Thursday, February 26, 2004

President, PM Attend Briefing On Space Programme

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan : Feb 26 (PNS) - President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali attended a briefing here Wednesday on Pakistan's Space Programme.

The briefing highlighted the critical importance of exploitation and utilization of space for the socio-economic development of the country. It included recommendations on utilization of PAKSAT-1, plans for the future development of Pakistan's space-based capabilities and development of ground infrastructure and human resources for the optimum utilization of space.

The President and Prime Minister appreciated the efforts Put in by SUPARCO in chalking out a very realistic and comprehensive way forward for Pakistan's space programme. They supported and encouraged SUPARCO's endeavours for the socio-economic development of the country and approved a number of proposals. Ministers for Finance, Information Technology and Telecom, Science and Technology and other senior government functionaries also attended the briefing.

The End.


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Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Note: From PakSEF

IT APEARS LIKE THAT THE NEWS ITEM PUBLISHED IN DAWN AND PAKISSAN REGARDING THE "PAKISTANI SCIENTIST WHO DELVELOPS SECTORIAL MAGNETIC MODEL" IS A HOAX, WE ARE STILL TRYING TO VALIDATE THIS STORY. IF ANY OF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION PLEASE LET AS KNOW ASAP BY EMAILING US AT paksef-pub@yahoogroups.com

THANKS FOR YOUR COOPERATION

PAKSEF PUBLICATIONS TEAM

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Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Pakistani scientist develops Sectorial Magnetic Model

Pakistani scientist develops Sectorial Magnetic Model
http://www.pakissan.com/english/news/2003/jan/pakistani.scientist.shtml
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LAHORE (January 30 2003) : A Pakistani scientist Dr Aurangzeb Hafi has earned a great honour for the country by developing 'Magneto-Agricultural Development Model and Sectorial Magnetic Model' for the first time in the world that will vivid far-looking and long lasting effects on agriculture, environmental and medical sciences, space biology, magnetobotanics, magnetohydrodynamics and multidisciplinary sciences.

Dr Aurangzeb Hafi disclosed this in a press conference here on Wednesday. "In Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, the origin of magnetisation of the magnetised rocks of the moon has been a great puzzle, over the decades, to all the scientists and researchers of the subject.

To come out of this puzzle, no single theory or even epistemologically based theoretical model has yet been evolved. To-date, no text, none of the research papers have given a line of research, which can lead to the factual answer.

The base of research might be a set of clues, or theoretical model, or simply an assumption, based on factual findings, on which due to it being irrefutable, a strong line and some track of research can be drawn," he claimed.

The mechanism of this relationship is not yet clearly understood, even among the world-renowned authoritative establishments of space sciences, he added.

According to him, the origin of magnetisation of the 'magnetised rocks of the moon' has been a great puzzle for the scientists of modern space sciences.

Even it has been declared as 'an important question but a great puzzle' by the scientists of USA and USSR, in a joint publication of Nasa's and USSR's scientists, named 'The Foundations of Space Biology and Medicine.'

As I did research exclusively on the topic, therefore, the model was named as 'Aurangzeb Hafi's Model of Sectorial Biomagnetics,' he maintained.

He said that a model of development of sectorial boundaries has been evolved, along with 25 years Magneto-Agriculture Model, which is expected to be presented in few days to the Government of Pakistan.

Dr Hafi said that plants containing three nutriment iron, manganese and cobalt, can have incredible influence in south areas, where plants are irrigated with magnetised water can grow 40-60 percent faster than others.

To a question, he said that this development can positively affect various crops like rice, potato, tomato, wheat, sugarcane, and maize. He also said that he will be not going to give his formula to any foreign company, however, any Pakistani multinational company can take advantage of the formula.


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"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
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Sunday, February 15, 2004

NWFP Governor Vision of Women Education Reform

Muhammad Khurshid


PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Feb 15 (PNS) - The NWFP Governor Lt. Gen. (Retd)Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah has described the education as the single largest factor in bringing a real change in attitudes with special reference towards the enlightenment of the masses. In fact, he added, educating a society which include both male and female – brings about tolerance, forbearance and respect for the others point of view.

Addressing as the chief guest at the All Pakistan Talented Girls Gathering held in connection with Golden Jubilee Celebrations of College of Home Economics in Peshawar University Campus, he was of the view that if we want to bring about a radical change in our society for the better, we have to concentrate on female education on priority basis. The ceremony was also addressed Lt. Gen. ® Mumtaz Gul, Vice Chancellor Peshawar University and Dr. Simin Masud, Principal of the College and beside a large number of educationists and students was also attended by Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gillani and Syed Muhammad Iqbal Shah, Vice Chancellors of NWFP University of Engineering and Technology and NWFP University of Agriculture respectively.

