Category: Business

Pakistan (Muhammad Yasir)

Shan Shares, the CSR identity of Shan Foods, has expanded partnership with Saylani International Welfare Trust (SWIT), a non-governmental organization focusing primarily on feeding the poor and homeless, by sponsoring another free meal set up in an effort to provide free meals to the underprivileged members of the society. This initiative is part of the agreement Shan Shares had signed last year with the Saylani Welfare Trust to regularly sponsor food for underserved people and provide their products for the preparation of meals. Under this collaboration, thousands of people have already been provided with meals free of cost since the launch of its first food truck. By sponsoring another meal set up, Shan Shares aims to expand its outreach in the city and share meals with more communities. These efforts are in line with Shan Shares’ mission to achieve the goal of zero hunger in society. Maria Rashdi, Head of Corporate Communication and PR Shan Foods, while commenting on the arrangement, said, “Hunger has been a global issue for a long time. Today, a staggering 811 million people worldwide do not have enough food to eat which automatically obstructs their further growth in life. Shan Shares is committed to erasing the inequalities prevalent around us and working towards creating an equitable and peaceful society for all. The first step to a just world and an empowered community is to make sure people’s basic needs are met and everyone has equal access to opportunities needed to live a fulfilled life. We hope that through this collaborative initiative with Saylani Welfare Trust and our other collective efforts, our efforts will help to put an end to hunger and people will be empowered to fight against poverty and inequalities as per Shan Shares’ vision.” Expressing his views on Shan Shares’ contribution towards the cause, Mr. Bashir Farooqi, Founder Saylani Welfare International Trust (SWIT), said, “Our foundation is based on the ideology of feeding the homeless and the needy people. Given the rising inflation and the plight of poor people in our society, we should all come forward together and play a part in improving the lives of those struggling around us. For this, we truly appreciate Shan Shares’ support and involvement in our cause.” Shan Shares aims to continue to take further initiatives in this regard in the future to fulfill its mission to transform the society.

Pakistan (Muhammad Yasir) Telenor Microfinance Bank (TMB), operator of Pakistan’s leading digital payments platform Easypaisa, has received US$ 15 million (PKR 3.4 billion) equity injection from its shareholders Telenor Group and Ant Group. This is the first tranche of a total investment of US$ 30 million planned by the shareholders to support the latest business plan.

This tranche brings the total equity invested by the shareholders since 2018 to USD 305 million. The investment has further strengthened the Bank’s capital position and placed the organization on an upward trajectory to continue its growth in Pakistan’s digital finance space.

Senior management from both Telenor Group and Ant Group visited Pakistan a few weeks earlier to meet the Leadership team of TMB and reaffirmed their support for the Bank’s future roadmap.

In pursuit of its mission of creating a financially inclusive and cashless society, TMB has become the first Bank in Pakistan to successfully roll out a digital-first model. With more than 11 million monthly active users, the platform continues to diversify its offerings and is enabling customers to use a suite of digital financial services including payments, savings, digital lending, eliminating the need to physically come to a branch.

Commenting on the development, M. Mudassar Aqil, CEO Telenor Microfinance Bank & Easypaisa said; “We are thankful to our shareholders for their continuous trust and confidence in us. The commitment by Telenor Group and Ant Group is evident from the US$ 305 million investment till date in the business, which is the largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the history of Pakistan’s banking sector. This equity injection will allow us to pursue our Digital-First strategy and make digital financial services accessible to every Pakistani. With more than 11 million monthly active users and growing, together with the largest digital payments platform in the country, we remain committed to transform Pakistan into a cashless and financially inclusive society through collaboration and technology.”

Being the leader of the fintech revolution in Pakistan, Telenor Microfinance Bank/Easypaisa is providing best-in-class services to millions of users across Pakistan. The Bank continues to work towards financially empowering Pakistanis through a robust portfolio of innovative digital banking solutions in line with its mission of a financially inclusive Pakistan.

ASA Microfinance Bank partners with Systems Limited & NdcTech to offer inclusive financial services on Temenos Core banking platform.

