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Too late to put forward recommendations!
By admin at February 21, 2012 | 1:09 pm | 0 Comment
Shortsightedness and lack of sustainability has always been the drawback in devising the short as well as long-term policies by policy makers in Pakistan, that subsequently pushed the country far back on road to progress. The government currently is engaged with the auction of 3G/4G licences scheduled to be done by the end of March next, thanks to the policy makers again more...
Unjustified heavy taxes on telecom sector
By admin at February 14, 2012 | 1:38 pm | 4 Comments
It still goes unnoticed that the telecom sector in Pakistan is paying 19.5 per cent as government taxes and this ratio is higher than that of other countries of the region. India and Bangladesh have respectively imposed 10.3 per cent and 15 per cent taxes on their telecom industries. While on the other hand, the Pakistani telecom operators are offering the lowest call more...
Need to rise to situation
By admin at February 6, 2012 | 12:30 pm | 0 Comment
What kind of relationship remains between the public entity – Trading Corporation of Pakistan – and mighty cartel of sugar mills on the payments issue, the core victim on either way were the sugarcane farmers who all the time have to bear the brunt. On one hand they face a lot in securing provision of water for their sugarcane crop at the preliminary stages, while on more...
Sane decision, at least this time!
By admin at January 28, 2012 | 1:22 pm | 0 Comment
FOR THE last couple of years uptil recent past, the agriculture sector witnessed a hectic series of activities on the part of both the government and the multinational companies particularly Monsanto for the adaptation of Bt cotton seed in Pakistan. However, dismal results came out of the on-ground experiments done ultimately forced the government to shut the door on the more...
Insanity prevails on energy issue
By admin at January 23, 2012 | 5:25 pm | 0 Comment
ENERGY CRISIS in Pakistan has virtually become part of our national life drastically impacting the whole fabric of routine life and putting to halt the industrial units and transport in addition to ever-existing prices spiral. Main responsibility, of course, lies with the incumbent government’s policy makers who lack farsighted approach to effectively realise the more...
Need to revisit policy on R&D
By admin at January 16, 2012 | 4:14 pm | 0 Comment
WHILE GLOBAL expenditure on research and development has been rising consistently, two of the ten countries – China and India - which contribute about 78 per cent of the total are now emerging economies. Most recently, India has announced to double its R&D allocations with the main focus on science and technology as well as information technology. South Asia’s more...
Dismal performance in farming sector
By admin at January 7, 2012 | 1:18 pm | 0 Comment
The year 2011 has been marked as ‘black year’ for agriculture sector as imposition of General Sales Tax on agriculture inputs and withdrawal of subsidies have multiplied the cost of farming in the country. Major role in this critical situation has been by the government as on one hand, the withdrawal of subsidies and levy of GST has increased the input cost by over 35 more...
Conclusion of year 2011 on pathetic note
By admin at December 31, 2011 | 4:47 pm | 0 Comment
THE YEAR 2011 has gone with multiple crises inPakistan. Among other critical issues was the pathetic contribution of science and technology towards maximizing socio-economic benefits for the masses. It was a point of high concern that the successive government had totally ignored this sector. But the formation of Science, Technology & Innovation Policy – 2010, which more...
Agro-forestry guarantee to forest resources
By admin at December 24, 2011 | 12:44 pm | 0 Comment
Forestresources are considered backbone of a healthy agriculture as trees contribute to productivity of agriculture by protecting arable crops from hailstorms and windstorms, preventing lodging of crops. The forest statistics ofPakistancompared to other agricultural countries is not encouraging. In the country there are only 4.28 million hectares are under forest while in more...
Putting the horse behind the cart
By admin at December 17, 2011 | 1:15 pm | 0 Comment
It is sufficient to stun one that a few year old reports revealed that Pakistan had topped Google’s list for searches on porn related keywords. What can one expect when there are no restrictions on accessing any porn site on Internet? In a conservative society like ours a person can throw all caution to the wind and get full access to sexually explicit contents with more...
Overhauling the irrigation system
By admin at December 11, 2011 | 12:59 pm | 0 Comment
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY per unit of water, land and other inputs in Pakistan is lower than global and even regional standards. Wheat yield, for example, in Punjab stands at about two tons per hectare compared to four tons in India’s Bhakra and seven tons in America’s Imperial Valley. It is in this background that the Water Sector Task Force (WSTF) of the so-called more...
Merging LL, LDI licences a sane step
By admin at December 7, 2011 | 11:52 am | 0 Comment
AS PART of the government’ plan to offer a conducive IT market for the local consumers, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has surfaced with a chalked out strategy to merge Local Loop (LL) and Long Distance International License (LDI) to form a consolidated license. According to the PTA officials, the initiative has been taken with an aim to adopting advanced more...
