Punjab government has approved a summary to replace Dr. Umar Saif, Chairman Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), according to reliable sources who added that the charge is likely to be given to Habibur Rehman Gilani, a senior bureaucrat, who will be appointed in accordance with the new rules.

Dr. Umar Saif was appointed as the chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board in November 2011.

In a statement shared with news source Dr Umar Saif confirmed the development.

Statement further read:

All good things must come to an end. It was a privilege to serve this country for 7 years.

I served 5 successive governments and established two institutions: PITB, which became the main reform engine for the government with over 300 projects in Punjab and other provinces, and ITU, which in just 5 years, became one of the premier technology universities of Pakistan with close to 100 PhD faculty members.

Plan9, PlanX and e-rozgaar paved new avenues of entrepreneurship, innovation and employment for the youth of Pakistan.

I am truly proud of all my team members. 1,700 fantastic professionals at PITB; 112 faculty members at ITU.

In the end, I served for as long as I could — beyond provincial boundaries and political divides — and gave it all I had. I am sure those who come in future will take these institutions to new heights. Pakistan zindabad!

Winner of Sitara-e-Imtiaz Award, Dr. Saif is also serving as the Vice Chancellor of Information Technology University. He is PhD in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge.

In April this year, Dr Umar Saif was appointed as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Chair for using Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD).

Dr Saif is also known for his work on using ICT solutions for developing-world problems. He is also the founder of Plan9, Pakistan’s largest startup incubator and is often credited as one of the main forces behind the IT ecosystem in Pakistan.

Saif’s work on grassroots technologies received the MIT Technovator Award in 2008 and he was named a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum in 2010.

News Source: Pro Pakistani

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Plan9, having came up with its idea of Launchpad 10 is now ready to proceed. The event would take place this summer and would enclose screening, workshops, talks and presentations in one hall. In short, with global players on the board, the Launchpad presents ‘a once in a lifetime chance’ for entrepreneurs to not only showcase their ideas but garner support for them.

The Launchpad 10 would be held across major cities of Pakistan. Lahore would embrace the event from 17th July to 23 July, while Karachi and Islamabad would be graced on 27th and 28th/29th respectively. You can attend the event through registration on Plane9’s website until 20th June. Be smart, avail the opportunity.

Amongst the 3000 applications submitted, a meager hundred startups would be selected from all over Pakistan. The first day would mark the presentation of ideas by startups to the external judges. A grading system means only some of them would qualify for Day 2 of the Launchpad.

These startups would then again pitch their ideas in a seven minute speech, followed by questions and answer. The winners would attain a spot for, at least, 6-month incubation at Plan9. Incubation would not only gain you mentoring but also free infrastructure and working space. Pretty beneficial deal? Huh!

For you to apply you should be a 18+ plus Pakistani ready to locate to Lahore if you emerge the winner. The idea should be a product oriented one, with the owner fully and only committed to one startup. You must have a team of 2-5 members and be able to present a prototype of the product.

The business models should be linked to technology, since Plan9 is a technology incubator. They could be one’s like Consumer Tech (e-commerce), EdTech (Education Tech), FinTech (Finance Tech), Health Tech and many others linked to technology. If you have this all, as well as the credibility to take up responsibility, there is no better event, at the moment, in Pakistan.

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File Photo: Affordable.PK Team with Salim Ghauri

Affordable.pk recently managed to bag investment on Idea Croron Ka. Idea Croron ka is the First Ever Business Reality Show of Pakistan. Affordable.pk is the Plan9’s alumni startup.

The first episode of the show was aired on 18, March. The shortlisted candidates presented themselves in front of the panel of judges that were investors and advisors.

Affordable.pk was the first startup to get in negotiation with the investors in Idea Croron Ka. Wajiha and  Kashan are the co-founders of the Affordable.pk and they were the one who persuaded the investors. The negotiation was tense but thy wer able to convince the investors to invest in the startup.

