Pakistan students seek tech pact with India

By siliconindia staff writer   |   Thursday, 02 September 2004, 19:30 IST
Printer Print Email Email
NEW DELHI: A great deal of apprehension and curiosity has brought a group of 36 students across the border from Pakistan to see for themselves and learn from India's success in the IT sector. At the end of the weeklong visit, the captivated members of the Lahore-based Society for the Advancement of Computer Science expressed keenness to join hands with Indian institutions and industries to capitalise on each other's strengths. "We came here primarily to remove from the students' minds the mystery about India and to encourage a change in attitude," said Zaeem Khan, a professor of Punjab Institute of Computer Sciences of the University of Central Punjab in Lahore. "With Pakistan having recently set up a software export promotion board, we also expect to see a good growth in future in IT. Shortage of human resources is, however, a major problem," Khan told IANS. With more technocrats in key positions in the government, Khan and his colleague Fakher Abbas see greater emphasis on technical education and promotion of IT and other knowledge-based sectors in Pakistan. "Both India and Pakistan more or less have similar approaches to development. We need to follow success stories around us and build on each other's strengths in agriculture, textiles, industries and IT and supplement each other," said Abbas. "When our students are going to the US, European and Scandinavian countries for education, why not India? Our students would definitely benefit from a faculty and student exchange programme," Khan said. Anil Agarwal, alternate president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM), said: "There is great deal of keenness in Pakistan to have more collaborations with India. "In fact, the industry interaction and presentation for the students have been arranged at the behest of Pakistan ministers." Many of the Pakistani students like Irfan Zhar expressed regret that due to the delay in getting a visa, they had been unable to fully utilise their 14-day visa and were returning in a week as their colleges had reopened. "We would have loved to extend our stay as we have really enjoyed our visit to Agra, Jaipur and to the IIT here, though we could not see as many departments as we would have liked due to the public holiday," said Nawaz Ijaz, who is doing graduation in computer science.

siliconindia