By S. Akbar Zaidi | From the Newspaper IN a rather long-winded article recently published in an Indian journal by one of Pakistan`s best-known liberal public intellectuals, the writer has analysed and detailed the divisions within Pakistan`s Army.
By Salman Shah | From the Newspaper Dawn 5 August ACCORDING to a top secret memorandum of the British chiefs of staff dated July 1947: “The area of [West] Pakistan is strategically the most important in the continent of India and the majority of our [British] strategic requirements could be met by an agreement with Pakistan alone.”
Carol Graham, 16 July 2011 About the author Carol Graham is senior fellow and Charles Robinson Chair at the Brookings Institution. She is author of Happiness Around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires (OUP, 2010) and of The Pursuit of Happiness: Toward an Economy of Well-Being (The Brookings Institution Press, 2011 – forthcoming). At this year’s American Economics Association meetings in Denver, there were the usual panels on topics ranging from the global financial crisis to the real estate market. More unusual was a keynote session on whether happiness measures should replace GNP. The latter was written up (rather skeptically) by The Wall Street Journal. That same month there was a similar panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, with Jeffrey Sachs, the once wunderkind of free markets, calling for happiness as the next United Nations Millennium Development Goal. That session was written up (less skeptically) by The New York Times. What is the world coming to?
By Dr. Irfan Zafar The dilemma being faced by our country is the mushrooming growth of people with fixed mindsets. They somehow lack faith, motivation, hard work and, above all, education After China, Japan manufactures the most number of vehicles in the world with 7,934,516 automobiles produced per annum, and Toyota overtaking General Motors as the largest carmaker in the world in terms of sales volume. Iron ore is the most important ingredient required for the production of automobiles. Ever wondered how much iron ore is available in Japan? None. African countries are some of the world’s poorest nations. However, these countries are blessed with an abundance of iron ore. How many vehicles are these poor nations producing with this ample supply of iron ore? None. So, the richest nation, which has no iron ore, is producing a maximum number of vehicles while the poorest of the nations, having all that is needed to manufacture the same, are producing none. Ever thought about what is missing? It is the ‘mindset’, a fixed mental attitude that …
Jonathan Paris This Report analyses the prospects for Pakistan over a one to three year time horizon. It looks at economic, political, security, and bilateral issues. There are three possible scenarios for Pakistan over this relatively short time horizon; Pakistan probably will avoid becoming a “failed state” and is unlikely to find a “pathway to success” but, as Pakistan confronts a myriad of vexing challenges, the most likely scenario is that it will “muddle through”. 1. Economy Looking at the economy optimistically, in just over 20 years, Pakistan will surpass Indonesia and become the fifth most populous country and the one with the most Muslims. Its youth bulge provides it with a baby boom which, if educated and employed, could provide its economy with a demographic dividend long after the equivalent bulges in China and India have aged and retired. Pakistan has an opportunity to leverage its domestic consumer market to attract multinationals and build up competitive economies of scale in industries like food, electronics, autos and engineering for the export market. Peace with India …
In the absence of a major recovery in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors, the bank claims that the impetus to growth will come from the services sector. In claiming so, the bank fails to see that growth in the services sector is largely dependent on growth in manufacturing and agriculture. Pakistan’s economy has come a long way in the last one year. Many acknowledge that the PPP government took several politically tough decisions like the abolition of power and oil subsidies to successfully stabilise the sliding economy it inherited. By implementing its macroeconomic stabilisation programme it has brought back the economy from the brink. Fiscal and external account deficits have narrowed, foreign exchange reserves have improved and inflation has declined significantly. The country’s sovereign ratings have also improved.
Bankers’ bonuses and excessive national deficits targeted in package of reforms Patrick Wintour & Andrew Clark G20 leaders, installing themselves as permanent stewards of the world economy for the first time, agreed yesterday on a tighter regime for bankers’ bonuses and mapped out an economic order in which countries would be urged to co-operate to avoid building up excessive trade deficits or surpluses. Gordon Brown hailed the result of the summit in the former steelmaking city of Pittsburgh as a victory for British thinking and persistence, insisting the economic regime would have an impact in restoring balanced growth.
Pakistan performs badly on the scale of economic freedom Its rank lowered from 104 to 110 Far behind from India’s rank at 86 and Sri Lanka’s at 105, Bangladesh at 115 Integrity of legal structures and security of property rights decline Hong Kong and Singapore rated best for economic freedom, Myanmar and Zimbabwe ranked worst Economic freedom may decline in the short term in response to recession, but over a longer time, economic freedom has a tendency to increase after a banking crisis Lahore September 14, 2009: The report ranks Hong Kong number one, followed by Singapore then New Zealand. Zimbabwe once again has the lowest level of economic freedom followed by Myanmar and Angola, according to the Economic Freedom of the World: 2009 Annual Report, released today in Pakistan by the Alternate Solutions Institute, Pakistan’s first free market think tank.
Awaam by Vision21 