Asia

Rawalpindi: The water scarcity in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi and Islamabad are alarming as the water level of dam found all time low in the dam which supplies water to both the cities.   The Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) has warned that residents of twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad may face a severe water crisis in coming days because of 44 feet reduction in water level of Khanpur Dam. “The residents may face a complete stoppage of drinking water in the coming days,” WASA warned here on Wednesday. Low rainfall in the monsoon season has been deemed as the major reason behind water scarcity in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The district administrations of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have informed Khanpur Pure Dam authorities. According to letter number CDA/DD...

Pakistan’s economy is continuously going in debt and the FDI is consistently declining in the recent years. The net flows fell by just under 39pc year-on-year in July in continuation of the trend witnessed last fiscal when long-term, non-debt-creating investments plummeted by 29pc to $1.85bn from the previous year. State Bank data for the last four years shows that inward FDI flows are either plunging or stagnating while outward flows have surged over time. Hence, FDI stocks have declined from $41.9bn to $35.6bn in five years from 2016 to 2020. With rising fears of the impact of the Afghan situation on Pakistan, net FDI flows are expected to shrink further. The rise in Pakistan bond yields soon after the collapse of the government in Kabul indicates the loss of global investors’ confid...

ISLAMABAD: The largest data centre of Pakistan is hacked. The centre was run by federal Board of Revenue. “There has been a national crisis like situation since 2.00 am Saturday morning and we may not be out of the woods by Sunday evening,” a senior official said while explaining the gravity of the situation. The FBR’s official version was awaited till the filing of the story. “The FBR’s website is temporarily down for scheduled maintenance,” read the website when it was opened. However, the authority issued a general press release regarding in-progress service optimisation activities at the FBR House Data Center, Islamabad. The FBR explained that the technical team is currently migrating services. The completion of this migration shall result in the increased overall produ...

SHANGHAI: China’s securities regulators punished 19 institutional investors as authorities tighten scrutiny over price-setting behaviours under a more liberalised listing system. China launched the tech-focused STAR Market in Shanghai in mid-2019, along with the introduction of a US-style, registration-based initial public offering (IPO) system in that market. The Securities Association of China (SAC) said late on Friday that a joint probe recently with the Shanghai Stock Exchange over STAR IPOs had exposed issues with 19 institutional investors. The problems included weak internal controls, inadequate rationale for price-settings, non-compliance with stipulated procedures and improper storage of working papers, the SAC said in a statement, without identifying the companies.

India is doing good in export from last year the export has increased to 49.85 % says the official data.   Exports during July 2020 stood at $23.64 billion. The data by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry also showed that in comparison to July 2019, last month’s exports rose by 35.05 per cent. “Exports in July 2021 were $35.43 billion, as compared to $23.64 billion in July 2020, exhibiting a positive growth of 49.85 per cent. As compared to July 2019, exports in July 2021 exhibited a positive growth of 35.05 per cent in dollar terms.” “Non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports in July 2021 were $26.12 billion, as compared to $20.37 billion in July 2020, registering a positive growth of 28.18 per cent. As compared to July 2019, Non-petroleum and Non-Gems and Jewel...

Jeff Bezos investing in e-ricksha in India. No emerging market encapsulates this better than India. Over the past decade, the country's stock market index – the BSE Sensex – has tripled in value.  Yes, its upward trajectory has occasionally been rudely interrupted by big global events such as the 2008 financial crisis and more recently the pandemic, but it has been one of the emerging markets' stronger performers.  Yet there are experts – fund managers and investment advisers – who believe the Indian investment party has only just begun.  They predict another decade of solid investment returns from Indian equities – on the back of a booming economy, a young workforce and greater international investment in the country (in part triggered by big multinational busi...

Trade deficit widened to 3.104 billion dollars in the first month of the current fiscal year - a rise of 85.5 percent in comparison to July 2020. This, so goes the argument, is the major reason behind the ongoing rupee depreciation which was, on average, 152 rupees to the dollar in May 2021, and registered at 163.8 rupees in the inter-bank market this Monday past, reflecting a disturbing decline of around 7.7 percent in just two and a half months. This indicates that State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has not intervened in the market to shore up the rupee value - a decision in consonance with the rupee value determination within a market-based system, and unlike the previous practice in which the central bank would give a range in which treasuries of banks would operate. It is important to note...

Food prices are continuously increasing in Pakistan. The country where ever individual spends half of there salary on food is a big thing. The continuous inflation in food prices is straining the budgets of the middle-class household. In a country like Pakistan, where most families spend over half their income on food, the increasing cost of transport, petrol, electricity and indirect taxes have raised valid concerns about the potential escalation in hunger, poverty and malnutrition. This is particularly true for people who are already within or just outside the poverty bracket. The number of moderately to severely food-insecure households, for example, rose to 16.4 per 100 households, as surveyed by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, in 2019-20 from 15.9 a year before. Since the su...

One idea Nayar picked up from her time working with entrepreneurs was the importance of a motivating business mission. With Nykaa, she saw the opportunity to help India’s women look after themselves, moving away from the country’s traditional deference to men. “I was inspired by those die-hard founders,” Nayar said in a recent interview over Zoom from her home in Alibaug. “Our message to women has been that the spotlight of her life should be on herself. You are important in your story and should feel no guilt at being center stage.” The message resonated. Founded in 2012, the Mumbai-headquartered startup now offers more than 2,500 brands of everything from mascara and makeup remover to velvety kohl Indian eyeliner and the body tattoo art called mehendi. Through its websites, apps a...

Dubai: The edtech portan upGrad is doing knowledgehunt in gulf which will give it access to pool of 250,000 students. KnowledgeHut - now rebranded as ‘KnowledgeHut, an upGrad company’ - expects to cross $40 million in revenue next year, 65 per cent of which will be from countries across MENA and Souteast Asia. “With our focus on short-term professional upskilling, KnowledgeHut is driving outcome-based immersive learning for global technologists and the wider professional community,” said Subramanyam Reddy, CEO. “Given our position in global markets, this synergy with upGrad will further strengthen and support that vision. The acquisition paves the way for upGrad to empower B2B customer segments across geographies including the US and the Asia Pacific. upGrad is venturing into the sh...