Initially Wajiha and Kashan asked for a sum of Rs. 1.5 crores and offered an equity of 15% but after much negotiation the investors agrees to invest Rs. 1 crore for an equity of 30%

The investment was made by Mr. Salim Ghauri the CEO at Netsol and Mr. Humayun Mazhar the CEO at Cres Soft.  The investment means that they get a huge sum of money through which they can proceed their dream and also get a chance to learn from expert advisors.

After the investment both Wajiha and Kashan had to say,

“We are extremely happy to have investors like Humayun Mazhar and Salim Ghauri on board. Giving a small portion of equity against their guidance and mentorship is nothing.”

Success comes after a struggle and Wajiha and Kashan have proved that. Wajiha narrates her story saying,

“Starting off with zero investment, no capital and a single computer, my husband and I initiated a digital design agency Concept beans Pvt Ltd from scratch. With undying perseverance, we eventually partnered with design agencies in USA and UK and became one of the top-rated agencies on Up work.

I am a serial entrepreneur and made head-ways after winning the 2015 WeCreate Challenge Cup for women entrepreneur. It was the turning point for me as it opened my mind to different prospects of entrepreneurship. Right in those days traditional classified e-commerce sites were facing a lot of issues and were being misused causing scams and frauds in the social community.

Being an entrepreneur I decided to take it up as a challenge and find a way to resolve it. This is how I started Affordable.pk a startup based on shared economy and reverse commerce to help the ecosystem and empower social community towards entrepreneurship.

Later we got incubated at Plan9 and things saw a great improvement from there on-wards.

What I learned through all my experience is that no matter how farfetched your dream may be, hard work makes the impossible become possible.”

The Chairman of PITB , Dr. Umar Said and the Director of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development at PITB,   Nabeel A. Qadeer had all the praise for the couple and co-founders of the Affordable.pk. They wished them a very good luck for the future  endeavors.

We also wish same for them. May they achieve much more in future.

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Plan9 formed through a collaboration of WECREATE and other, aims providing female entrepreneurs a platform to perform, given the difficulties a Women Entrepreneur faces. Get Organized to Achieve & Lead (GOAL) is arranging a one day Women Entrepreneurship Conference (WECON’17) on 11th March, 2017.

TiE Islamabad, Plan9, Jang Media Group, WECREATE Pakistan and OPEN Islamabad will be the partners for the event.

In Pakistan women faces problems in almost every field while doing job. The gathering, one of its kind would have policy makers, enablers and iconic women entrepreneurs seated to discuss, plan and ideally inspire.

The objectives of the Conference being:

1. Institution of an annual platform for promotion, engagement and support of female Entrepreneurs across Pakistan.
2. Building of a feasible, continuous ecosystem and mentor network.
3. The encouragement of participation of young women.
4. Observation and learning from the Iconic Women Entrepreneurs.

WECREATE Key Activities:

• 1) Keynote Addresses
• 2) Panel Discussions
• 3) Musical Performance
• 4) Motivational Talks
• 5) Videos: Showcasing Amazing Women Entrepreneurs
• 6) Mentoring and Networking
• 7) Campus Drive in universities
• 8) Panel Discussions:

Women Entrepreneurship Conference WECON’17 Sessions:

1) Create:

Under this the discussions would be aimed at uniting the existing support networks as well as mentors to bring about a better environment for women entrepreneurs to work.

2) Cultivate:

The aim of the session is to create awareness of the facilities available at the moment for the women led startups.

3) Celebrate:

Success stories would be exhibited in this session in an attempt to encourage others to follow the footsteps.

The event held at Aiwan e Quaid’s Auditorium, Islamabad (F9 Park, G9 Gate) on 11th March 2017 would be graces by Entrepreneurs, especially female, as well as university students, government official and Mentors. For registrations visit WECON.

With the Conference not far away WECON is building up support for Women Entrepreneurship by its Social Media Campaign: the adopted tagline being #SheIsUnstoppable. Those desiring to show support for the cause can either send a picture with a supportive message. Or they can send a short clip at participate@wecon.pk­¬ till 20th February 2017.

