Business

ISLAMABAD: Amid delays in the resolution of legal issues, the board of directors of defunct Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) has refused to accept the unilateral evaluation of its land by Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd (SSGCL). The board in its meetings held on March 29 and April 7 “has shown great concern over delay in issuance of No-Objection-Certificate (NOC) for …

In Pakistan, standing in queues at petrol pumps has become a regular occurrence, particularly when people anticipate an increase in fuel prices. Waiting in these lines, one often reflects on the past when petrol used to cost under Rs100 per litre, a time that now seems distant, even though it was less than three years ago. These queues also serve …

For Ahmed Khan Jat, the unending sea intrusion has deprived the area of its agricultural diversity and prosperity in the Indus Delta. The Indus Delta, which witnessed rich farming activities in the past, has become a painful saga of brackish seawater intrusion. From the experts’ point of view, it is primarily due to inadequate Indus River flows to check intrusion …

KARACHI: Amid surging Eid-related demand, retailers have further raised veal meat prices by Rs100 per kg. Veal beef with and without bones prices rose to Rs900-950 and Rs1,100-1,200 per kg from Rs850 and Rs1,000 depending on the area. In the last one and a half months, retailers have increased veal meat rates by up to Rs200 per kg citing rising …

KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) increased by $394 million during the week ended on April 14, reported the central bank on Thursday. The SBP reserves have been showing some improvement following the inflow of a $1.3bn loan from China in three instalments in recent weeks. Pakistan depends largely on China for commercial and non-commercial …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s exports of non-textile products fell 5.81 per cent year-on-year to $8.58 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal year owing to the rising cost of production and a dip in demand from the international market. The stagnation in export proceeds of the non-textile sector was noted since the start of the current fiscal year as …

ISLAMABAD: K-Electric has sought the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority’s (Nepra) approval for extracting Rs6.636 billion additional funds from its consumers at the rate of Rs4.49 per unit for the electricity used in March. Nepra has accepted the KE’s tariff petition under the monthly fuel cost adjustment (FCA) mechanism and fixed a public hearing for May 3. The regulator would …

Share prices at the Pakistan Stock Exchange rose on Thursday with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 508.48 points, or 1.26 per cent, to reach 41,007.82 points. The market opened at 40,499.34 points and jumped from the get-go, and at one point had created a daily high of 41,086.67 before settling slightly lower. First National Equities CEO Ali Malik said the …

Weekly inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) hit an all-time high of 47.23 per cent year-on-year (YoY) for the week ending on April 19 — driven mainly by a major increase in food prices — data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Thursday showed. On a week-on-week basis, short-term inflation increased by 0.51pc as food …

KARACHI: Code writers making top-drawer artificial intelligence (AI) tools that’ve gained traction at a mass scale worldwide don’t always belong to Silicon Valley. Some of these geeks can be found in quintessentially middle-class Karachi neighbourhoods like Gulistan-e-Jauhar. They went to local universities and still beat Ivy League graduates to the top of the AI hill. AIAV, a personalisation engine created …