Tag: coronavirus

Pakistan promoting anti-India propaganda to distract its citizens from mishandling of COVID-19, economy: Expert
24Aug By Mike TrudellNo Comments
Asia

Pakistan promoting anti-India propaganda to distract its citizens from mishandling of COVID-19, economy: Expert

Despite a significantly improved security situation and dip in terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, following the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5 last year, Pakistan continues its propaganda and anti-Indian vitriol, according to The National Interest.Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, in an article explains how Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has issued a directive to the press for describing Kashmir, Pakistani journalists, risk their employment if they do not use their government's nomenclature regarding Kashmir and forcing them to wear black solidarity armbands. The journalists are forced to term India's actions in Kashmir as "demographic apartheid" and "military siege" instead of "lockdown." Distracting its people from mishandling of COVID-1...
Read More
J&K shows roadmap to curb COVID-19, economy recovery: Report
11Aug By Joe RodriguezNo Comments
Asia

J&K shows roadmap to curb COVID-19, economy recovery: Report

A member of the European Parliament has said that at a time when coronavirus has terrorized the governments of the most developed countries, the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir has effectively controlled the COVID-19 spread and brought the daily life in the region to normal.Citing an example of effective curbing of deadly viral disease, Ryszard Czarnecki, a member of the European Parliament from Poland, said in a report published in the EU Chronicle that Jammu and Kashmir has offered a roadmap to recovery to the world.“Jammu & Kashmir’s Srinagar was included among the tiny list of 16 districts in India, which were asked to share best practices about controlling coronavirus spread with 700 districts in the country. Jammu and Kashmir that is subjected to highly maligned campaign by nei...
Read More
Kashmiri youth avail PMEGP scheme to create new opportunities
4Aug By Joe RodriguezNo Comments
Asia, USA

Kashmiri youth avail PMEGP scheme to create new opportunities

Zahoor Ahmad is one of the many people to establish livelihood means through the government’s employment generation scheme. As Covid-19 crisis gripped the Kashmir Valley, his garment-manufacturing unit, in South Kashmir's Pulwama, manufactured thousands of face masks for the people of the region."When this virus came, we made about 80,000 face masks after district administration placed an order with us," says Ahmad.The Khadi Village Industries Board (KVIB) helped him establish the factory, where other youth also work.After the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, several governmental schemes have reached Kashmir and benefitted many like Ahmad, who borrowed a loan under Prime Ministers Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP).PMEGP is a credit-linked subsidy programme aimed at generatin...
Read More
Chinese hotel builder abruptly liquidates business in UK
28Jun By Walter ParezNo Comments
China

Chinese hotel builder abruptly liquidates business in UK

A Chinese conglomerate which has built hotels for Hilton and Travelodge has abruptly liquidated its UK subsidiaries reportedly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.CIMC is a global business with regional offices in the UK, US and Australia and the main head office in Southern China. The main UK business, CIMC Modular Building Systems and its development arm first set up to promote the modular system have both been placed in voluntary liquidation by managing director Jason Taylor.“The impact of the pandemic has been so wide and so deep that it has become impossible to survive without taking some fairly drastic steps,” a source said.CIMC MBS lost pound 2.5 million in 2018. During that year it delivered nearly 900 modules creating 1,317 hotel or student rooms.CIMC has supplied ready-built rooms from ...
Read More
Indonesia warns unemployment could hit decade-high due to coronavirus pandemic
22Jun By Mike TrudellNo Comments
Asia

Indonesia warns unemployment could hit decade-high due to coronavirus pandemic

Indonesian ministers on Monday warned that the country’s unemployment rate could hit the highest in more than a decade this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, with four million to 5.5 million people losing their jobs this year.Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa told a parliamentary hearing on Monday that four million to 5.5 million people could lose their jobs this year, pushing the unemployment rate up to 8.1-9.2 per cent, versus 5.28 per cent in 2019.“The unemployment rate may remain between 7.7 per cent and 9.1 per cent in 2021”, he said.The forecast is still more conservative than that of Indonesia's chamber of commerce and industry, whose chairman expects new rounds of layoffs by August on top of an estimated 6.4 million jobs shed so far.“The number of people living below the pover...
Read More
[Market] Singapore life insurance sales rise 10% amid Coronavirus scare
20Jun By Team FPNo Comments
Asia, Market, Singapore

