Category: Business

Technology is evolving by leaps and bounds. Some 20 years ago, phones had only one purpose-to communicate. And now, smartphones have become a complete package. Whether you want to download books, watch movies, or capture great photos, one smartphone does it all. They have largely replaced expensive bulky cameras by bringing great photography features. 

TECNO is one such smartphone brand that is revolutionizing mobile photography through its Camon Series. Nobody wants the hassle of carrying cameras on their trekking or hiking adventures. This is why Camon smartphones have made our lives easier and more fun!

With TECNO Camon Series, you can capture sweet moments of your life on the go. The latest, Camon 19 series will be launched in Pakistan soon and we can’t wait to get our hands on this one.

Here are some of the cutting-edge innovative camera features TECNO has brought so far with its Camon series.

• Gimbal Camera System

TECNO recently introduced this enhanced stabilization technology in Camon 18 Premier. The Gimbal Camera System offers flexible 3D stabilization which allows you to make stable videos. With an enhanced stabilization angle of ±3º, Gimbal Camera System lets you make videos even with an unsteady or shaky hand.

This is such a massive revolution in mobile photography. Now you can shoot your outdoor adventures, travel-logs, and make quirky videos on the go. And they’ll turn out great!

• 60x Hyper Zoom

Camon 18 Premier is equipped with a 60x Hyper zoom with which you can take clear images of far-off objects like the moon!

We’ve all wanted to take clear photos of the moon but our phones couldn’t capture the beauty. TECNO has employed the Galileo Algorithm Engine in Camon 18 Premier. You can capture aesthetic moonshots through the Moon probe feature. It is a ground-breaking top-notch software that lets you take detailed photos with increased efficiency. Moreover, this feature will also help you get clear pictures of faraway objects like buildings or mountains.

• Clearest Selfie Camera

As for the selfie-lovers, Camon 17 Pro is a game-changer. It has a 48 MP Clearest Selfie Camera powered by TAIVOS.

TECNO’s AI Vision Optimization Solution-TAIVOS is the industry’s leading camera solution. This intelligent technology uses AI lenses and enhances camera functions. Through this technology, you can take clearer and better selfies, detailed macro shots, and stable videos with anti-shake mode. 

TECNO never ceases to amaze photography enthusiasts with these outstanding features. 

• Super Night Portrait Mode

You don’t have to limit yourself to daytime photography. With specified night photography features, Camon smartphones take equally clear photos in the dark.

Camon 17 has Super Night Portrait mode. It uses a bigger photosensitive sensor to capture low-light photos without making them grainy. You can use the night video mode as well; the results are fantastic. 

Camon 16 Pro offers Ultra Night Portrait as well. It has a 64 MP main lens and a 2 MP Ultra Night Video-shoot lens. There’s absolutely no need to capture portraits and videos in daylight only. Some scenes are best captured at night and only the best Camera technology can do that.

All-in-all, TECNO employs all the best features on its phones so you can experiment with your photography anytime you want. This is why Camon 19 is much anticipated among consumers and we can’t wait to try how this phone will turn out.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) To facilitate local markets understanding and utilization of RMB, and further in the light of some interest in a new circular by PBC (People’s Bank of China), effective from March 1, 2022, to allow Chinese Commercial banks in China directly lend RMB to overseas entities, ICBC Pakistan and OICCI (Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry) had jointly held webinar on the subject RMB: Development, Infrastructure and Products. Senior management from OICCI members attended this important event.

