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Pakistan president`s `successful` tour to USA fetched USD three Billion. Going by that standard, forecast for IT industry, $43bn by 2006 is not bad. Thats also quite some contrast with the results Pakistan is getting in this area. High time we start building an infrastructure at MoST, IT&T Div. and HEC with the capacity to operate in the new times. At present, they get HR from the same pool of civil servants as police and railways etc. Hence no reason to believe that they will deliver anything different from police or railways etc.

Enjoy.

yours truly

tayyab rashid
Contacttayyab@yahoo.com

India`s IT market to be worth $43 bn by 2006: IDC
Agence France-Presse
Bangalore, July 30
India`s IT market was forecast by an industry monitor on Wednesday to grow 27.9 per cent annually to be worth Rs 1.96 trillion ($42.6 billion) by 2006. International Data Corp said India`s IT sector was more stable than the worldwide market and total domestic spending on information technology would grow 21 per cent every year to reach Rs 559 billion within three years.

``The last year for the information technology industry was full of
fearuncertainty and doubt and decision being taken with a great degree of
trepidation,`` said IDC India managing director, Pradeep Gupta.

``This was mainly attributed to the dot-com crash......................

Full document may be found at http://tinyurl.com/ihoz

Here is a neat web site
http://hbsworkingknowledge.hbs.edu

New Rules for IT Management


by Nicholas G. Carr

With the opportunities for gaining strategic advantage from information technology rapidly disappearing, many companies will want to take a hard look at how they invest in IT and manage their systems. As a starting point, here are three guidelines for the future:

Spend less. Studies show that the companies with the biggest IT investments rarely post the best financial results. As the commoditization of ITcontinues, the penalties for wasteful spending will only grow larger. It is getting much harder to achieve a competitive advantage through an IT investment, but it is getting much easier to put your business at a cost disadvantage.

Follow, don`t lead. Moore`s Law guarantees that the longer you wait to make an IT purchase, the more you`ll get for your money. And waiting will decrease your risk of buying something technologically flawed or doomed to rapid obsolescence. In some cases, being on the cutting edge makes sense. But those cases are becoming rarer and rarer as IT capabilities become more homogenized.

Focus on vulnerabilities, not opportunities. It`s unusual for a company to gain a competitive advantage through the distinctive use of a mature infrastructural technology, but even a brief disruption in the availability of the technology can be devastating. As corporations continue to cede control over their IT applications and networks to vendors and other third parties, the threats they face will proliferate. They need to prepare themselves for technical glitches, outages, and security breaches, shifting their attention from opportunities to vulnerabilities

Excepted from ``IT Doesn`t Matter,`` Harvard Business Review, Vol. 81, No. 5, May 2003.

Excerpts from various posts - I have read through each response and tried to develop an insighful selection, reflective of the debate so far - should be of interest especially to new visitors. Ofcourse, the article above is evolving and will become complete when read along with the comments.

Tayyab Rashid
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

#62 by soysauce on July 15, 2003 1:11pm PT
Atta UrRhman is a chemist, right? How did he get to be the IT minister?

#61 by arjun_m on July 15, 2003 11:31am PT
A must read for all IT professionals..
http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/talks/HowToKeepYourJob/HTKYJ.html

#60 by adnan_rafiq on July 15, 2003 11:13am PT
After all is said and done, IT is about helping businesses cut costs. For a brief period, in the late 90s, IT was seen as a strategic asset that was actually driving the US economy and, subsequently, the world economy. Those days are over

#59 by Zakkk on July 15, 2003 10:27am PT
49: Romair, Ata Ur Rehman has been reappointed S&T Minister

#56 by ZahraJ on July 14, 2003 9:41pm PT

Human beings require peace and harmony in order to function to the best of their abilities. People do not move to the US to only start putting dollars in their pockets. They like to be in sane, safe and systematic environment with some law and order in place. ……. I am able to concentrate in a better manner on things that I need to focus on vs. considering the cab driver as a kidnapper or being waylaid.

55 by ironman on July 14, 2003 4:14pm PT
Wonder why no one mentioned it yet, but did not pakistanis create the first virus called ...(ahem)...PAKISTANI BRAIN!?

#51 by SyedAhmed on July 14, 2003 10:57am PT
….. Pakistan is poised to produce thousands of techno -donkeys instead of just ``unskilled`` donkeys ... Hopefully that will create the mulch needed to form the nucleus of a ``critical`` mass of skilled technologists ....


#50 by tahmed32 on July 14, 2003 9:59am PT
education never goes to waste.

#49 by Romair on July 14, 2003 9:59am PT
A friend of mine just pointed me to an article, in People magazine, which ranked Zia Chishti as one of the 40 most eligible bachelors in the USA, alongside Tiger Woods, Ben Affleck and others.

I met Dr. Atta on one of his US tours, and had a chance to talk to him. He seems to have things figured out quite well.


