from internet. ITU said that this is happening regardless of the fact that prices for ICT services are falling in almost every market.

More detailed global map of internet penetration in the world is given below:

Global Mobile Broadband Reach

Seven billion people (95% of the global population) live in an area that is covered by a mobile-cellular network (2G at least).

Mobile-broadband networks (3G or above) reach 84% of the global population but only 67% of the rural population.

Advanced mobile-broadband networks (LTE) have spread quickly over the last three years and reach almost four billion people today – corresponding to 53% of the global population.

But while the number of mobile-broadband subscriptions continues to grow at double digit rates in developing countries to reach a penetration rate of close to 41%, mobile-broadband penetration growth has slowed overall.

Globally, the total number of mobile-broadband subscriptions is expected to reach 3.6 billion by end 2016, compared with 3.2 billion at end 2015.

Fixed broadband growth 

Global fixed-broadband subscriptions are expected to reach around 12 per 100 inhabitants in 2016, with Europe, the Americas and the Commonwealth of Independent States regions having the highest rates of penetration.

Strong growth in China is driving fixed-broadband in Asia and the Pacific, where penetration is expected to surpass 10% by end of 2016.

ICT prices continue to fall

Mobile-broadband services have now become more affordable than fixed-broadband services, with the average price for a basic fixed-broadband plan more than twice as high as the average price of a comparable mobile-broadband plan.

By the end of 2015, 83 developing countries — including Pakistan — had achieved the Broadband Commission’s affordability target.

Digital Divide

By the end of 2016, more than half of the world’s population – 3.9 billion people – will not yet be using the Internet.

While almost one billion households in the world now have Internet access (of which 230 million are in China, 60 million in India and 20 million in the world’s 48 Least Developed Countries), figures for household access reveal the extent of the digital divide, with 84% of households connected in Europe, compared with 15.4% in the African region.

Global online gender gap widens

Internet penetration rates are higher for men than for women in all regions of the world.

The global Internet user gender gap grew from 11% in 2013 to 12% in 2016. The regional gender gap is largest in Africa, at 23%, and smallest in the Americas, at 2%.

Internet bandwidth

By early 2016, international Internet bandwidth had reached 185,000 gigabits per second, up from a low of 30,000 gigabits in 2008.

However, bandwidth is unequally distributed globally, and lack of bandwidth remains a major bottleneck to improved Internet connectivity in many developing and Least Developed Countries.

ITU Nominates Anusha Rehman as Commissioner of Broadband Commission

Anusha Rehman, Minister for IT and Telecom, has been nominated by International Telecommunication Union as Commissioner of its “Broadband Commission for Digital Development”, we have checked with Ministry of IT officials.

Broadband Commission is an international body governed under ITU and is meant for the proliferation of broadband in the world.

The Broadband Commission engages in high-level advocacy to promote broadband in developing countries and under-served communities. In doing so, the Commission leverages its high-profile Commissioners to spread the message of Broadband for Sustainable Development at key events, conferences and functions.

Anusha Rehman happens to be first Pakistan to become the commissioner of Broadband Commission.

Other commissioners of Broadband Commission include heads of statea, chairpersons of telecom groups, experts from telecom, academia and other relevant businesses from across the world.

Her selection is primarily the result of work she has done in uptaking the internet penetration in Pakistan.

Anusha’s nomination on this international forum is a recognition of her invaluable services by global community, which she successfully rendered in arena of broadband.

At the time of joining her office in 2013, internet penetration in Pakistan was less than 3 percent which is now hovering around 19 percent. During her tenure Pakistan successfully conducted two spectrum auctions in which four telecom companies were granted 3G licenses while two operators were granted 4G spectrum.

Huawei Sales Increase by 40% in First Half of 2016

Huawei is looking set to join the big leagues in the smartphone business. The company has announced its revenue figures for the first half of 2016 and they are already 40-percent higher than what they were a year ago, reaching $36.8 billion.

The number outranks the growth margin of 30 percent which Huawei experienced over the same duration a year before. It hasn’t announced how many smartphones or accessories it sold during this half but it could be a sizeable gap over the 48.2 million phones it shipped in H1 2015.

