Technology – Page 128 – Pakistan Tech News

foodpanda launches pandapro

Karachi: foodpanda, Pakistan’s leading food delivery platform and e-commerce Company, launched its latest feature, pandapro, at a grand unveiling event in Karachi. Through this event, pandapro was officially introduced as a service for the larger audience. pandapro is a membership programme which gives customers an exclusive access to flat discounts, better services and complementary food/drinks across foodpanda’s use cases.

Speaking on the occasion, Muntaqa Peracha, interim CEO foodpanda, stated, “We are very excited to launch pandapro as a service in order to strengthen long-term, ongoing relationships with our customers. We will continue to focus on providing excellent service to our customers by letting them enjoy exclusive discounts on food delivery, as well as additional discounts on Pick-Up and groceries through pandapro.

pandapro users will enjoy free delivery on all restaurants and shops in addition to the non-pro discounts on foodpanda. They will also get to enjoy up to 20% and more on selected restaurants and free delivery from all restaurants and shops on all orders above Rs.599. This benefit can also be used together with the non-pro discounts on foodpanda.

The event was attended by foodpanda’s management, loyal customers, top vendors, influencers, media houses and other key stakeholders. The event was wrapped up with an electrifying performance by Hassan Raheem who has become the latest musical sensation in the country.

Ericsson Time-Critical Communication recognized by GTI as “Innovative Breakthrough in Mobile Technology”

Ericsson Time-Critical Communication was recognized at the recently concluded MWC 2022 event in Barcelona. The company is a recipient of the GTI Award 2022 for “Innovative Breakthrough in Mobile Technology” as well as the Outstanding Award for significant contribution to the industry.

Launched in October 2021, Time-Critical Communication is an end-to-end software toolbox for 5G networks that delivers the consistent low latency and high reliability demanded by time-critical applications and services for consumers, enterprises, and public sector. For instance, it strives to enable lag-free games, immersive AR and VR sport events experience, seamless remote control in factories, and increased road safety.

The toolbox combines 3GPP-specified ultra-reliable, low latency communication (URLLC) standard with Ericsson innovations to mitigate major causes of latency, unlocking a wide range of latency-sensitive use cases in real-time media, remote control, mobility automation, and industrial control.

Marie Hogan, Head of Mobile Broadband Voice and New Business at Ericsson Networks, says: “It is heartening to see our effort to enable the benefits of 5G acknowledged by the industry. We will continue to work closely with our ecosystem partners to bring more time-critical use cases to life.”

Ericsson has been piloting 5G for time-critical use cases since 2017 with customers and industry partners in extensive proof of concept (PoC) demos and trials ranging from jet engine production, factory automation safety to driverless minibuses.

Ericsson, together with a European communications service provider and other ecosystem partners, also recently showed at MWC 2022 the potential benefits of Time-Critical Communication for AR streaming applications with enhanced quality of experience.

About GTI Awards

The GTI Awards program aims to acknowledge achievements and success of industry players in 4G evolution and 5G development across a wide range of market segments.

Pandamart Granted Fulfillment Centre Haccp Certification

Karachi: Pandamart, the online groceries delivery service under the foodpanda umbrella has been granted HACCP platform / fulfillment centre certification, which covers fresh fruits, vegetables, meat & commodities receiving, processing, packing & dispatching.

HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) is a management system in which food safety is addressed through the analysis and control of biological, chemical, and physical hazards from raw material production, procurement and handling, to manufacturing, distribution and consumption of the finished product.

The HACCP certification for the first pandamart store was issued in November last year, after a 6 month process, by Bureau Veritas, a world-renowned company specialized in the testing, inspection and certification founded in 1828. Currently food safety audits are underway at several other stores for the certification of processes in these stores as well. The process to obtain the certification also requires specialized training of all staff handling the food items.

