AI: the new industrial wave
Recently, two global headlines captured the world, revealing a truly remarkable transformation unfolding before our eyes. Amazon announced plans to lay off over 30,000 employees, marking the largest corporate downsizing…
Industrial policy redefined
FOR decades, Pakistan has suffered from de-industrialisation, clinging to a dated model of picking winners through tariff protections and subsidies. This strategy has not only failed to deliver growth; it…
Industrial policy a relic
AS a response to sluggish growth, a well-trodden and worn-out narrative regarding the need for an industrial policy is again making the rounds in official circles. It is being proclaimed as the…
Development challenges
DURING the watershed events of early May, Pakistan has once again proved what it is capable of. The repercussions amount to redefining the balance of power in the region and…
AI & human development
ARTIFICIAL Intelligence (AI) is reshaping societies, economies, and governance. But as the UNDP 2025 Human Development Report, Whose Tech? Our Choices, reminds us, this transformation is deeply human. UN Secretary…
SEZs and economic development
During the decade of the 1980s a paradigm shift took place in the minds of economic policy makers; the movement in thought process was rooted in the idea that economic development…
Education and development
About 60 per cent of Pakistan’s population is functionally illiterate, as surveys count even those who can merely sign their name as literate. If computer and digital literacy were the…
Falling industrial production
The statistics on the Quantum Index of Manufacturing (QIM) has been released recently for the first quarter of 2024-25 by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The numbers on the…
Minerals for growth and development
Recent global experience shows that minerals have driven high economic growth in many low and middle-income countries. With the right approach, they can be equally useful in Pakistan, to drive…
Our industrial strength
HOW can we measure the industrial strength of our country? The strength of a human being is the force exerted by his muscles. Muscular strength determines a person’s strength. While…