It has already recorded shipments of more than 28 million in Q1 of 2016 already. With sales for the new P9 and P9 Plus flagships still going fairly strong, the company is likely seeing a sizeable increase in demand.

A concern which the Chinese company could face in the future are the declining operating margins. Over the same time past year, they declined 6-percent to just 12 percent for H1 2016, something which could likely be attributed to an increased focus towards smartphones.

We are confident that Huawei will maintain its current momentum, and round out the full year in a positive financial position backed by sound ongoing operations. – Huawei CFO Sabrina Meng

The strong statistics mean Huawei is on course to meet its target of reaching $75 billion in revenues for the year, its highest ever.

Last year, Huawei became the first Chinese manufacturer to record 100 million units in sales. With increasing revenues, it is looking well on course to become the third biggest smartphone company there is.

PTA Organizes Pakistan ICT Indicators Symposium

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA),Ministry of Information Technology & Telecom (MoIT) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) jointly organized ‘Pakistan ICT Indicators Symposium’ under the theme of ”Multi-stakeholder Engagement to Highlight the need of ICT Data Reporting” at PTA Headquarters today.

The Chief Guest of the event was Ms. Anusha Rehman Khan, Minister of State for Information Technology & Telecommunications (MOIT&T) and Mr. Rizwan Bashir Khan, Secretary, MOIT, was the guest of honor. Chairman PTA, Dr. Syed Ismail Shah, Mr. Tahir Mushtaq, Member (HRD), MoIT, Mr. Sameer Sharma, Senior Advisor, ITU Asia-Pacific. Mr. Tariq Sultan, Member (Finance) Mr. Abdul Samad, Member (Compliance & Enforcement) PTA were present on this occasion. Representatives from MOIT&T, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), Telecom Operators, international organizations, donor agencies, DGs of different Divisions of PTA and senior officers of the Authority attended the event.

On this occasion, Ms. Anusha Rehman Khan said that ICTs indicators are related to newly formulated Sustainable Development Goals. Since we all know that SDGs of the United Nations (UN) represent a renewed commitment of the 193 country leaders to ending poverty, combat hunger, and disease, and promote social justice and human dignity. She said that it is imperative to mention that ICT indicators are the key enablers to achieve multiple SDGs. ICT indicators can also help monitor achievements in other areas included in the SDGs, such as poverty reduction, education and economic growth.  We all need to take a proactive approach to develop a comprehensive mechanism to collect all relevant ICT data. The Minister said that Pakistan has shown tremendous growth in telecom sector over the last few years and it has also achieved some exceptional milestones. Similarly, on the policy front, finalization and approval of a comprehensive Telecommunication Policy is yet another milestone achieved, she further added.

Earlier, addressing the event Secretary, MOIT said that the Government is committed to enhance the quality of manpower in the ICT sector. We will continue to provide the necessary support to the industry. He said that we need the effort and close cooperation from all of us including operators, equipment manufacturers and content providers for the contribution of ICT sector in GDP. He appreciated the efforts of PTA towards proliferation of ICT sector of the country. He further said that local content and applications have generated new forms of consumption and attracted large number of consumers.

Chairman PTA said in his welcome address that to take advantage of the rapidly changing society, governments need to monitor and benchmark progress in order to design and review national policies and strategies. In order to do so, reliable data and indicators on the access and use of ICTs, and their impact on development have to be defined and collected. Chairman said that such data and indicators help governments design and evaluate ICT policies and strategies, compare their ICT developments with those in other countries and adopt solutions to reduce the digital divide. These rankings also depicts the current snapshot of country’s ICT profile that is a key parameter for investors to analyze market and to take an informed decision of their investment opportunity in the country, Chairman further added.

At the symposium, Mr. Tahir Mushtaq, Member (HRD), MoIT highlighted Ministry of IT role in the betterment of ICT Indicators.  Mr. Sameer Sharma Senior Advisor, ITU Asia-Pacific  introduced ITU’s work on ICT indicators measurement.

