Author: Novid Minhas

LAHORE – The government of Pakistan is taking stern measures about Umrah and Hajj Visa issuance after the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia shared concerns over the influx of Pakistani beggars arriving in the Arab nation, under the guise of pilgrimage. Saudi authorities urged the Pakistani government to look into the matter seriously and to curb the influx of these people who are being arrested in KSA for begging. After getting alert from Riyadh, the government directed that Umrah visa agents must get licenses and sign service agreements. This is intended to create a more transparent system that safeguards the rights of pilgrims. In this…

Sanjiva Weerawarana is a Sri Lankan success story. He founded enterprise software firm WSO2 in 2005, got it close to $100 million in ARR as its CEO, then sold it to private equity firm EQT for $600 million in May. He sometimes drives for Uber, too. Sri Lanka isn’t renowned for its startup ecosystem, but one company has been something of an outlier in the South Asian island nation these past two decades. WSO2, an open source enterprise software provider with customers such as Samsung, Axa, and AT&T, recently agreed to be acquired by private equity giant EQT, at a valuation TechCrunch reported at the time…

Rustam Emomali is increasingly the face of his country on the international stage On January 29, China signed off on an agreement to hand Tajikistan the gift of $2 million to fund the construction of a conference room in a government building. As grants go, it is not a lot, but the real significance of the development lies elsewhere. As an official press release asserts, that the money was disbursed at all was the result of a visit paid to Beijing by the 36-year-old chair of the Senate, Rustam Emomali, better known to the public for being the son of President Emomali Rahmon. Common…

RAWALPINDI: Sui Northern Gas Pipeline’s (SNGPL) task force continued the crackdown on gas theft in Islamabad and discovered a 1500-metre-long illegal gas pipeline from Japan Road village, Kangota Syedan. A spokesman for the SNGPL said on Thursday that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has started legal proceedings against those involved in the laying of illegal gas networks. While sharing the details, the spokesman said that the task force teams, along with the officials of the FIA, conducted a joint raid to remove an illegal gas pipeline laid in a private housing society at Japan Road near Village Kangota Syedan. He…

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed India’s robust economic growth, speaking at the ‘Infinity Forum 2.0’ conference at GIFT City via video link, he emphasised the pivotal role of transformative reforms conducted over the past decade in fostering this progress. Here’s a look at the top 10 things to know: 1. Modi hailed India’s growth, citing a GDP surge of 7.7 percent in the initial half of the fiscal year as evidence of the nation’s burgeoning economy. 2. “In the first six months of this financial year, India has achieved a GDP growth of 7.7 percent…Today, the entire world has pinned its hopes on India, and…

Brussel, Frankfurt (16/11 – 23) A levying of embargoes and export bans, the imposition of sanctions, erection of fearsome “license” (= restriction) protocol: there’s nothing new about this back-and-forth in world trade, in the eternal jousting for advantage among markets and nations. The clever Chinese imagined they had the world tea market all locked up until an earnest Scottish botanist carrying the telling name of “Robert Fortune” snuck into the Middle Kingdom to observe their agriculture, steal tea plants, and pick up tricks of tea processing. The Chinese global tea monopoly was busted wide open. The fortunate Mr. Fortune was…

London (08/11 – 50) A U.S. development agency announced on Wednesday that it would lend $553 million to establish a deepwater shipping-container terminal at the Port of Colombo in Sri Lanka, expanding America’s effort to finance infrastructure around strategic parts of Asia. The loan package is tied to Adani Ports, part of a conglomerate closely linked with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India that is still wobbling from a short-seller’s attack in January. Adani will help develop the terminal with Sri Lankan partners. The money from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation resembles the kind of big-ticket deals that China’s…

Brussels (27/10 – 50) Just in September this year, ten “distinguished” people in Tajikistan have been awarded general ranks. The decree on conferring general ranks was signed by the country’s president, Emomali Rahmon, on September 7th. According to this decree, there are now three more generals in the Agency for State Financial Control and Anti-Corruption. The rank of Major General of Justice was awarded to the head of the Finance and Economic Department, Fazliddin Khodjazoda, the head of the Special Operations Department, Abdurakhmon Davlatzoda, and the head of the Agency for GBAO, Zoir Gafurzoda. The rank of Major General of…

Berlin (22/10 – 75) UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Fernand de Varennes, reported during his trip to the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in Tajikistan, he met with representatives of civil society and residents of the region. Varennes arrived in Tajikistan for a working visit on October 9 till October 20. The UN Special Rapporteur told journalists that the residents of Gorno-Badakhshan informed him about violations of their rights in 2021-2022, particularly concerning the rights of detainees and cases of harsh treatment by law enforcement agencies. He stated, “People are complaining about religious restrictions as well as limitations on the use…

In the fourth quarter of FY23, Bangladesh’s macroeconomic conditions continued to show sluggish growth, causing concern for businesses. To address this situation in FY24, the government should implement continuous measures while considering the global economic context. Throughout FY23, challenges persisted, including disruptions in the supply chain, rising oil and food prices, inflation, weak remittance inflows, a deficit in tax revenue collection, reduced public spending, Taka depreciation, dwindling foreign exchange reserves, low foreign direct investment (FDI), and a rising unemployment rate. These challenges remained largely unchanged in the Q4 of FY23. However, amidst these difficulties, the country’s exports and imports performed…