However, the governor said, female education till the recent past was a taboo in our society and in fact for centuries their role was cut and dried and they have been made to follow a very strict regime within the four walls of their houses. Even he added, their basic fundamental rights were denied in the name traditions and religion.

“They were to be seen not heard; supposed to be listened but never allowed to argue and so much so that buried alive at birth” the governor remarked and said but, with the passage of time things have started to change and demand for female education has steadily increased. No doubt, he said, education brings enlightenment and self confidence as well as make awareness towards rights and obligations but, he remarked, “we have to struggle hard to achieve this cherished goal”. In nutshell, he remarked, it is Education which will give a new meaning and respectability to ones life.

As far as government is concerned, the Governor said, we have remained highly attentive towards women development in every sphere of life and even given 33% representation in democratic institutions as well. “Unnecessary gender discrimination is being removed by providing equal opportunities to all segments of society and in education alone”, the governor maintained, saying we have opened new avenues for girl students to have easy access to higher education.

In this connection, he also mentioned the example of Frontier Education Foundation, which, he said, has opened as many as 14 girl degree colleges uptil now and more are also in the pipeline. No doubt, the governor said, a visible change has been ushered in the society in the recent past yet we have to take a leap forward to achieve the ultimate object of providing a level playing field to our women folk to seek knowledge and ultimately become atleast equal contributor in the struggle for national development.

Appreciating the performance of the College of Home Economics in the promotion of female education especially in this province the Governor said, this college has really played a tremendous role in creating this change and desired that it must continue its struggle with much more enthusiasm. Stressing the need of standard and quality education, the governor said, it should not mean merely possession of degrees and the ultimate results must be in enrichment of soul – in unshakable belief in moral values; in realization that happiness does not lie in worldly possessions but it prevails in service to humanity; in wiping off tears from the eyes of down trodden; and in bringing smile to the face of the one who has failed in life. In fact, the governor said, the purpose of education should be to make life more meaningful in real sense.

Lt. Gen. ® Mumtaz Gul while addressing on this occasion congratulated the teachers and students of the college on its golden jubilee and assured that its difficulties especially with regard to the augmentation of transport and construction of a multi-purpose hall would be resolved shortly.

Dr. Simin Masood, Principal in her address of welcome said since the inception of this institution in 1954; a considerable expansion has been made both in respect of infrastructure development and enrolments and the pressure is still in the increasing trend. Now, she added, they are in the process to introduce M. Phil and Ph. D classes in the college. As far as the performance of the students is concerned, she said, they have earned laurels many a times. She also paid rich tributes to her predecessors for their meritorious services for maintaining the distinctive position of the institution. Highlighting the Golden Jubilee Celebrations, she said, during the next three days different events would also be held amongst the talented students gathered in the college from all over the country. Their college, she added, will definitely participate in these activities but would not compete with guests as a good gesture.

Earlier the governor gave away shields to the former principals and staff members of the college in recognition of their meritorious services for the institution. He also unveiled the newly constructed Golden Jubilee Monument of the college within its premises.


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Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
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Saturday, February 14, 2004

Pakistani A-level students top in the world with Cambridge

Pakistani A-level students top in the world with Cambridge

Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) has announced the top achievers from Pakistan who sat the Cambridge GCE A Level examinations held in June this year. Pakistani students were ‘top in the World’ in 3 A Level subjects.

Speaking to teachers from Pakistan at the Professional Development Conference at Homerton College in Cambridge, Dr Fred Burke from CIE said: 'Overall, students from your schools have performed even better than in previous years. Congratulations to all the high achievers, their teachers and their schools.'

Full details of all top candidates will appear in the Cambridge publication ‘Brilliance in Pakistan – June 2003’, which will be available in October to the 270 educational institutions in Pakistan that are registered with Cambridge International Examinations.


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Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
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Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Spring College on Science at the Nanoscale

Spring College on Science at the Nanoscale
http://agenda.ictp.trieste.it/agenda/current/fullAgenda.php?email=0&ida=a0345

24 May 2004 to 11 June 2004 at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy. Applicants from developing countries are welcome. For more details, contact Hasan Raza, Purdue University.
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Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
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Sunflower seed short in Sialkot

SIALKOT: Sunflower seed short in Sialkot
http://www.dawn.com/2004/02/10/local38.htm

By Our Correspondent

SIALKOT, Feb 9: Farmers have expressed grave concern over the shortage of sunflower seeds in Sialkot district. Talking to newsmen here on Monday , Punjab Farmers Rights Protection Forum chairman Mirza Ehsan Baig said that the dealers had created an artificial shortage of sunflower seeds in Sialkot, Daska, Bhopalwala, Sambrial, Uggoki, Pasrur, Chowinda and Badiana.