M Abdul Aleem, CE/ Secretary General OICCI, appreciated the ICBC engagement with leading investors on this important matter which is going to be useful for investors understanding about the RMB development and prospective, opportunity for infrastructure building and new RMB products in Pakistan. ICBC, the largest commercial bank in the world, is providing financial services in Pakistan for over 10 years. In the light of new developments, the webinar provided OICCI members an opportunity to learn about new opportunity in financing. Mr. Chen Yuncheng, the CEO of ICBC Karachi Branch, speaking on the event, highlighted the efforts made by ICBC Pakistan to create awareness and understanding of RMB among business community in Pakistan and emphasized the necessity of cross-border RMB business promotion and benefits to use RMB as one of the currencies for trade and investment. Speakers for the session from ICBC Pakistan specifically talked about RMB development and perspective, RMB infrastructure building in Pakistan, and RMB business and products in Pakistan. The participants appreciated that increasing use of RMB products will facilitate trade and investment with Chinese counter parties as it is relatively stable in value, convenient in clearing and low in cost. RMB usage can also decrease the exchange rate risk among investment and trade activities.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir)  Sastaticket.pk gives its heartfelt wishes to Airblue on completing 18 delightful years in the skies on 18 June. Airblue was established in 2003 with its headquarters in Islamabad. The airline embarked on its first flight on the 18^th of June, 2004. Sastaticket.pk wishes Airblue many more years of success.

On its anniversary, Airblue flew to international routes making its anniversary a memorable one. PA275 flew from King Khalid International Airport and landed at Islamabad International Airport and back to Riyadh. It also operated between Sharjah and Islamabad. PA412 was bound for Sharjah departing from Allama Iqbal International Airport. Another return flight was set to fly between Karachi and Jeddah. 

Sastaticket.pk and Airblue together have been serving people persistently from all over Pakistan throughout 18 years. Both have always partnered up to provide the best services and seamless experience to their customers. The cordial relationship between Sastaticket.pk and Airblue has achieved immense success, Sastaticket.pk has sold 134,287 airblue tickets so far. According to statistics from 2018 till date, Sastaticket.pk received 84,856 orders for airblue passengers, and Sastaticket.pk’s passengers have traveled 91,775,764 miles in total allowing airblue to grow 435.18% through our platform. These statistics reflect how successful and beneficial this partnership has been for both customers and businesses.  

The airline has worked tremendously hard to reach where it is today. With years of pilot and cabin crew training, routine maintenance, and emphasis on customer service, Airblue has made its name in the Pakistan Aviation Industry. It is high time to gear up the operations as restrictions have been lowered and people have started traveling more.  

Sastaticket.pk feels the pleasure to work with Airblue and expects that the airline will perform well in the near future and mark its name in the industry. 

 

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)  Telenor Pakistan announced that Areej Khan had been appointed the chief human resource officer. Areej has been associated with Telenor Pakistan since the pre-launch phase over 18 years ago.

Areej was heading the Digital Division as Vice President in her most recent role. During her tenure, she helped shape Telenor Pakistan’s digital strategy while the company emphasised growth through industry-leading initiatives, including launching the biggest esports platform, GameBird. Before her time in digital, Areej held leadership roles across several functions, including Communications and Sustainability in Corporate Affairs and Digital Marketing in the Commercial Division.

Areej is taking over from Oystein Bakken, who joined at the onset of COVID-19 two and a half years ago. His term comes to a close as he moves on to assume his next role in Telenor Norway, where he will be working with reshaping Telenor in transforming the Nordics in technology. Oystein has been part of Telenor for over 15 years. He took charge of the human capital division (HCD) at the onset of COVID and successfully navigated many people and engagement-related challenges.

Irfan Wahab Khan, CEO of Telenor Pakistan, remarked, “Areej’s appointment is a reflection of Telenor’s drive to cultivate and hone its home-grown talent. Her deep understanding of Telenor’s culture and people will continue to set us apart in the industry. We look forward to Areej helping us accelerate our people agenda even further. I extend my gratitude to Oystein for his many contributions as CHRO and the enthusiasm with which he drove the organisation forward. I wish him the best of luck in the future.”

Khawaja Shariq Mustafa will take the baton from Areej as VP of Digital, bringing his diverse multi-organisational experience in commercial segments, sales, brands and digital marketing to the division.

In her new role at Telenor Pakistan, Areej will drive the people policy and organisational culture, with Employer Branding, Rewards and Talent Acquisition falling under her domain. She will formally assume charge from August 1 2022.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) TCS – Pakistan’s largest logistics company, appoints Mr. Moin A. Malik as CEO of TCS Logistics Private Limited.