Mr. Tariq Sultan Member (Finance), PTA briefed about PTA efforts for improving the ICT profile of Pakistan. Dr. Muhammad Saleem, DG, PTA shared his views on telecom data collection  by PTA, Ms. Rabia Awan, Director, PBS  and, Mr. Attiq-ur Rehman, Director, PBS, gave presentations on ICT household data collection by PBS, and Mr. Zafar ul Hassan, Project Director, Ministry of Planning, shared about development and reform ICT indicators & effective monitoring of  SDGs.

Mr. Abdul Samad, Member (Compliance & Enforcement), PTA moderated a session under the theme “removing impediments on ICT data collection & way forward. Mr. Arif Sargana, Director (CA), PTA , Mr. Syed Ali Abbas Hasani, Director, PSEB, and Mr. Sikander Naqi representative from CMOs also shared their views on  removing impediments on ICT data collection & way forward. Further the symposium provided opportunities to the stakeholders such as ITU, PBS, MOIT&T to shared their perspective and opinions on improving ICTs data collection and reflecting true picture of the progress in telecom sector of the country. At the end of symposium Chief Guest presented shields to the speakers.

It may be mentioned that State Minister for IT&T, Ms. Anusha Rehman Khan, has been appointed by ITU Secretary General as Broadband Commissioner for sustainable development of international Telecommunication Union (ITU). ITU and UNESCO set up the Broadband Commission for Digital Development in response to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s call to step-up UN efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Careem Offers Telenor Users a First-Time 35% Discount and Free WiFi

Careem and Telenor have partnered to provide discounted fares to customers who use Telenor’s service. Careem is a transportation company quite similar to a cab service which connects the captains (drivers) with the customers via its app.

Details about the Offer

The transportation service will be giving a discount of 35% to Telenor customers for their first ride using Careem. Furthermore, all customers will now have access to free wifi during the ride. The captains will also be able to avail special data packages from Telenor.

The discount will be available from 26th July till 9th August for business and economy users both for their first ride only. You can use the promotional code Telenor35 to avail the discount while booking a ride.

Careem operates in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Internationally Careem operates in the UAE and Saudi Arabia as well. Careem’s service is different from regular cab services in that it offers an app for its customers in addition to hailing a cab via a call.

Telenor and Careem Partnership

Telenor Pakistan’s CEO Michael Foley added,

With Careem, Telenor subscribers will not only enjoy cheaper and more comfortable rides, but also WIFI connectivity on the go. We will continue to look for newer avenues of serving our valued customers.

Managing Director of Careem Junaid Iqbal also commented on this new partnership saying that they are happy with this crucial deal with Telenor. He said that the agreement between Telenor Pakistan and Careem will help them explore newer prospects for them to further accommodate their customers, and that they will explore more options on expanding upon this agreement and their joint venture in general.

Watch Out: These CCTV Cameras Can Steal Your ATM Pins

Cameras are placed on all ATMs now for security reasons. But sometimes the same camera can prove to be a security risk itself. Wondering how? Let’s have a look:

On a UBL ATM in Centaurus, Islamabad, a CCTV camera is placed at such a point where the ATM keypad is clearly visible. When an ATM user punches the keys for entering their pin code, it is seen in pictures. Now any person with malicious intent in the bank watching the CCTV footage can notice a user’s pin code and do with it as they please.

Not to mention that if the CCTV stream is hacked somehow, the users are easy prey for hackers.

This becomes a big question mark on the security of users’ accounts, though it may be a co-incidence. But that’s besides the point since it is not at all acceptable. This is a security, privacy, and rules breach by the respective bank itself. Certain questions arise regarding this act of sheer negligence:

Is it in the notice of respective bank branch? It must be! As the CCTV footage is pretty clear. So has the branch manager or administration taken any step to remove the camera from that particular point?

Is it done intentionally by any malevolent bank employee or the camera installing person? Has the bank admin done any investigation?

Is there any theft or misuse of a user’s account reported to the bank administration? If yes, have they taken any step?

