Microsoft Has Shut Down Its Office in Pakistan After 25 Years

Microsoft has shut down its office in Pakistan after 25 years, marking the end of a significant chapter in the country’s tech landscape.

It is to be noted that Microsoft has not released a formal public statement or press release specifically announcing the closure of its Pakistan office. However, the decision has been widely confirmed through statements by Jawwad Rehman, Microsoft Pakistan’s founding country manager, who shared the news on LinkedIn and called it a “sobering signal” about the business climate.

Why Did Microsoft Exit Pakistan?

Microsoft cited a combination of global restructuring and a strategic shift to a cloud-based, partner-led model as the primary reasons for the closure. But the story runs deeper:

Global Factors

• Microsoft is undergoing massive layoffs—over 9,100 jobs cut globally—as part of its cost optimization strategy.
• The company is consolidating operations and shifting to regional hubs like Ireland for licensing and commercial contracts.

Local Challenges

• Economic instability: Currency depreciation, high inflation, and a shrinking tech investment climate.
• Regulatory hurdles: Inconsistent policies, import restrictions, and taxation on IT and telecom sectors.
• Political uncertainty: Frequent regime changes and lack of long-term digital policy planning.

What Microsoft Leaves Behind

Despite the closure, Microsoft’s products and services will continue in Pakistan via:

• Certified local partners
• Cloud platforms and regional offices (e.g., Ireland)

However, the loss of direct presence means:

• Fewer local training programs and digital skilling initiatives
• Reduced corporate engagement and innovation partnerships
• A symbolic blow to Pakistan’s aspirations of becoming a regional tech hub

Reactions

• Former President Arif Alvi called it a “troubling sign” and revealed that Microsoft had once considered Pakistan for expansion but chose Vietnam instead due to instability.
• Jawwad Rehman, Microsoft Pakistan’s founding country manager, said: “Even global giants like Microsoft find it unsustainable to stay.”

What’s Next for Pakistan?

• Stabilize macroeconomic policies
• Reform regulatory frameworks
• Improve ease of doing business
• Foster a consistent digital strategy

India Wasting Money on Defence Budget While Future of War is Artificial Intelligence, Says Pakistan's Ex-Vice Admiral

A retired Vice Admiral of Pakistan has said that India is wasting money on it’s defence budget as the future of war is artificial intelligence (AI), reported Dawn, a Pakistan daily.

During a seminar tilted ‘Indian hegemonic design and its implications’, Arifullah Hussaini said,"I think India is wasting its money on defence. The future of war does not belong to conventional methods but artificial intelligence. Whosoever uses it well will win. Therefore, we have to learn artificial intelligence."

“This is the era of hybrid war which consists of multiple layers, including cyber warfare, conventional war, diplomacy, spread of fake news, foreign electoral intervention, etc.", he added.

Notably, what Hussaini said is quite right as a report on the effect of artificial intelligence on the US' national security predicted that AI could revolutionize wars as much as nuclear weapons. The report explains that improvements in AI and related technology may shake up balance of international power by making it easier for smaller nations and organizations to threaten big powers like the US.

Nuclear weapons may be easier than ever to build, but still require resources, technologies, and expertise while code and digital data used in AI-technologies tend to get cheap, or end up spreading around for free, fast. Machine learning has become widely used and image and facial recognition now crop up in science fair projects, said the report.

India, which has yet to launch a national policy on AI, is too late to have jump on artificial intelligence bandwagon as comparing to its next neighbor China, which stands second in the world when it comes to committing money for developing AI programmes. It has built a $2 billion research park dedicated to AI in western Beijing and its spending more millions on AI research at universities and private firms. The research community in China is also far more robust than in India.

Pakistan, on other hand, is far far behind in AI race in south-east Asia alone. The bad state of politics and terrorism is so high in the country a Pakistan media once sattired that amongst the jobs that will be killed by artificial intelligence is that of President of Pakistan, which is a head of state.

On a serious note, Pakistan do have handful of startups working in artificial intelligence such as ADDO AI, touted as Pakistan's first AI company, working in smart cities, microfinance and farming sector. Other than this most AI startup in the country is very mediocre and small utility based. And, none is contributing to defence sector or mechanism for that matter.

While in India, there are numerous startups working in defence area and even helping Indian army and defence personnel. However both India and Pakistan do not have any local AI firm of that big level as the US "Tony Stark-like firms", pun intended.