Pakistan (Muhammad Yasir) ASA Microfinance Bank (Pakistan) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ASA International Group plc, one of the world’s largest global microfinance institutions providing micro loans to emerging entrepreneurs across Asia and Africa, has entered into a partnership with Systems Limited & NdcTech to implement Temenos next-generation Core Banking system. NdcTech, a longstanding premier partner of Temenos and a wholly owned subsidiary of Systems Limited will deliver end-to-end core banking implementation and support services to ASA MFB.

With this partnership, ASA MFB will further its mission to promote financial inclusion within the economy by providing value added services to the unbanked strata, particularly female owned enterprises. Temenos’ microservices packaged and functionally rich solution, which is tailored for the needs of inclusive banking, along with NdcTech’s expertise on Temenos products and in-depth knowledge of updated methodologies and tools, will enable the Bank to achieve its vision of increasing customer satisfaction with innovative and value-added services and leverage on operational cost efficiencies.

Systems Limited will also provide implementation and support services for the Infrastructure and Platform deployment on Temenos Core. To support this scalable architecture, the Core banking system will be deployed on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, making the infrastructure components highly resilient.

The agreement has been signed by Mr. Asif Peer, Group CEO Systems Ltd and Mr. Saeed Uddin Khan, CEO, ASA MFB (Pakistan) Ltd. It was also attended by senior officials of both the institutions including Mr. Rob Keijsers, Group CIO, ASA International & Ms. Ammara Masood, CEO, NdcTech.

On this occasion, Asif Peer, Group CEO, Systems Limited said, “Systems Limited’s partnership with ASA Microfinance Bank for platform modernization is beyond mere technological collaboration. We believe that every bit of innovation and digital enablement will impact, directly or indirectly, the elevation of the underprivileged segment of society and will trigger improvement in grass root economy. We are not only proud to catalyze digital transformation, but also to play a pivotal role in advocating for easy credit access and other innovative financial services for the unbanked community.”

Mr. Dirk Brouwer, Co-Founder & Group-CEO, ASA-International said: “We are pleased to partner with NdcTech & Systems Ltd to implement Temenos state of the art Core banking system. This transformation will help us to serve more low income female microfinance entrepreneurs throughout Pakistan, support our vision to enhance financial inclusion and improve the socio-economic conditions of the underprivileged, by providing them with financial access anywhere and at any time”.

• Careem Captains have driven over 9 billion kilometres across more than 80 cities over ten years.

• The countries with the highest number of Careem rides are Pakistan (299 million), Saudi Arabia (242 million), and Egypt (230 million).

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)

Syngenta Pakistan Limited, a leading agriculture innovation and technology company – providing crop protection, biologicals, seeds, crop-enhancement products and digital services to millions of Pakistani farmers, has successfully launched the updated version of its “Cropwise Grower” app which will now allow the farmers to conveniently detect and diagnose crop pests & diseases by simply taking a picture of a crop while also guiding farmers about the recommended products and application technology – all in 5 seconds time with over 93% accuracy versus the usual human accuracy of 72%. This ‘Snap, Diagnosis and Solution’ feature, powered by an artificial intelligence technology company called Plantix, gives a competitive edge to the Cropwise Grower app among all the other locally-available apps – this is a first-of-its-kind offering in the crop protection industry.

The Cropwise Grower app also provides growers with access to agronomic advice, weather forecasts,   recommendations on choosing the right time for spraying during the day, historic weather trends for the past 6 months and insights into the respective region’s crop disease problems for more tailored solutions.

Through this app, farmers will be facilitated in increasing their yields through timely advice and access to remedies by employing a preventative approach versus the treatment approach for farmers in the region – if a disease is detected on a particular crop in one location, all farmers in that areas are alerted to keep a watchful eye for the disease.

Zeeshan Hasib Baig – General Manager of Syngenta Pakistan – shared that “Syngenta Pakistan’s core strength lies in its relationship with the growers. To further strengthen the grower-connect, we want to “delight” our growers by bringing smart solutions closer to farmers that can enable them to be more self-sufficient. We have always believed that technology can be a key enabler in helping farmers grow efficiently and sustainably. The Cropwise Grower app is a revolutionary step in the crop protection industry and we firmly believe that it will help in addressing Pakistan’s food security challenges by building resilient food systems and by supporting our farmers in improving their crop yields.”

