Pakistan Economics Monitor

Lessons

Is there a lesson for Pakistan Railway and not so healthy Pakistan International Airlines?

Yes there is!

"

INDIAN Railways is among the most high-profile corporate turnaround stories of recent times. Over the past four years it has managed to turn a string of hefty losses into a $5 billion profit—an impressive achievement by anyone’s standards, but even more so when your remit is more than just profitability, responsible as it is for keeping the social, economic, political and cultural fabric of that vast country intact.

Much of this success has been generated through a programme of radical change instituted by the charismatic and, at times, controversial railways minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav. Now, as part of this makeover, the organisation has embarked on an extensive training project for middle and senior managers among its 1.4m workforce. Just as interesting is where they have turned for help to make this project happen: not to one of the country’s top business schools, nor even to the academic corridors of America; rather they’ve gone to France."

Read on more at Economist here

Two articles

Two articles that I consider must read for students of South Asian politics and economy.

Socio Economic Research Resources

Socio Economic Research Institutes and Centres in Pakistan

Pakistan Institute of Development Economics
The LUMS Research Centre
Centre for Management and Economic Research (CMER)
The Case Research Centre (CRC)
LUMS Entrepreneurship & SME Centre

MIT Media Lab: $100 Laptop

I hope the government of Pakistan may take note of this. Urdu Wiki has been started by ordianry people who are just doing it for the sake of love for Urdu. The government of Pakistan has not taken any concrete steps in this regard. This amazing invention can revolutionize the learning process in Paksitan combined with free internet acess and lessons designed in Urdu language.

MIT Media Lab: $100 Laptop: "The MIT Media Lab has launched a new research initiative to develop a $100 laptop: a technology that could revolutionize how we educate the world's children. To achieve this goal, a new, non-profit association, One Laptop per Child (OLPC), has been created. The initiative was first announced by Nicholas Negroponte, Lab chairman and
co-founder, at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland in January 2005."

Progressive India

I want to mointor progress in Pakistan but Pakistani's have a bad habit they look towards India to compare where India is leading or lagging behind. I believe Paksitan has already been implementing these technologies things in LUMS.

In India, Engineering Success: "The classroom of the future will feature electronic white boards. The teachers of the future will write equations on these boards with electronic pens. And the students of the future won't have to choose between concentrating on the teacher and scribbling the equations into notebooks. They will devote all their energy to listening, then download the equations straight into the laptops they've plugged into their desks.
Okay, that isn't quite right. The classroom I'm describing is not some figment of the future. It's the reality I visited a month ago at the Vellore Institute of Technology."

In Today's India, Status Comes With Four Wheels - New York Times

India is leading where we left our economy in ruins. Few years back we started modernizing our highways and setting up low cast car plants in country. Pakistan could have become a production hub for low cost automobiles but all is lost in Political wrangling.

In Today's India, Status Comes With Four Wheels - New York Times: "The growing lust for cars also reflects India finally having roads decent enough to drive them on. It is making a historic effort to upgrade its dismal, mostly two-lane national highway system into four- or six-lane interstates, its largest infrastructure project since independence in 1947. "

Pakistan Earthquake Damage Report

First consolidated Earthquake Damage Reprot in Pakistan 2005 has bee published by ADB.

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The government's are teaching a lesson to enemy so the only lesson kids can afford is .....
9/11 and July 7 (Click on picture to enlarge)

This cartoon is a copyright of Nicholson of "The Australian" newspaper: http://www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au/ used with permission

WOW! WOW! Can we have it in neighboring country Pakistan

Sounds like a neat car. I wonder if GM can think about exploring market in neighboring country Pakistan.

G.M. Thrives in China With Small, Thrifty Vans - New York Times: "LIUZHOU, China - In this obscure corner of southern China, General Motors seems to have hit on a hot new formula: $5,000 minivans that get 43 miles to the gallon in city driving. That combination of advantages has captivated Chinese buyers, propelling G.M. into the leading spot in this nascent car market. "