Has the bank branch placed a notice there for users to operate the keypad secretively till the camera position is changed?

Is this an isolated instance or do such cameras exist at other ATMs as well?

A few weeks ago, another financial and banking scam came to surface. Some people fixed a sort of secret scanner into the ATMs where the card is inserted. It was used to read the data from ATM card and the robbers made transactions from many accounts. That way, tens of thousands of rupees were looted.

If a bank fails in such basic security, it loses credibility. And once that happens, people will be hesitant to trust banks with their cash. In fact, such a security breach can lead people to sue the bank because none other than the bank management can be held responsible for such negligence. People don’t tolerate carelessness regards to money that too in the supposed safe hands of bank.

After the coming to light of this security breach, other banks and their users will also get watchful. To stay safe, a simple precaution can save customers from such a theft which is almost impossible to trace. Now almost all the ATMs have biometric devices. Users should start operating the ATMs through biometric instead of pin code. This is the easiest and safest way to use any ATM.

Also the users should report this negligence to the respective bank branch immediately, be aware while using any ATM, and operate keypad secretively. Carefulness is the only solution.

Affordable Xiaomi Redmi Pro Offers an OLED Display & Dual Camera Setup

Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi has just revealed the Redmi Pro, its flagship device for 2016.

Known to make affordable smartphones with top notch features, Xiaomi is a popular brand across the world, including Pakistan (however these devices are officially banned by PTA as per media reports).

Redmi series from Xiaomi is aimed at budget conscious smartphone customers who want to get “big” smartphones and top features without spending much.

The main highlight of Redmi Pro is the “Dual Camera” consisting of a 13 MP Sony IMX 258 sensor and secondary 5MP Samsung camera, which actually gives you control over depth of field or simply the bokeh effect in your pictures.

Redmi Pro comes with a brushed aluminum body and a 2.5D curved front featuring a 5.5 FHD display with OLED panel, for brighter colors and rich contrast.

On the inside, this phone is packed with Helio X25 10-Core Processor with clock speeds up to 2.5 GHz and Mali – T880 GPU. To support the high performance CPU, there is a duo of 4GB RAM and 128GB built in storage. You can also use an SD card to expand storage.

This phone packs a dual-SIM hybrid slot and does support VoLTE, along with other connectivity features such as 4G LTE, Bluetooth, GPS, and Wi-Fi 802.11ac.

The specs card also includes a finger print scanner on the front, USB Type-C port and a 4050mAh battery. There is no official word on quick charge, but it must be there. The phones also gives you control over TVs and other home appliances via IR Blaster.

On the software side, the Redmi Pro runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow wrapped under Xiaomi’s custom MIUI 8.

This phone will be available in three colors; Gold, Silver, Dark Grey. The price for 3GB/32GB version is $224 (Rs. 24,000), for 3GB/64GB is $255 (Rs. 27,000) and for 4GB/128GB is $300 (Rs. 32,000).

The Chinese manufacturer claims it has sold over 110 million Redmi phones around the world as of July 2016. Xiaomi might not get the green light to start sales in Pakistan anytime soon, but we can expect that in couple of couple of months Redmi Pro will be available in the Pakistan market (unofficially), but with a higher price tag.

Swiss Bank Account Details Will Be Made Public: Ishaq Dar

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar stated on Tuesday that those who have billions of rupees in their Swiss accounts will no longer be able to escape the law, as all the details of their accounts will be revealed to the public.

Recently when he was interviewed by Geo News, Dar said that Switzerland and Pakistan have reached an agreement pertaining to information sharing on Pakistani accounts in the Swiss banks.

The minister said that officials from Switzerland and Pakistan have finalized the first draft of the accord.

“Initials of the two parties have been put on the draft proposal, while the signatures are yet to be done and will be put down once they have completed their internal code formalities.” – Ishaq Dar

He continued by saying that the government doesn’t intend to take any additional help from International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The finance minister also added that he believes that no further IMF support will be required by Pakistan in the future.