As a result, hundreds of farmers could not cultivate sunflower in their fields. Mr Baig said that the target of sunflower crop cultivation in Sialkot district would not be achieved. He urged the provincial and district governments to take effective measures in this regard.

SHOT DEAD: A boy was killed while another was injured by the firing of a youth on the wedding of a landlord in Kotli Baarey Khan village (Shakargarh tehsil) on Sunday night.

Police said that during Rasm-i-Hina of landlord Mubashar Khan Asif Khan opened firing in the air. Some stray bullets hit Asad Ali, 12, and Mehtab Khan, 13. Asad died on the spot, while Mehtab was admitted to a Shakargarh hospital where his condition was stated to be critical. Noorkot police registered a case with no arrest.

BODY STORED: No family member came to receive the body of Qaisara Bibi and the Edhi Foundation has kept it at the mortuary of Sialkot DHQ Hospital.

Qaisara, 23, was shot dead by her father and four brothers on Saturday when she attempted to save the lives of her uncle Shafiq and his wife Shamim Bibi. Khaliq and his sons Kamran, Rashid, Zaheer and Nasir later killed Shafiq and his wife over a property dispute in Bagh locality of Sialkot. Kotwali police have yet to arrest the killers.


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Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
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PTCL, Chinese firm sign $500m deal

PTCL, Chinese firm sign $500m deal
http://www.dawn.com/2004/02/10/top8.htm

By Nasir Iqbal

ISLAMABAD, Feb 9: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) on Monday launched here a wireless local loop project to provide new telephone connections in remote areas of the country.

The PTCL has entered into a $500 million contract with a Chinese firm, Huawei Technologies, to implement the plan. The agreement between the two parties was signed at a ceremony held at the PTCL headquarters. Information Technology Minister Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari was also present on the occasion.

Muhammad Sarwar, PTCL senior vice-president technical, represented the company while Mr Wang We Jen, CEO Huawei Technologies, signed the pact on behalf of his company.

The wireless local loop is a code direct multiplier access based technology almost similar to a mobile cellular phones system. An informed source told Dawn that the new system would provide telephone access to 127 cities in the areas where 60 to 70 per cent people never had access to any telecom connectivity.

The regions include cities of the interiors of Sindh and Balochistan, like Turbat, Pasni, Gwadar, Chagi, rural areas of Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Central Punjab, Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat and Bannu division and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

Speaking on the occasion, Awais Leghari said that with an investment of just over half a billion rupees, more than 200,000 new telephone connections would be provided to the inhabitants of rural areas. This development, he added, was in line with the directions of Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali and the cabinet to provide telephone coverage to 50 per cent of the rural areas by the end of 2004.

In this regard, he said, the PTCL would reduce by 5 to 10 times the per line cost and timescale of deployment and one wireless base station of 450 Mhz would cover a radius of 20 to 25km as opposed to an equivalent distance of only 5km served by the fixed line technology. However, he said, the PTCL had been restricted to areas where the teledensity was very low.

Mr Leghari expressed concern over the poor teledensity in the country and called for its improvement. He attributed this state of affairs in the telecommunications to cost and labour and to the digital divide between the developed and the developing world.

"I would also emphasize that while developing a business plan for offering these connections to the general public and while considering the financial mechanism for the provision of terminal units to the people, it must be ensured that the common man is not unduly burdened and the project retains the spirit of public welfare in which it has been conceived," the minister said.

The minister said the new cellular policy which the cabinet had approved would also enhance competition among mobile telephone operators, ensure broad coverage at affordable prices, increase teledensity, choice of service and private investment in the country.

Earlier, the charge d'affaires of China, Song De Heng, said: "China and Pakistan go together in building a strong fraternal relationship in terms of synchronic development between their organizations." He said the Huawei Technologies had shown good performance in fostering partnership with the PTCL for vital telecom projects during the last 2-3 years

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"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
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Monday, February 09, 2004

Pakistani Software Exports Go Through The Roof, An Annual increase rate of 600%

Also posted in www.pakistanidefence.com forum.

Will India remain the 'king' of outsourcing?


By Ashfak Bokhari

Over the years, India has emerged as the "uncrowned king" of business process outsourcing (BPO) in the software industry and almost all big corporations in the West are keen to set up their call centres or shift their software development work or even invest in building their own software development centres in that country.

Where India excels is low cost and quality performance. But, a prestigious American magazine "Forbes", in one of its recent issues, raised the question: how long can India hold on to its crown?

The magazines contends that similar low-cost technology centres in China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Russia and Pakistan are sprouting up and already competing for a share in outsourcing projects, making it increasingly unlikely that India can retain its "reign" as "the outsourcing king" for long.

The figure of $50 billion software exports by 2008 as predicted by Indian National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSC) is too ambitious and may be difficult to realize. If India fails to meet this target, it may lose its competitive edge.

