India Vs Pakistan: Comparing Tech Advancement

While India and Pakistan share borders, history, and culture, their journey in technology is completely different. One is being considered as one of the global tech leaders, while the other is still finding its way in the digital age. India's rapid growth in IT, digital infrastructure, and innovation has put it on the global stage. Meanwhile, Pakistan, though showing potential in fintech, struggles with foundational gaps, low investment, and a lack of global presence. This isn’t just some false claim, we have shown the numbers. Now let’s understand how wide the tech gap really is.

IT Industry Size

India:
$254 billion (FY24)
Source

Pakistan:
$3.2 billion (FY24)
Source

As per the last data India’s IT sector is over 79 times the size of Pakistan’s. Enough said.

Big Names, Global Games

Indian Tech Giants:
TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL, LTI Mindtree, Tech Mahindra, serving clients across the globe.

India's Global Influence:
Sundar Pichai (CEO, Google), Satya Nadella (CEO, Microsoft), Shantanu Narayen (CEO, Adobe), Arvind Krishna (CEO, IBM), Parag Agrawal (Former CEO, Twitter), and more.

Pakistani Tech Giants:
Systems Ltd, Netsol, TRG are few companies with solid base but they are not comparable to TCS or Infosys or Wipro.

Pakistan's Global Influence:
As of now, no Pakistani individual or company has reached a global household name status comparable to Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, or Shantanu Narayen in terms of scale, influence, or market cap.

Workforce & Education

India:

• 5.8 million IT professionals (FY25) Source
• 1.5 million engineering grads/year Source
• 18 Universities in QS Global Top 500 Source

Pakistan:

• ~600,000 IT professionals
• ~25,000 engineering grads/year Source
• 7 universities in top 500 Source

Tech Achievements

India:

• Chandrayaan-3: 1st conutry to Land on Moon’s south pole, the most difficult and unexplored area of the Moon.
• Mangalyaan: Mars mission at just $74M Source
• UPI: 18.3B transactions in March 2025 alone Source
• Aadhaar: 1.38B+ people covered By September 2023 Source

Pakistan:

• JazzCash & Easypaisa are gorwing in domestic mobile payments sector
• No such remarkable national achievements in space, AI, or biometric tech.

Infrastructure & Connectivity

India:

• 5G launched (2022)
• 50% internet penetration (~900M users) Source
• 159,000+ registered startups Source

Pakistan:

• 5G has not rolled out yet
• 45% internet penetration (~116M users) Source
• 16,000+ startups Source

Global Rankings

India:

• Innovation Index (2024): 39th Source
• Ease of Doing Business (2020): 63rd Source
• Patents Filed (2023): 80200+ Source
• Startup Unicorns: 117 Source

Pakistan:

• Innovation Index (2024): 91st Source
• Ease of Doing Business (2020): 108th Source
• Patents Filed (2023): ⁓3200
• Startup Unicorns: 0 Source

Conclusion: One Region, Two Realities

India and Pakistan may share a subcontinent, but their technologies are worlds apart. India has built a robust, export driven, globally respected tech ecosystem. It’s influencing policy, leading innovation, ideas are shaping the future. The world doesn’t just outsource to India, it started looking to India for solutions.

Pakistan, on the other hand, is still building local capacity. While its fintech sector shows some promise, the lack of scale, poor infrastructure, politics hinder its potential. There is no comparision, it’s one sided. And unless Pakistan brings a deep structural reform, the tech gap will only widen further.

At Smartters, we believe technology can shape nations, but only if it’s backed by intent, investment, and infrastructure.
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