NUST students introduces hybrid scooters and motorcycles

ISLAMABAD – The National University of Science and Technology (NUST) on Saturday introduced first hybrid scooter and motorcycle which will be fuel efficient and have lower emissions.
Besides, the students of NUST have also introduced first hybrid car in Pakistan, which does not produce much pollution. It consumes minimal fuel; and its different propulsion systems have either common parts or systems. The hybrid car technology gives cars a rechargeable energy storage system (RESS) along with some fuel propulsion source.
NUST spokesman Irshad Rao said, “As the prices of gasoline and fuel keep on increasing, hybrid technology will enable everyone to afford a car.”
Hybrid cars are generally designated to vehicles running on a combination of petroleum and electricity. These vehicles are called hybrid-electric vehicles where electric cells are used to power electric engines, along with an internal combustion engine.
Moreover when such cars cruise, or move on a small thrust, the combustion engine generates energy with the running of a second electric motor.
This is done to either recharge the battery or to provide energy to the motor for driving the car. This is unlike the conventional electrical cars where they charge their battery through external sources like the grid.
Today, most of the hybrid cars run on either gasoline or diesel as their main energy source while there are some cases where other fuels like ethanol or plant based oils are used too.
The NUST spokesman said, “With the passage of time, hybrid cars will become popular and the manufacturers will working on more means to make the car more feasible to the prospective car buyer.”
With the hybrid car technology, the motion of the car is designed in such a way that the engines in these cars have a smaller size that is used when drifting and driving leisurely.
It is usually the battery source that provides the additional power like going uphill or accelerating whenever needed.

Violence takes its toll but Karachi still the destination of choice

KARACHI: With security conditions deteriorating to new highs in recent years, the financial capital of the country may have temporarily slipped from being the city of choice to find a job for the country’s workforce. However, experts say that the city still remains the preferred destination because of job opportunities and fairly higher wages than the rest of the country.

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At least three to four million daily-wagers work in the city’s industrial sector, according to Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Violence has surely hit those workers who were planning to move to the city, said NUST Business School Dean Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan. This has coincided with the dismal performance of the economy over the last three years with the GDP growth rate dropping to historical lows.

Karachi being a commercial centre creates jobs for skilled and unskilled workers in the industries and services sector. Moreover, with a population of 18-20 million, the city has the largest economies of scale in the country which makes it one of the cheapest cities in the region, to live in, he said

“Karachi is the growth engine of Pakistan,” he said.

The average one-day income of a worker in Karachi is Rs425 – the highest in the country – while in most other cities it remains around Rs350 per day, according to a government research.

Economists say that availability of jobs is the primary factor that attracts workers to Karachi, and is a more important than the difference in the wage.

In recent years, many people from Punjab who were working in Karachi have returned to their home cities, along with industry that has been shifted from Karachi to Punjab. However, because the level of industrialisation in K-P is still low, a large number of workers continue to migrate to Karachi for jobs, Hasan said.

Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research Executive Director Karamat Ali said that the last five or six years have been turbulent for upper parts of the country. For instance, the earthquake, floods and military operations caused a mass migration of people from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) to Karachi.

More than 300 people were killed in July this year because of violence in the country’s main commercial hub.

Like any other cosmopolitan city, research shows that workers who live alone in Karachi have a higher tendency to become involved in incidents of arson and looting, he said.

He added that research conducted by the AERC shows that workers who are living with their families are less prone to violence.

Hurricane Irene shuts down New York

Hurricane Irene closed in on the Atlantic coast yesterday, triggering emergency preparations that included unprecedented evacuations and mass transit shutdowns in New York City as the menacing storm approached.

As Irene careened north, rain and tropical storm force winds and ferocious surf began pummeling the North Carolina coast. “The core of the hurricane will approach the coast of North Carolina tonight and pass near or over the North Carolina coast on Saturday,” the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory yesterday evening.

Washington and states from the Carolinas through Maine declared emergencies due to Irene, a nearly 600 mile-wide hurricane that put 55 million Americans on the eastern seaboard on alert and that experts say could cause billions of dollars in damages.

President Barack Obama said the impact of the storm, an unusually large storm, could be “extremely dangerous and costly” for a nation that still remembers destructive Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “All indications point to this being a historic hurricane,” Mr Obama said.

Hundreds of thousands of residents and vacationers were evacuating from Irene’s path.

A quarter of a million New Yorkers were ordered to leave homes in low-lying areas, including the financial district surrounding Wall Street in Manhattan, as authorities prepared for dangerous storm surge and flooding on Sunday in the city and farther east on Long Island.

Some New York hospitals in flood-prone areas were already evacuating patients, and New York’s mass transit system, which carries 8.5 million people on weekdays, was due to start shutting down around noon on Saturday.