He said the foreign exchange treasury in Pakistan is currently at its highest ever number at US$23 billion. “When our party came to power this figure was at US$6 billion and we had to clear US$2.8 billion by the subsequent February.”

The minister also said, “Pakistan required this program at that time because the predictable reserves were not sufficient enough to return the previous loans.”

Coming down to IMF program, he stated that US$4.5 billion has been paid off so far to the monetary agency.

Xiaomi Notebook Air: Is It a Macbook Killer?

Xiaomi is known to announce multiple products at their launch events. In addition to announcing theRedmi Pro, the Chinese company announced its new laptop line called the Mi Notebook Air which run Windows 10.

The Mi Notebook Air

There are two versions available in this line currently, with a 13.3 inch version and a 12.5 inch version. The two variants feature a slim form factor with a 1080p (1920 x 1080) screen resolution, slim under-glass bezels, a 1 MP camera which they somehow added with the tiny bezels, a backlit keyboard, a USB type-C port for charging as well as metallic designs. Curiously, the laptops don’t have any logo on the outside.

The 13.3 inch version is 14.28 millimeters thick and weighs in at 1.28 Kilograms. It houses an Intel Core i5-6200U processor with 8GB of DDR4 RAM and an Nvidia GTX 940MX with 1GB memory. It also has a 256GB SSD installed in the PCIe slot for more read and write speeds with an extra SATA slot for expansion which can only be serviced by Xiaomi. It costs 4,999 Yuan or Rs. 78,545.

It also happens to be thinner and lighter than the 13 inch Macbook Air on top of having a 40 Wh battery which lasts 9.5 hours according to Xiaomi and also supports fast charging via the USB type-C port and can go from 0 to 50% battery in just half an hour.

The Cheaper Mi Notebook

The smaller 12.5 inch Mi Notebook takes it to the next level by being even thinner and lighter than the 13.3 inch version with a thickness of 12.9 millimeters and weighing 1.07 Kilograms.

With lower price however the specs are also less beefy compared to the the bigger Mi Notebook. It contains an Intel Core m3 processor, 4 GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and no dedicated GPU. It does however have a free PCIe slot which you can upgrade via Xiaomi later on. There’s just one USB 3.0 port compared with two on the 13.3 inch Mi Notebook.

The good thing about the cheaper variant is that you get two more hours of time out of your battery for the 12.5 inch Mi Notebook. It costs 3,499 Yuan or Rs. 54,977.

Xiaomi’s Mi Notebook Air is launching in China on August 2nd. There is no information on when it’ll be available in Pakistan or when Xiaomi officially launches any other product in Pakistan. We will keep you posted on when they do.

New VAIO Laptops Are All Looks & No Substance

VAIO is the premiere brand that is famous for its svelte and industrial-inspired design language. The brand was discontinued a few years ago by Sony, much to the horror of its most ardent fans.

But now its back and ready to make a splash.

Coming back from the dead, the VAIO brand is focused mostly on targeting the business and enterprise level customers. Even though VAIO’s new releases are targeted at a different type of customer, it still retains its premium pricing.

Presenting The New VAIO C15 Series of Laptops

The new C15 series of laptops are a class apart from other consumer grade alternatives. Their main differentiating feature is the color customization options which include:

• Yellow/black
• White/Copper
• Navy/Gray
• Orange/Khaki

The company calls these the “fashionable PC” series.

Thats all it has going for it though, at least when it comes to the pricing.

Specs and Pricing

The regular variant of this VAIO C15 comes with a 15.5 inch screen with a 1366 x 768 resolution and contains 4GB RAM with an Intel Celeron 3215U processor. For all that you need to pay 66,800 Yen or 66,391 Rupees which is keeping with the brand image of the VAIO series.

The other stores will sell these models for 94,800 yen or Rs. 94,193 approximately.

Note that this price is for the regular model. You can also upgrade to an Intel Core i3 processor with 8GB of RAM and a 1080p (1920 x 1080) screen for an equally heavy price which was not mentioned.

All things considered, this looks like a laptop for the most ardent fans of Sony and its VAIO brand.