Using any Android smartphone, the farmers can easily download this app from the Google Play Store (Link: ‘https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cropwisegrower.pk’).

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) K-Electric (KE) announced the winners for the first 7/11+ Innovation Challenge in partnership with INNOVentures Global at a day-long event held at Habib University in Karachi. KE’s 7/11+ Innovation Challenge is the first of its kind event in Pakistan’s utility market, designed for entrepreneurs, startups, researchers, and university students to promote and accelerate strategic innovation. Participants spent the first half of the day making final pitches to the esteemed Jury followed by a panel discussion and award announcement in the second half. Chairman NEPRA, Tauseef H. Farooqi was also in attendance as the Chief Guest. The challenge is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), particularly Goal 7 – access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all and Goal 11 – sustainable, inclusive, safe and resilient cities and communities. K-Electric aims to highlight the importance of innovative problem solving and critical thinking within the public and provide a platform to convene organizations and individuals across Pakistan working at the critical intersection of sustainability and innovation. Participants from various scholastic backgrounds took part in this Innovation Challenge in teams, beginning in February of 2022 going through stages of pitches, capacity building sessions and focused mentoring. The journey began with over 300 applications hailing from several startups, universities and relevant fields of study out of which 10 teams made it to the finals. Speaking to the audience, Tauseef H Farooqi, the Chairman of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) shared that “As a regulator, we have a tremendous responsibility towards society that extends beyond the creation of affordable, accessible and reliable energy supply. We must also support the community, through constant innovation and development. Under our Power with Prosperity, Power with Safety, Power with Equality, Power with Security and Power with Unity plans we have uplifted and transformed the socio-economic landscape of Pakistan aligned with the UNSDG’s to impact over 32 million lives, creating over 46,000 jobs including 8,400 jobs of women alone with over 32 Billion Rupees of financing. All this was aimed to promoting work-place safety, diversity and inclusion and security. Innovation is imperative for positive change and we must continue to strive for a better and brighter future.” Mr Farooqi also endorsed how K-Electric, the only vertically integrated power distribution company in Pakistan, was stimulating grass-root level impact through their best practices and serving as a role model within the power sector. “K-Electric is one of Pakistan’s most innovative utility companies making substantial improvements since privatization through investments and automation of its infrastructure. Deeply embedded in the very fabric of this great city, KE continues to positively contribute towards Karachi’s sustainable and innovative growth.” Stated KE, Chief Executive Officer, Syed Moonis Abdullah Alvi. “Through KE’s 7/11+ Innovation Challenge we aim to create operational excellence, enhance customer experience, and optimize our supply chain and logistics to energise the city’s future in a sustainable and customer-centric way.” The Innovation Challenge Jury was made up of dynamic profiles in the current Pakistani innovation ecology including Farhan Anwar, Assistant Professor of Practice Social Development and Policy at Habb University, Seher Abbas, Co-Chair, Karachi Hub Women in Energy & IFC, Sheikh Imranul Haq, Energy Expert, Shehryar Hydri, MP, Deosai Ventures, Shaista Ayesha, CEO of SEED Ventures, Naeem Zamindar, Founder of Neem Financials and Naz Khan, CSO at KE. Together they selected the top 10 finalists which included Ezbike with their electric bike and battery swapping service, Ezgeyser with the sustainable energy plan, Lorawan with meter reading retrofit, Novel Insulator with an insulator design, OptimaLoad with a solution to balance load on a transformer Orko with an application to manage EV charging stations, Power Distribution Improvement with an efficient short and long term demand forecasting technique, Smart Transformer Health with a device to monitor health of a transformer, Thingsty with IoT applications for domestic and commercial users and Vtol Dynamics with drones for geospatial survey and monitoring. Total cash prize pool was 3 million PKRs – 1.5 million to the winner, 750,000 PKRs each for the first and 2nd runner up. After a rigorous and competitive journey, the Energy Informatics Company of LUMS emerged as the winner for their Data Analytics based Prediction and Forecasting model, while ezBike’s Electric bike and charging infrastructure was awarded first runner up and NUST PNEC’s was the second runner up for their LoRaWan based meter retrofit technology capable.

Pakistan (Muhammad Yasir) As a part of its mission to develop Pakistani tourism and national identity, Siddiqi Hospitality (Pvt.) Limited, welcomes Azam Jamil to the company as Country Head.

