What is Circular Debt in Pakistan: Issues and Impacts [Article]


Power sector inefficiencies have cost this country significantly in direct budget costs in the last five years. In addition, growth has been slowed down by at least 2% per annum i.e., 10% lost growth in the last five years. Yet the problem is far from behind us. The restructuring and reform of the power sector has been held up for over two decades leading the costs to accelerate in recent years. The
important question that arises is “Why are we incapable of addressing such a big problem.” The problem requires careful study and research which can only happen if time and resources are devoted to the problem. With enough independent expertise and research for developing a body of knowledge on the required reform, a process of reform must be developed in Pakistan. There have been major
shortcomings at all levels of the reform spectrum which are split into three main areas:

1. At the policy level there is complete disarray between all entities involved. The Ministry of Water & Power, which is the main
policy maker of the sector has no roadmap set out for itself and is more reactive than proactive to power sector reforms which of
course is coupled by a lack of political will to help improve the system.

2. At the regulatory level there is an authoritarian attitude towards all entities involved. The regulator has failed to address or acknowledge problems of the power sector and is working in isolation.

3. At the entities level there is a complete breakdown of governance. Though they are being micromanaged by both the policy makers
and the regulator, the entities themselves have no aspirations of  moving ahead reforms and are happy to maintain status quo.

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Circular debt is one of the major issues in Pakistan. The Oil, Gas and Power sectors of Pakistan are the main sufferers of this giant dilemma to deal and manage the circular debt in an appropriate and suitable manner. The policy makers of Pakistan have been striving hard to find a way to solve this problem, but up till now they had not been able to find out an effective solution. Nonetheless, as a consequence of this, the circular debt in Pakistan as it is termedhas been circling around the three most important sectors of Pakistan, and the predicament is increasing day by day.

Circular debt arises when one of the two parties do not have enough cash to pay out its liabilities and pay the withholding payments to its suppliers.  This creates difficulty for the supplier to pay out its liabilities, which ultimately sets out an-unfathomable circle of debt liabilities in the economy.

In June 2011 the total circular debt reached to the level of more than Rs. 200bn, and in this year it is increasing by Rs.95 crore a day. It is a misfortune that mismanagement with regard of government owned power generation and power distribution agencies is one of the major reasons for a continuous increase in the circular debt of Pakistan. However a proper and cost effective management and organization of these companies would be able to reduce this debt position by a considerably higher level in the long run.

The significance of the management of the circular debt in Pakistan is not a secret any more. The government of Pakistan should try different types of strategies to critically fathom the core reason and find the solution that should be effective enough to positively deal with this critical issue as soon as possible.

Is it really useful ? Do you want to add some more ?

Thanks to http://www.pakonomy.com/2012/01/30/circular-debt-in-pakistan

Thanks to http://www.pc.gov.pk/hot%20links/2013/Final_USAID-Pakistan%20Circular%20Debt%20Report-Printed%20Mar%2025,%202013.pdf

Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) Pakistan Android Training 25 – 26 May 2012 [Event]


Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) Pakistan was set up by the Government of Punjab as an autonomous body to use synergies of the IT industry, academic institutions, and the government representatives on the PITB board to develop and implement consequential strategies, to enable our province to achieve its IT potential.

Due to the massive growth in Mobile application development in recent years, there is a severe shortage of resources who have expertise and knowledge of Android platform. There by, hundreds of skilled people are needed in this domain by the local industry. PITB is arranging trainings to fill the gap of supply side. Game industry is providing master trainer to train the IT graduates (preferably students already selected for Industrial training).

There seemed to be a spread of opinions about whether Pakistan has a cost advantage over other countries such as United States and Western Europe, Central Europe, and India etc. and how long will this advantage last. The general consensus seemed to be is that it costs about $15-25k to develop a decent game on a mobile device in Pakistan. Pakistan may be broadly in line with India in this regard and somewhat cheaper than Central Europe. The cost for doing the same in the United States is likely to be an order of magnitude higher. It is, therefore, possible for a small start-up of 10-12 people with a burn rate of $250k a year to develop 15-20 games per year – a number good enough to turn up at least one (perhaps two) “winner(s)” in the course of a year. Typical success ratio of a mobile game, for example, on Apple Store is 1 in 20-25 (3-4% by another account) and a typical Top-1o application on the AppleStore could do about $2 million worth of sales.

USA and Japan are the leading countries in this domain. Our local industry has able to get huge business of game development from Japan.

Training Outcome

  • To groom the IT graduates for the game and mobile application development industry
  • Local Game and mobile application development industry may get skilled human resource to get more business from off-shore market.

Training Plan

Resource Person: Ahmad Saleem Khawaja (Director Technical)

Day 1: 25th of May, 2011: 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Day 2: 26th of May, 2011: 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Contents for two days Android training:

Day 1: Android Basics 

1. Android Architecture

2. Android Projects

a. Making a Simple Android Application using eclipse and android SDK

b. Major components of the program

c. Walkthrough of the architecture on a running program

d. Deploying Android project on Emulator

e. Deploying Android application on Device.

f. Android App Market

3. Basic API Components

a. Activity

b. Intent

c. Widgets

d. Service

4. Resources

a. R.java

5. UI Elements

1. Lists

2. Drop Downs

3. Test Input Controls

4. Buttons

5. Menus

Day 2: Advanced Topics

1. Broadcast Receivers

2. Content Providers

3. Surface Views

4. Overview of OpenGL

There are limited seats; participants can register by sending email at registration@pitb.gov.pk on firstcome first basis.

For more details: http://pitb.gov.pk/mobileapplicationdevelopment

Excellent Free iPhone Application Vone


Are you free after 9-5 job today ?

Or Wana relax on this Weekend ?

Want to attend Event of your own choice ?

It was very difficult for me to visit each time websites on my Computer and browsing through what’s happening around me; The Events about Art and Culture,  Exhibitions, Fun,  Seminars and many more what I need to know and go about.

Today I got installed it on my iPod and experiencing up-to-date anytime, anywhere.

Download Free iPhone Vone app

You can localize Vone for your city like; LahoreKarachiIslamabad and list goes on… including more than 30 cities of Pakistan.

So what is Vone;  A daily listing of noteworthy events taking place in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and other major cities across Pakistan!.

It is an online community portal where people can share information about cultural events in their cities. Vone is built on the idea to empower Pakistanis by providing free event information on an intuitive, fun, and useful platform.

Is it interesting ? Do you want to add your experience using it on your iPod / iPhone ?

Vone: http://www.vone.pk/

Vone on iTuneshttp://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vone/id492068585?mt=8/