“We’ve never done a mandatory evacuation before and we wouldn’t be doing it now if we didn’t think this storm had the potential to be very serious,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference.

As authorities ramped up preparations to cope with a potential major natural disaster on the densely populated East Coast, United States airlines cancelled more nearly 7,000 flights and moved airplanes out of Irene’s path.

Officials were taking every precaution with Irene because they remember all too well how Katrina swamped New Orleans, killing up to 1,800 people and causing US$80 billion (S$96.2 billion) in damages.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the military stood ready to aid in the response to Irene, with more than 100,000 National Guard forces available if needed in eastern states.

Coastal communities stocked up on food and water and tried to secure homes, vehicles and boats. Cities, ports, hospitals, oil refineries and nuclear plants activated emergency plans.

The earliest edges of Irene began to knock down trees, caused localised flooding and had knocked out power to 7,600 residents of Wilmington, North Carolina by yesterday night.

People huddling in a shelter at a local school said they feared the storm’s potential impact but were reluctant to evacuate entirely.

“We were going to go to Charlotte, but we were told we might not be able to get back if there was a lot of damage,” said Chastity May, 34, as she watched over her 4-year-old son.

Some were looking to capitalise on the approaching storm.

Greg Bayly, 52, and Scott Olden, 24, were selling generators out of a rented cargo truck along a busy Wilmington street that leads out to nearby beaches. Mr Bayly said the pair could process credit cards to complete purchases, despite the rapidly deteriorating weather conditions.

Some plucky businesses were digging in. A restaurant in Wilmington, North Carolina, posted a message reading, “We are open until the letters fly off this sign,” CNN affiliate WRAL reported.

However emergency services said if citizens do not heed warnings, they would not be able to come and help them. “Residents have been given enough warnings and emergency services would not be able to get to them if they needed help,” they added.

Theater producers in New York decided not to mess with Hurricane Irene’s drama and cancelled weekend shows both on and off-Broadway.

All Broadway musicals and plays have been canceled for Saturday and Sunday, as well as Zarkana by Cirque du Soleil at Radio City Music Hall and Lincoln Center Theater’s War Horse.

It’s the first time Broadway has shut down for an emergency since the blackout in 2003.

Federal and state leaders, from President Obama downward, urged the millions of Americans in the hurricane’s path to prepare and to heed evacuation orders if they received them. AGENCIES

Greece raises ante over debt plan

ATHENS – Greece warned yesterday it might opt out of a debt swap crucial to its second international bailout if too few investors rally behind it, raising the ante on the stricken country’s €150-billion (S$261-billion) lifeline.

The swap to shave €37 billion off its existing debt is now conditional on 90 per cent of private sector investors agreeing to the deal, the country said in its formal letter of inquiry to other governments. The condition applies to the holders of Greek bonds maturing by both 2014 and by 2020.

“If these thresholds (or either of them) are not met, Greece shall not proceed with any portion of the transaction,” the letter said.

But Athens left itself some room for manoeuvre, saying that it would only pull out of the deal if the take-up failed to satisfy its international partners, such as the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

This would be the case “if it determines, in consultation with the official sector, that the total contribution of private sector creditors … is insufficient to permit the official sector to support the new multi-year adjustment programme”.

The Institute of International Finance, a bank lobby group that is coordinating the talks said that between 60 and 70 per cent of bondholders had signalled they would participate in the plan. More were likely to join, it said, once a concrete offer was made. But others said that setting the 90 per cent threshold as a condition seemed ambitious.

“By pinning it down so high, without any leeway in terms of a target range … it seems to me that they really like to put some pressure on the system here,” said Commerzbank strategist David Schnautz. REUTERS

S$320 million boost for SME innovation

6 AM Aug 27, 2011

 

SINGAPORE – The Government is setting aside S$320 million over the next five years to help 3,500 small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) exploit technology innovation to grow and to compete better in the marketplace.

The funding will be made available through SPRING Singapore’s Technology Innovation Programme (TIP).

It is substantially higher than the S$220 million committed in the last five years under the TIP that benefited more than 2,500 SMEs.

SPRING believes technology can be a key enabler to many companies by allowing them to reduce costs and increase productivity. SMEs have made their concerns about rising costs, especially labour costs, known recently.

Addressing this concern, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said yesterday: “We know that our SMEs are facing a unique set of challenges. Wage cost pressures are rising as a result of the tighter labour market and the increase in foreign worker levies. Other cost and competiveness issues also weigh heavily on the minds of business owners. The government is aware of these challenges and will work with you to address these issues and concerns.”

