Tech and Telecom

The credit profile of Pakistan (issuer rating B3) reflects the country’s “baa2” economic strength, which is underpinned by the robust long-term GDP growth potential and large scale of the economy, balanced against low per capita incomes and global competitiveness, says Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s). Moody’s has completed the periodic review of a group of issuers that includes Pakistan and may include related ratings through a discussion held on 17 May 2021. The review did not involve a rating committee, and this publication does not announce a credit rating action and is not an indication of whether or not a credit…

Former captain and current commentator, Ramiz Raja, believes that Pakistan has missed a great opportunity at learning from international broadcasting teams during the six editions of the Pakistan Super League (PSL). ALSO READ Yousuf Believes Babar’s Poor Form is Just a One Off Ramiz said that it is sad that no Pakistani is in any of the internationally recognized broadcasting teams despite the massive success of Pakistan’s premier T20 tournament. He added that although Pakistan has a lot of talent they have had limited opportunities to succeed in this particular field, which has had an adverse impact on the production…

Millions of internet links with useful sources and information are lost over time, shows new research performed by a team at Harvard Law School. The research time working with New York Times found that this problem was affecting internet links dating all the way back to 1988. The research took into account over 550,000 articles containing more than 2.2 million links to external pages. It was discovered that roughly 72% of these articles contained links to specific pages rather than a general website. Articles dating from 2018 had nearly 6% of their external links broken while a whopping 72% of them were…

Thousands of Pakistanis took to the streets in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Attock, and Taxila to express their solidarity with Palestinians and to condemn Israel’s bombarding of the Gaza Strip. Demonstrations were held across Pakistan in response to the appeal of Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan to condemn Israeli atrocities and brutalities against Palestinians. Several groups in the capital, including the Islamabad chapter of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), staged rallies and organized conferences in this regard. The Chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council, Hafiz Mohammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, who is also the Special Assistant to the PM on Interfaith Harmony and the Middle…

HBL and Katalyst Labs have signed a strategic partnership agreement for startup acceleration and enabling female leaders. This will further build and strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the country. HBL is shaping the future through a paradigm shift towards a ‘Technology company with a banking license’. The bank aims to form ecosystem partnerships and deliver scalable solutions to customers. The end goal remains to be a customer-centric bank that is quick to pivot as opportunities present themselves by being a mobile-first, data-enabled, inclusive and agile organization. Katalyst Labs is a technology accelerator and innovation hub, founded by Jehan Ara who…

A fire that had broken out in the mountainous region between the districts of Swabi and Buner on Friday was extinguished by firefighters after almost 15 hours of effort. According to Rescue 1122 officials, the cause of the fire is unknown but they had immediately begun to work on extinguishing it. ALSO READ Balakot Hydropower Project is a Milestone Towards Clean and Affordable Energy: Omar Ayub Rescue officials from the districts of Swabi, Mardan, and Buner had helped to put out the fire despite the strong winds that kept hindering their efforts to control it and prevent it from spreading…

Although Solid State Drives (SSDs) are starting to become common in computers for their superior speeds, hard disk drives (HDDs) are still widely used for their ability to store large amounts of data for cheap. However, Seagate’s latest HDD targets speed as well as large amounts of storage space for cheap. The company has unveiled the Mach.2 Exos 2X14 its first dual actuator HDD which is also the fastest hard disk in the world. While traditional hard disks have one actuator with read/write heads, the Exos 2X14 has two, which doubles the read/write speeds of the HDD. Seagate has been…

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has issued a list of designated laboratories for coronavirus tests for inbound travelers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain. According to the notification, the list of designated laboratories in the Gulf countries will be effective from 29 May. ALSO READ Pakistan Begins Coronavirus Vaccination for 30+ Age Group The airlines that are conducting flights to these countries from Pakistan and vice-versa have been directed to accept negative COVID-19 PCR tests that are from the specified laboratories in the UAE and Bahrain. The CAA has issued a warning to airlines that strict action will…

According to sources, West Indian duo, Sunil Narine and Dwayne Bravo, have expressed interest in playing the remainder of the sixth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL). Narine will likely be available for all the remaining matches, while Bravo is likely to be available for a portion of the tournament. ALSO READ PSL Teams to Draft Additional Players Due to COVID-19 Sources also revealed that the PSL franchises will be required to pick two additional players in the squad, increasing the maximum squad size to 20 players, due to the Covid-19 situation. Additional two players will be picked in…

The provinces have announced the dates for reopening educational institutions and the resumption of academic activities. The Government of Sindh has announced that the educational institutions in 12 of its districts will remain closed until 6 June as the coronavirus positivity ratio in those districts is higher than five percent, while the institutes in the rest of the districts will open on 24 May. Similarly, the Government of Punjab has decided to reopen all the public and private schools in 16 districts on 24 May and has extended the closure of educational institutions in six districts until 6 June. The…