Speaking about India countering China in AI race, it has recently joined hands with Japan to launch robotics and artificial intelligence in the defense segment.

Moreover, Malcolm Frank, head of strategy of Cognizant, a world-leading professional services firm, said in an interview that India along with United States and China are way ahead of everyone else in the AI game and are currently the top three contenders for the numero uno throne.

Top Image - Guardianlv.com

When India Was Busy With "Digital India", Pakistan Became One The Few In The World To Use Armed Drones

While the Indian citizens might have heard about a technology called drones the first time sometime back in last year when a food delivery joint in Maharashtra delivered a pizza using a drone. Our neighbour, Pakistan seems to be two steps ahead when it comes to the technology.

Just few months back, the country joined an exclusive club. Pakistan became the fourth country in the world to have used an armed drone to conduct a targeted killing. The other three countries to have used the technology for same purposes include United States, the United Kingdom and Israel. And, all this rapidly happened at that same time of last two years when India was busy glorifying its initiatives like "Digital India", "Make In India" and "start-up India", to name a few.

The drones, which exactly are unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), are used for targeted killing can lead to various deadly consequences in the future for World peace. The Pakistan Army used the drone to kill enemies on its own territory, unlike the U.S and the U.K. The strikes were part of the country's long-running campaign to pacify Waziristan.

The Pakistan army has been involved in a bitter campaign since August this year to expel militants sheltering in the Shawal Valley. The valley is considered as an important conduit of personnel and weapons into the Afghanistan. Despite having the support of manned aircraft, the forces haven't been able to do much due to the fierce resistance it has faced from Taliban-linked tribal forces in the mountainous valley.

According to ISPR Director-General Asim Saleem Bajwa, the drone strikes are strictly to be used against "high profile terrorists." He further added that such strikes should be seen as an effort to break the will of the militants and clear the region.

The Pakistan government since long has been under huge pressure from the U.S. government to launch ground offensives in its tribal regions in order to stem the flow of fighters into the Afghanistan country. The toll to militant groups has been very high. It is estimated, that more than three thousand people were killed from the offensive in Waziristan alone.

[caption id="attachment_105505" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Pakistan's armed drone Burraq[/caption]

The drone used by the Pakistan in the strike was a homemade “Burraq". The drone was originally designed for surveillance mission purposes, but was later on converted to carry on and deploy a missile under remote control. While the Burraq couldn't match the sophistication and range of the United State's Predator and Reaper drones, the drone is capable enough to carry out a targeted killing with a reasonable level of accuracy. This may even lead other states such as India, Iran and Russia who are in possession of less sophisticated drones, to start contemplating whether their technology is good enough to be converted for a similar drone strike. If not this, it shows that some surveillance drones can have or be used for “dual use".

India, on other side which infact is next neighbour of Pakistan and always been in tensed relationship with later for ages, is in very early stage or say already too late to get its army equipped with "drones with warfares". Recently, India’s Directorate General of Infantry has issued a request for information (RFI) for 600 mini-UAVs but that's not exactly the drones or UCAVs used for targeted killing but UAVs to monitor borders.

The drones can prove to be a great tool for Pakistan to please the U.S but on the way of doing this, it's wary of risking money and blood on ground operations.

The use of armed drones throws open various scenarios that could be or couldn't be true in the future. For example, the counter could use the technology in a way that might affect its relations with its neighbors, such as Afghanistan and India. This could further lead the governments of these countries to launch an even more aggressive campaign to develop and start deploying their own drones. The conclusion here is, that this drone strike is more noteworthy for what it represents than for its consequences within the country of Pakistan.

The current situation is that the drone war is expanding and that too in unexpected ways. Few people would have predicted that Pakistan would become the first among the countries in the East to use a drone for a targeted killing.

[Top Image - Shutterstock]

Startup Dosti: Indo-Pak Business Plan Competition 2014 all set to begin

Startup Dosti: Indo-Pak Business Plan Competition is a contest like business plan competition aimed at involving startups in India and Pakistan which are currently in their initial stages. The competition has been initiated by the Dosti partnership, which is a result of cross border partnership between SEED ventures and the Atlantic Council. The partnership aims at encouraging trust and greater collaborations between the business communities of the two nations.

The Dosti partnership recently concluded the business plan competition, which is one of its most important events on 30th April in Chiang Mai, Thailand by selecting its three winners. The entire competition was shot in the form of a reality show. It had 12 contestants and five judges from both India and Pakistan. The judges even played the role of investors. The reality show has been named “The Rising Entrepreneur” and is expected to hit the television screens of both the nations most probably before August 2014.

