2011 in Focus: Pakistan IT Industry Records Golden Year in History

2011 marked as a golden year in the Information and Technology (IT) industry of Pakistan with lots of unprecedented achievements, solid developments and emerging potential, building a strong hope towards the bright future of the country.

Here are highlights of major achievement of Pakistan in 2011

Pakistan Fast Growth 25

Pakistan Fast Growth 25, a ranking of fast growth entrepreneurial companies, listed 10 IT companies on its index first time. It was a tremendous achievement from the industry to get recognized at national level.

The Pakistan Fast Growth 25 is a program of the AllWorld Network in partnership with Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter and was launched in collaboration with JS Bank Limited.

Official Game for ICC 2011 Cricket World Cup

Pakistani games development company, Mindstorm Studios successfully developed the “Official Game” for the ICC 2011 Cricket World Cup.

The game, “Cricket Power” (www.cricketpower.com), is the most advanced 3D browser cricket game developed to date. It features all 14 official teams along with official players, stadiums and kits, and is played directly in the browser.

Pak-India ICT Firms Vow To Enhance Trade up to $5 billion

Pakistani and Indian IT committee of Aman Ki Asha successfully held the bilateral talks separately on both sides of borders in March – aimed at enhancing trade ties in the field of IT, which is one of six sectors with great trade attraction between two countries.

Pakistanis and Indian IT titans have decided to carry on their efforts for developing an “India-Pakistan e-land” at the border where people can meet, interact, teach, learn and jointly develop intellectual property.

It was deliberated in the talks that Pakistan and India could boost their mutual trade in Information and Technology (IT) sector up to colossal US$ 5 billion through joint-ventures, investment and exchange of expertise.

Netsol Deal with Indian company

Pakistan’s one of the top ICT companies, Netsol, has been engaged with Indian companies to provide applications of financial services.

It signed an agreement with an India firm to sell its product “Netsol Financial Suite” to a global auto leasing company operating in India.

Google Grants To Social Innovators

This is first time in the history of the country that a global IT giant has granted seed money to a local association for any social cause.

Google Inc, has granted $250,000 to Pakistan Software Houses Association, that launched Pasha Fund for distributing the allocated amount to the 25 talented innovators.

There are more than 64 applications shortlisted out of more than 300 proposals submitted.

The purpose of the social innovation fund is primarily to aid talented young people having innovative ideas for identifying and driving solutions of social and community challenges.

So far four individuals were selected for funding their projects.

Pepper.pk Mobile Apps Hit No.1 Spot

Pepper.pk application has hit the number one spot on the global Blackberry marketplace, App World. The application, called LED Notifier Pro, has been immensely popular since its launch and is currently ranked the best selling Blackberry application in the world.

Pepper.pk is no stranger to success or the world number one spot. Their Photo Editor for BlackBerry Smartphones has occupied the #1 rank on App World twice in the past three months and has received an overwhelming amount of global media coverage.

TenPearls Wins Nokia Contest Twice

Pakistani firm TenPearls has marked another record as it has bagged 2nd position and received a $50,000 cash prize at ‘Nokia & AT&T Innovators 2011 Contest’.

This is the second award TenPearls has received for its mobile app named “Animal 101” within a year in which it competed against more than 800 entrants for top spots.

The first award was the 1st prize that TenPearls received for the uTrack mobile app earlier in 2011 for the same platform in Pakistan

Ten Pearl was successful to attract buyer and entered into a deal with Indian company for creating different mobile apps.

Pakistan Shines at APICTA

One of the major achievement of the country, when Pakistan was declared as winner of two gold and five silver awards at 11th annual Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) 2011 in Pattaya, Thailand.

Pakistani ICT firms secured two Gold awards in the e-Health and e-Logistics & SCM categories and 5 silvers in the Communication, Financial, Security, E-Inclusion & E-Community and E-Government categories.

Pakistan’s team comprised of 18 products which were competing with 162 different products from the Asia Pacific region.