Malik has an illustrious career in the logistics industry with which he has been associated for over three decades. Before joining TCS Logistics he was the CEO of Agility Pakistan, a company he led for over 20 years.

“As we expand and grow, we are reorganizing our logistics business to continue to provide the best services to our customers. As part of this process, I am pleased to welcome Moin A. Malik as the CEO of TCS Logistics Private Limited. I am confident that his extensive experience in the industry, complemented by his knowledge of TCS will help us move expediently towards achieving our objectives”, said Saira Awan, President of TCS (Pvt.) Ltd. She further stated that Harris Jamali will continue as CEO of TCS Private Limited.  “Having led the transformation of the entire platform over the last few years, I strongly believe that we are at a natural inflexion point of enhancing dedicated focus on each growth vertical. We welcome Moin A. Malik onboard and both TCS and its customers will benefit from his experience as he takes these segments to their true potential”, said Harris Jamali, CEO of TCS Private Limited. 

Malik’s first tenure at TCS started in 1984 and by the time he left in 1997 he had held many senior management positions. Malik is an active member of ACAAP, PIFFA, and Founder Chairman of FOAP (Fleet Operators Association of Pakistan) and is an expert in modern logistics and transportation networks.  With experience in express courier, freight-forwarding, 3PL Logistics and Distribution Services, Malik, has frequently liaised with international bodies and the Government to resolve issues related to the logistics industry. 

As CEO of TCS Logistics Private Limited, he will be leading and transforming Warehousing & Distribution (W&D), Fleet, Overland and involved in further development of new business opportunities in areas such as TIR (Transports Internationaux Routers), International Freight Forwarding.

TCS plans to build a robust logistics operation catering to cross-border regional trade through its TIR trucking service and intends to build a large footprint in logistics through major investments in new warehouses, boosting international trade through its international freight-forwarding operations and providing new solutions in door-to-door delivery through its overland cargo and fleet operations.

 

Karachi (Nut Desk) Minister of State (Petroleum Division), Ministry of Energy, Mr. Musadik Malik visited PSO’s Head Office in Karachi. Managing Director & CEO, Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Syed Taha welcomed the honorable guest along with the company’s senior management.

The honorable minister was given an overview of the company’s financial and operational performance, milestones achieved and key challenges. The minister acknowledged PSO’s role in reshaping Pakistan’s energy landscape with technological advancements and digitization.

PSO continues to set new industry benchmarks and reaffirm its role as the national flag bearer and leader of positive change in Pakistan.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Mobilink Microfinance Bank Limited (MMBL), the largest digital bank in Pakistan, has partnered with foodpanda HomeChefs, the nation’s leading platform for home-based restaurants, and AdalFi, a Techlogix subsidiary focused on digital financing, to initiate short-term micro-financing solutions for household chefs. Being a first-of-its-kind initiative, this strategic alliance will offer weekly loans of up to PKR 50,000 for HomeChefs to help resolve supply chain, marketing, and food quality issues, ultimately driving higher revenues and branding benefits for these home-based business ventures.

The HomeChef market in Pakistan is a significantly diverse and growing segment. It has enabled entrepreneurs, especially women, to explore new ways of being financially independent while leveraging their culinary skills. foodpanda provides a viable platform to these talented individuals, facilitating them to seamlessly reach millions of customers across the nation, while giving them access to its extensive network of riders.

This strategic partnership is an exciting development for Pakistan’s economic and financial landscape as it enables an essential monetary support stream to help female entrepreneurs scale their ventures sustainably. With the recent introduction of MMBL’s Dost Tajir, the bank has been prioritizing efforts to promote financial inclusion for the underserved masses through access to convenient and affordable digital financial solutions to empower them to scale their businesses.