The competition has proved to be a great learning experience for its participants as they received specially and individually designed mentorship from experienced and well established entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors from both the countries. They also got a once in a lifetime opportunity to earn seed funding and free incubation in both the nations for three to six months. They were even made available with a network of entrepreneurs who helped them in accomplishing their business plans and ideas.

The contest was open to all early-stage startups based in Pakistan and India. The deadline for applications was 20th December, 2013. Even concept stage startups that were planning to launch themselves within 3 months of applying were also allowed to apply and contest in the competition. The competition was only open to people under 35 years of age. While startups having an element of cross border were preferred, it was not a necessity for applying.

The last and final round of the competition will see the contestants pitching business plans to an experienced panel of investors from both the nations and the diaspora. The whole reality show has been produced in partnership with GEO TV in Pakistan and CNBC in India.

Indian Finalists

Zuarinagar, Goa based Changemaker.be - a platform aimed at empowering NGOs on multiple fronts such as funding and access to human resources to carry out their projects. The startup is founded by value-driven youngsters all in their early 20s namely - Chaitali Pandit,  Abhijith Asok, Rishabh Makharia, and Kunal Bajpai.

Bangalore based Green Nerds Solutions works in area of clean technology space and provide innovated solutions for waste management, specifically segregation and processing such as waste to energy or waste to fertilizer. Its primary innovation is the ‘Automatic Garbage Mould’ that range from five to 12 ton capacity to enable segregation and conversion of waste into reusable substances and help you reduce the waste quantity up to 75%, and ensure minimal rejects to landfill thus reducing the space utilized for garbage dump yards which can be converted to gardens/green space. The company was founded in 2011 by 40-year-old Nidhish Shetty.

New Delhi based Mobile Harvest Solutions is a social startup in education and healthcare sector that uses mobile applications in the rural areas. The startup developed tools that are used by various organizations and are targeted on large scale of users for information dissemination, training, feedback and communication in the areas of governance, healthcare and education. This startup is also founded by young entrepreneurs Sachin Gaur (30), Jayvardhan Jaju (30), and Prashanth Pattabiraman (27).

Mumbai based Vishwas is a social enterprise startup in the space of healthcare delivery targeted to both patients and doctors. The company has created an IT platform that allow content sharing, real-time epidemiological monitoring, and crowdsourcing ideas for community development of physicians. Vishwas has also developed an android application that runs on a tablet, exclusively catering to the needs of family doctors in low-resource, high-volume settings. The startup is also on verge of developing first-of-its-kind community portal for doctors and patients that will display real-time trends of diseases in the population, and allow for crowdsourcing content and social networking for doctors community.

Jodhpur based Zostel Hospitality is a startup that work for tourism & accommodation sector , it have a chain of hostels that offer hygienic, secure, centrally located and affordable accommodation to budget travelers targeted to young travelers and backpackers who are looking star hotel alternatives.

Pakistan Finalists

Lahore based bio-tech startup Bu Technologies designed a low-cost human brain controlled prosthetic hand for upper limb disabled persons which functions like a hand of any normal human being. This prosthetic hand uses muscle pressure technology with microprocessors that can sense, feel, and even automatically tighten when necessary.

Another Lahore based startup Plant4Plants provides investment, consultancy, rehabilitation and market relationship services to owners of waterlogged areas, they offer Rs. 40,000 per hectare to the owners to grow eucalyptus which sucks water and cures such land and in turn its pulp is used as a raw material in the paper and pulp industry.So far, over 1,236 acres of land has been recovered for agricultural use.

Karachi based KG Hub is a startup in the publishing industry which makes comics books and provides content for marketing purposes to various FMCG and agencies.
The History Project, curates books on significant events and shared conflict on both sides of the border - India and Pakistan. The startup collects and collates facts from textbooks, juxtaposes them, and introduces them to students through interactive presentations, highlighting embedded stereotypes. The project is founded by  Qasim Aslam and Ayyaz Ahmad.



 

Startup Dosti: Indo-Pak Business Plan Competition 2014 all set to begin

Startup Dosti: Indo-Pak Business Plan Competition is a contest like business plan competition aimed at involving startups in India and Pakistan which are currently in their initial stages. The competition has been initiated by the Dosti partnership, which is a result of cross border partnership between SEED ventures and the Atlantic Council. The partnership aims at encouraging trust and greater collaborations between the business communities of the two nations.

