William Dalrymple: Pak infrastructure is better
By Bala Shah

I have long held the view that once the Pakistani Govt exerts its rightful authority over parallel power centers in the country, their IT-ITES sector will grow as rapidly as ours. After all, we share the same heritage and skill sets. South Asian expert and respected author William Dalrymple finds Pak infrastructure better.

William Dalrymple has much respect and goodwill in India. William, in turn, has bought a home in North India where he spends considerable amounts of time.  He is widely regarded as an unbiased expert on India, Pakistan and the Middle East. William has written for The New Yorker, The Guardian,  Time and other international media houses. Most of his books including The Age of Kali, White Mughals and The Last Mughal have won a number of national awards. William is also a key organizer of the Jaipur Literature Festival.
 
So, why is William being written about in Techgoss? Pakistani blog Tech Lahore which reports on local technology, startups and software has urged the Pakistani outsourcing industry to quote William Dalrymple’s comparison of Pakistan and Indian infrastructure to American and European clients.

According to Tech Lahore,  William in a talk in Pakistan in Feb, 2010 found their infrastructure much  better than neighboring India.

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Dalrymple has been living in India for 20 years and has visited Pakistan on numerous occasions. I was unfortunate to have missed his last series of talks in Lahore, connected with the launch of his most recent book. Suffice to say, his first-hand knowledge of the sub continent is uncontested.

He goes on to talk about the infrastructure in India and Pakistan and says that he finds Pakistan far more developed in this area. He praises Pakistani roads and airports, calling them “infinitely better” than those in India. Talking on security, Mr. Dalrymple says that he felt completely safe in Pakistan and other than FATA and some areas in the Frontier, “you can go anywhere… drive anywhere” and be completely safe.

Dalrymple explains how the insurgency currently going on in India (Maoists and Naxalites), is just as “dangerous” as the Taliban violence connected to the border areas of Afghanistan/Pakistan. That the area under control of the Maoists is actually 3 times larger than what the Taliban influence in Pakistan. Yet, the media has lost complete perspective of this truth.
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Tech Lahore then urges ‘those of you who run software and IT companies with foreign customers, consider sending a link of his talk if the subject of security in Pakistan comes up. In my own personal experience, having hosted dozens of Americans and Europeans, once they’ve visited the country they absolutely love it. For those of my guests and business associates that have also been to India, I get the exact same feedback every single time. That Pakistan is far more developed, cleaner, less crowded and equipped with better infrastructure than India.’

As I mentioned before,  Pakistan’s outsourcing industry can be as competitive as ours.