“Obtaining the HACCP certification is part of our commitment towards maintaining the highest international food safety standards, and ensuring that our customers purchase and consume the freshest and most hygienic food items. Research from Mintel suggests that 84%-86% of people do not buy groceries online because of trust issues around fresh fruits, vegetables, and meat quality. Through this certification, our goal is to develop a strong food safety culture throughout our network of pandamarts so that we can develop a higher level of trust in the q-commerce channel. People should be able to lay their minds to rest knowing that the freshest and highest quality produce is being carefully handpicked, packed, and delivered to them,” stated Ibad Ahmed, Director – Q-Commerce and New Verticals at foodpanda.

Grocery shopping on pandamart is accessible and convenient on the foodpanda app with stores stocking thousands of products. Customers can order online whatever they want from the nearest pandamart and their order, whether for a single item or the whole month’s groceries, is delivered at their doorstep within half an hour. The pandamart services are available 20 hours a day.

foodpanda reiterates commitment towards women empowerment

Karachi: Keeping up with its annual tradition, foodpanda pledged its commitment to work towards gender equality and women empowerment by featuring its HomeChef at ‘Ring the Bell for Gender Equality’ ceremony at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The event was held to showcase and celebrate women playing different roles and how corporations should work together to achieve gender equality for a sustainable future.

The partnering organisation included Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), Women on Board, International Finance Corporation, UN Women and Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance (PICG).

Muntaqa Peracha, interim CEO, members from the HomeChef team, and foodpanda’s HomeChef Atiqa Zaeem from Mrs. Zaeem’s Kitchen were also present at the ceremony to promote gender equality for a sustainable tomorrow.

Sharing his views on how foodpanda is working towards empowering women, Muntaqa Peracha said, “foodpanda’s vision is to enable economic empowerment in the country and our HomeChef vertical is the first step towards making this happen. foodpanda encourages and supports females across all channels and Atiqa Zaeem one of our HomeChefs, is a prime example of how females can earn from home and achieve financial stability. We envision to celebrate many such examples in the future.”

The session was opened by Atiqa Zaeem, foodpanda HomeChef, Jehan Ara, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, Chairperson PSX; Ms Sima Kamil, Deputy Governor, State Bank of Pakistan; and distinguished women of the country from various fields ranging from banking, financial, entrepreneurial, and corporate sectors to designing, medical, and legal professions.

Through its movements catering to women empowerment which includes the first female rider, Rubab Jumani, foodpanda has created various economic opportunities for home-based chefs. foodpanda’s collaboration with PSX highlighted the company’s objective to make the society a place where a woman can sustain herself financially by switching her dreams to a mode of earning.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Introduces New Services and Capabilities Focused on Giving Customers Even More Flexibility

Already, leading global organizations including Vodafone and Samsung Securities, rely on OCI to run all types of workloads, from microservices to AI. To bring users more value from their cloud investments, Oracle today announced that it is expanding its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) service portfolio to provide customers with truly flexible core infrastructure services to help optimize resources to meet requirements and significantly reduce costs.

Eleven new compute, networking, and storage, services and capabilities will enable customers to run their workloads faster and more securely at lower cost. Additionally, a new Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer capability, will further help lower costs through better infrastructure utilization, by giving the ability to add Autonomous Database to the existing deployments.

Global cloud adoption continues to expand rapidly as business models transform and the demand for secure remote technology accelerates. However, a variety of prevailing public cloud misconceptions are still holding companies back from realizing the full benefits of the cloud. For instance, one commonly held belief is that customers have to re-write their applications for the cloud and deal with complex pricing models to reap the benefits of cloud computing. Additionally, many organizations believe that a series of different technology choices have to be made as they scale their operations. With today’s announcement, OCI is providing customers with even more simplicity and flexibility so that scaling can be affordable and easy without painstaking re-writes.

New Innovations Across Compute, Networking and Storage

The 11 new OCI services and capabilities planned for 2022 include new flexible block storage volumes that automatically tune the performance characteristics in response to fluctuating demand – a first for the industry. Also being introduced are new compute options for most workloads, from a fractional single-core VM that can burst to full-core performance, to an entire HPC cluster with high-speed interconnects.

“OCI continues to break the rules in the cloud, helping customers run their workloads faster, more securely, and more economically,” said Clay Magouyrk, executive vice president, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. “Customers can build cloud native apps on OCI with support for open, standards-based Kubernetes, while AI and high-performance computing customers can build some of the fastest computing clusters in the cloud.”