Wrong homework done to filter SMS
By admin at November 26, 2011 | 2:39 pm | 0 Comment
Following the repeated complaints about obnoxious SMSs to cell phone users, the PTA has swung into action by floating instructions to impose SMS filtering to ban certain words both in English and Urdu. The Authority considers this as a step to control spam. Reports reveal that the list of English words includes 1,000 ‘objectionable’ words while the Urdu list contains more...
Skilled approach needed for energy crisis
By admin at November 19, 2011 | 12:53 pm | 0 Comment
IN ORDER to explore maximum potential of alternative energies for meeting the ever-increasing power requirements, the government of Pakistan has come up with setting an ambitious target of producing 9,700 MW through alternative/renewable resources by 2030. In this regard, the government has initiated an extensive wind energy programme to introduce renewable energy more...
Disaster in disguise of betterment
By admin at November 15, 2011 | 11:42 am | 0 Comment
Pakistan has recently granted the most favourred nation (MFN) status to its arch rival India against mere commitments from the other side of favouring Islamabad on other international economic forums. Under this initiative of ‘friendship’, India would enjoy massive economic benefits in the international market. While on the other hand, this decision has sent a wave of more...
Need to minimise citrus losses
By admin at November 14, 2011 | 1:00 pm | 0 Comment
THE AGRICULTURAL Pakistan witnesses about 40 per cent of the citrus produce going waste especially during the post-harvest process which has emerged as a major challenge for agricultural scientists and extension workers to minimise this loss. Pakistan, which is an important citrus producer, exports around 10 per cent of citrus, processes two per cent, 40 per cent is lost more...
Heavy cost of inconsistency
By admin at October 29, 2011 | 2:10 pm | 0 Comment
Several months have passed to the devolution of Ministry of Environment to the provinces, however, there are a lot of affairs yet to be resolved between the federal and provincial governments and almost all things are in limbo. At this critical stage when the climate change is negatively impacting the national agriculture economy, the absence of any mechanism particularly more...
Looking for sane decision on wheat price
By admin at October 22, 2011 | 1:12 pm | 0 Comment
Wheat plays a central role in Pakistan’s food economy, both in terms of production and consumption. The government intervenes to finance the purchase of wheat and fixes its price prior to sowing in an effort to provide good returns to cultivators and keeping the commodity markets intact. It is also assumed responsibility for the storage of millions of tons of wheat. more...
Another dent to farm production!
By admin at October 15, 2011 | 1:34 pm | 0 Comment
IN LESS than a week of the decision of the State Bank of Pakistan to cut its policy rate by a massive 1.5 percentage points in an attempt to appease industrialists, the government has dragged its feet by withdrawing subsidy on agriculture loans and asked Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited to increase mark-up by six per cent in three years. The government claims that after more...
Farm policy needs major overhaul
By admin at October 10, 2011 | 1:31 pm | 0 Comment
AGRICULTURE IS the backbone economy in Pakistan where about 67 per cent population live in rural areas. About 25 per cent of the country's total land area is under cultivation and the agriculture contributes about 22 per cent to the country's GDP. About 41 per cent of the labour forces are employed in agriculture, but on the contrary, the current agriculture policy lacks more...
Cashing in on white gold
By admin at October 3, 2011 | 12:49 pm | 0 Comment
Pakistan is ranked fourth in the world’s top milk producing states with its annual production of 36.2 million tons of milk from eight million farming households after India, China and the United States. It is no doubt a huge potential and the government of Pakistan can earn precious foreign exchange through exporting processed milk and milk products to the world. In more...
Right step, at last!
By admin at September 24, 2011 | 4:26 pm | 0 Comment
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has recently accorded approval in principle to the National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy-2011. The document, came out after a wide gap of about 16 years and is now set to be presented to the federal cabinet for final approval, proposes allocation of at least one per cent by 2015 and two per cent of the GDP by 2020 and more...
Day dreaming about IT growth
By admin at September 19, 2011 | 1:43 pm | 0 Comment
According to the latest worldwide data report for 2010-11, Pakistan is experiencing an exponential growth in the broadband sector. Pakistan, which has seen a boom in its promising telecom sector and information technology services in recent years, recorded around 46.2 percent growth of subscribers and is placed fourth on the ranking list. No doubt that this can be termed more...
Sane decision, at last
By admin at September 12, 2011 | 1:21 pm | 0 Comment
At last, the NEPRA has come up with its decision to issue uniform tariffs for wind power projects in the country for a period of 20 years. These tariffs are meant for early completion of wind power projects. Under the newly framed decision, the wind companies will not have to get tariffs approved by NEPRA. Pakistan is critically experiencing the energy shortfall which is more...
Wrong decisions to handle right issues
By admin at September 10, 2011 | 1:55 pm | 0 Comment
The volley of follies on the part of official authorities in Pakistan to handle the persistent issues of national importance is not yet over as most recently the government has banned use of virtual private networks (VPNs) by Internet users when the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority sent a legal notice to the country’s ISPs, directing them to turn in customers who more...
