Sovereign Wealth Funds on November 15, 2019Scale of operations of Sovereign Funds worrisome. In the year 2017 Norway’s sovereign wealth fund (SWF) exceeded USD 1trillion in value signifying that countries have more financial muscle then private corporations. Apple and Amazon being enormous IT companies have exceeded this threshold. What is worrisome is that SWF’s tend towards inward investment and remain vulnerable […]
Cities and gender gaps on May 31, 2019Pakistani cities continue to lag behind in gender equity, particularly in terms of accessibility and security for working women. The fact discourages women from stepping out of the house and work. We also see that many cities in the West, although culturally more amenable to the entry of a significant number of women in professions, […]
China & Blue Waters on May 14, 2019Commerce dependent on seaborne trade: The Chinese Communist Party declared that “maritime power” status was essential to realizing its national ambitions. In 2017 China’s imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) rose by an unanticipated 46 % reflected in 16 operational LNG terminals importing 71 bcm emphasizing that its commerce is reliant on external energy sources. […]
Dam dynamics on February 19, 2019The Indus Basin Water Treaty of 1960, between India and Pakistan brokered by World Bank laid down a mechanism as to how to share and manage water what was then essentially a unitary network of irrigation. In 1948 waters of Indus river were apportioned by ‘Inter-Dominion Accord’ requiring India to release sufficient water to Pakistani […]
Case for Petrochemical Refinery on January 6, 2019Global Oil Gap A global oil supply gap is likelyat the end of the year 2021 increasing to 3 million barrels per day (b/d) by 2030, 9 million b/d by 2035 and a whooping 15 million b/d by the year 2040. The present day pace of commercial volumes does not inspire as to how this […]
Exports and startups on November 30, 2018Prior to embarking upon an analysis of repeated failures to enhance Pakistan’s exports certain statistics need to be reviewed. The US and China are two symmetrically opposed models of export growth yet underlying their relative success is their emphasis on research and development (R & D) and quality of research. In 2015 Huawei, a Chinese […]
US sanctions on Iran and Gwadar on November 24, 2018The motive behind exempting the Iranian port of Chabahar from sanctions by the US is being attributed to its desire to bolster its ally India. Although, ostensibly the rationale espoused is that the Afghan economy being a continuous drain on international assistance requires a trading route through Iran. Despite deployment of relatively successful cyber technology […]
Privatisation and CPEC on November 20, 2018International Trends in Privatisation: Worldwide in the past two decades state owned enterprises have been privatised and transferred to the private sector in 150 countries with a negative impact on rights of the employees and compromise on their job security. Privatisation remained a standard panacea prescribed for developing countries by multilateral lending agencies. Examples are […]
Privatization & CPEC on November 10, 2018Worldwide in the past two decades state owned enterprises have been privatized and transferred to the private sector in 150 countries with a negative impact on rights of the employees and compromise on their job security. Privatization remained a standard panacea prescribed for developing countries by multilateral lending agencies. Examples are replete such as scores […]
European Rivers on October 27, 2018There are around 300 freshwater basins in the world straddling international borders and nearly all neighbours in the international system share a river and wherever an upstream/downstream basin configuration exists among nations the risk of conflict is enhanced. In order, to develop any long term and sustainable hydro based power system the structural variables impact […]