Springer E-Books
For the first time, Springer’s Ebooks are available on perpetual access i.e. fully downloadable. These books cover a wide range of disciplines published during 2005-2007…
In defence of the informal economy
OFFICIALS often describe Pakistan as an underperforming country plagued by low tax obedience and high informality. A country where citizens supposedly evade regulation, conceal incomes and avoid the formal economy…
After the budget
The budget has been passed. The applause has faded. Once again, Pakistan resumes its uneasy journey through economic difficulty this time, with a roadmap that feels more serious than in…
The challenge of informality
SPEAKING to an audience in Riyadh earlier this year, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb labelled the undocumented economy Pakistan’s “biggest challenge”. Given his role, and the associated IMF-coloured pressures that come with it,…
The shadow library
This year served as a reminder for avid book readers about the changing landscape of information accessibility in the digital era. The Internet Archive faced a major setback recently as…
Kurdish oil smuggling to Iran flourishes
Heading for Turkey to the north and Iran to the east, hundreds of oil tankers snake each day from near Kurdistan’s capital Erbil, clogging the Iraqi region’s often winding and…
How the US sees us
Prof Fred Hayward, an eminent US education expert, recently published a book titled ‘Transforming Higher Education in Asia and Africa’. One chapter of this book is devoted to Pakistan, and…
Foreign aid is no panacea
EVERY year brings forth a plethora of books on various topics. As far as economics is concerned, one of the interesting releases of 2023 was Didac Queralt’s Pawned States. Analysing…
HEC: highs and lows
A remarkable book on higher education titled ‘Fostering Institutional Development and Vital Change in Africa and Asia’ was published recently by Fred Hayward (Palgrave Macmillan). Its chapter ‘Pakistan. Top-down Transformation’…