Being citizens of a country burdened by Low living standards of living and low income, we should pray for the success of the programs and consequently wait for time to answer!

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Nearpeer bagged an investment at 6 figure (USD) valuation from Shopistan.pk. Nearpeer is incubated by Ilm Ideas 2 and is Plan9’s startup. It is a platform for Massive Open Online Course. It offers a wide range of online video courses. These online courses are institution-specific.

The MOOC wants to promote education system in Pakistan via Al. Ammar Ali Ayub and Shahrukh Swati are behind this revolutionary idea. The two are talented alumni of LUMS. They are also its co-founders.

Ammar seemed really happy and positive about the investment. He said,

“Half a million students graduate from university annually in Pakistan but not enough jobs are created to absorb all of them. My team always had a motto; instead of becoming a burden on an overburdened economy of Pakistan, we are going to create opportunities within our economy by introducing more jobs.

Before even graduating from LUMS, we had created new opportunities for almost 22 people. Now this partnership with Shopistan will help us further this motto as we’ll be expanding into more universities and markets at an accelerated rate.”

 

There is a long list of online courses available but there is no such platform where you can find all the online courses. The problem is solved and Shahrukh was of the view,

“As a student at College and university level, I always felt the gaps in the education system. Monotonous classes, little complementary resources outside the classroom, and irrelevant and scattered online resources used to make the process difficult. Expensive MCAT/ECAT academies used to be a huge burden on my parents.

In the era where things like booking a cab, and ordering the food have been made simpler, why can’t education process made easier too? I tried, and Thanks to Allah Almighty, I succeeded. With this technology partnership we’re going to introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the education system and generate great content for markets of MCAT, ECAT, O/A’Levels, FSc, and similar markets in coming two years.”

Ali Aziz also spoke about the partnership. He said,

“We are making an investor syndicate and this is our first investment in a startup. We are aiming to promote education and health in Pakistan’s ecosystem. Our main purpose is to help startups with their technology in order to enable them to focus on their business side and make the next round of raising investment easier for them.”

According to the buzz Nearpeer claims to promote O-levels, A-levels, and MCAT and ECAT markets in Pakistan. They also plan to provide free courses to the university market. The cities under research are like Multan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha etc.

Dr. Umar Saif is supporting the investor community. He said,

“It is heartening to see investors putting faith in young entrepreneurs. One after another news of investment in a startup is the validation of the fact that this startup culture is growing and will reach heights of success in near future.”

Since 2015 the Nearpeer has gained a lot of popularity. When it started it had only 1200 paying customers and 3000 users overall. Now the stats have risen to 2500 paying customers and 6200 online users.

Nearpeer is offering 55 courses and plans to offer more in the time to come. They have branches in LUMS, LSE and Chartered Accountants Market. They plan to set their feet in GIKI, PIEAS, NUST, ITU and FAST soon.

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The new year was marked by inducting 9 startups from Lahore in PITB’s Tech Incubator Plan9’s 9th cycle of incubation.

They called it Launchpad 9, it aimed technological revolution in Pakistan.

It helps to bring people closer to entrepreneurship. PITB’s Plan9 Launchpad 9 included motivational talks, scavenger hunt, pitch and presentation workshops, business plan and market validation workshop, fireside chat, tips on launching the startup, team building, speed networking and much more.

1. AdSpace.pk is a place where you can buy or sell ads. It is like an auction platform. The things auctioned are  hoardings, streamers, billboards and transportation floats.
2. Homestove acts as a bridge connect home-based chefs to foodies in the area. Foods are made at home and is delivered to respective places on one day prior order.
3. humBIKE helps to decrease the cost that motorists use  fuel consumption.
4. Journal Post promotes the interactive journalism. The introduction of such news portals people can excess things quickly.
5. Neurostic aims to  help doctors. It gives  support algorithm through which the disease can be diagnosed properly.
6. Pakistani Soghat is a great success that has introduced the traditional way of cooking food with all those spices.
7. PaltooPK helps you find suitable pet. Not just that , it also helps to find vet and order products.
8. Project 50 Kids promotes use of technology on the daily life of children. They are making sure that children using technology positively achieve their target.
9. Qayaam works on basis of shared economy. It helps guests and hosts to find a better accommodation on affordable rates.