However, it is too early to speculate in those terms because under the given circumstances there is no threat to India's status in the outsourcing world and for various reasons the West will always prefer India over its rivals. In fact, it can boast of adding more feathers to its crown.

India's leading business newspaper "The Economic Times" reported on January 29 that: "As India Inc. is busy grappling with the BPO imbroglio, a rare traction has originated from an unchartered territory - chip manufacturing".

The giant Japanese chip makers, Toshiba and Hitachi, have shown interest in India and their senior officials were in Bangalore recently to hold talks for partnership with Indian firms for IP and designs which include both software and hardware solutions.

The indications are that after China, India is becoming the next emerging market of chip manufacturing in a matter of five years. Currently, the Japanese firms depend on China for such work. India is the next destination but the problem is there are no end-products, assembly testing nor any back-end activities there. It may take three to five years before things start changing there. A Hitachi veteran thinks that in about five years the demarcation between hardware and software will blur and India will be the main beneficiary as far as high-end chip manufacturing is concerned.

Another area fascinating the foreign investors is research and development (R&D). Many hi-tech companies are investing in India in research and design facilities. As many as 230 multinationals from all parts of the world have arrived in Bangalore since 2001 for R&D work.

Coming back to the outsourcing "imbroglio", it is quite clear that offshore outsourcing industry will continue its hyper-expansion in the next few years as the western firms look for low costs and cheaper offshore talent to meet their needs. But "Forbes" fears India could "stumble and lose its crown". India, it says, is poised to face the impossible task of producing at least one million qualified software engineers - the minimum requirement - to achieve $50 billion exports target by 2008 which, if not realized, could open doors in outsourcing industry to the rivals. The country's current output of computer science graduates is 110,000 a year. Many of them - the best and the brightest - tend to migrate to the United States for a better standard of living. Hence, the outsourcing suffers.

When and if India "does slip", Forbes says, other low-wage countries that will be too happy to pick up the slack. Pakistan, it observed, is one such country. It has emulated India's success by offering similar breaks to multinationals and is aggressively modelling its educational programmes in computer and information sciences on India's pattern.

At present, Pakistan has 23,000 trained professionals and its annual software exports amount to more than $120 million. But the biggest problem it faces is a dirty image.

The westerners believe that it is a country of terrorists and a land where only violence thrives. Although several Indian cities are as much violence-prone as is Karachi but the media remains biased. But India, after recent developments leading to warm relationship between the two countries, is expected to have a different outlook and may be more than willing to enable Pakistan enter this market in a big way.

A delegation of Pakistani professionals is scheduled to visit India sometimes this month and indications are that it can return with significant results. (An Indian IT specialist Jairam Ramesh recently observed: "If we help Pakistan build and promote an IT services industry, we can stabilize its economy, taking its attention away from Kashmir and war.")

The Philippines is another potential candidate for a share in outsourcing. It, being a former American colony, could prove appealing to American firms. It has more than 30,000 trained IT graduates. China would seem to be the biggest threat to India, with 400,000 software professionals (India has 300,000 professionals) and 35,000 of them qualified to work on high-level, systems-integration projects that are so coveted in India.

Most of China's hi-tech workers are well qualified to work on software applications maintenance and migration projects, and these workers come at a significantly lower salary than do their Indian counterparts doing the same work.

However, there is little to suggest that India is about to lose its status of the "king of outsourcing". Meanwhile, offshore outsourcing in the country is predicted to grow by at least 30 per cent during 2004 as global giants like IBM, EDS and Accenture will continue to increase their presence in the country.

A new report "IT Trends 2004: Offshore Outsourcing" says India will continue to dominate as a preferred offshore country during the current year and Indian vendors will retain their leadership in the outsourcing marketplace. The country will remain the best option for American companies during 2004 and Indian vendors will continue to develop facilities in countries like China and those of the Eastern Europe, it said.

Meanwhile, according to "The Economic Times", the indications are that Wal-Mart will be sourcing to India to the extent of $3 billion this year and up to $30 billion in the next three years . The entire US retail sourcing is estimated to be $500 billion next year, most of which could come to India. And, global IT services spendings are estimated to be $385 billion and in it the share of India is about two per cent, which can grow to 12 per cent.

Internet based services, of which Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the most visible, grew at a dazzling 59 per cent in 2002-2003, and now stands at $2.3 billion. The BPO sector alone employs 171,000 professionals.

There has also been a spurt of activity in using India as a hub of global sourcing in the auto industry. Toyota is going to use India as a source for transmission parts. Ford is sourcing engines from Hindustan Motors. Yamaha and Mitsubishi are going to be using India as a world-wide sourcing hub for motorcycles. In fact, there are around 50 automotive suppliers with offices in Chennai, Mysore, and Delhi.


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Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================