Reflections

India has twice the number of millitary personnel as compared to pakistan. It has a defence budget of $ 39 bn whereas pakistan has a $ 5.4 bn budget. India has the 4th largest airforce in the world. With 1500 aircrafts, it is definitely one of the world's bests. My point is that pakistan can not beat india in a conventional war. Similarly, it cannot millitarily push india out of the kashmir it has occupied. India is happy with status quo as far as kashmir is concerned. It intends to sit on the issue (well, it simply says that there IS no issue) till eternity. Moreover, India's clout in international relations has constantly been growing. Infact india today has the support of some nations in its claim to a permanent Seat in the UNSC. Obviously being the worlds largest democracy and a BRIC nation witha middle.class larger than the population of united states has obviously helped. On the other hand, pakistan's image internationally has really suffered because of the "...

This has to be the most cliched and over discussed topic in our society. But such is its prevalence, intensity and menace that there can never be enough discourse on it. There are clearly three types of terrorism that currently grip pakistan. All three stem from concocted interpretation of islam and are somewhat linked to each other. One is the "jihad" against pakistan government for Participating in the US war against terrorism. Another is the demand for promulgation of "sharia" (read "hijab and beard regulations" because thats all that sharia means to them). And third is the sectarian terrorism targeting shias. The most dominant motive right now is the first one: jihad against pakistan government. The main demand here is that pakistan government stops operations against fata millitants, ceaseslogistics support to Nato and disallows drone attacks. The US presently has 66,000 troops in afghanistan but sometime in 2014 they will just have 10 % of these le...

Investment in a brand is like any other investment. An organization either has enough cash in its kitty to be able to invest it in building the brand quity or the organization borrows from the bank. The ultimate objective of any investment is to generate return. How much the required rate of return is varies from market to market and form environment to environment. These are times of economic recession. Even the BRICs are now coming to around 7% GDP growth (with the exception of Russia which itself is heavily dependent on International Gas prices). Recessionary times are the true litmus test of marketers. Getting growth and developing market and categories are not easy. These are times of high interest rates in Pakistan with the discount rate being 10.5% and 1 year KIBOR at 12%. This means that an organization investing in the brand could alternatively invest in the risk free Banking sector and obtain a 12% return with the principal intact. So the investment in the brand should resul...

ECONOMIC SECTOR Poverty % The % below poverty line in Pakistan is actually much less as compared to other countries as per Unicef figures below. Similar income profile countries Regional countries Pak. Sudan Ghana Laos Nigeria BD India Srilanka Gdp per capita (ppp) $ 2787 2726 3083 2659 2578 1693 3694 5674 % below poverty line 23% 47% 30% 34% 64% 50% 42% 7% Internet users 17% 0 9% 7% 28% 4% 8% 12% Gini’s Coefficient As mentioned in earlier sections the report, the Gini’s coefficient is an indicator of the level of inequality in the society. Again surprisingly, similar to the poverty level%, the gini coefficient of Pakistan (as per CIA published figures) is amongst the best when compared to either the similar income countries or the regional economies. The worst in this list are Nigeria, Sudan and Srilanka where the Gini’s coefficient is between 0.44 and 0.49 Similar income profi...