The post Plan9 Announces the Winners of Its 9th Incubation Cycle appeared first on Techlist.

PITB’s tech incubator Plan9 has started new year with its first ever Makeathon in parallel to the Launchpad Season 9. The initiative of Makeathon aimed to give the kids a taste of practicality the makers-space community.

The children from age group 10-18 attended the two-day event. The event provided a wide range of workshops. The  Makeistan, DIY Geeks, Bookme.pk, Cheetay and PakWheels were the ones to conduct several activities in the event.

The students from different institutions like Beaconhouse TNS, Lahore Alma, Roots International and Alma Mater attended the event. Also the children from the PITB family, attended Makeathon.

Pakistan Information Technology Board has launched a program under title of WhizKids. The aim of the program is to promote talent, ability and potential of Pakistani youth.

WhizKids promotes children from all backgrounds to join technological entrepreneurship.

The event had a total of 9 activities in two days.

The three stages of the events were:

Stage 1 – Ideation

Stage 2 – Visualization

Stage 3 – Implementation

On Day 1 after the warm welcome to the children fun-filled activities began. followed by Idea mining activity and Stick At Activity that was planned by DIY Geeks.  The activity was such that the children had glue and stick and they had to make imaginary structures.

Arfa Software Technology Park was filled with colorful paper planes flying here and there when the Paper Plane activity was introduced. The amazing day ended with Drone Race.

On Day 2 the event began with the introduction to  Arduino IDE by Makeistan after that Do It Yourself activity was conducted by DIY Geeks. PakWheels.com’s Robotic Car Race was loved by the most of the kids present.

Chairman PITB Dr. Umar Saif appreciated the efforts of WhizKids saying,

“Opening up the minds of young kids to endless possibilities in technology is one step closer to their successful future. WhizKids is an attempt to make kids independent and to help them test out their creative side.”

Children the future of the country and promoting a sense of technology can bring technological revolution in upcoming decades.

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Punjab Information Technology Board’s tech incubator has revealed the names of the startups that are selected for the third cohort of the exchange program ATX+PAK. Plan9 announced six lucky startups.

ATX+PAK Launch is an exchange program that is specially organized for entrepreneurs. It is a three week exchange program. It is brought to you by combined efforts of Pan9, the U.S state department and the City of Austin.

The program aims to connect Pakistani entrepreneurs to mentors, business/strategic partners and investors based in Austin.

Tech Incubator Plan9 also hopes to enable the entrepreneurs to think vastly about business ideas.

Program goals:

The program is set to achieve numerous goals including:

1. Introducing Austin entrepreneurs to creative talent, production, and potential growth opportunities in Pakistan.
2. Providing formalized opportunities for Pakistani Startups to introduce their Company to potential U.S. investors, Venture Capitalists, Private Equity firms and mentors to grow their businesses domestically and internationally.
3. Prov­iding a platform for entrepreneurs & startup incubators/­accelerators in Austin & Pakistan to collaborate on projects that will strengthen or enhance the entrepreneurial Eco-systems in their respective communities.
4. Provide Austin Startups a platform to explore expansion opportunities.

Startups selected for ATX+PAK launch program

Following 6 startups are selected for the 3rd cohort of ATX+PAK exchange program:

Web Dealer Solution – A platform for proactive customer engagement.

Repair Desk – A Cloud-based software that provides a smart solution to the Repair shops to keep a record of their repairs, inventory levels, purchases and returning customers.

Euphoria – Content generation based on augmented reality for marketing companies.