[Market] Singapore life insurance sales rise 10% amid Coronavirus scare

While Coronavirus has destroyed many lives and economies, Singapore's life insurance industry saw new business, in terms of total weighted premiums, grow 10 per cent to $965.8 million for the first quarter from January to March 2020.A year ago, total weighted premiums amounted to $877.8 million.“This comes as more consumers took action to secure their financial future in view of Covid-19's drastic impact on the global and local markets”, said the Life Insurance Association (LIA), Singapore."However, with circuit-breaker measures, climbing unemployment and an impending recession, the life insurance industry may see the knock-on effect in the coming quarters," LIA president Khor Hock Seng said.Sales of annual-premium policies grew 3 per cent year on year, resulting in $672.4 million in total...
Read More
Defence Budget: Pakistan’s misplaced priorities
17Jun By Joe RodriguezNo Comments
Asia

Defence Budget: Pakistan’s misplaced priorities

For a country suffering through a pandemic and whose economy is crashing, putting more money for defence seems illogical. But this is exactly what the Imran Khan government has proposed in a grim reminder of how much Islamabad’s priorities are misplaced.The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government has proposed 11.9 per cent increase in the country’s defence budget.The budget document shows that the defence outlay for 2020-21 would be Pakistani Rs 1,289 billion as compared to Pakistani Rs 1,152 billion earmarked for the ongoing fiscal year.A closer look at the budget details revealed that Rs 1,289 billion figure does not include Pakistani Rs 369 billion allocated for pensions of retired military personnel and Pakistani Rs 324 billion for the armed forces development programme.“The defence budget...
Read More
Ministerial Committee set up to guide digital adoption, create jobs in digital economy
17Jun By Michael SmithNo Comments
Asia

Ministerial Committee set up to guide digital adoption, create jobs in digital economy

To accelerate Singapore's adoption of digital technology in the times of Coronavirus, the country has set up a high-level committee to create jobs for its people, help small businesses go online and ensure no citizen is left behind by technology.The Ministerial Committee for Digital Transformation’s key focus is to work with companies and the labour movement to create jobs in the info-communications and technology (ICT) sector and to place Singaporeans in these jobs, Communications and Information Minister S. Iswaran said in an interview.With small and medium enterprises employing some 65 per cent of the workforce in Singapore, one of the committee's prime aims is to help them survive and thrive through the use of technology.The badly hit retail and food and beverage sectors will get speci...
Read More
PoK activist blames army as Pakistan registers first ever negative economic growth
17Jun By Joe RodriguezNo Comments
Asia

PoK activist blames army as Pakistan registers first ever negative economic growth

Exiled rights activist from PoK, Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza, has blamed Pakistan's deep state of the army for the negative growth the country has registered for the first time ever in its history. Mirza asked how a country could flourish or register a positive growth if its annual budget couldn't be unveiled without the blessings of the army. "This budget has Rs 650 Billion allocated for the development purpose, while the military has been allocated a sum of Rs 1.3 Trillion. This simply means that the budget has been presented after the approval of the army," said Mirza. He also said that there was a prevailing sense of fear amongst the legislators of Pakistan and they were forced to respect the army. "Hammad Azhar, the minister who presented the budget expressed his government's gratitude to the...
Read More
China’s foreigner ban leaves global businesses in limbo
14Jun By Mike TrudellNo Comments
Singapore

China’s foreigner ban leaves global businesses in limbo

Foreign nationals who live in China or planned to visit say they have been left in limbo as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, with many unsure of when they can return to work or get a refund for their trip.China imposed a travel ban on most foreigners entering the country in March as the outbreak gathered pace overseas.Even those with valid residence or work permits, or who run businesses, have been shut out, and there was further doubt about when the restrictions would be lifted after a new cluster of infections was detected in Beijing over the weekend.Jessie Lim, the founder of Frequency Advertising & Event, has been stranded in Singapore since travelling there in January."(The ban) really shocked me," she said, adding that her Chengdu-based firm earned nothing in the first three...
Read More