The Ongoing IT Revolution and Security Implications for Pakistan

I dont want to get into an India-Pakistan match over who is better and who is not ....

I just want to congratulate Dareecha people and their energetic representative from San Jose for

promoting IT in Pakistan ....

Well done Ms Sarwari ....

-Pakistan Zindabad

-Quaid e Azam Zindabad

-Ataturk Zindabad

-Jiye Bhutto

-Imran Khan for PM

Good Lord! Does everything have to be couched in terms of war? I assure you India`s exploding IT industry was not started to settle scores with Pakistan.

``How can we bring Pakistan to its knees?``

``Hmm...let us start some premier institutions and many second tier technology institutes...that`ll teach `em in a couple of decades.``

*shakes her head *

[``Pakistan has a window of opportunity of not more than two years to get its IT strategy in place.``]

as for IT skills are concerned, you guys are no less capable. what better tetimony you need than the classic ``Brain`` computer virus?. this is perhaps the earliest PC virus and definitely it was the first one to use the `Stealth technique` to hide itself. though never confirmed, there is NO second opinion that this virus originated in Pakistan. Fondly called ``Pakistani`` or ``PakistaniBrain``, it still remains one of the widely analyzed viruses in PC history and no book on computer virus is complete without a study of ``Brain``. in fact, it became so popular among the virus writers that many started using it as a ``template`` for virus development, forcing the original creators to include a (mock ?) copyright notice on the virus itself on a subsequent version!

however, a few bright spots here and there may make you feel good, but won`t get you anywhere. you need an accessible robust education system that blends the intellectual potential with systematic knowledge which ensures a steady generation of quality skills. point is, may be you need a sound education strategy in place that drives the IT revolution rather than a vague ``IT strategy``.

[``But most importantly it has been won without any help from the Indian government. Indian contribution to the IT revolution has happened despite the Indian government.``]

how can YOU say that ? if india is making strides in IT today it is because of the HUGE investments successive indian governments have made in education. education in india has all along been so subsidised that any middle class parent can afford to provide their children a professional education. Even in times of extreme economic hardships, this educational subsidy had been zealously protected by every government, despite the severe strains on the treasury.

seen all those indians that are successful today ? i`m sure EVERY ONE of them might had been a beneficiary of this subsidy at some point or other during their education. most importantly, the government has never demanded anything in return from anybody so educated. even when there are concerns about the ``brain drain``, there was not even a hush from anybody in power about forcing people to stay back.

RE RSaxena

Despite your very generous offer of helping to lead their economy to the gutters, I don`t think they`ll take us up on it. They have such homegrown talent on that front. Even the fat lady from Madras or Laloo will have a few lessons to learn from them.

Wake up guys. Why must everything you do be a us versus them affair? If you`re a country, what are your national priorities and interests vis avis the economy? You can`t define yourselves versus a neighbor. It must be what you`re for, not what you`re against.

Actually, the ``war this and war that`` mentality is more than sickening...it is self-defeating.

Uh oh, here we go again. India is the threat, blah, blah, blah by Sac stuck in his cubicle oblivious to the outside world where indians and pakistanis get along as individual humans and not as representatives of their governments. Learn to think Pakistan, Pakistan and not != India. If India were to improve her economic situation, peace is vital. No sane outside investor would be interested in war-mongering nation (unless it is a superpower and can reduce dialogs into monologs).

Why do I get the feeling that Chowk is interested in articles that provoke a strong reaction than, may be, articles of substance. This one here by my nemesis is all hot air with the usual hyperbole for effect-India is not a powerhouse on anything. It may have a greater recognition than the West in IT, but it is still one of the poorest countries in the world. The Americans know it more for the bride burnings and floods and cyclones and filmstar-kidnapping bandits than for IT. Most of the IT is ``low-wage`` body-shopping.

As Jay said (he should publish a red book if only for my sake), most internet interactions are about sex, games and getting attention. It figures..