Speaking on the development, Muntaqa Peracha, CEO of foodpanda, stated, “While empowering HomeChefs, especially women who are exploring a new field of entrepreneurship, foodpanda is on a mission to level the playing field for these talented individuals. Through this partnership, we are easing one of the biggest barriers to growth in the market, i.e., financing. With the support of leading institutions like Mobilink Microfinance Bank and Adal Fintech, these HomeChefs now have the opportunity to grow without worrying about finances.”

Addressing the partnership, Sardar Mohammad Abubakr, Chief Finance and Digital Officer at MMBL added, “Collaborations with like-minded organizations are key to achieving our ambitious financial inclusion goals. At MMBL, we believe in extending support to various segments of society, especially women, who constitute more than half of the nation’s population but have significantly low financial inclusion figures to date. We are at the cusp of not just empowering these entrepreneurs financially, but also creating innovative paths for them to be active contributing drivers of the economy.”

“We at Adal Fintech foresee women entrepreneurs as an emerging contributor to Pakistan’s GDP,” said Salman Akhtar, CEO – AdalFi, “The AdalFi mission is to equalize access to credit for all Pakistanis using data and AI to power credit decisions. foodpanda HomeChefs is a phenomenal example of our technology in operation”

As Pakistan’s leading digital financial institution, MMBL has over 40 million registered users, including 15 million monthly active mobile wallets. The Bank strives to facilitate customers by streamlining nationwide access to simplified and convenient financial solutions. MMBL, over the past decade, has introduced multiple innovative and customized digital and financial initiatives, such as digital onboarding of customers, Self-service banking through the DOST App (available on both iOs & Android), Internet Banking, the Women Inspirational Network (WIN) program, and the Humqadam program to provide employment opportunities to the differently-abled and much more.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) PTCL Group, Pakistan’s largest telecom operators PTCL & Ufone has donated life jackets to the fishermen community of Karachi to ensure safety of small-scale level fishermen during high tide season at a ceremony held in FCS HQ in Karachi.

Chairman, Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS), Zahid Ibrahim Bhatti was presented with life jackets by PTCL Group representatives, to acknowledge the efforts of the local fishermen.

Expressing his thoughts regarding the initiative, Head of Public Relations and Corporate Communication, PTCL Group, Amir Pasha said that “PTCL Group was always on the lookout for opportunities to give back to the community where it is most needed. He said that the Monsoon season is around the corner and there is pressing need to undertake measures to ensure safety of fishermen community, who risk their lives to sustain the seafood supply chain. He said safety is of paramount importance and these fishermen need to be equipped with both training and necessary safety gear.”

Also speaking at the occasion, Chairman Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS), Zahid Ibrahim Bhatti expressed his gratitude toward PTCL Group for the thoughtful intervention. He said that “fishermen are aware of the risk, however, there is a cost involved in taking the necessary precautionary measures, which is unbearable for small-scale fishermen. He hoped that the support coming from the private sector in terms of training and safety equipment will go a long way in reducing safety incidents.”

PTCL Group is widely recognized for its corporate social responsibility initiatives that create impactful shared value. Both PTCL & Ufone are at the forefront to ensure welfare of the communities it serves. 

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)  With the significant demand for air travel during Hajj, Emirates is deploying extra flights to ensure more connectivity for the scores of pilgrims making their way to the Holy City of Makkah. Emirates will be operating special flights to Jeddah and Medina during the upcoming Hajj season to carry pilgrims for this special period.

Emirates will be deploying 31 additional flights to Jeddah and double daily flights to Medina from 23 June to 20 July to help transport pilgrims to carry out one of the key pillars of Islam. These services will run in parallel with Emirates’ regularly scheduled services.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has greatly expanded its Hajj participation this year to nearly a million pilgrims. This year, Emirates has seen strong demand for Hajj travel from Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Turkey, Egypt, Ethiopia, Malaysia, the UK, US, UAE and Algeria.

The special services are available to travellers holding a valid Hajj visa. Pilgrims must also be under the age of 65, hold a valid vaccination certificate with a vaccine authorised by the Saudi Ministry of Health, and must also carry a negative PCR test done within 72 hours of departure. 

