Karachi's beautiful Sheraton hotel was the venue for P@SHA's 2011 Information Technology Awards

A big shout out to Jehanara, President of the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA), and her management team for organizing a brilliant event last night at Karachi’s gorgeous Sheraton Hotel.

The 8th Annual P@SHA’s ICT (Information and Communication Technology) awards were wonderfully organized, fairly judged and brilliantly presented. The tremendous momentum and growth of Pakistan’s IT industry is plain for all to see and this Awards ceremony is a great showcase. Each year, the entries have been getting more and more sophisticated and wide ranging. A fair number of new companies have been recognized in the 2011 Awards which bodes well for the industry’s future.

If you’d like to check out the list of winners and learn more about the awards, you should click on over to the official P@SHA Awards website.

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PASHA's Launchpad events in Lahore and Karachi are a great way to put your product idea or business on the map!

I must say, a lot of interesting tech events and forums have been arranged recently. First the Blog Awards, then TEDx Karachi, which by the way deserves another post altogether. Now, Jehan Ara, President of PASHA (Pakistan Software Houses Association) has announced that her organization will be starting a series of events appropriately called “Launchpad”. These events, to be held in Lahore and Karachi, will allow entrepreneurs, students and other budding garage inventors to pitch their ideas, business proposals and product visions to get instant feedback from an expert panel of judges. And what’s more, you can even get your idea funded! Or win an award! Not too shabby.

I wholeheartedly support this kind of activity. It’s very necessary for Pakistani entrepreneurs to connect, mingle and improve each others ideas and skills as a result. Innovation must be part of our cultural fabric going forward… I’ve gotten on that soapbox many a time in the past. Suffice to say, the more events like Launchpad and TEDx we can put together in Pakistan, the better we’ll all be for it. Good work PASHA!

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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:

Interview with Jawwad Farid, CEO of Alchemy:

Jehanara's interview with Jawwad Farid

Interview with Amir Husain, CEO of VDIworks:

Interview with Amir Husain, CEO of VDIworks

Interview with Umar Saif, CS Professor at LUMS:

Jehanara's Interview with Dr. Umar Saif (CIO Pakistan - ITLoW)

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Pakistan’s software and IT exports are now in excess of $1BN, and the size of the IT industry, which was reported to be about $2BN last year, has grown to $2.8BN. This was reported by The Daily Times in an article based on a PSEB study and an interview with Pakistan Association of Software Houses (PASHA) President, Jehanara.

Earlier this year, the PSEB (Pakistan Software Export Board) had commissioned a detailed study to calculate not only market size and export totals, but also to get a sense of how the software industry in Pakistan was performing across a variety of metrics, and what common problems were being faced by member companies. The consultants involved with the study sent out detailed questionnaires to registered software companies and spoke with many IT entrepreneurs in Pakistan. Additionally, to calculate exports records of receipts declared to be due to software exports with the State Bank of Pakistan were also used.

It is important to understand that this $1BN number represents more of a floor, or minimum, than an exact figure. There are many companies involved in software export that are not registered with the PSEB. There are several more that are not repatriating 100% of their earnings to their Pakistan HQs and others that are exporting composite products in which the software component is not separately identifiable. Exports by all of these are at least partially unaccounted for in the $1BN number.

For further background, take a look at our earlier reports on Pakistan’s IT industry size and growth.

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