Telenor Pakistan’s Digital Accelerator Program, Telenor Velocity, has opened for applications from start-ups for its 7th Cohort. As a part of this program, Telenor Velocity will guide, support and mentor start-ups using Telenor Pakistan’s experts, analytics and access to scaling opportunities over a period of four months. The world is going through radical transformation, and Telenor Pakistan is on the lookout for founders who are embracing the constraints and letting their innovation create solutions using technology. Start-ups that specialise in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Blockchain, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Internet of Things (IOT) can particularly benefit from this opportunity, as this cohort brings along with it the experts and tools necessary for building impactful, modern solutions. The cohort selects start-ups that have been in the market for more than two years and offers them scaling opportunities through Telenor Pakistan’s digital assets. Must Read: Red Bull Campus Clutch launches in Pakistan Speaking at the development, Khurrum Ashfaque, Chief Operating Officer Telenor Pakistan said “Entrepreneurs are essential to the growth and development of Pakistan’s economy and are the key to bring innovative solutions into the market. Telenor Velocity aims to nurture and mentor start-ups that use technology as an enableracross various verticals which is Telenor Pakistan’s expert domain. We are living in the start-up generation with increasing digitalisation by the day. These tech based new businesses need a platform to jet start their ventures that not only enable solutions for the society but also puts Pakistan on the map for innovation through technology.” The 7th cohort is accepting applications from start-ups focusing on verticals such as Fin-tech, Ed-tech, Agri-tech, Health-tech, Entertainment/Content/Media, Gaming, Inclusion, E-commerce, Smart Cities and Connectivity. Due to the pandemic, the cohort will be run on a hybrid model with physical and online meetings. Launched in 2016, the accelerator has to date conducted 6 cohorts, with 32 graduated start-ups, 4+ Pilot Runs, $40,000 Pilot Investment, and $3 million investment raised by Telenor Velocity start-ups. To apply for Telenor Velocity’s 7th Cohort, please fill out the application form (https://gust.com/programs/telenor-velocity-cohort-7). Last date to apply: April 3rd, 2021.
Telenor Pakistan and National Defence University exchange Ideas to Leverage Technology for Development
Telenor Pakistan recently hosted a dinner for a delegation from National Defence University (NDU) Islamabad at its 345 Campus comprising of management of two organizations and participants of International Workshop on Leadership and Security (IWLS).The purpose of the event was to engage in a dialogue on how technology can play a vital role towards national development and empowering societies and to highlight to the international delegates some of the successful and impactful digital initiatives of Telenor Pakistan. The high level event was hosted by Irfan Wahab Khan, CEO Telenor Pakistan along with his management team and attended by the faculty and participants of IWLS-1 including delegates from China, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Myanmar, Tunisia, South Africa, Argentina, Portugal, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Finland, Romania, UAE , Syria and The UK. The delegates were given a walk through of the latest digital innovations at Telenor Pakistan followed by the tour of the Telenor 345 Campus. Must Read: British-Pakistani led team embarks to create next-gen, safer, in the moment social media Mr. Irfan Wahab Khan, CEO Telenor Pakistan opened the event and said that access to technology can have important ancillary benefits and it can help empower people, increase productive investment and consumption and raise productivity and income. “As Pakistan’s leading digital services provider with a strong rural presence, and movers of many industry-first initiatives, we at Telenor Pakistan are fully geared to impact and transform various sectors of Pakistan’s economy through smart connectivity, digitalization of services and platforms and greater financial inclusion of the people of Pakistan. As a forward-looking growth organization, Telenor Pakistan is driven by its ambition to provide intelligent technologies to create better national outcomes through our innovation focus involving the use of Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics and Blockchain. This model is aligned with our purpose to provide the Government, businesses and people of Pakistan to what matters most to them and allows us to be their partner of choice in their digital transformation.” he added. Telenor is leading the ICT-powered digital revolution in Pakistan with a number of innovative products and industry first solutions. The company is firmly focused on digitalization for the masses and has pioneered financial services aimed at higher financial inclusion. The participants of the International Workshop being held at NDU appreciated Telenor Pakistan’s ambitions for digital development which are well aligned with the Government’s ambition of a Digital Pakistan. “It’s imperative that we know what developments have taken place in the recent past and what technology holds in store for our future, in order to harvest the benefits. Our findings show that responsible tech is on the rise, even in the midst of technology’s rapid leaps. Technology used in the efficient way will contribute to a sustainable tomorrow.” they added. Telenor Pakistan believes there are immense opportunities through technology with a stronger focus on value creation, innovation, enterprise solutions, customer experience and strategic partnerships which are aligned with the company’s promise to deliver on its vision of empowering societies and connecting people to what matters most.
