Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. Umar Saif Friday announced the creation of the first-ever organization IRADA linking defence, industry and academia.
In a tweet, the federal minister stated that “after four months of effort we have finally created IRADA (Pakistan’s equivalent of DARPA), linking the Research and Development needs of the defence sector with our universities and industry”.
IRADA will be hosted at NUST and will have an independent board and funding to carry out state-of-the-art research and product development critical for our national security and economy, the tweet said.
Earlier, Caretaker Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Dr. Umar Saif, announced on Friday that the Pakistan Startup Fund is set to be launched on January 9.
In an interview with private TV channels, Dr. Saif expressed confidence in the immense potential of Pakistani youth, highlighting that Pakistan is the world’s second-largest online workforce.
Over the past four years, Pakistani startups have attracted nearly $800 million in foreign investment, according to Dr. Saif. He also mentioned that Pakistan ranks as the seventh-largest market for mobile phones globally, with 75 million broadband users.
Dr. Saif said social media users in Pakistan, surpass the total population of Canada.