DIY Geeks – It is inculcating the DIY Culture in Pakistan through electronic DIY Kits.

Aitomation – Automation of repetitive tasks on computer.

Nearpeer.org – Online classrooms to make learning easy and convenient for students.
It’s a learning opportunity for all the entrepreneurs. This is a new start towards vast thinking and effecting acting.

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If you have an idea that has the potential to bring about a disruptive change, this is your chance.

There is this good news for all the entrepreneurs that Pakistan’s largest Tech Incubator Plan9 is starting its 9^th cycle of incubation. Last date to submit your Application is 20th December, 2016.

How Tech Incubator Plan9 Works

It is just not merely a workshop or session; it will be life time experience for all startups. The Plan9 aims to provide entrepreneurs with best of their facilities.

There will be small cabins as office space for a whole 6 months. Startups can access the conference rooms, uninterrupted electricity, and high-speed internet. They are also giving laptops and stipend per member for startups. Being a part of the Plan9 Network will not only inspire and elevate you through your incubation period, but the relationships and contacts that you build will benefit you even after you have graduated.

You will be guided by experts. Your mentors will teach you not only how to set up your business but also how to run the business successfully and earn large profits. Plan9 pays Rs. 20000 per month per person and accommodates a team of 5 incubates each startup. This majorly helps startups cover their initial costs.

Tech Incubator Plan9 operates on a zero equity model whereby it keeps no equity in the startup and neither charge any fee for the services provided.
It is not their first time they have been doing it since years now. They have had an amazingly successful journey. They have changed lives of many people. They provide the best platform each year for the startups and willing people to join them and learn a lot of details about business and working in the market.

All you need is to fill the application form if you think you are eligible

Eligibility criteria:

1. Applicant has to be a Pakistani citizen.
2. Must be ABOVE 18 years to be eligible to apply.
3. Launch pad is open for everyone. Women are encouraged to apply.
4. One applicant can only apply with one idea.
5. Startup needs to have a product based business idea with a tech component.
6. Startup should be able to present a mock up/wire-frame/prototype of the product.
7. Startup needs to have a strong, self-motivated and skillful team of 2 members at least (1 CEO and 1 CTO).
8. Founder should not be employed elsewhere so to commit the upcoming 6 months (9-5 p.m.) to his/her startup at Plan9.
9. In collaboration with Ilm Ideas 2, a new category of ‘Ed-Tech’ is introduced. Find details here: http://plan9.pitb.gov.pk/ilm-ideas-2/

*Please note that startups/founders that are currently incubated at Plan9 will not be entertained for the upcoming cycle (Cycle9). However, those applicants can apply for Cycle 10.

If you are willing to participate then Plan9 is now open for applications. You must prepare yourself and go ahead. Opportunities do not wait for long. This might be your chance to prove yourself and do something for yourself. Get set and GO!

Click here to Apply.

Application deadline is 20th December, 2016.

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Plan9 just have updated their Facebook status to inform about their upcoming event with Startup Cup along the collaboration of TiE Islamabad chapter is going to be held in Gilgit Baltistan.

Gilgit Baltistan is, perhaps, the most spectacular region of Pakistan in terms of its geography and scenic beauty.

This is the first time Startup Cup is coming to Gilgit Baltistan. Plan9 is very excited to collaborate with TiE to target and grow the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the north of Pakistan.

To remind you, 5 Startups from Gilgit-Baltistan & Chitral (GBC) were selected last year in 2015 startup cup  Islamabad. This time Plan9 is collaborated with TiE Islamabad to bring StartupCup in Gilgit. And they called it “Prosperity Cup”.

TiE Islamabad, a nonprofit association dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship, hosts networking events and mentors startup founders.

StartUp Cup is a locally driven business model competition open to any idea. This innovative community-based approach is designed to increase the quality and quantity of entrepreneurs in the community.

Lets wait for the final dates and details of Prosperity Cup. Techlist will keep updating you.

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