Cloud Drives Pakistan’s Digital Market to PKR 800 Million
At GITEX Technology Week, SAP Showcases How Cloud Enables Middle East’s Intelligent Enterprises, Smart Cities, and Nationwide Visions Saquib Ahmad: “Becoming a cloud-first Intelligent Enterprise is the number one business priority for CEOs across Pakistan” As Pakistan’s digital transformation advances Intelligent Enterprises, Smart Cities, and Vision 2025, the country’s digital market is set to reach PKR 800 million industry experts announced during GITEX Technology Week in Dubai. Global technology company SAP says rapidly-digitizing verticals — aviation, banking and finance, public sector, retail, and telco – are enabling organizations to optimize costs, efficiency, and digital business. As a result, Pakistan’s digital market is reaching PKR 800 million, according to the International Trade Administration. Supporting regional digital transformation, SAP recently became the first multi-national enterprise application software company to go live on a Saudi cloud data center, open to Pakistan customers. Must Read: PTCL Holds Eco-Hike at Trail 3 “The massive Pakistan digital market shows that CEOs are early adopters in digital transformation on the cloud, for digital business models that can transform customer experiences,” said Ahmed Al-Faifi, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, SAP Middle East North. “GITEX is an ideal platform to emphasize the urgency that every Pakistan’s industry vertical and line of business faces in moving to the cloud, in order to gain greater market share and business competitiveness.” Supporting digital transformation of Pakistan’s industry verticals and lines of business, at GITEX, SAP will exhibit under the theme “The Intelligent Enterprise,” with a central showcase of how the future of Smart Cities can reimagine daily lives in the Digital Economy. Pakistan’s visitors are experiencing intelligent entertainment parks, blockchain for supply chain, smart sports, Intelligent Enterprises, and Future of ork. “Becoming a cloud-first Intelligent Enterprise is the number one business priority Pakistan’s CEOs,” said Saquib Ahmad, Managing Director, SAP Pakistan. “Our strong Pakistan attendance at GITEX shows the value in moving to the cloud, and integrating artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the Internet of Things to optimize operations and customer experiences. By having a nationwide digital foundation, Pakistan’s public and private sectors can enable Vision 2025’s transformation of the economy, society, and environment.”
Oracle Cloud Growth Driving Aggressive Global Expansion
Oracle Cloud Growth Driving Aggressive Global Expansion. Driven by strong customer demand for its cloud services worldwide, Oracle today announced plans to significantly expand its modern cloud infrastructure footprint. The company’s rapid expansion plans include the opening of 12 new data center regions and increase the breadth and depth of Oracle Cloud services available across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. With this news, Oracle continues its industry leadership position, delivering a complete and integrated portfolio of cloud services (SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS) and new services in security, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence. Must Read: Senate Committee Recognizes Contribution Of Telecom Sector Highlights Need For Rationalized Taxation “The future of IT is autonomous. With our expanded, modern data centers, Oracle is uniquely suited to deliver the most autonomous technologies in the world,” said Oracle CEO Mark Hurd. “As we invest, our margins will continue to expand. And with our global datacenter expansion, we are able to help customers lower IT costs, mitigate risks and compete like they never have before.” The regional expansion of Oracle’s cloud footprint will include locations in Asia including China, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and South Korea; Europe including Amsterdam and Switzerland; and North America including two in Canada and two new US locations to support U.S. Department of Defense workloads. Since launching Oracle Cloud, the company has seen an ever-growing set of customers, across the Global 2000, as well as small and medium businesses. Organizations continue to turn to Oracle at record-rates to build, deploy, and extend game-changing applications and run business-critical workloads in a low-latency, highly available, reliable and secure cloud environment. Today, customers in more than 195 countries are running their most demanding applications on Oracle Cloud Platform and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Telenor Research: 7 Tech Trends for 2018
Telenor Research: 7 Tech Trends for 2018. If 2017 was the year when self-driving cars, AI, Big Data and cryptocurrencies appeared on our radar, 2018 will be the year when many of them appear in our markets, says a team of scientists and technology analysts at Telenor Research. “When big changes happen it is often because regulation, user preference and technology converge – mobile telephony is one example, the car another. 2018 will see key developments in all three dimensions. We have picked the trends that we think are both illuminating and important to stay on top of ahead of the New Year,” says Bjørn Taale Sandberg, Head of Telenor Research. Consumer-trends such as face recognition, on-demand services and 360-photos aside, what seismic shifts in the broader technology landscape might shake things up in 2018? Looking ahead, scientists and technology analysts at Telenor Group’s research arm, Telenor Research, see seven tech trends coming our way: 1: Social media newsfeeds: Less social, more media Facebook users are posting less and the amount of relevant information on the Facebook newsfeed is dropping, giving way to an increasing amount of professional and paid content – of varying relevance. Users are also likely becoming more critical as awareness rises around “fake news” seeping into their feeds. “Perhaps discouraged by a lack of relevance, users could start turning to other platforms for news, to curate their ‘digital presence’ and get updates on friends and family,” says Bjørn Taale Sandberg. All the while, Facebook will develop further into a communication platform – both through the ever-popular Messenger app and in Facebook Groups for micro-coordination. 