Germany shuts three of its last six nuclear plants

Germany has pulled the plug on three of its last six nuclear power stations as it moves towards completing its withdrawal from nuclear power as it turns its focus to renewables. The government decided to speed up the phasing out of nuclear power following Japan’s Fukushima reactor meltdown in 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the coastal plant in the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. The reactors of Brokdorf, Grohnde and Gundremmingen C, run by utilities E.ON and RWE , shut down late on Friday after three and…

Read More

First-Ever Ginger Harvest Inaugurated in Pakistan

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Senator Dr Sania Nishtar on Sunday inaugurated the first-ever ginger cultivation during the Ginger Harvest Workshop held in the Balkasar area of Chakwal, Punjab. This was the first ginger harvest piloted in Pakistan. The crop was grown in 11 months. Being an essential ingredient of Pakistani cuisine, ginger is high in demand but unfortunately, it is not grown here, and all the crop is imported to meet domestic needs. At the event, participants learnt from experts about the…

Read More

PRL Decides to Upgrade Plant

Refinery Limited (PRL) has announced that it will upgrade its plant to convert furnace oil into advanced quality Euro-V petrol and diesel and expand production capacity to more than double the existing one at an estimated cost of $1.2 billion. “The board of directors of Pakistan Refinery Limited in its meeting held on December 27, 2021 has decided to undertake refinery expansion and upgrade project (REUP),” PRL Company Secretary Shehzad Aminullah said in a notification to Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday. “The project cost is currently estimated at around…

Read More

Improving power DISCOs’ performance

Inefficiencies of distribution companies have been considered as one of the main power sector problems, although this is not the sole issue and performance improvement alone may not allow to get rid of the problems and difficulties of the sector. Losses may at best be halved and brought to the level of 8-10%. Technical improvements such as smart meters alone may not be a panacea but organisational changes would be required as well. We will discuss some of these issues and strategies in this space. One of the DISCO performance…

Read More

Growth Risks May Recur

SHAKING off last year’s haunting images of human misery around them, Pakistanis remained true to their elements and refused to surrender to despair. Be they images of makeshift crematoriums in India at the height of Covid outbreak in June, or those of Afghans, desperate to leave the country after the Taliban takeover, falling to death on the tarmac of Kabul airport from exiting US planes in August, Pakistanis continued their fight to beat the odds. It is some audacity on their part to not just live on but to expect…

Read More