Private schools in Karachi have openly defied the directives issued by the Sindh government.

 

Although the summer vacation period is still in effect, several private schools have resumed classes starting today. This action is in direct violation of the Sindh government’s announcement, which stipulated that all schools should remain closed until August 15

PASHA IT Salary Survey Finds Incomes Have Risen in 2017

The Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT and ITES (P@SHA) has released its 2017 IT Salary Survey report. The survey report provides an analysis of the average salaries, growth, promotions and benefits for the IT & IT Enabled Services sector employees in Pakistan.

provides direct employment to around 120,000 people and indirect employment for another 50,000. The tech industry in Pakistan relies on this human resource to maintain its double digit growth year on year.

Companies want the best talent working for them and take measures to retain their star performers. Fair compensation and benefits rank highly for any employee who wishes to work for, and continue to grow in this industry.

The rapidly evolving nature of the tech sector influences job requirements & skill set, making an annual IT Salary Survey a necessary tool for companies wishing to hire and retain the best talent.

Jehan Ara, President P@SHA, said:

“The IT & ITES industry of Pakistan is now being recognised by our government as the leading sector capable of pushing economic growth. The economic dependency is shifting from an agrarian and industrial economy to a knowledge based economy.

Persistent and effective policy advocacy by the Chairman and Members of the Central Executive Committee of P@SHA has convinced the authorities to not only extend the income tax exemption on exports till 2019 but also exempt technology start-ups working domestically from income tax for the initial three years of their operations.

This is an unprecedented move to encourage the growth of technology businesses in Pakistan and one that comes with added responsibility for us to outperform ourselves.

“It is imperative for us to document our industry, allowing us to study trends and devise the best strategies for growth. The P@SHA IT Salary Survey is a step towards this goal, which helps identify industry benchmarks for payroll; an expense which accounts for more than 50% of our business costs.”

The P@SHA IT Salary Survey Results

The P@SHA IT Salary Survey has been conducted by P@SHA since 2008 for the IT & ITES Industry. The 2017 edition features findings from 130 companies all over Pakistan, and has compiled data of 31,801 employees working in 28 job roles and 98 unique job levels in both IT and non-IT capacities.

All roles are further broken down into experience levels. The survey provides changes in salaries for each job function and level (entry, mid and senior level) as well as the increments, bonuses and benefits that are offered to the employees.

The survey reveals there has been an overall average increment of 16.37% in salaries across all job functions when compared to 2016. The highest paid job function is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who on average earns PKR 520,650 (which is an increase of 7.46% over 2016).

The highest increase in salary this year has been witnessed in Entry Level Game Designer role with a growth of 38.52%.

On the other hand, the position of a Senior BPO Professional witnessed the smallest increase of 3.31% in salary.

Detailed findings for each of the 98 job levels are presented in the P@SHA IT Salary Survey 2017.

The report is provided free of cost to participating members of P@SHA while it remains a paid publication for everyone else until June 2018. All reports of previous years are available for free and can be downloaded at www.pasha.org.pk.

Canon Refreshes Its Premium 6D Mark II DSLR

CaCanon is updating its full-frame DSLR lineup with the addition of the new 6D Mark II, which lowers the barrier of entry (in terms of pricing) for this particular series of products.

The camera employs a 26.2 MP CMOS sensor, with a DIGIC 7 Image Processor, and a 45-point autofocus system.

The ISO levels range significantly between 100 and 40000, while there’s the company’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF system and Movie Servo AF, too.

$2000 Camera With no 4K Video Option

Canon 6D Mark II

At the back of the 6D Mark II is a 3″ touchscreen, which can rotate 180 degrees to help you take selfies (coupled with an optical viewfinder), while the continuous shooting feature allows bursts of up to 6.5 frames per second. The camera is also light-ish, at 680 grams, as well as Dust and Water resistant.

A slight disappointment will be the lack of a 4K video option, but 1080p at 60fps will help ameliorate some of that. The connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC. An SD card slot can also be found onboard.

Pricing is set at $1999 for the body only, with the camera set to arrive in August this year.

Reinventing/Updating The Classics?

The original Canon EOS Rebel S2

An age old classic is also getting revived by Canon, namely the EOS Rebel S2. The updated Rebel S2 will come with an optical viewfinder at an affordable price point ($549).

The Rebel S2 boasts a 24.2-megapixel CMOS sensor, also with a Digic 7 Image Processor and a Dual Pixel AF system. At the back is another swiveling touchscreen.

ISO levels range between 100 and 25600, alongside 5 frame burst mode, 9 point autofocus system and an SDXC card slot. Battery life is rated at up to 650 shots.

Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC. Video options go all the way to 1080p at 60fps, but no 4K here either.

Pricing is set at $550 for the body only, once it arrives in July of this year.

Pakistani Student Receives the Queen’s Young Leaders Award in UK

A talented student and tech entrepreneur from Pakistan, Syed Faizan Hussain, has received the Queen’s Young Leaders Award. The 23 year old has been recognized for his work to support the use of technology in health related solutions.

It is an annual award that looks for people aged between 18-29 years from the Commonwealth nations and acknowledges them for their leadership potential. The award was established via the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust and Comic Relief and the Royal Commonwealth Society in 2014.

About Syed Faizan Hussain

Faizan has founded a number of startups, including Edu-Aid – a system that can translate sign language to spoken language – and OneHealth – a mechanism which can be used for disease surveillance and tracking to support medical institutions in dealing with epidemic outbreaks.

The young entrepreneur has also worked as a teacher with over 200 students from underprivileged backgrounds to train them in computer programming skills. He now plans to launch a tech consultancy and outsourcing company, Venture Dart, for skilled freelancers, entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Faizan Hussain said

I am delighted to have received this Award and look forward to expanding my leadership skills and engaging with people from various fields who will be sharing their ideas and experiences.

An Honor for the Winners

During the ceremony held at the Buckingham Palace in the UK on June 30, Faizan was the only Pakistani to join the list of winners from across all Commonwealth countries. The award includes a program of meetings, networking opportunities and mentoring sessions, all curated to help the award winners progress as leaders in their home countries and increase their impact on people’s lives.

Before the award ceremony all winners visited 10 Downing Street (UK Prime Minister’s House) and took part in master classes at the BBC World Service and Facebook’s headquarters in the UK.

The award winners were also hosted by the Commonwealth Secretary General. University of Cambridge will be offering workshops to each of the winners while senior executives from leading organizations will inform them about projects which are improving people’s lives in the UK.

Chief Executive of The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, Dr Astrid Bonfield CBE, stated

The Queen’s Young Leaders of 2017 are doing truly remarkable work within their communities. Their actions are having a positive impact not only on those around them but also by setting in motion positive change that will last for generations to come.

The residential programme is an opportunity for the 2017 Queen’s Young Leaders to come together for the first time, to foster partnerships and share ideas about how they can work together as a group to improve people’s lives all over the Commonwealth.

We are delighted that these young people are being recognized for their life-changing work by Her Majesty The Queen and we hope that their time in the UK will inspire and enable them to pursue their work for others on an ever greater scal

Pakistan to Showcase Its Military Might with Extensive Missile Tests

Pakistan is planning to conduct a series of missile tests over the next few days.

• cruise missiles,
• anti tank guided missiles,
• surface to air missile,
• surface to sea missile,
• sea to surface missiles,
• air to surface missiles.

According to informed sources, short range ballistic missiles that will be part of the tests include the Ghaznavi, Abdali-I, Ghauri-I, Shaheen-I missiles. Medium range ballistic missiles (MRBM) such as Ghauri-II, Shaheen-II, Shaheen-III, Ababeel will also be a part of it.

In the category of cruise missiles, Babur-1 (Hatf -VII), Babur-2 (Hatf -VII) will be tested. Anti-tank guided missiles that will be tested include the Bakhtar-Shikan anti-tank missile.

Sea-to-surface missiles Babur-3 (Hatf VII) and air-to-surface missiles Ra’ad (Hatf VIII), Ra’ad-II (Hatf VIII), Baktar-Shikan, H-2 SOW, H-4 SOW and Barq will also be tested in the coming days.

Battle Ready

Pakistan has two missiles which it can deploy on the battlefield: Hatf-1 and Nasr. The Nasr is designed to be used against enemy troops, tank regiments and other ground based units. It has a range of 60km and is capable of a payload of 0.5–5 kilotons.

The Hatf-1 is an unguided subsonic battlefield range ballistic missile. Newer variants of the Hatf-1 ballistic missile have been developed with a longer targeting range. The Ghaznavi, a hypersonic surface to surface short range ballistic missile has a range of 400km and can carry a nuclear warhead of around 700 kg.

The Ghauri is an intermediate range ballistic missile. It can carry a nuclear warhead of 700 kg and has a range of 1500 km. The Shaheen series of missiles can carry a nuclear warhead weighing over a tonne for an effective range of up to 3,000km.

Cruise Missile Arsenal

Pakistan has three cruise missile variants active in its arsenal, one for each branch of the armed forces – Army, Air Force and Navy. The Babur cruise missile is a surface to surface cruise missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead of 100kg and has a range of 700km.

