The writer is a research fellow at IBA.
FATIMA Hussain is a young woman with a promising future. The 22-year-old lost her teaching job because of school closures caused by the pandemic. With the pandemic, her options to find new work were few, until recently. About a year ago, Fatima discovered freelancing. With her basic graphic designing skills, she started designing logos and page layouts for low-budget websites. Several free courses and YouTube tutorials helped her to improve her skills and she is now back to earning this time in dollars. With the ability to choose her timings and workload she can continue her education and pay her bills.
May Day in a pandemic
The Covid-19 has seriously affected what Freud called the ability to love and work, his view of mental health.
The writer is a senior political economist based in Islamabad. He can be reached at [email protected]
What is the state of work and workers on the 135
th May Day falling tomorrow? The Covid-19 pandemic has seriously affected what Freud called the ability to love and work, his view of mental health. There is little pain of work and no pleasure in leisure, destroying the very foundations of neoliberal economics. In the land of Chicago bombing of workers, President Joe Biden signed an executive order last Tuesday to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. The progressives continue their pressure to make it the national minimum hourly wage, which has stayed at $7.25 since 2009. Out here, the minimum wage is stuck at the pre-pandemic level of Rs17,500, estimated to be half of the living wage. For its lowest quintile in urban areas, the Household
UBP accounts for over one-third of mobile banking volumes and a quarter in that of internet banking.
A lot of discussion on digitisation in Pakistan inevitably gets either technical or hypothetical. Unfortunately, this diverts attention from the most important aspect: ensuring that any innovative solution reaches the masses and becomes part of their daily lives. This is what Careem or Bykea managed to do successfully.
Simplifying an average person’s routine tasks and responsibilities is where the digitisation efforts should focus on e.g. making it seamless to get your degree verified or ordering a cab. Bill payments fall exactly under that category. Data from the past few years shows a major spike in the use of digital channels.
(MENAFN - Colombo Gazette) strong> By Francesca Marino
According to a survey done by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and widely advertised in 2020 by the local press, the average household income in Balochistan has increased by Rs 6,346, Rs 36,387. The survey, called Household Integrated Economic Survey, compares social and economic indicators across the provinces.
According to the same survey, Punjab and Balochistan were the two main provinces where income increased significantly both in absolute terms and in percentages, while the slowest increase was registered in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).
The reason behind this stunning result, according to the PBS, can be found in the magical China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and other mega-development initiatives related to it.