I was in Pakistan last month and spent some time looking into the IT scene there (visited training institutes, technology park at Islamabad, chatted with some folks involved with IT in public and private sector). I think the Indian IT boom is definitely having a beneficial affect in Pakistan - bright youth now see a channel for advancement, marketing is being developed, and the current government (unelected though it is) is providing strong leadership in strengthening the IT infrastructure. The path has pitfalls - bureaucratization (the reason the IT sector took off in India was because for a long time Indian bureaucrats had no clue on how to control it), political unrest, and so forth. In IT, when the tide rises, all boats - Indian and Pakistani as well as in other parts of the world - rise with it. We need to change some of our old habits and get new ones - moving away from competition with India to cooperation, limiting public sector role to that of an enabler rather than a player in IT, and so forth.

Re: fairdinkum

``By making such statements, you are only reinforcing sac’s view.``

The key word in my post was ``helping``...India doesn`t initiate the destructive moves Pakistan makes, Pakistan does. But if you`re foolish enough to have a self-destructive existence vis-a-vis India, we ain`t gonna stop you. Example? India can get away with not signing the CTBT for a while...Pakistan really cannot afford the opportunity cost of not signing it....but India is happy to wait and watch Pakistan lose the benefits.

Ref pennathur #: 4

{The IT dominance that India has achieved on the world stage (not in terms of quantity but in terms of sheer influence) is not a result of recent initiatives. Contrary to what your correspondent believes (AND PLEASE SAC-WHAT`S YOUR NAME?-the Indian government has played a role in making this happen. The 1950s saw India invest in educational infrastructure - not just the IITs but at least a hundred other institutions - older colleges like the Colleges ofEngg. in Pune, Madras etc., and the Regional Engg. Colleges in many States (including the one in Srinagar which has produced several top-notch professors who teach in the US today), a network of research institutions. That is paying off today.}

In a recent conversation with a friend at MicroSoft (with decades of research experience at Burroughs and IBM), he expressed serious concern at the lack of research publications even from the IITs. He should know because he himself is a graduate of IIT-Bombay and is widely read. Thus, we have successfully turned our research institutions into factories making coding drones.

The first list of institutions banned from having contacts with the US after the 1998 nuclear tests included Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Indian Institute of Science and Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics. I didn`t see a single IIT or engineering college in that. Tells you whom the US fears when it comes to defense-related research. Oh, don`t forget the computational needs of simulation of nuclear explosions or missile flight characteristics. So, I am somewhat correct in my assessment that our IITs have been reduced to turning out drones. The few with marketing skills turn out to be the founders of Silicon Valley companies. (You really don`t think that Vinod Dham designed the Pentium chip by himself, do you? Or that Guru Deshpande designs networking chips today?)

{I have recently moved from India into a top-ranked business school in the US. I have several Chinese, Japanese, Korean and European classmates apart from the Americans. The awe that you command as an Indian - one from the land of IR dominance - is simply experienced to be believed. Wherever I have been - the Social Security Office, the Motor LICENSE Bureau, shopping malls - I find that being an Indian means a new respectability. The Indian presence in academia in the US is simply awesome. Of the faculty of the top 50 business schools between them - 8-10% are Indian or of Indian origin.}

You will eat reality cookies as you leave academia and move into the real world. I suggest Montgomery, Alabama, and Jackson, Mississippi, for starters. Even Toronto. Or, London, England. Did you hear about the neo-Nazi attack on foreigners in Germany? Yout fancy MBA is not going to help you when you are attacked by skinheads in suburban London.

So long as you have a high income, stay in lily-white suburbs and commute into the cities, you are going to find life great. Wait till your kids get called names in school and come home crying.

The population of Indian scientists working in the hard sciences and engineering departments of US universities has been pretty high since the 1960s. If anybody has come far, it is the mainland Chinese who only came her in droves in the mid 1980s and they beat your pants off in abstract mathematics.

{The Indian in the US is typically the best educated immigrant available (among the 1 million Indian Americans school dropouts are unknown, 75% hold a college degree and 55% hold graduate degrees)}

And the US-raised kids of these successful people drop out. First generation Indians succeed because the cost of failure is tremendous -- you get to go back to India, you don`t collect the green card. The next generation starts looking at options other than medicine or engineering much to the dismay of their parents. Who knows what happens to the third generation?

Don`t pat yourself too hard on the back; you might break your arm.

