Women hold Pakistan software flag aloft
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Mumbai, Feb. 6: This is one area in which Pakistan has beaten Indian software.
While the big boys of Indian IT are, well, boys, the leading lights of Pakistani software are women. Some of them were here as part of Pakistan’s delegation to the Nasscom conference, the annual IT event held recently.
The 15-member team was led by Jehan Ara, the president of Pasha (Pakistan Software Houses Association), and included three other women. The conference hall at the Oberoi, where the event was held, was otherwise an endless sea of black and grey suits.
But the women from Pakistan did not want any extra credit. “It is just a coincidence,” said Shahida Saleem, the chairperson of the IT committee of FPCCI, Pakistan’s counterpart to Ficci.
“A selection to such a post depends on merit and we were selected because we were felt to possess both,” she added.
Jehan Ara, a lively woman who said she was glad to come to India as part of the team and attend the first Nasscom event, lighted up at the suggestion that it is a triumph for her gender to be so visible in the profession. “And there should be more,” she said. “We are 50 per cent of the population, you know.”
Women in Pakistan, Ara said, are entering certain professions in significant numbers. “In IT, about 15 to 20 per cent posts are taken by women. This is also happening in banking, finance, law and architecture.”
Ara pointed at the other two women in her team — Zunaira Durrani, who edits a leading IT magazine, Spider, and Sadia Khan, who heads the IT firm, Autosoft Dynamics.
Gender, however, was secondary on their agenda. Their first objective was to build as many networks as possible at Nasscom, preferably with Indian companies, for Pakistan is just about to take the leap in software that India has had.
“We are sitting on the verge of something very big,” Saleem said.
“One of our members wants to buy an Indian company,” Ara said. “He is in talks with three or four such firms.”
Pakistani IT is still small, with 350 companies and the industry worth between $50 million and $100 million, Ara said. “But the BPO (business process outsourcing) sector is growing very fast.”
She said Pakistan has the same advantages as India — IT-savvy youth, English-speaking graduates, an improving infrastructure and an IT-friendly government. But it hasn’t been branded well.
“It took us very long to start off. There are many Pakistanis in Silicon Valley who are returning now. Because we haven’t branded our country well, we are not deemed to be in the IT league,” Ara said.
“The previous government wasn’t IT-savvy either. It was a question of mindset, too, with people investing in the traditional industries,” she added.
“9/11 also took its toll on IT companies,” Saleem said. “The companies that survived emerged stronger and now we are ready to take the leap.”
“We came to know that three or four Indian companies are already working in Pakistan,” she added.
Ara felt that one area in which Pakistan and India could work together is implementing solutions at the domestic level, which hasn’t happened in India despite its huge global success. “If industries act together, we can take forward the dialogue begun at Saarc.”
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Mumbai, Feb. 6: This is one area in which Pakistan has beaten Indian software.
While the big boys of Indian IT are, well, boys, the leading lights of Pakistani software are women. Some of them were here as part of Pakistan’s delegation to the Nasscom conference, the annual IT event held recently.
The 15-member team was led by Jehan Ara, the president of Pasha (Pakistan Software Houses Association), and included three other women. The conference hall at the Oberoi, where the event was held, was otherwise an endless sea of black and grey suits.
But the women from Pakistan did not want any extra credit. “It is just a coincidence,” said Shahida Saleem, the chairperson of the IT committee of FPCCI, Pakistan’s counterpart to Ficci.
“A selection to such a post depends on merit and we were selected because we were felt to possess both,” she added.
Jehan Ara, a lively woman who said she was glad to come to India as part of the team and attend the first Nasscom event, lighted up at the suggestion that it is a triumph for her gender to be so visible in the profession. “And there should be more,” she said. “We are 50 per cent of the population, you know.”
Women in Pakistan, Ara said, are entering certain professions in significant numbers. “In IT, about 15 to 20 per cent posts are taken by women. This is also happening in banking, finance, law and architecture.”
Ara pointed at the other two women in her team — Zunaira Durrani, who edits a leading IT magazine, Spider, and Sadia Khan, who heads the IT firm, Autosoft Dynamics.
Gender, however, was secondary on their agenda. Their first objective was to build as many networks as possible at Nasscom, preferably with Indian companies, for Pakistan is just about to take the leap in software that India has had.
“We are sitting on the verge of something very big,” Saleem said.
“One of our members wants to buy an Indian company,” Ara said. “He is in talks with three or four such firms.”
Pakistani IT is still small, with 350 companies and the industry worth between $50 million and $100 million, Ara said. “But the BPO (business process outsourcing) sector is growing very fast.”
She said Pakistan has the same advantages as India — IT-savvy youth, English-speaking graduates, an improving infrastructure and an IT-friendly government. But it hasn’t been branded well.
“It took us very long to start off. There are many Pakistanis in Silicon Valley who are returning now. Because we haven’t branded our country well, we are not deemed to be in the IT league,” Ara said.
“The previous government wasn’t IT-savvy either. It was a question of mindset, too, with people investing in the traditional industries,” she added.
“9/11 also took its toll on IT companies,” Saleem said. “The companies that survived emerged stronger and now we are ready to take the leap.”
“We came to know that three or four Indian companies are already working in Pakistan,” she added.
Ara felt that one area in which Pakistan and India could work together is implementing solutions at the domestic level, which hasn’t happened in India despite its huge global success. “If industries act together, we can take forward the dialogue begun at Saarc.”
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