Category: Business

LAHORE- Following the successful 2016 Black Friday campaign, Jovago has launched a campaign dubbed “Dream Deals”.
The campaign’s main objective is to carry on readily negotiated rates referred to as “Dream Deals” with the aim of encouraging and facilitating travel through the New Year holiday season. With 2017 having been designated as the “Year of Sustainable Travel” at the United Nations 70th General Assembly, one of the major goals for industry players will be to draw policies that contribute to inclusive and sustainable economic growth throughout the seasons in the tourism circuit.
Through this discount offer, travelers can receive up to 60% discounts by booking a hotel on Jovago.pk. This deal is a New Year treat for all travel lovers who love to explore different areas of Pakistan.

LAHORE  – Telenor Pakistan’s ‘Khushal Zamindar’, a user-friendly Robocall, IVR and SMS content based mobile agriculture service for small scale farmers, provides location-specific weather forecast along with contextual agronomic advisory for every farmer’s relevant crop mix and tips for livestock management.

‘Khushal Zamindar’ also allows farmers to contact agriculture experts once a week through a live show which is extremely popular amongst subscribers. ‘Khushal Zamindar’ is currently available to small scale farmers in 36 districts of the Punjab, and will soon be rolled-out nationwide.

Only in Punjab, the service has already reached over 1.3 million subscriptions in a short span of time since its launch in December 2015, and it’s ready for a nationwide rollout. Recently, the ground-breaking mobile agricultural service won P@SHA ICT Award for ‘Innovation in Service’.

Pakistan’s economy can really benefit from growing agri-technology initiatives. The increasing complexities of digital agriculture offers a large number of entry points to many stakeholders to innovate in digital agriculture, both for local and export markets and take Pakistan to new heights.

LAHORE – Nestlé Pakistan and the Punjab Agriculture Department have signed two MoUs, enabling the two partners to collaborate for improving agricultural sustainability for the Chaunsa Mango sector and another on Water Resource Management.
For the Chaunsa Project, Nestlé Pakistan shall take on board Mango Research Institute, Multan as a research partner. The company hopes that for the access to latest research in the mango sector as well as best farm practices will enable them to build on the work it is already doing with mango farmers.
Under the Water Resource Management Project, Nestlé will partner with the Water Management Wing of the Department for a programme which offers a 60% subsidy to farmers who employ High Efficiency Irrigation Systems (drip irrigation) and other water conservation techniques, technologies and practices. Nestlé will bear the 40% share that the farmer owes to the government.

KARACHI –  OMD Pakistan, a part of the Omnicom Media Group, has won the title of ‘Pakistan Media Agency of the Year’ at the Campaign Asia-Pacific Agency of the Year Awards 2016.
This is OMD Pakistan’s third consecutive award at Campaign Asia’s Agency of the Year Awards, but the first time as a winner of the Gold. OMD Pakistan achieved the accolade by demonstrating a strong business performance in 2016 – obtaining numerous top tier clients, whilst retaining 100% of its existing client base. The team takes pride in their creativity, innovation, service, transparency and commitment to its clients.

LAHORE – DWP Group is a nationwide leading provider of products, goods and services, specialising in the field on Consumer Electronics and Technology.

This innovative technology leader is among the key participants at the Lifestyle Exhibition, held in Lahore and Islamabad on 17th–18th December and 24th–25th December respectively. The Lifestyle Exhibition is going to be held on 30th–31st December in Karachi. From the house DWP Group, they featured Eco Star – a brand name of quality and technological excellence. Eco Star is a nationwide leading producer of LED Televisions with technological excellence. Under the umbrella of DWP Group, the most actively participating was Eco Star.

Their LED TVs are the smartest hub of home entertainment, with the most advanced technology to deliver outstanding performance. Other EcoStar products are washing machines, water dispensers, ups, batteries and solar panels were also displayed at the exhibition, to gain market recognition and awareness. Gree being an official brand partner of the DWP Group also showcased its revolutionary AC’s on the exhibition stall.

Karachi – Agencies – UBL, Pakistan’s Best Bank 2016,has launched the 50% cashback campaign in collaboration with MasterCard and MCR Private Limited. MCR manages world renowned food brands Pizza Hut and Burger King in Pakistan.With this offer, customers can avail up to 50% cashback on their UBL Masterpass QR transaction done on any Pizza Hut and Burger King outlets across the country.
When ready to checkout, customers ‘simply scan to pay’ by accessing the Masterpass QR functionality on their UBL Omni mobile app and scanning the QR code displayed at the merchant’s checkout counter. This provides customer with fast, secure and convenient payment experience on UBL Omni mobile app.
Mr. Muhammad Zaman, Head Digital Banking, UBL said on the occasion “UBL has been the leading financial institution offering innovative products and services in the space of digital payments. This new service will go a long way in further changing the payment landscape in Pakistan. We are delighted to team up with world’s leading brands MasterCard, Pizza Hut and Burger King to facilitate customers with this new service.”
Mr. Aurangzaib Khan, Country Head – Pakistan & Afghanistan, Mastercard, said: “At Mastercard we constantly strive to provide consumers with better and more rewarding ways to pay, and this new campaign launched in collaboration with UBL and MCR is a further step in our efforts to bring the benefits of digital payment technology to a broader segment of merchants and consumers. Since its launch in the country earlier this year, Masterpass QR has transformed the way people pay for services, providing consumers across Pakistan with a simple and secure payment method that allows them to complete transactions in mere seconds. The cashback campaign provides an added incentive for consumers to pay with Masterpass QR, thereby further expanding the reach of digital payments in the country.”
Mr. Zafar Shakir, Chief Commercial Officer, MCR Private Limited, said: “Pizza Hut and Burger King are world renowned brands not just for quality; Product innovation has also been a key element of our success. And now with a cutting edge payment methodology ‘UBL Masterpass QR’, we have maintained that tradition. We will continue to excite customers with leading innovations and incentives so that they embrace our hospitality with Joy and distinction!”.

