Indore:Famous Urdu poet Rahat Indori, whose powerful and lucid poetry filled halls and connected with the young and old alike, died of a heart attack at a hospital in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore on Tuesday while being treated for COVID-19, his son said. He was 70. The teacher-turned-poet had been admitted to hospital on Tuesday morning after he tested positive for …

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar on Tuesday said that the world is appreciating the smart lockdown policy of Prime Minister Imran Khan, which remained successful in containing the spread of coronavirus. Briefing the media after the National Command and Control Centre (NCOC) meeting, Asad Umar said smart lockdown strategy of PM Khan remained successful and being …

LAHORE: Punjab reported 109 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking the province’s total number of confirmed infections to 94,586. According to the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, four more patients died from the virus during the period, due to which the death toll in the province rose to 2,174. The province has conducted overall 788,860 COVID-19 …

JAKARTA/BEIJING: China’s Sinovac Biotech launched a late-stage human trial on Tuesday that will involve as many as 1,620 patients in Indonesia for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate that it is developing with Indonesian state-owned peer Bio Farma. Separately, Sinovac released details on Monday from a mid-stage, or Phase 2, study in which it said the vaccine candidate appeared to be safe …

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia had become the first country in the world to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine after less than two months of human testing, a move hailed by Moscow as evidence of its scientific prowess. The development paves the way for the mass inoculation of the Russian population, even as the …

A California judge on Monday granted the state’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking Uber Technologies and Lyft from classifying their drivers as independent contractors rather than employees. The ruling by Judge Ethan Schulman of San Francisco Superior Court is a defeat for the ride-hailing companies, as they defend against a May 5 lawsuit by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra …

LAHORE: The 969MW Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Plant achieved a landmark as its contribution to the national grid crossed the 10 billion units generation mark on Sunday night, thereby yielding a revenue of over Rs120bn. A spokesman of the Water and Power Development Authority said on Monday that the power plant, with efficient operation, had not only been meeting the design generation …

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday increased limit for housing finance loans to Rs3 million from Rs1m for borrowings from the microfinance banks. The SBP in a press release said the maximum size of general loans has also been enhanced from Rs150,000 to Rs350,000. It said that in order to commensurate with enhanced loan sizes, annual income …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan can increase its exports by up to $12 billion by 2024 even after taking into account disruptions due to Covid-19, according to the International Trade Centre’s latest export potential assessment for the country. More than half of the country’s exporters struggle with domestic and foreign regulatory barriers, says Invisible Barriers to Trade — Pakistan 2020: Business Perspectives. The report was prepared …

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan has informed the Senate standing committee on petroleum that Pakistan is currently facing a gas shortfall of about 3.5 billion cubic feet per day (BCFD) and Sindh will also be turning a gas-deficit province by next year. While testifying before a panel of the parliament’s upper house on Monday, Mr Khan said gas …