Category: News & Announcement

Expenditure target for FY21 to be fixed at Rs10.4tr –Rs600bn to be spent on development projects; Rs200bn on corona-related programmes ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to present the budget for fiscal year 2020-21 on June 5, it was learnt on Friday. According to sources, the finance ministry has recently given a presentation to the prime minister with regard to next fiscal year budget, wherein he was informed that the next year’s budget would be presented in the first week of June and for this purpose, the ministry’s preparations were in…

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The report also warned that lockdown measures imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus may cause disruptions in life-saving health services “putting millions of pregnant mothers and their babies at great risk”. “The continuing rapid spread of Covid-19 across South Asia means new mothers and newborns will be greeted by harsh realities, including global containment measures such as lockdowns and curfews, health centres overwhelmed with response efforts, supply and equipment shortages, and a lack of sufficient skilled birth attendants as health workers […] are redeployed to treat Covid-19 patients.…

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A study conducted in Karachi shows that eight out of 10 people know someone who has lost their job or business during the preventive lockdown against COVID-19, while three out of 10 are now in need of financial assistance to run their daily lives. Pulse Consultant, a leading marketing and social research firm, conducted an in-depth study through the computer-assisted telephone interviewing technique with 1,000 respondents residing in all the six districts of the city. The study was conducted in two phases — April 16 to April 18 (477 interviews)…

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The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has awarded its first power production license to a Chinese company for the 102MW Shigo Kas Hydropower project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Saifco Group of Pakistan and state-owned China National Machinery Industry Corporation-Sinomach will deliver the project that has an original worth of $307 million. This is the first power production license to be awarded to any joint venture through competitive bidding in the province that is rich in the water resource and can generate a huge amount of hydel power. This development…

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Jonathan Trent, late of the OMEGA algae projects, has authored a column on the topic of “putting existing technologies into ecosystems, to increase food productivity and profitability, while conserving water and energy and decreasing environmental impact.” He calls this UpCycle Systems, or UCS to those who adore three-letter acronyms, referring back to the concept of upcycling (vs recycling) as a reuse of discarded material ”in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original.” As Trent observes, waste byproducts are natural, almost every…

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