“A nation’s growth and well-being of its citizens depends on its global reputation,” said Azam. “Human capital development is key to Pakistan’s progress. The right guidance, coaching, and leadership can empower our youth to change the course of the nation and I believe SHPL is the perfect platform to bring about this change. A leadership opportunity is a gift and if it contributes to Pakistan, it’s a blessing.”

“This step marks a new chapter for the tourism industry,” Junaid and Zubair Siddiqi, co-founders of SHPL said in a joint statement. “Azam brings with him forty years of experience in the fields of hospitality, tourism, and management. Guided by Azam’s vision and leadership, we plan to reform and elevate Pakistan’s image globally and herald a new era for Pakistani tourism.”

Azam Jamil is a dynamic and highly accomplished professional. He has excelled as the Operating Officer of the Hashoo Education Division, Corporate Director for Sales & Marketing at Serena Hotels South & Central Asia and later, as the Corporate Director for Training and Development. Azam holds the honour of being the first Asian elected to the Board of Best Western in Colorado, USA. In Pakistan, he was responsible for the conception and execution of two gold-standard hospitality schools under the Hashoo and Akhuwat banner. Azam was Advisor Senior Consultant for firms such as Franklin Covey Pakistan, Senior Consultant for TEVTA Punjab, Jaffar Brothers, and numerous other international corporations before his appointment as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Tourism Coordination.

SHPL was founded by the Siddiqi brothers in 2020 to bolster Pakistani tourism by building an authentic Nation Brand that promotes Pakistan through a variety of media platforms and inclusive programs.

Pakistan (Muhammad Yasir) Shell Pakistan Limited signed ABHI, Pakistan’s first financial wellness platform, as its first official customer for the launch of its new voluntary carbon compensation program. This program provides an avenue for all ABHI employees who are using Shell Fuel Cards to offset hard-to-abate carbon emissions from their fuel consumption by using Shell’s global portfolio of carbon credits. ABHI will be compensating for unavoidable carbon emissions generated from their sales fleet across Karachi, Lahore & Islamabad.

These credits are generated from carbon compensation projects, including both nature projects, such as conservation, afforestation, and so on, and projects from other methodologies, operating around the world. These projects help avoid or remove greenhouse gas emissions. The emission reductions are independently verified by internationally recognized standards, e.g. Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards (CCB), and carbon credits are issued. Some of these projects further promote the safeguarding of wildlife and communities and support some of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Speaking at the ceremony, Managing Director and General Manager Mobility for Shell Pakistan, Mr. Waqar Siddiqui, stated that “Shell’s approach to emissions reduction follows the ‘avoid-reduce-compensate’ mitigation hierarchy. We recommend this approach to our partners and customers across sectors to accelerate the transition to net zero emissions. The use of high-quality carbon credits is one of the viable ways to mitigate hard-to-abate emissions. We are pleased to support ABHI  on their decarbonization journey.”

Omair Ansari, CEO, and Co-Founder at ABHI added “Shell is leading global initiatives to reduce carbon emissions and ABHI is proud to be a part of it. ABHI being a fast-growing fintech understands environmental responsibility and always looks forward to supporting climate-friendly initiatives. While we empower people financially, we believe in enabling social change along the way.”

Pakistan (Muhammad Yasir)  SAP announced the launch of SAP Build, a powerful new low code offering to unleash the power of business users, launched at SAP TechEd conference in Las Vegas, USA, recently.
 
SAP Build empowers users of all skill levels to create and augment enterprise applications, automate processes, and design business sites with drag-and-drop simplicity. It brings the best of SAP’s low-code offerings together in a unified development experience. It gives business users full visibility into the dynamic range of their processes as well as real-time insights and easy-to-use tools. Users can easily integrate systems; intelligently monitor, analyze, and automate processes; and build applications for the last mile of innovation – all without moving their data into an external system. The solution also includes 500+ pre-built industry and business-process templates to accelerate development. 

TECNO, Counterpoint Research, MTK, and Forbes Magazine compared The Changing Forces in Premium Smartphone Domain

Titled “The Push Towards Premium: Changing Smartphone Preferences and the Technology Behind Them”, the webinar addresses the ongoing evolution of global smartphone offerings to a higher end, especially in emerging regions.