PS. I shall save time for those who are displeased by this post. The predictable response is: here is a failure who blames the US for his failings and who is bitter. I have no intention of disclosing my persona to unknowns and shall not respond with my resume or current position.

Let us be clear what this IT revolution is all about: it is about writing yet another payroll program and changing the heading CPF (Contributory Provident Fund in India) to Social Security Deductions in the US. Oh, yeah; putting it on the web.

Don`t tell me that I trivialize issues; one of my programmers already told me that some 10 years back. I merely reduce things to irreducible minima and they turn out to be trivia.

Urstruely,

You can console yourself, if you want to,when you say Pakistan makes superior products--& then claim its not jingoism.

I`m sure there are products that Pakistan makes that are superior to India. In a free market consumers look for quality vs price. The market is the most nonprejudicial entity created by humans. If Pakistani products are good, they will be lapped up by Indian consumers & vice versa. It will also force Indian & Pakistani manufacturers to improve quality just to stay afloat.

When countries lift trade barriers, they always iron out issues like govt subsidies & dumping. There are checks & balances negotiated along the way.

If Pakistan trades with India, it will benefit Pakistan more because it gives you access to a huge & growing market. Also, if your claim about the superiority of Pakistani goods is true, it will give Pakistan a huge advantage. Besides, if either country has investments & assets in their neighobr`s, they will think twice about nuking them.

Your reasons for not trading with India are bogus excuses that protectionists make all over the world. In the end, India wont miss out that much if it does`nt trade with Pakistan. The real question you should ask yourself is--in this day & age, can Pakistan afford not to!

Dear Sac,

You have at last put the IT revolution in a language that can propel your country men into action into action. It is a war with India, good idea. But how sad, your country men are stuck in the quick sands of hatred. It is said that if stuck in the quick sands, pi..s..ing may at times help to reduce the sink rate. That is what they are doing on the chowk.

regards

Jay.

I think what the author meant by “loosing the battle to India” was the battle of influence that both countries are fighting.

Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not , this war of influence is actually very real - just look at the extraordinary lengths the Indian and Pakistani Governments are going to influence world leaders.

By being way ahead in IT a critical component of the ``connected world`` India will not only be influential directly but powerful multi nationals will have a vested interest in influencing their governments to neutralize Pakistan. These corporations might not be critically dependent on India but with a enough of time and money at stake to be bothered.

Crucial to Pakistan, India will also hold more influence than Pakistan in all of Middle East and Central Asia. The reasoning is that the majority of smaller companies located in these regions will not be able to attract IT vendors from the developed world and India is probably their best bet to get technical and managerial expertise of some standard.

What I didn`t understand was the part where Pakistan becomes a vassal state, I was quite sure Pakistan would die before bowing to India. Does the author care to explain?

Sadhana #2,

You are right, benefits from IT are not mutually exclusive, there is enough to go around. But the war of influence between India and Pakistan will have only one victor. They can stop the war altogether, but that is as likely as PCs becoming slower next year.

Vikram

Rsaxena #11

You Say:

“Keep defining your existence as a function of India and we will happily continue helping to lead your economy to the gutters.”

By making such statements, you are only reinforcing sac’s view.

Rsaxena #11

You Say:

“Keep defining your existence as a function of India and we will happily continue helping to lead your economy to the gutters.”

By making such statements, you only reinforcing sac’s view.

This article brilliantly shows why Pakistan has failed miserably in the IT game. Keep defining your existence as a function of India and we will happily continue helping to lead your economy to the gutters.

Sac,
Whereas I agree that Pakistan needs a concrete IT policy rather urgently, I fail to understand your logic in invoking ``Indian threat`` to motivate Pakistanis to move in this direction. Your view of Indian IT professionals/entrepreneurs as a threat to Pakistan is also beyond me. Comparing them to Zionists is insane. Your implication that Indians will, somehow, use their IT know how for evil designs, is an attitude problem of yours.

We must learn and acquire knowledge because it is enlightening; it brings us closer to rest of the world by broadening our horizons. It is economically beneficial for us, and good for our self-esteem…. Jealousy or fear should not be the driving force behind it. This is absolutely wrong and unprofessional attitude.

As an IT professional (paki), I find your article offensive for its underlying theme. IT pros, what do you reckon?