#48 by faisaluno on July 14, 2003 7:59am PT

http://www.pseb.org.pk/News/FindingOppor.cfm

Finding Opportunities in Post-9/11 Pakistan
Growing Economy Sparks Return of Capital, Expertise
Washington Post Foreign Service

LAHORE, Pakistan -- Terrorism, nuclear threats, a history of political turmoil and military rule -- when it comes to scaring off investors, Pakistan seems to have covered all the bases. Unless your name is Zia Chishti.


#47 by arjun_m on July 14, 2003 7:59am PT
#18 by Romair on July 13, 2003 8:09am PT

++
I regularly interview IIT grads, and every now and then end up interviewing LUMS/GIK etc.
++

You interview IIT grads?? ROTFLMAO...

Captain Clueless..Asking an IIT grad ``Welcome to McDonalds, may i take your order`` is a question at best..not an interview..


#45 by Faruk on July 14, 2003 7:13am PT
Romair # 37
So how much do IIT professors make and how much do LUMS & GIK professors make ?

#43 by jay on July 14, 2003 7:13am PT
The patheic romair says there are no professors for IT, what can you expect, when the madrassa graduates are the elected reps, it makes no sense for any one o study anywhere other than in madrassa.

#40 by warpster on July 13, 2003 9:53pm PT
Besides the intellectual aspect in any discipline, the social aspect is often overlooked. Networking, understanding the academic culture and values, having good mentors etc. turn out to be very critical and neglected

34 by SyedAhmed on July 13, 2003 8:05pm PT
This article is complete gibberish. - ...Ata is trying to the right thing to gear the national education policy towards science and technology-

Education in Government hands has been a disaster in Pakistan - not because Government cant manage education - but because the Pakistani Government cant manage anything. Ata ur REhman should be applauded for tryingto change a culture…{Dr. Atta IS NOT GOVERNMENT Mr. Ahmed??}
Pakistan still has a long way to go - I say more power to Ata and others like him - and damn the naysayers....

#32 by arjun_m on July 13, 2003 6:05pm PT

Zia was busy getting F-16s from America and in the process, he was willing to accept madrassahs..
Nehru was a flaming socialist commie rat....but he got US help in building the IITs.
See what i`m getting at?

28 by ZahraJ on July 13, 2003 3:11pm PT

Internal infrastructure contributes to the stability of any nation. If you are internally weak(whether you want to admit this on a public forum or not that`s besides the points) then you cannot expect yourself to do XYZ that India is doing. You should keep on moving without letting go of the root cause of all your problems.

#27 by virtue on July 13, 2003 3:11pm PT
Difference between IT education and CS degree:
IT -> a 6 month diploma form Mullah Jatt Institue of COMPOTTER TECHNALAGY - some of the popular ones in Pakistan include CCNA, CCNP, Web Dev. , A+, Oracle and the list goes on.
Whereas Computer Science -> Algorithms, Data Structures, Digital Hardware, Software Development, Operating Systems, Artificial Intelligence to name a few.

#25 by Romair on July 13, 2003 3:11pm PT
I think you are greatly under-selling the education one gets in the Pakistan military. I wouldn`t trade it for the world.

#24 by ruswaa on July 13, 2003 3:11pm PT

If I was an American or European COO of a medium/large sized corporation that wanted to outsource work to save $$$, Pakistan would be the last place I`d go to. Since `99, there has been a coup, a war in neighbouring Afghanistan, persisten troubles in Kashmir, major bomb blasts in Karachi and sectarian killings (that latest being Quetta ofcourse).

#23 by Romair on July 13, 2003 3:11pm PT
Nortel and JDS Uniphase have not gone belly-up yet. …….. They have gone down, not because of what the produced, but due to extremely poor management decisions.

#1 by ahmedmadani on July 12, 2003 1:13pm PT
I am one of those stupid persons who wasted 26000 rs to educate one of my daughter in so called IT education. I was so mesmarised that I began to dream of starting my self part time education. For 26,000 Rs. my daughter got nothing she says. They told us in beginning that she can soon be getting job in usa etc. They sold dreams. The instructors were not very educated. Few of them who were USA returned they were in recruiting rather than teaching. Its was great robbery under name of IT education and opportunity of getting jobs in usa. Its sad all Hype bu DR.Atta was Lafangebazi. A bad money robbing by USA return white collared criminal selling cruel fake dreams of usa.

In a press briefing by HEC Reprted in Dawn July 19th 2003 ( http://www.dawn.com/2003/07/19/nat13.htm ) an official source of Higher Education Commission (HEC) said ``Only three Rawalpindi-Islamabad based private sector universities have the degree-awarding status``. Criteria for establishment of private universities was outlined. For details, please see the detailed report in Dawn.

The report concludes. `` When the HEC chairman, Dr Attaur Rehman, was asked if an institution didn`t meet the above criteria in the given grace period, what would be the status of the degrees issued meanwhile, HE REMAINED QUIET. ``

Tayyab Rashid

I cannot stand forward and give praise or blame to anything which relates to human action,and human concerns on a simple view of the object,as it stands stripped of every relation,in all the nakedness and solitude of metaphysical abstraction.Circumstances (which with some gentlemen pass for nothing) give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing colour and discriminating effect.The circmstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind....Is it because liberty in the abstract may be classed amongst the blessings of mankind,that I am seriously to felicitate a mad-man,who has escaped from the protecting restraint and wholesome darkness of his cell,on his restoration to the enjoyment of light and liberty? Am I to congratulate a highwayman and murderer, who has broke prison, upon the recovery of his natural rights?