Mr Teo was speaking at the Entrepreneur of the Year Award presentation ceremony. He also highlighted the efforts of SPN International, which developed a unique nano-coating technology that has caught the eye of chip makers such as Hitachi, Samsung and Seagate.

Mr Jeff Chan, CEO of SPN, said: “For the past three years, we’ve benefited from more than a million dollars in subsidies from A*STAR and SPRING. This helped us to subsidise our operational costs.”

Mr Jimmy Fong of EpiCentre Holdings and Mr Eldwin Chua of Paradise Group Holdings were crowned the overall winners of The Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 – a Rotary/Asme award.

Mr Linus Goh, Global Head of Enterprise Banking & Financial Institutions, OCBC Bank, a main sponsor of the award said: “This year’s winners clearly demonstrate an ability to differentiate through customer focus and innovation to succeed in local and global markets.”

JAC wins S$2.6b of annual orders for new plant

SINGAPORE – Jurong Aromatics (JAC) has secured annual orders worth about US$2.2 billion (S$2.6 billion) from 11 buyers for its oil products and aromatics, its chief executive said yesterday.

“This represents annual revenue of the company based on estimated production and cost of the products in the market now,” chief executive Mehdi Adib said at the plant’s groundbreaking ceremony. Mr Adib also said that the contracts, valid for seven years from 2014, were a tremendous vote of confidence for the plant as they were secured before the plant’s commission.

The company said earlier it had signed agreements with 11 firms to sell its entire output of oil products and aromatics. The buyers include Glencore, BP, South Korea’s SK Energy and Chinese polyester maker Jiangsu Sanfangxiang Group.

Jurong Aromatics is building a condensate splitter and aromatics facility on Singapore’s Jurong Island in a US$2.4-billion project. The plant will produce 1.5 million tonnes of aromatics and 2.7 million tonnes of petroleum products a year.

The company has signed agreements with three suppliers to buy condensate as feedstock for the upcoming petrochemicals plant in Singapore.

JAC will buy 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) from BP and 25,000 bpd each from Glencore and SK Energy for seven years once the plant starts in 2014, it said earlier.

The project is 30-per-cent owned by SK Group, 25 per cent by a unit of Jiangsu Sanfangxiang Group and 10 per cent by Glencore. Arovin holds 10.5 per cent, Shefford Investments 9.5 per cent, Thai KK Industry 5.1 per cent, Singapore’s EDB International 5 per cent and Essar Projects 4.9 per cent. Agencies

Taliban fighters attack seven Pakistani posts

CHITRAL (Pakistan) – Hundreds of Taliban fighters crossed from an area of eastern Afghanistan largely abandoned by American troops and launched raids on seven Pakistani paramilitary posts yesterday, killing up to 36 people, government and security officials said.

It was the latest in a series of attacks that have raised tensions among Pakistani, Afghan and American officials.

Soldiers of the Chitral Scouts and police were among the dead in the string of attacks that began with an assault on paramilitary check posts in the border village of Arandu in the north-west just across from Afghanistan’s Nuristan province.

“Reportedly, terrorists from Swat, Dir and Bajur organised by Fazullah and Maulvi Faqir Mohammad with local Afghans have attacked the security forces posts,” a military statement said, referring to north-western Pakistani regions and senior Pakistani Taliban commanders.

Many Pakistani Taliban fighters fled to Afghanistan in the face of army offensives and have joined allies there to regroup and threaten Pakistani border regions, analysts say. The military operations in the country’s north-west have inflicted heavy losses on them but insurgents have proved resilience with intermittent attacks and suicide bombings.

A senior Chitral Scouts official said 26 soldiers and 10 border police were killed. Twenty militants were also reportedly killed. Agencies

Absolutely, says Parliament to Anna; no vote required; fast ends

New Delhi: Surrounded by a sea of flags, Anna Hazare received the news that his three conditions have been accepted, in principle, by the Lok Sabha. However, there was no vote, as Anna’s associates had demanded. Instead, the Lok Sabha unanimously adopted a resolution that conveys “the sense of the House.” The resolution was shared by Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee in his speech that concluded today’s parliamentary debate on the Lokpal Bill.The fact that the government held its ground and did not conduct a vote, choosing instead to adopt the resolution by thumping on tables, has been accepted by Anna, who is to break his fast at 10 tomorrow morning. Now on Day 12, he has lost 7.5 kgs; his doctors say they are seriously worried about his health.

At his protest camp at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, thousands gathered to celebrate the 74-year-old and his role in helping India take a huge step forward towards a historic new anti-corruption law. The Lokpal is an ombudsman committee that will be set up by a new law to investigate charges of corruption against public servants. Anna wanted it to be born with three must-have powers. These have been cleared today in principle.