A pilgrim-centric experience with Emirates

Given the significance of the once-in-a-lifetime Hajj experience, the airline’s teams have been working hard to ensure that every detail of the pilgrim’s experience is aligned with the tenets of their faith.

On the ground in Dubai, Emirates has a special Hajj airport team to help manage check-in, transfers, and helping to facilitate a seamless and convenient on ground experience for Hajj pilgrims. Emirates has also set up dedicated check-in and transfer counters for Hajj passengers transiting in Dubai. For Hajj travellers having a longer layover in Dubai before continuing on to Jeddah or Medina, dedicated teams are on hand to escort those groups and support them on all of their arrival formalities.

From the moment pilgrims step onto the aircraft, a range of initiatives have been planned in keeping with the values and traditions of the Hajj journey.

Extra provisions to accommodate Hajj traveller needs such as ablution cleansing rituals, unperfumed towels, advising passengers while en route to Jeddah about when they have entered Al Miqat zones (state of sanctity) and changing of Ihram robes through special PAs, and other arrangements have been planned to ease their journey and ready them for the rest of their pilgrimage. Emirates’ award winning ice system will also feature a special Hajj video that covers safety, general formalities and information about performing the Hajj pilgrimage. Pilgrims will also be able to tune into the Holy Quran channel, in addition to other religious content.

On flights from Jeddah, passengers can check-in up to 5 litres of holy water (Zamzam), which will be placed in special areas in the cargo hold.

 

• Seven papers submitted by OPPO were selected for presentation at the 2022 Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference, breaking a new record for the company. The selected papers cover OPPO’s various R&D breakthroughs in a range of artificial intelligence disciplines.
• OPPO received a total of eight prizes in the CVPR challenges, including three first-place, one second place, and four third place prizes.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) The annual Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference (CVPR) came to an end in New Orleans, with globally leading technology company OPPO successfully having seven of its submitted papers selected for the conference, putting it among the most successful technology companies at the event. OPPO also placed in eight of the widely watched competition events at the conference, taking home three first place, one second place, and four third place prizes.

“In 2012, deep neural networks designed for image recognition rejuvenated the research and application of artificial intelligence. Ever since, AI technology has seen a decade of rapid development.” said Guo Yandong, Chief Scientist in Intelligent Perception at OPPO.

“OPPO continues to promote artificial intelligence to accomplish complex perceptual and cognitive behaviors. We empower AI with higher cognitive abilities to understand and create beauty and develop embodied AI with autonomous behavior. I’m delighted to see that seven of our papers have been selected for this year’s conference. Building on this success, we will continue to explore both fundamental AI and cutting-edge AI technology, as well as the commercial applications that will enable us to bring the benefits of AI to more people.”

The Seven papers accepted by CVPR 2022 showcase OPPO‘s progress in creating humanizing AI

Seven papers submitted by OPPO for CVPR 2022 were selected for presentation at the conference. Their areas of research include multimodal information interaction, 3D human body reconstruction, personalized image aesthetics assessment, knowledge distillation, and others.

Cross-modular innovation is viewed as the way to ‘humanizing’ artificial intelligence. Text data frequently includes an elevated degree of over-simplification, while visual picture data contains a lot of specific contextual details. OPPO researchers proposed a new CRIS framework based on the CLIP model to enable AI to get a more fine-grained understanding of the text and image modal data.

The biggest difference between human and artificial intelligence today lies in multimodality. Humans can undoubtedly figure out data in both words and pictures and draw relationship between the two sorts of data. The novel method proposed by OPPO improves multimodal intelligence, which could potentially lead to artificial intelligence being able to truly understand and interpret the world through multiple forms of information such as language, hearing, vision, and others, making the robot and digital assistants of sci-fi movies become a reality.