The Ra’ad cruise missile is an air to surface missile for the Pakistan Air Force. It has a range of 350km and can carry a payload of around 10–35 kgs. It can be deployed by JF-17 fighter bombers.

In addition to this, the Barq air to surface laser guided missile is being used in the Buraq drones that’s in use by the Pakistani military.

Pakistan Army (Air Defence) has also inducted the Chinese-built LY-80 self-propelled surface-to-air missile system in its arsenal on March 2017. The basic LY-80 unit consists of a command-and-control (C2) cell made up of a surveillance radar vehicle, a C2 vehicle, and three firing batteries.

Each firing battery consists of a tracking and guidance radar vehicle and four vertical launchers, each of which are armed with a missile pack containing six launchers.

Pakistan will also try to get multi-layer ballistic missile defence system S-400 in coordination with Russia.

Earlier, Pakistan successfully test-fired its indigenously-developed submarine launched cruise missile Babur-III having the range of 450 kilometers this year in March.

It also conducted a successful test of an enhanced version of the indigenously developed Babur cruise missile. The Babur cruise missile incorporates advanced aerodynamics and avionics, and can strike targets on both land and sea at a range of 700 kilometres.

Pakistani Farmers Are Using SMS to Combat Water Wastage

Mismanagement is a big issue when it comes to Pakistani farmers especially given their wasteful use of the available water reserves. In order to solve this issue, a new program has been initiated which uses satellites and cellphones to convey essential information to farmers. This information can help Pakistani farmers estimate the amount of water their field needs, and that too by using SMS service automatically.

prevent overwatering in farm fields. A report from the Asian Development Bank in 2013 termed Pakistan as “one of the most water-stressed countries in the world.” In simpler words, that means Pakistan is among those countries which are in danger from facing drought-like conditions sooner rather than later.

Currently, experts say that Pakistan’s water storage capacity is just limited to holding supplies for 30 days, a figure which is several times below the recommended capacity of 1,000 days. The per capita water resources in Pakistan are on par with those in Syria, a dessert country where the drought has even fueled a civil war.

Issues Faced by Farmers

The water crisis in Pakistan is driven by many factors including climate change, rising population, mismanagement of water resources and greater demand by farmers. The unstable relations between Pakistan and India over the Indus Water Treaty are another key issue that contributes to the dismal state of affairs.

Overwatering is a serious concern for the agriculture sector in Pakistan. Irrigating excess water is costly for farmers who barely make ends meet. On the other hand, acute fuel shortages in Pakistan also create problems for farmers who use diesel powered motors to pump water through tube-wells. The lower the water table, the more fuel it takes to pump it to the surface.

Applying excess water to crops also reduces yields, but many traditional farmers learned their ways from previous generations which did not face such water shortages. In order to prevent under-watering, farmers often make an error in judgement by overwatering their fields.

Studies & Expansion

The Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) studied farmer practices to find that rice farmers were using more than three times the water they actually needed. The council reached out to University of Washington’s Sustainability, Satellites, Water, and Environment research group (SASWE) hoping to find a solution to the problem.

The current solution, which began last year in spring with a 700 farmer pilot program, now consists of over 10,000 farmers who receive SMS notifications on their phones. The messages come through an automated system which does everything from downloading the satellite data to sending out the SMS messages after using computer models for each farmer’s land, terrain and crops.

PCRWR plans to scale the program for use across the whole country. The program expects to serve millions of farmers in the country.

Future of the SMS Advisory Program

At present, however, the council is reviewing the system to make it easy for the local farmers to understand. The PCRWR is also trying to ascertain how accurate the system is and how much effect it has on saving farmers’ money and reducing water consumption.

Feedback is being collected from farmers over the phone. SASWE’s Faisal Hussain says that he is yet to receive a report from PCRWR. However, Faisal mentions that they “got a story last month from one of the farmers who was telling us how he was able to get, I think, for every acre 700 kilograms more wheat than his neighbor.”

The current challenges to expansion include the issue of illiteracy and how to better persuade farmers about the authenticity of the data circulated via these SMS messages. The satellite data might also need to be improved if the system is to be implemented in other areas of the country. The only positive is that mobile phones are pretty common in the rural areas of Pakistan so communication over SMS should proceed without any hindrances.

Since the system is automated and hasn’t been tailored to the Pakistani locality, most farmers might find it tough to understand the SMS messages. The council might need to simplify the wordings and use local terminologies so that it becomes easier for farmers to follow the instructions.

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