Category: Information Technology

Zara Naeem, an ACCA student from Lahore, has been the talk of the town since last week when she was declared as the global prizewinner for scoring the highest marks in the Financial Reporting exam conducted in December 2020.

You will be surprised to know that Zara Naeem is the niece of famous Pakistani umpire, Aleem Dar. It came to light after Aleem Dar shared a video in which he congratulated Zara Naeem for making Pakistan proud by topping the ACCA exam.

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Let’s have a look at the video:

In the video, Aleem Dar can be seen expressing pleasure over the news that his niece Zara Naeem Dar topped the global ACCA exam and made the country proud.

He added that like Zara, any Pakistani youngster can also make the country proud by performing to the best of their abilities in their respective fields.

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Meanwhile, Zara has credited the success to her father who always encouraged all the girls in the family to pursue their dreams and smash all artificial barriers.

Since last week, Zara Naeem has also been trending on Twitter as social media users continue to congratulate her on her achievement as ACCA qualification is considered the gold standard in accountancy with recognition and presence in over 179 countries worldwide.

The post ACCA Topper Girl is Related to Cricketer and an Umpire appeared first on .

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A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed for the establishment of the Gwadar shipyard.

The MoU was signed between the Secretary Industry Balochistan Hafiz Abdul Majid and the Additional Secretary Defence Production Ghulam Jaffar, while the provincial Chief Minister Mir Jam Kamal Khan and the Federal Minister for Defense Production Zubaida Jalal attended the ceremony.

Zubaida Jalal spoke at the occasion and remarked that the federal and provincial governments are making joint efforts for the socio-economic development of Balochistan as the province holds the economic future of Pakistan.

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She added that ships will be built at the yard and that it will also provide repairing facilities in the region, in addition to training facilities.

The federal minister said that this project is of great regional importance strategically and that its completion will be followed by employment opportunities for the locals and that it will boost the generation of revenue for the provincial economy.

Jalal said that although the first phase will involve an influx of technical and managerial human resour­ces from the other areas of the country, locals will be trained for and recruited to replace their posts at the shipyard later on.

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“The project office has been opened in Gwadar, and after the completion of its feasibility study in two to three years, the construction of the project will be started,” she added.

The provincial Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan said, “The construction of Gwadar shipyard will benefit the business community in general and population of Balochistan as a whole”.

He declared that the joint initiatives of the federal and provincial governments will usher in a new era of prosperity and economic development in the province.

“The provincial government is planning to promote tourism in Gwadar, jetty, fish processing units, and other projects, while the shipyard project will not affect the population,” he added.

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Punjab government has increased the upper age limit by 15 years for candidates eyeing a seat in the different government departments.

According to the official notification, the Punjab government has allowed a relaxation of up to 15 years in the upper age limit to all the applicants applying for the vacancies in government departments of Punjab.

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Previously, the upper age limit relaxation for applying against government jobs in Punjab was 10 years.

Last month, reports claimed that the Punjab government had decided to regularize 50,000 contractual employees of the Punjab government.

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In this regard, Chief Minister Usman Buzdar had ordered concerned authorities to collect data of all contractual employees working in all departments and present it in the next cabinet meeting.

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The Punjab government is planning to launch a special scheme to facilitate government employees. According to the reports, under the special scheme, the Punjab government would assist the government employees in buying a car for themselves through installments.

A media report suggests that as a part of this new scheme, the government shall assist the employees by making the initial down payment for the car. Thereon after, the government will deduct the periodic installments for the car from the employee’s salary. Once the installments are complete, the employee shall gain complete ownership of the vehicle.

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The scheme is likely to be significantly beneficial since last year, the State Bank of Pakistan has lowered the interest rates by 625 basis points to 7 percent. Furthermore, a reduction in the rates of the soft interests now means lesser installments for car financing programs.

Currently, there are no details regarding the particulars of the scheme. However, with the launch of the policy, the number of vehicles on the roads of Punjab will surely increase.

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According to recent reports, China’s multinational conglomerate Tencent has been caught up in a defamation suit by TikTok’s owner company ByteDance. The two firms have been fierce rivals for years and their founders Zhang Yiming and Pony Ma have traded barbs on many occasions.

This time, the bicker was induced by the fact that Tencent blocked Douyin’s (TikTok’s Chinese variant) content on WeChat and QQ. This allegedly breaks the country’s antitrust laws. As a result of Tencent’s caper, ByteDance is asking the court for approximately $14 million in compensation from Tencent. In a recent statement, ByteDance said,

We believe that competition is better for consumers and promotes innovation. We have filed this lawsuit to protect our rights and those of our users.

Despite Tencent’s and ByteDance’s rivalries over the years, neither of them took things to court until now. This is the first time ByteDance has challenged its adversary from the antitrust angle. Both WeChat and Douyin are the most popular applications in the country with close to 2 billion active users. Hence, we can only contemplate what course this lawsuit will take.

This lawsuit comes only months after China opened an investigation into Jack Ma’s Alibaba group. It was a result of Beijing’s unveiled draft regulations aimed at rooting out monopolistic behavior among internet companies that sparked a sell-off in the tech sector.

Representatives and spokespersons at the court as well as from Tencent have declined the request to comment on the matter for now.

The post TikTok Owner Sues Gaming Giant Tencent in China appeared first on .

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Punjab’s Minister for Housing, Mian Mahmood-ur-Rasheed, said in a statement that the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) will soon commence the construction of 35,000 LDA New City Pakistan Apartments in the Mouza Haloki area near Raiwind Road, Lahore.