“With the breadth of customers that we have and the different workloads they’re running on OCI, they are counting on Oracle to take the complexity out of mission critical activities,” said Chris Chelliah, Senior Vice President Customer Strategy, Oracle Japan and Asia Pacific. “They need to be able to run different kinds of workloads, without having to assemble a myriad of different services or re-platform applications. What we are bringing across compute, storage and networking, and the new Exadata C@C capability is flexibility, while continuing to deliver the best possible price performance.”

“OCI has enabled us to increase the number of Monte Carlo simulations we are able to run by 25 percent,” said Ian Brunton, Application Development Group Leader, Oracle Red Bull Racing. “By leveraging a modern technology stack, utilising the power and flexibility of Kubernetes, we can scale up our simulation platform whilst keeping costs within the tight spending regulations defined by the sport.”

“The promise of the cloud has always been paying for only what you need, but customers continue to over-provision due to rigid configuration options in most cloud platforms,” said Dave McCarthy, research vice president, Cloud and Edge Infrastructure Services, IDC. “OCI has made significant strides to address this problem by introducing new flexible compute, storage, and network infrastructure services over the last year. OCI customers can reduce costs by more accurately matching consumption to demand.”

Multiple-VM Autonomous Database on Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer

With Multiple-VM Autonomous Database on Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer organizations have the flexibility to now create and run isolated, highly available Autonomous Database instances on a cluster of virtual machines concurrently with other Oracle Databases. The VM clusters allow customers to add Autonomous Database to their existing Exadata Cloud@Customer deployment, lowering the cost through better infrastructure utilization and delivering a complete set of capabilities to support all modern data types, workloads, and development styles, simplifying the development and operation of applications.

“We are focused on solving difficult data management problems that make modern applications and analytics hard to develop and run,” said Juan Loaiza, executive vice president, Mission Critical Database Technologies, Oracle. “With Multiple-VM Autonomous Database clusters on the same Exadata Cloud@Customer infrastructure, customers can easily develop new, cloud-native applications and upgrade existing databases to Autonomous Database when the databases, applications, and processes are ready.”

Huawei & PSEB signed a contract to offer cloud services to Pakistani IT industry in Pakistan Cloud Summit 2022

Huawei and Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) recently signed a contract to offer cloud services to the Information Technology (IT) industry that will enable digital transformation in the public sector in Pakistan Cloud Summit 2022, Karachi.

Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Mr. Syed Amin-ul-Haque and Federal Secretary IT and Telecommunication Dr. Muhammad Sohail Rajput witnessed the contract signing ceremony. Member of IT MoITT, Mr. Junaid Imran, CEO of Abacus Pakistan, Ms.Fatima Asad, CEO of Huawei Pakistan Cloud, Mr. Shahzad Rasheed, MD of PESB, Mr.Osman Nasir, along with other officials from MoITT and Huawei Pakistan were all present at the Summit.

PSEB is an apex government body mandated to promote Pakistan’s IT Industry in local and international markets.Huawei Cloud is gaining momentum in Pakistan and has shown a clear value as the only HyperCloud present in Pakistan.

The 4^th industrial revolution is armed to make everything connected and intelligent. This Cloud Summit brought stakeholders from the industry and public sector together to discuss about the future opportunities cloud presents. Experts shared key insights.

Earlier, addressing the Pakistan Cloud Summit 2022 as the chief guest Federal Minister Mr. Syed Aminul Haque said the first Cloud Policy by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) was the greatest milestone achieved by Pakistan. He also paid his gratitude to Huawei Pakistan for organizing this event and playing its part in cloud adoption in Pakistan.He stated at the event,

The first step towards the accelerated adoption of cloud computing is the establishment of a Cloud Office at Ministry of IT& Telecom. This office will act as the flag bearer for cloud adoption in Pakistan and will define the criteria for the accreditation of Cloud Service Providers according to domestic and international standards.

Speaking at the summit, Federal Secretary IT and Telecommunication, Dr. Muhammad Sohail Rajput said,“The world is moving fast towards the transformation of IT and IT services, therefore Pakistan’s agrarian economy should shift towards an IT-based economy.” He also thanked Huawei for hosting this event on cloud computing and trusted that they will play their part in accelerated digital adoption in Pakistan.