3D human body remaking is one more region in which the OPPO Research Institute has made significant progress. At CVPR, OPPO demonstrated a process for automatically generating digital avatars of humans with clothing that behaves more naturally. By analyzing RGB video of humans captured with a camera, the OPPO model can accurately generate 3D, 1:1 dynamic models that include small details like logos or fabric textures. Creating accurate 3D models of clothes has remained one of the biggest challenges. The new model effectively reduces the requirements needed to perform 3D human body reconstruction, providing technical foundations that can be applied to areas such as virtual dressing rooms for online shopping, AI fitness instruction, and the creation of lifelike avatars in VR/AR worlds.

Structured Local Radiance Fields for Human Avatar Modeling

 AI image recognition has now reached a stage where it can accurately identify a wide range of objects within an image. The ability of AI to evaluate images in terms of their perceived aesthetic quality is often strongly related to the big data used in training the AI model.

In collaboration with Leida Li, a professor from Xidian University proposed Personalized Image Aesthetics Assessment (PIAA) model. The model is the first to optimize AI aesthetics assessment by combining users’ subjective preferences with more generalized aesthetic values. In the future, the model will be used to create personalized experiences for users, not just limited to the curation of photo albums, but also provide recommendations on how to shoot the best photo and which content a user might prefer.

Personalized Image Aesthetics Assessment with Rich Attributes

OPPO has also chosen to make the PIAA model evaluation data set the open source for developers, with a number of research institutions and universities already expressing an interest in using the data to further their own efforts in personalized AI aesthetic assessment.

Further to this, OPPO also proposed a multi-view 3D semantic plane reconstruction solution capable of accurately analyzing surfaces within a 3D environment. Developed in partnership with Tsinghua University, the INS-Conv (INcremental Sparse Convolution) can achieve faster and more accurate online 3D semantic and instance segmentation. This can effectively reduce the computing power needed to perform environment recognition, which will enable such technology to be more easily adopted in applications such as automated driving and VR.

 OPPO makes AI ‘lightweight’ with second place win in the NAS Challenge

CVPR 2022 also saw a number of technical challenges take place, with OPPO placing third and above in eight challenges. These include the neural architecture search (NAS) challenge, SoccerNet, SoccerNet Replay Grounding, ActivityNet temporal localization, the 4^th Large-scale Video Object Segmentation Challenge.

From mobile photography to automated driving, deep learning models are being applied in an increasingly large pool of industries. However, deep learning relies heavily on big data and calculation power and consumes a lot of cost, both of which present challenges to its commercial implementation. Neural architecture search (NAS) techniques can automatically discover and implement optimal neural network architectures. In the NAS competition, OPPO researchers trained a supernetwork of 45,000 sub neural networks to inherit the parameters of the supernetwork by optimizing the Model.

Using the NAS technique, researchers only need to train a large super network and create a predictor to let the subnetworks learn by inheriting the super network parameters. This provides an efficient and low-cost approach to obtaining a deep learning model that outperforms those manually designed by expert network architects. This will ultimately bring previously unthinkable levels of AI technology to mobile devices in the near future.

During CPVR 2022, OPPO also participated in seminar presentations and three high-level workshops. At the SLAM seminar, OPPO researcher Deng Fan shared how real-time vSLAM could be run on smartphones and AR/VR devices. In AICITY Workshop, Li Wei proposed a multi-view based motion localization system to identify abnormal behavior of drivers while driving.

OPPO is bringing the benefits of AI to more people, sooner

This is the third year that OPPO has participated at CVPR. OPPO’s rising success at CVPR during these three years owes much to its continued investment in AI technology. At the beginning of 2020, the Institute of Intelligent Perception and Interaction was established under the OPPO Research Institute to further deepen OPPO’s exploration of cutting-edge AI technologies. Today, OPPO has more than 2,650 global patent applications in the field of AI.

Guided by its brand proposition, ‘Inspiration Ahead’, OPPO is also working with partners across the industry to take AI technology from the laboratory into daily life. OPPO’s AI technology has also been used to develop products and features such as the real-time spatial AR generator CybeReal, OPPO Air Glass, Omoji, and more. Through these technologies, OPPO is aiming to create more lifelike digital worlds that combine virtual and reality to create all-new experiences for users.