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Showing posts from February, 2013

World's Tallest Skyscraper Planned in Pakistan

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Bahria Town and Abu Dhabi Group agreed to invest $45 billion in real estate in Pakistan. After signing the investment deal, Malik Riaz and Shaikh al-Nahyan announced that Karachi, not Dubai nor Shanghai, will soon boast having the world's tallest building. Representing the largest foreign investment to date in Pakistan, there will be $35 billion invested in several  large commercial and residential real estate projects in  Karachi, and another $10 billion in Lahore and Islamabad. It's expected to create 2.5 million new jobs in the country. His Highness Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak al Nahyan, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Group, was quoted by Express Tribune as saying, “I am genuinely happy that in this historic project of Pakistan we are working with the visionary Malik Riaz Hussain, this guarantees that not only the project will be delivered beyond our expectations but also before time. We will Inshallah be welcoming first residents in next 3-4 years.” Why is Abu Dhabi Gro

Pakistan's Double Digit Growth in Cement Demand in January

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Domestic cement consumption surged 10.10% in Pakistan in January 2013, according to All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association . On top of 8% increase in Fiscal Year 2011-12 , it jumped another 8% for the first seven months of Fiscal Year 2012-13. Cement production is an important barometer of national economic activity,  according to a research report compiled by a Credit Suisse analyst .  Last year, CS analyst Farhan Rizvi said in his report that "higher PSDP (Public Sector Development Program) spending has led to a resurgence in domestic cement demand in FY12 (+8%) and with increased PSDP allocation for FY13 (+19%) and General Elections due in 2013, domestic demand is likely to remain robust over the next six-nine months". Ongoing public sector projects include new large and small dams, irrigation canals, power plants, highways, rapid transit systems, flyovers, airports, seaports, etc. Most of these were already in the pipeline when the PPP government assu

12 Year-Old Pak Girl Helps Promote MOOCs at Davos

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Khadija Niazi, a 12-year old from Lahore, Pakistan, is taking online courses offered by a new wave of cyber-based educational platforms like Coursera and Udacity .  She was recently interviewed by New York Times columnist Tom Friedman at World Economic Forum 2013 at Davos, Switzerland.  Khadija was the featured guest in a session on online education sponsored by Victor Pinchuk Foundation. She was joined on stage at WEF by Bill Gates, Larry Summer, Daphne Koller (Coursera co-founder), Rafael Reif (President of MIT), Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia founder), Peter Thiel and other dignitaries. Coursera and Udacity offer massive open online courses (MOOCs) in a variety of subjects to large numbers of students from around the world. MOOC courses are often taught by professors who have been teaching for years at elite universities in the United States. Top academic institutions are in the forefront of online learning. For example, Harvard and M.I.T. have joined hands to introduce EdX, which

Pakistani Entrepreneurs Top VC Charts in Silicon Valley

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Latest funding of Ashar Aziz's FireEye and Zia Yusuf's Streetline rank #1 and #4 among top 5 VC deals in Silicon Valley announced in January 2013, according to Silicon Valley Business Journal . FireEye is riding high on a wave of growing cyber security concerns amidst increasing cyber attacks being reported almost daily from around the globe. FireEye's founder Asgar Aziz is among the top recognized experts in the field of Internet and computer security. With the recent $50 million round from top investors, the company has raised $100 million to date. The new funding comes from new and existing investors — including Sequoia Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs, Juniper Networks, Silicon Valley Bank, and others. Streetline is offering smartphone applications to help drivers find the increasingly scarce parking spots in crowded places. The company bills itself as "the leading provider of smart parking solutions to cities, garages, airports, universi