Talking about the cooperation with Huawei Cloud in Pakistan and Abacus, MD of PESB, Mr Osman Nasir mentioned how Cloud adoption in public sector of Pakistan will enable the Government of Pakistanto utilize latest technological solutions available in the ever-evolving ICT industry.

CEO of Abacus Pakistan, Ms.Fatima Asad expressed thanks to Huawei’s Latest Cloud technologies transfer cooperation and Cloud adoption across Pakistan.

foodpanda partners with Extreme Commerce to promote vendor acquisition

Karachi (March 21, 2022): Enhancing the e-commerce avenues, foodpanda, Pakistan’s leading delivery app has partnered with Extreme Commerce to promote vendor acquisition where people can go and learn how to become a successful HomeChef with foodpanda.

A signing ceremony took place at foodpanda headquarters in Karachi to kick-off this partnership. Ahsan Malik, Head of HomeChefs – foodpanda, and Kashif Jaffri, CGO – Extreme Commerce along with other officials were present at the occasion.

foodpanda aims to strengthen the HomeChef ecosystem in Pakistan through this partnership with Extreme Commerce. Ahsan Malik elaborated on the collaboration by highlighting that it is in-line with foodpanda’s vision to empower people with the right skills and do their professional capacity building. “Our aim is to make Pakistan the hub of international ecommerce by utilizing Extreme Commerce via both physical incubators and digital platforms to acquire new vendors and spread awareness through webinars, and open-house. We will also be creating video content for their Video Boot Camp (VBC) platform to grow and empower HomeChefs ecosystem and facilitate food entrepreneurship in Pakistan,” he said.

Kashif Jaffri, CGO – Extreme Commerce shared his view at the occasion and said, “We are looking forward to work with foodpanda to economically empower people and create financial and digital inclusion for talented individuals of the country. We will create awareness and highlight this initiative through our platforms and generate economic opportunities for the masses. I believe together we can make a lot of difference and add significant value to the communities in which we operate.”

Meta introduces special initiatives for online safety of women in Pakistan

Islamabad – March 17, 2022: Meta has launched two new initiatives in Pakistan, focused on womens’ safety online that includes the Online Safety Guide and StopNCII (Non consensual intimate images) to help users to safely navigate cyberspace. The critical safety advisory available in English and Urdu is expected to boost digital literacy and responsible online behaviour amongst users, thereby creating safer online spaces for women to connect and express themselves without restraints.

The safety guide, now available at Meta’s Safety Centre, is part of the company’s efforts to equip and prepare users for the challenges of the modern digital world. Millions of people in Pakistan use Meta platforms to connect and pursue shared interests. However, it is always good to update oneself on issues around online harassment, unwanted messages and a range of fraudulent and criminal activities in the online space.

Meta has policies and systems in place to tackle online violence against women, aided by awareness programs to enable and empower them to defend themselves against unscrupulous elements online.

The safety guide features all the tools around safety available on Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp and explains how women can adopt them for safer internet use and protect themselves from criminal & fraudulent activities.

Keeping the focus on safety, StopNCII was developed with Meta’s expert guidance and funding in collaboration with global NGO partner, ‘the UK Revenge Porn Helpline’, to stop the sharing of non-consensual intimate images (NCII), often referred to as Revenge Porn. StopNCII.org has a global footprint and currently services people through regional partners that advocate for local victims. It uses the latest innovative technology to block compromising photos and videos proactively from spreading online.

Meta has localised StopNCII into an Urdu portal as well that can be used by users concerned for their online safety and privacy to initiate a case. Once the case is initiated, Meta can proactively block the spread of the compromising images and videos before they can spread online. The technology doesn’t require the images to leave the person’s device, instead only the hash or numerical code is shared with the platform. The portal also integrates information and vital voices of survivors, experts, advocates, and tech partners of Meta for women seeking help and guidance.