2: People will actually read online Terms & Conditions In mid-2018, the EU will update the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in several significant ways. Hear us out before we lose you because this is important: Customers of any digital service – all of us – are becoming the owners of the data that we produce when using these services. The regulation strengthens how that data is protected for all of us in the EU, aiming to give control back to us private users. It also changes how companies ask for your permission to use your data. Must Read: FINCA Microfinance Bank Issues PKR 1,500 Million To PPTFC For SME Sector Terms & Conditions must be reinvented so that consumers know what data they give away and for what purpose. “This reinvention is key and we are going to see a lot of variations around Terms and Conditions in the beginning. We expect that the best solutions will be copied, so watch out. New Terms & Conditions are coming to your favourite app – and you’ll want to read them!” says Sandberg. The jury is still out on how this could affect those in Asia, but we anticipate ripple effects in the months and years ahead. “Global companies like Google and Facebook might make their improved Terms and Conditions apply globally,” adds Sandberg. 3: Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning hit the mass market Artificial Intelligence and especially Deep Learning, the ‘magic’ that is bringing us driverless cars and facial recognition, has been sitting solidly atop the hype curve over the last few years. “We believe 2018 will be the year when deep learning moves beyond the hype, and will find new markets outside of the Internet giants,” explains Sandberg. The technology will take on a wide range of industries, including health, energy, transport and telco. Those that succeed will do it through hard work, well understood use cases, ample training data and skills and knowledge to train models. Business failures will come from misunderstood use, mismanaged expectations on deep learning’s capabilities, immature data handling, and not the least – from those that think deep learning is a magical tool that can be bought off the shelf and not grown from within. What is Deep Learning? A refresher: Deep Learning is a sub-field of Machine Learning concerned with understanding the world through large models and huge amounts of data, and thus bringing us closer to artificial intelligence. Deep learning is behind revolutionary breakthroughs in automation of a wide range of tasks, including understanding images, text, and speech. Deep Learning uses large artificial neural networks, computing systems inspired by our brains neural networks. 4: Blockchain – can it break out of its own cryptocurrency cradle? Depends who you ask, but the problems are stacking up, and this year we may see blockchain technology struggle to break out of its cryptocurrency cradle. Blockchain is best known as the technology behind Bitcoin, a digital currency that doesn’t need a central governing body to guarantee transactions. One of the perks of blockchain is that it is, by design, resistant to modification. However, this also brings about the challenge of diversifying its practical applications: to create more varied and usable blockchain-based solutions, developers need to be able to modify it – to sort out bugs, upgrade technology and make widespread engineering decisions. “Industry agreement must be reached about all of this. But the point of blockchain is that it avoids the need for a central governing body to oversee its transactions. This is known as the ‘blockchain governance paradox’. The blockchain industry will need to resolve these challenges to fully deliver on its promise. 2018 will see this debate heat up – and hopefully give us solutions,” Sandberg predicts. What is Blockchain? First – blockchain is not Bitcoin. A blockchainis a continuously growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography. Each block typically contains a hash pointer as a link to a previous block,a timestamp and transaction data. By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data. Blockchain technology was first implemented as a core component of Bitcoin, where it serves as the public ledger for all transactions. The invention of the blockchain for Bitcoin made it the first digital currency, and the Bitcoin design has been the inspiration for other applications of blockchain technology. 5: 2018 will
Pakistan Vision 2025 Drives Future Cities Growth
Pakistan Vision 2025 and the China Pakistan Economic Corridor are driving investment in Future Cities to deliver economic growth and enhance urban livability, the new country manager for Future Cities enabler SAP announced today. With the United Nations projecting over half of Pakistan set to live in cities by 2025, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor partnership is investing millions of rupees in Future City projects in Islamabad, along with Gwadar, and Quetta, and supporting Pakistan Vision 2025 digital transformation goals. Using innovations such as 3D printing, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, Pakistan is transforming key industry verticals such as government, healthcare, logistics, and transportation. Smart utilities and the smart grid, the smart supply chain, and public safety all present major opportunities. “Pakistan’s cities face complex challenges that require innovative thinking and vision to reinvent how the country tackles economic, social, and environmental issues. Urban leaders in Pakistan are at the forefront of using citywide digital transformation to deliver better public services, good governance, safer cities, and economic prosperity,” said Saquib Ahmad, County Manager, for SAP Pakistan. Supporting Pakistan’s Future Cities, SAP is exchanging global best practices from the recently-launched SAP Leonardo digital innovation system, the Future Cities program that co-innovates with over 4,500 local governments worldwide, and the SAP Training and Development Institute that upskills youth. With more than 16 years of IT experience in the region, Saquib Ahmad is committed to supporting new digital business models in Pakistan and driving Digital Economy growth. “Pakistan is a strategic growth market for SAP, and we are exchanging global best practices in using real-time technology to deliver clean, safe, and competitive cities. Saquib Ahmad has the experience, leadership, and disruptor vision to drive public-private partnerships that support Pakistan Vision 2025,” said Gergi Abboud, Managing Director for the Gulf and Pakistan at SAP.