In Parliament, both Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee referred to the fact that nine times, the Lokpal Bill has been introduced in Parliament but was not pushed through. “I accept the lapse of our governments,” said Mr Mukherjee, while concluding the debate. However, he reinforced his party line: “One piece of legislation, however strong and empowered it may be, cannot completely eradicate corruption.” Mr Mukherjee also warned, “There is a difference between mobocracy and democracy.” Mr Hazare’s methods have been criticized by many, including Rahul Gandhi, who delivered a rare speech on the Lokpal Bill in the Lok Sabha on Friday.So political parties have signed off Anna’s trio of essentials: The Lokpal model will be introduced in states; junior bureaucrats will be accountable to it; and citizen’s charters will be displayed in all government offices to publically display that department’s duties. These features have been accepted in principle; they will now be reviewed by a parliamentary standing committee which will also check their compatibility with the constitution. The committee will then send the bill back with detailed feedback to Parliament for its consideration. 

The hours before both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Saba voted in favour of Anna’s three must-haves were drenched with the tension that has been characteristic of the last few days of negotiations between his group of activists and the government. The Lokpal debate was initiated by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha. A series of impressive speeches followed, topped by BJP leader Sushma Swaraj. “Let us show the country that its representatives can function well and conduct a healthy and mature political debate devoid of partisan acrimony,” she urged.

Since last night, the government had been working on a carefully-calibrated plan to find a way to satisfy Anna without undermining Parliament and its right to legislate. Senior ministers consulted last night and again this morning with both Anna’s associates and the Opposition. But by 3 pm, the plan, as it has so often in the last few days, fell apart.    

Anna’s associates, who arrived at Parliament while the Lokpal debate was underway, said they were also told that instead of a resolution, Parliament would issue a statement to convey “the sense of the House.” They said unless there was a vote in both Houses, the deal was off.

“If no resolution will take place or no voting will happen and if this is the response given to Anna Hazare’s letter then it is very unfortunate,” said Anna’s aide, Prashant Bhushan. “It is a clear case of betrayal,” said another member of Anna’s inner circle, Arvind Kejriwal.

The Prime Minister then met with senior ministers and with the BJP’s Sushma Swaraj and LK Advani. The close coordination between the government and the Opposition today was impressive. The BJP announced it would agree to a vote. 

While the debate was being conducted in both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, Ramlila Maidan was filling up. In the afternoon, actor Aamir Khan addressed the audience and urged Anna to end his fast. He also performed a song from his hit movie, Lagaan. “We have to thank Anna for putting this bill and the issue of corruption in the spotlight.” He stressed, “We need to decide as to how we are going to live our lives… Will we give or accept bribes? Will we say no to corruption in our lives?”

Western Sanctions May Put Slow Squeeze On Syria

The Syrian economy has so far weathered the mass protests and widespread violence that have rocked most every major city. But in a move that could increase the pressure, the European Union is considering a ban on imported Syrian oil, similar to sanctions the U.S. imposed earlier this month.

Western governments say the Syrian regime’s harsh response to an anti-government uprising has demonstrated that it is not fit to lead.

In March, when the uprising first began, Syria’s economy took a huge hit. Tourism — which accounts for a large segment of the economy — dropped to almost nothing.

But later, the economy bounced back a bit, and the middle and upper classes of Syria, based mainly in the city of Aleppo and in the capital, Damascus, recovered.

On a recent government-sponsored tour, called “Syria Is Fine,” reporters were shown bustling markets in Damascus where Syrians bought clothes, electronics and basic necessities.

The tour was arranged shortly after the United States formally called for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down and banned the import of oil and gas.

American officials acknowledge this will have little impact unless Europe joins in as well. Europe buys

Pak court orders confiscation of Pervez’s assets

Islamabad: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Saturday ordered the confiscation of property of former president Pervez Musharraf for his failure to appear before it in the 2007 murder case of former premier Benazir Bhutto, court officials said.

The court has already declared the former military ruler an “absconder” in the Bhutto assassination case as he has not agreed to clarify his position in court despite several notices.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had requested the court to summon Musharraf, who was President at the time of the assassination, and has refused a request to cooperate in the investigation into Bhutto’s death.

Following the lack of cooperation by Musharraf, he was named an “absconding accused”, FIA prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar said.

The FIA on Saturday presented a final report in the court about Musharraf’s refusal to appear and the court issued orders to confiscate his property.

Local media reported that the court has also ordered freezing of Musharraf s bank s accounts.

The court ruled that the trial of Musharraf will be started separately from other accused and after he is arrested.

The anti-terrorism court is conducting the trial of five terror suspects, including alleged members of the