Gul Ahmed, Pink Ribbon sign agreement
Lahore (Staff Reporter): Gul Ahmed and Pink Ribbon have signed an agreement to campaign against the breast cancer in Pakistan. A grand fundraiser night was arranged in Karachi. Pink Ribbon hosted the fundraiser night for which Gul Ahmed was the platinum sponsor. Gul Ahmed has continuously been part of emphatic campaigns to empower society, especially the women of the country. It is hoped that the efforts of the company will bear fruit in the near future. Aside from being an integral part of the fundraiser, the company has reached out for donations from its customer network by placing donation boxes at all of its outlets and flagship stores. Under the umbrella of Pink Ribbon, Gul Ahmed customers can make a donation of any amount which will be collected and given to Pink Ribbon Pakistan. Customers are assured that their money will help build one room in the Breast Cancer Hospital, planned to be constructed in Lahore. Pakistan has the highest incidence of Breast Cancer in Southeast Asia. With 1 in every 9 women at risk, the number of deaths are on the rise.
Pink Ribbon Pakistan has proved to be a ray of hope for Pakistan’s breast cancer patients in this regard.
Subsidy on DAP fertiliser being provided in transparent manner
ISLAMABAD (Staff Reporter): Under Khadam-e- Punjab Kissan package, the government is providing subsidy on DAP fertilizer to 5.2 million farmers in Punjab in a transparent manner. Spokesman of Agriculture Department Punjab said on Monday that to ensure transparency 100 percent of all vouchers that are not packed with fertilizer bags have been blocked. He said just registered farmers can get advantage of this subsidy scheme. The registration process has been made very simple and transparent for farmers. Farmers have only to make a call on toll free numbers of Agriculture Helpline i.e. 0800-15000 & 0800-29000 and provide details of their identity card and other required information to get themselves registered. Spokesman of Agriculture Department further disclosed that any fertilizer dealer or any other person except registered farmer cannot get all the money outstanding because it cannot cash without subsidy vouchers, ID card and verification message.
All such companies have been banned which didn’t act under law/policy of government and their vouchers have also been blocked along with initiate of other investigation against them. When the voucher is attached with fertilizer bag, the chances of any impurity will be diminished. Spokesman further said that price fluctuation of fertilizer co-relate with international market. According to officials, Government of Punjab started to provide this subsidy scheme since July 2017 when different companies, at that time, were selling from Rs.2638 to Rs.2670 per bag.
System to improve crop production, reduce water wastage being developed
ISLAMABAD (APP): Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications is in process of developing a system to uplift living standard of farmers, improve crop production and reduce water wastage. The other objective of the project called ‘Sustainable Irrigation Management Information System using Real Time Irrigation Water Demand & Supply for Rural Areas Development’ is to enhance water productivity and soil management, using agro-economic model for an effective re-allocation strategy. The Principal Investigator's Organization (PIO) for the project is University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and Partner Organizations are Telenor Pakistan, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and Punjab Irrigation Department. Ignite, formerly known as National ICT Fund, a department of the Ministry of IT, is providing Rs. 18.7 million for the project. Official sources on Monday said the basic idea behind the proposed project is to develop a sustainable irrigation management information system.
, using microwave signals information of telecommunication networks to estimate climatic parameters, and optimizing water productivity.
The measurement of precipitation is based on fact that the raindrops on microwave link path attenuate the signal. Hence, a decrease in received signal level generally indicates an increase of rainfall intensity.
The sources said underground sensors integrated with an IoT network will continuously assess ground moisture and added with precise, real-time measurement of climatic data and ground water content, the proposed system will accurately estimate actual irrigation water demand in field.
The sources said to enhance water productivity and soil management, this intelligent system will use agro-economic model for an effective reallocation strategy. The system will allocate water based on both flat and variable rates for optimum water productivity.
PSDF, ICCI organise industrial training porgramme
ISLAMABAD (APP): The Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF), in collaboration with ICCI, organised an orientation session on Industrial Training Programme 2018. The training programme, funded by the Government of Punjab and the DFID, UK, was aimed to support the industrial and manufacturing sectors for provision of skilled manpower and to increase access to jobs as well as income earning opportunities. Giving a detailed presentation to the participants, Sahar Nadeem, Associate Program Development of PSDF, said that instead of providing training through formal training institutes, PSDF was approaching industries and organizations to pick unskilled people from the market, train them as per their needs and provide them jobs in their organizations. She said that PSDF would bear the training costs of such trainees, adding that the core objective of this initiative was to equip poor people with trainings and skills so that they could earn a decent living and contribute effectively to the industrial development of the country.
As per detail of the program, the industries/establishments and authorized service centers of industry based in Punjab and Islamabad could participate in this program through open bidding with November 25, 2017 as last date for submission of bids.
The bid winners will have to mobilize the trainees, train them in the high demand skills as per requirement of the industry and recruit 50 percent of these trained people in their industry while the training funds will be provided by PSDF.
This will not only equip the trainees with the core skills but will also serve as an employment generation for the industries/manufacturers.
Speaking on the occasion, Sheikh Amir Waheed, President ICCI, appreciated the initiative of Punjab government and said that local industries and establishments should try to take benefit of this program to train people as per needs of their businesses and grow fast.
He said that many innovations and new technologies were coming up in industrial, services and other business sectors and urged that training providers should develop curricula to train the trainees in latest trades so that they could play more effective role in the development of local industry and business establishments.