He added that Prime Minister Imran Khan will inaugurate the construction scheme for the project in a public ceremony this month.

While visiting the construction site along with the LDA Vice-Chairman, SM Imran, the minister disclosed that a budget of Rs. 20 billion had been commissioned to offer coverage for the infrastructural costs.

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Discussing Phase-1 of the construction plan, Minister Mahmood-ur-Rasheed revealed that a little over 4,000 apartments will be built on 650 Kanal of land over the next 18 months for a total cost of Rs. 10 billion.

The infrastructure for 125 blocks of 4-story apartments will be constructed on a stretch of 563-Kanal of land. Each block will comprise 32 residential units, and each unit will have an area of 650 square feet and will contain two bedrooms.

Upon completion, these apartments will be auctioned off at a fixed price of Rs. 2.7 million with easy installment plans. The process will be initiated after aspects like the Allotment Procedure, Price, Eligibility Criteria, and the Terms and Conditions are defined by the Cabinet.

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As per reports, buyers will be able to apply for allotments through the Bank of Punjab, for which the government will streamline a detailed marketing campaign via newspapers, television channels, and social media platforms.

For now, the provincial government has floated tenders for the commencement of the construction.

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Google’s parent company Alphabet has shared its financial report for Q4 2020, revealing mounting profits for the period. The company made a total revenue of $56.9 billion during the October – December period, which is a 23% increase compared to the previous year, where the company made $46.1 billion.

The report is similar to that of last quarter’s where Alphabet made $46.2 billion in revenue in the period, up from 2019’s $40.5 billion.

Ruth Porat, the chief financial officer at Alphabet credited YouTube and Google Search for the growing profits.

Driven by Search and YouTube, as consumer and business activity recovered from earlier in the year.

Out of the $56.9 billion figure, $52.9 billion came from Google services, and $3.8 billion was generated through Google Cloud. The rest came from Google’s Other Bets division and Alphabet made a total of $182.5 billion during the year.

In the fourth quarter, Google Search generated total revenue of $31.9 billion while YouTube ads made $6.9 billion. Live streaming and short videos were booming on the social network with nearly half a million channels live streaming and YouTube shorts getting half a billion daily views.

Alphabet saw a dip in performance during the second quarter of 2020 due to the pandemic, but the company appears to have bounced back now. Porat said:

We are very pleased with our exceptional fourth quarter performance after an unprecedented year.

The post Google Reports Staggering Profits for Q4 2020 Thanks to YouTube and Search appeared first on .

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Sindh’s Minister for Education, Saeed Ghani, has announced that no action will be taken against the parents who do not want to send their children to school.

“Parents who do not want to send their children to schools can refrain from it. Also, the administration can’t ensure SOPs’ implementation; the parents should play their part in it as well,” the minister elucidated during a press conference in the Committee Room of the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday.

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Minister Ghani warned that even though Sindh’s educational institutions have been fully functional since 1 February, the provincial government will shut them down again if the coronavirus infections surge.

He also explained that the duration of the examinations has been reduced by one hour and the procedure has been altered as well, adding that a new model paper will soon be published to aid the students and their parents.

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He also revealed that 13,966 coronavirus tests have been conducted in Sindh’s colleges so far, of which 12,121 results were negative, 265 were positive, and 1580 results are awaited.

Similarly, 8457 of 11,845 test results in schools were negative, 546 were positive, and 2,642 results are also awaited.

The post No Penalization for Parents Not Sending Kids to School – Sindh Education Minister appeared first on .

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Punjab Police has issued the schedule for the recruitment of constables, drivers, and wireless operators.

According to the official notification, the physical measurement of schedule A and B candidates will be held on 8 and 13 February respectively.

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The endurance test of schedule A candidates will be taken on 19 February and schedule B candidates on 24 February.

The test will comprise of driving test and a one-mile race.

IG Punjab, Inam Ghani, has constituted a three-member board consisting of DIGs of Punjab Police to oversee the recruitment process.

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The three-member board will hold the board review of all candidates on 8 March.

Punjab Police has requested the candidates to adhere to Coronavirus SOPs during the recruitment process.

The post Punjab Police Announces Job Vacancies for Multiple Departments appeared first on .

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Following a decrease in the interest rates and the rejuvenation of business activities after the initial pandemic-induced lockdowns, auto loans reportedly increased by 19 percent, amounting to Rs. 41 billion in December 2020.

As per the figures compiled by the Central Bank, the car loans of December 2019 had been recorded as Rs. 219 billion, and increased to Rs. 256 billion during the same time period in 2020. A media report suggests that the key driver of the increase had been the growing demand for 1300 cc passenger vehicles.

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Although no names were quoted by the media outlet, the report indicates that the high demand for the newly launched Toyota Yaris was majorly responsible for the increase in the loans. This is a fair assumption as, for the past several months, the Yaris alone has outsold both the Honda City and Civic combined.

The other key driver of the increase in the loans is the lowered interest rate. The State Bank of Pakistan had reduced the interest rates by 625 basis points to 7 percent in 2020. Additionally, a decrease in the rates of the soft interests meant lesser installments for car financing programs.

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Pak Suzuki Increases APV’s Price by Rs. 1.1 Million

A few fair price hikes by the automakers in 2020 seemingly had no impact on the rising demand for cars. In fact, with new players still entering the market before the expiration of the Auto Development Policy (ADP) 2016-21, it is safe to say that the demand for cars is likely to surge even more.

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