Experts from the global smartphone domain convened on November 22 in a webinar hosted by renowned technology research firm, Counterpoint to discuss consumers’ shifting smartphone preferences and emerging technological trends in the premium smartphone domain. The webinar will feature special speakers from TECNO, a global innovative technology brand; MediaTek, a global fabless semiconductor company and Forbes magazine, a leading global media company.

In recent years, the smartphone industry has been shifting towards more premium options, offering technological breakthroughs in a range of components as this is eagerly met with consumers’ willingness to spend more on smart devices, especially those belonging to emerging economies. 

According to industry data, there are two prime factors driving the premium trend. The first is the development in camera technology, which now typically has three or four lenses to compensate for smartphone size constraints. The second-factor is, the SoC processor speed which is steadily increasing to support the AI algorithms that are imperatively required to aid advanced and sophisticated imaging systems.

In the most recent industry trend analysis, Tarun Pathak, a Research Director for smartphones at Counterpoint, shared the dynamics behind how rapidly smartphone specifications have progressed towards premium features.

“The usual forward momentum of technology is driving things upwards, which is why we get better cameras, longer battery life, more storage, faster phones and the like”, said Tarun Pathak, “Consumers in emerging markets like Southeast Asia and Latin America are helping ASPs rise more quickly than the global average, with large segments of savvy users upgrading to their second or third device.”

Mr. Anku Jain, managing director of MediaTek India, hit to the point of pushing premium in smartphone industry by elatedly addressing how MediaTek is elevating mobile computing by launching the latest and most cutting-edge flagship chipsets. This features MediaTek Dimensity 9000 5G, the world’s first TSMC 4nm 5G mobile SoC, promising increased performance and power efficiency.

Jimmy Hsu, Deputy Director of TECNO’s Image R&D Centre, discussed TECNO’s future plans to pushing premium in photographic technologies, including two industry-first to see in TECNO phones in 2023. Eagle Eye Lens is the industry-first cutting-edge core technology, scheduled to make its debut within the smartphone realm in year 2023. It will be the first dual-prism periscope tele camera in the industry featuring the largest tilt capability. Another one is the first dual optical image stabilizer with wide angle as the brand further improved the sensor shift stabilization technology.

Resonating Mr. Anku Jain’s remarks about the latest Dimensity 9000 5G chipset’s potent computing power, Jimmy also went on to elaborate on its robust performance, specifically magnifying its capabilities to night photography. The remarkable Dimensity 9000 5G chipset will be introduced in TECNO’s forthcoming flagship PHANTOM X2 Series, significantly enhancing capacity for night photography and is anticipated to be unveiled in Dubai on December 7th. 

According to Jimmy Hsu, “TECNO is moving regionally to ride this wave of growth, and central to this has been the expansion of our portfolio into more premium products and delivering to our customers some really great cameras”, “The culmination of this is the Phantom X2 flagship, which addresses one of the holy grails of smartphone photography – great night-time shots.”

Russell Flannery, Editor at Large from Forbes Magazine, shared his valuable perspective on how the smartphone evolutions. Over the years, he has seen rising consumer demand for technological advancements in the continually evolving smartphones with a focus on users’ desire to own revolutionized cameras. Both sharp hardware and robust software advancements, outfitted with artificial intelligence exhibit the seamless combination that consumers desire to meet their growing technological needs.

“We have seen phenomenal growth in digital penetration and its impact on our daily lives,” said Russell. “Smartphone brands are offering premium phones, affordable flagships, mid-range devices with some high-end features, and also an unprecedented push for 5G access, better cameras, foldable screens, slimmer designs, and contemporary ergonomics.”

A counterpoint research whitepaper titled “Brand Story: The Rise of TECNO” is said to be published soon in late Nov. during the webinar event. The white paper will probe into smartphone milestones throughout the 2G to 5G mobile communications revolution, and provide insights on the smartphone domains upcoming developments. The fast-growing international innovative brand TECNO as well as the newest challenger brand in premium segment, its growth strategy, and its pushing for premium actions across cross-regional and segmented consumer categories are all notably mentioned by a Counterpoint analyst white-paper.