Meta’s partner organisation in Pakistan, Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) organised an online roundtable in connection with the launch of the StopNCII portal in Urdu. The participants of the roundtable included representatives from civil society organizations,, regional experts from Meta, digital experts and rights activists.

realme Becomes the Fastest Growing 5G Smartphone Brand Globally

The 5G popularizer shows no signs of slowing down as it continues its takeover of the global smartphone market.

As the youngest among the world’s top 6 smartphone brands, realme has emerged as the fastest growing smartphone brand globally for the first time. Its robust and sustained growth has allowed realme to land a spot in the Top 5 in terms of 5G smartphone shipments across 20 global markets and enhanced its position as an industry leader in democratizing 5G.

According to the latest research report by Counterpoint, realme’s 5G shipments have experienced the most growth among all major smartphone brands with a whopping 165% YoY growth percentage in the fourth quarter of 2021. realme’s rapid growth has been fueled by the company’s expansion into Western European countries such as Italy, Spain, France, the UK, and Switzerland, in each of which it is the fastest-growing brand thanks to its multiple 5G-enabled smartphones as well as the GT series.

Brands with quarterly 5G shipments of 5 million units or more in Q4 2021 considered major 5G brands.

There are no doubts about realme’s performance outside of Europe as its 5G devices have also continued to perform well in regions such as the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia Pacific, which constitute a majority of the 20 global markets (including India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Morocco, Myanmar and Singapore) in which realme’s 5G smartphone shipments rank among the top-five.

“This reinforces our dedication to work towards our ambition of becoming the Democratizer of 5G. As an emerging tech brand, realme has always been committed to encouraging young users worldwide to experience the latest technology like 5G and will continue to deliver appealing and future-ready devices to global fans” said Sky Li, Founder and CEO of realme.

To further the focus on popularizing 5G-enabled smartphones, realme has lowered the ASP of its Number Series 5G devices from USD 270/- in Q1 2020 to under USD 200/- in Q1 2022, while simultaneously offering more advanced 5G smartphone options with the more premium flagship GT Series in order to meet the needs of a more advanced set of users.

foodpanda women choosing to #BreakTheBias

foodpanda, the leading e-commerce platform, on account of Women’s Day, handed over e-bikes to its female riders. The company celebrated its female employees, vendor partners, riders, and homechefs in an event in which Justice (R) Nasira Iqbal was invited as the Chief Guest. She handed over the bikes to female riders along with Muntaqa Peracha, interim CEO foodpanda, and Hassan Arshad, Principal Policy and Communication foodpanda.

The event celebrated women in foodpanda who are breaking the bias by opting for diverse income opportunities and becoming self-sufficient. The event showcased inspiring talks by not just the Chief Guest, but female employees, riders, and homechefs as well.

Caly Zehra Ispahani who is heading the B2B Solutions at foodpanda shared her story of how throughout her professional life she broke numerous biases to progress in her career. She has been revered and known for her powerful commercial and project management experience where she helped generate value through meaningful business opportunities. Besides breaking the glass ceiling throughout her career, she is a mother of two girls and has managed to strike the fine balance between a thriving career and a happy home life.

Ilsa Aleem, the Operations Cluster Lead – North for pandamart, is another role model who opted for an operational role and excelled in it as well. Breaking the bias, Ilsa joined pandamart in March 2021 as the First Female Warehouse Manager and was one of the pioneers in Islamabad Launch. She was also a part of the Lahore launch and has contributed to streamlining and digitizing on-ground operations. In her current role, she is leading pandamart operations in the Twin Cities and is keen to continue adding value and be an inspiration for other young females in the organization.

Justice (R) Nasira Iqbal also shared her inspiring story and reflected how it has always been difficult for women to choose a different course of action when it comes to professional and personal life. She said that in every era there have been numerous biases that stop women from progressing, but women have always stood firm and faced the challenges head-on. She urged women to never give up as it is never too late to pursue their dreams. She commended foodpanda employees, vendors, riders and homechef for taking control of their life and supporting other women to do the same.

The event entailed panel discussions where female riders, homechefs and vendors also shared their stories. Parents of some female employees were also invited to stage who shared their experience on how they have always supported their daughters and would encourage other parents to do the same.