The Dosti partnership recently concluded the business plan competition, which is one of its most important events on 30th April in Chiang Mai, Thailand by selecting its three winners. The entire competition was shot in the form of a reality show. It had 12 contestants and five judges from both India and Pakistan. The judges even played the role of investors. The reality show has been named “The Rising Entrepreneur” and is expected to hit the television screens of both the nations most probably before August 2014.

The competition has proved to be a great learning experience for its participants as they received specially and individually designed mentorship from experienced and well established entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors from both the countries. They also got a once in a lifetime opportunity to earn seed funding and free incubation in both the nations for three to six months. They were even made available with a network of entrepreneurs who helped them in accomplishing their business plans and ideas.

The contest was open to all early-stage startups based in Pakistan and India. The deadline for applications was 20th December, 2013. Even concept stage startups that were planning to launch themselves within 3 months of applying were also allowed to apply and contest in the competition. The competition was only open to people under 35 years of age. While startups having an element of cross border were preferred, it was not a necessity for applying.

The last and final round of the competition will see the contestants pitching business plans to an experienced panel of investors from both the nations and the diaspora. The whole reality show has been produced in partnership with GEO TV in Pakistan and CNBC in India.

Indian Finalists

Zuarinagar, Goa based Changemaker.be - a platform aimed at empowering NGOs on multiple fronts such as funding and access to human resources to carry out their projects. The startup is founded by value-driven youngsters all in their early 20s namely - Chaitali Pandit,  Abhijith Asok, Rishabh Makharia, and Kunal Bajpai.

Bangalore based Green Nerds Solutions works in area of clean technology space and provide innovated solutions for waste management, specifically segregation and processing such as waste to energy or waste to fertilizer. Its primary innovation is the ‘Automatic Garbage Mould’ that range from five to 12 ton capacity to enable segregation and conversion of waste into reusable substances and help you reduce the waste quantity up to 75%, and ensure minimal rejects to landfill thus reducing the space utilized for garbage dump yards which can be converted to gardens/green space. The company was founded in 2011 by 40-year-old Nidhish Shetty.

New Delhi based Mobile Harvest Solutions is a social startup in education and healthcare sector that uses mobile applications in the rural areas. The startup developed tools that are used by various organizations and are targeted on large scale of users for information dissemination, training, feedback and communication in the areas of governance, healthcare and education. This startup is also founded by young entrepreneurs Sachin Gaur (30), Jayvardhan Jaju (30), and Prashanth Pattabiraman (27).

Mumbai based Vishwas is a social enterprise startup in the space of healthcare delivery targeted to both patients and doctors. The company has created an IT platform that allow content sharing, real-time epidemiological monitoring, and crowdsourcing ideas for community development of physicians. Vishwas has also developed an android application that runs on a tablet, exclusively catering to the needs of family doctors in low-resource, high-volume settings. The startup is also on verge of developing first-of-its-kind community portal for doctors and patients that will display real-time trends of diseases in the population, and allow for crowdsourcing content and social networking for doctors community.

Jodhpur based Zostel Hospitality is a startup that work for tourism & accommodation sector , it have a chain of hostels that offer hygienic, secure, centrally located and affordable accommodation to budget travelers targeted to young travelers and backpackers who are looking star hotel alternatives.

Pakistan Finalists

Lahore based bio-tech startup Bu Technologies designed a low-cost human brain controlled prosthetic hand for upper limb disabled persons which functions like a hand of any normal human being. This prosthetic hand uses muscle pressure technology with microprocessors that can sense, feel, and even automatically tighten when necessary.

Another Lahore based startup Plant4Plants provides investment, consultancy, rehabilitation and market relationship services to owners of waterlogged areas, they offer Rs. 40,000 per hectare to the owners to grow eucalyptus which sucks water and cures such land and in turn its pulp is used as a raw material in the paper and pulp industry.So far, over 1,236 acres of land has been recovered for agricultural use.

Karachi based KG Hub is a startup in the publishing industry which makes comics books and provides content for marketing purposes to various FMCG and agencies.
The History Project, curates books on significant events and shared conflict on both sides of the border - India and Pakistan. The startup collects and collates facts from textbooks, juxtaposes them, and introduces them to students through interactive presentations, highlighting embedded stereotypes. The project is founded by  Qasim Aslam and Ayyaz Ahmad.