Lahore – Samsung has engaged Jazz-Mobilink–Jazz as its operating-partner to introduce Samsung ‘Knox’ in Pakistan. ‘Knox’ is a defense-grade security platform, and mobile-device management system, which is built into Samsung’s latest products, to protect confidential data and sensitive applications. Samsung’s award-winning enterprise solutions empower you to secure, manage and customize your business’s mobile devices.
Knox solutions allow businesses of any size to deploy Samsung mobile devices to meet their business needs. So the smart-device users can now build on the Knox platform, with extra security, management policies, and advanced device-customization.The security of corporate data on mobile devices remains a top concern for CEOs and CIOs, when adopting enterprise mobility. Finding a mobile-security solution that is both resilient and user-friendly can be a big challenge, which is why Samsung has designed the ‘Knox’ solution.
Knox is a multi-layered technology, built into both the hardware and software of Samsung’s latest devices. From the ‘Hardware Root of Trust’ to the Android Framework, Knox constantly verifies the integrity of the device and detects any tampering, ensuring your data is more secure. Security Enhancements for Android protect applications and data by strictly defining what each process is allowed to do, and what data it can access. SE for Android help to secure a device by using domains, rights, security policies and Mandatory Access Control.

LAHORE –   The Akhuwat Foundation, an interest-free microfinance disbursement organisation, under the Chief Minister Self-Employment Scheme (CMSES) has announced to distribute soft loans among 500 entrepreneurs, mostly Christians, on otherday at Central Cathedral of Praying Hands.

The ceremony will also be attended by Federal minister for Human Rights Kamran Michael and Rev Dr Azad Marshall, the Coadjutor Bishop of Raiwind. The Akhuwat chief Dr Amjab Saqib said that the foundation had distributed more than Rs8 million soft loans among 350 deserving individuals on the occasion of last Christmas. The loans were disbursed under the Punjab Chief Minister Khud Rozgar Scheme at a ceremony held at St Anthony School.

“Christmas with Akhuwat is an annual event to celebrate the spirit of Christmas compassion, generosity and love. Hundreds of people come together to join hands in prayers at a local church including Christians and Muslims, rich and poor,” he added. Dr Amjad said that Akhuwat’s basic objective behind this move was to create inter-faith harmony among different religions. “We pray for mutual harmony, peace and prosperity among all religions,” he said, and added that for creating a good society one should find people who have no support.

“Till now, by disbursing loans of around Rs33 billion, Akhuwat has successfully supported over 1.7 million families all over the country to build pathways out of poverty,” he added. Akhuwat Foundation has completed disbursement of loans worth Rs6 billion in two phases with a recovery rate of 99.85 percent.

Dr Amjad said that the Punjab government approved Rs5 billion funds for the poverty eradication from the province. This fund was given to Akhuwat Foundation as a loan for five years term through a bidding process. Under the scheme, the Akhuwat Foundation disburses the micro loans to the poorest of the poor of the province through small loans with maximum loan size of Rs50,000 to a family with zero mark-up. The loanee will return this amount to the Foundation on easy monthly repayment plan.

Karachi – Nestlé Pakistan was awarded the first prize for “Living the Global Compact Business Excellence 2014-15”, in the multi-national category at a mega event celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of Global Compact Network Pakistan, Engaging Private Sector in Implementing the Decent Work Agenda and United Nation Sustainable Development Goals.
Nestlé Pakistan has won the award due to its key positioning in its Creating Shared Value focus in areas of Nutrition, Water, Environmental Sustainability, Rural Development, and Our People.
Nestlé Pakistan’s vision, values, and strategy lies at the core of promotion of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Principles and Sustainable Business Practices in terms of engaging with community outreach through its initiatives like Nestlé Healthy Kids and Healthy Women Programme.
Nestlé is the first company in Pakistan which has partnered with World Wildlife Fund (WWF-Pakistan) to implement the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) standards for improved water efficiency. Under rural development, the company initiatives have impacted lives of small dairy farmers by imparting training to around 77,000 farmers through farmer help camps, improving their income.
Another example is the Chaunsa Project which aims to improve livelihood of small and medium sized farmers in the Mango sector by strategic CSV intervention for improved harvesting with the ultimate goal to make these farmers a part of its value chain. On being awarded by such a prestigious network, Waqar Ahmad, Head of Corporate Affairs, Nestlé Pakistan and Afghanistan said, “It’s indeed a moment of pride as we have worked very hard over the years along with our stakeholders, especially the local community to make a significant difference in their lives through our focus areas across our value chain.”
Fasihul Karim Siddiqi, General Secretary, UN Global Compact Network Pakistan also congratulated Nestlé and said, “Living the global business excellence award contest 2014-15.