Year: 2021

Budget FY22: Tarin faces Herculean task

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The fourth Finance Minister Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin of the coalition government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). Immediately after taking oath of his office on April 17, 2021, is faced with the daunting challenge of preparing budget for fiscal year 2021-22 amidst very difficult times when the country is faced with economic meltdown due to Covid-19 endemic, especially after the third and deadly wave. There are complete and partial lockdowns in many cities. Protection of human lives and mitigating extreme financial hardships faced by weaker segments of society, need to be…

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Coal-fired Poland Turns Toward The Sun

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A solar boom is helping Poland take a big step towards weaning itself off coal as a new homegrown photovoltaic technology is poised to be a game-changer in harnessing the power of the sun. Poland has long trailed other members of the European Union in solar power, but recent government subsidies have seen solar panels pop up on roofs nationwide at an unprecedented pace. Rarely associated with blue skies, the country is instead known for the heavy smog smothering cities and villages dependent on coal, which in Poland is dubbed…

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EETL’s expansion plan hits snag

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LNG

Engro Elengy Terminal Private Limited (EETL) could not expand its re-gasified liquified natural gas (RLNG) capacity due to red-tapism, while the approvals are awaiting clearance from National Accountability Bureau (NAB), The News learnt on Wednesday. Sources said Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) is not giving necessary approvals on account of unsubstantiated excuses, like violation of procurement rules and NAB inquiries. “Neither EETL nor its partner is implicated in any NAB inquiry. Misinformation of this degree is propagated only to halt progress and, instead, protect the existing monopolistic structure of today’s…

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Karachi Nuclear Power Plant Unit-2 To Be Inaugurated On Friday

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Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) Unit-2 (K-2) will be formally inaugurated on Friday at a virtual ceremony to be held simultaneously at Islamabad,K-2 NPP Karachi and Beijing, China. Prime Minister Imran Khan will be the chief guest at the ceremony. K-2 is a generation III, state of the art plant with improved safety systems, especially internal and external accident prevention ability and enhanced emergency response capability. The plant has 60-year life expectancy, extendable to further 20 more years. It is designed with higher plant availability and capacity factors, and extended…

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CPEC: understanding the behemoth — facts and myth

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A lot has been said about the One-Belt One-Road initiative (OBOR), or as the Chinese call it the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It attracts unwanted attention, as no superpower in human history has been able to undertake a project so enormous, that it covers most continents and two-thirds of the world, is inclusive of all major areas of modern economy, and is undertaken by a non-white, non-European power — the Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC). With BRI, an ambitious signature foreign policy initiative by President Xi Jinping announced in…

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