Correction:

The copies aren`t old. They are the latest ones that I have not even browsed through.

Thanks.

I had been meaning to share this information since it pertains to Engineering & Technology: All the students out there must look into this free subscription or sign-up for it on their website.

www.diversitycareers.com

Those who are ready to embark on their journey into practical life after completing their undergrad, must look into various companies and their requirements. It also gives an insight into what different corporations look for in the field of engineering and tech. I will be sending out a few old copies of this magazine to Samina Rizwan in Islamabad. If anyone is interested in looking into the actual magazine and its contents, they must contact Samina by the end of August.

Thanks.

There has not been a formal conclusion to this article.

Parting thoughts:

- The lesson that I have learned about professional life cycle in general is two-fold. There is no such thing known as certainty. And ``working through`` uncertainty is the most valuable experience smart human beings go through. Had everything been so smooth and stable, what would be there to learn and grow.

The following CRIMINALS have made -- the MOST WANTED list -- prepared by the US Army -- for Homicide against American Kids -- AND -- Home Invasion of Iraqi citizens:

George Bush
Donald Rumsfeld
Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Bremer

FALLUJAH, Iraq (July 16) -- The sergeant at the 2nd Battle Combat Team Headquarters pulled me aside in the corridor. ``I`ve got my own `Most Wanted` list,`` he told me.

He was referring to the deck of cards the U.S. government published, featuring Saddam Hussein, his sons and other wanted members of the former Iraqi regime.

``The aces in my deck are Paul Bremer, Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush and Paul Wolfowitz,`` he said.

He was referring to the four men who are running U.S. policy here in Iraq -- the four men who are ultimately responsible for the fate of U.S. troops here.

Those four are not popular at 2nd BCT these days. It is home to 4,000 troops from the 2nd Brigade of the Army`s 3rd Infantry Division.(AP)

Forbes ranked the top A-list companies in the world in various industries. The criteria was,

``ranking of the finest large corporations in the world. We are not just measuring stock prices or profits, but, rather, the ability of a company to expand its sales and income, earning good profits that reward shareholders over the long haul.``

The list for top 8 in software in the world is interesting:

1. Adobe, 2. Infosys, 3. Intuit, 4. Microsoft, 5. Oracle, 6. SAP, 7. Symantec, 8. Wipro

Post 62:

- Musharraf was/is an army general. How did he become the president?
- Nawaz Sharif was a business man. How did he get into governance?

Adnan,

True, when we are discussing literal meaning of IT vs. CS. Acquiring a degree is one thing, application is another. I have ran into various Industrial Engineers in consulting who have been some of the best business analysts. Certain fields provide the subject-depth, but how you market your skillset and where you land up makes a significant difference.

Thanks.

Atta UrRhman is a chemist, right? How did he get to be the IT minister?

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After all is said and done, IT is about helping businesses cut costs. For a brief period, in the late 90s, IT was seen as a strategic asset that was actually driving the US economy and, subsequently, the world economy. Those days are over. IT has been relegated to its former position as a supplementary field that helps different aspects of an organization (finance, accounting, sales, marketing, etc.) to streamline their business processes with an eye toward reducing expenses and inefficiencies.

A lot of people confuse IT with Computer Science in general. While Computer Science has many applications in high-tech research, medical equipment, video games, complex financial analyses, etc., IT is focused on business alone. To that end, its not enough to churn out programmers who understand data structures, algorithms and compilers, but what is required are graduates who understand the vaste landscape of today`s corporations. This is what today`s competitive IT market values. This is also why Indian behemoths such as Tata and Infosys are so successful in luring large contracts away from similar IT shops in other countries.

Given the small number of large corporations in Pakistan, it would be absurd to expect its graduates to have exposure to such large-scale operations, unless, they are sent abroad for higher studies and practical training. The other factor that comes into play is pure economics. Today`s businesses view IT as a cost, not as a strategic asset as was the case in the late 90s. In order for businesses in Pakistan to embrace IT en masse, a cost-benefit analysis needs to be done by the major research universities and the results of their findings must be factored into government policies. Given the high rates of unemployment and cheap labor in Pakistan, it is indeed an uphill battle to convince the typical ``Seth`` to use a computer (which, thanks to WAPDA, is highly unreliable to begin with) instead of a graduate who is more than happy to slave for Rs.5000/month. IT took off in the US only after businesses were convinced that it provides a cheaper and more efficient alternative for many business activities formerly performed by humans. Emphasizing IT in Pakistan is like putting the cart before the horse. The economy has to improve first. Until business processes are defined and re-engineered, economies of scale are achieved, the benefits of operating a computer are less than its human equivalent, and businesses are sophisticated enough to utilize ``information`` feasibly, IT will be nothing more than a pipe dream and a useless ministry.