Impact of Supply of Money on Food and General Price Indices: A Case of Pakistan

The paper probed the impact of supply of money on food and general price indices by estimating a series of equations taking CPI food, CPI general, WPI food, WPI general, GDP deflator and SPI as measures of inflation and M1, M2 and M3 supply of money as explanatory variables. For analysis, OLS technique is used covering time series data for the years 1975-76 to 2006-07 that was made stationary by Durbin-Watson criterion. AR (1) is used to check autocorrelation. The results for CPI food, CPI general, WPI general, GDP deflator and SPI show that they are negatively related with M1 supply of money. CPI food, CPI general, WPI general, GDP deflator, and SPI are also negatively related with M2 supply of money. The results show that CPI food, CPI general, WPI general, GDP deflator and SPI are positively related with M3 supply of money. It may be concluded that supply of money M1 and M2 affects the food and general indices in the same way. However, M1 supply of money affects the CPI general strongly than CPI food.Inflation, Money supply, Consumer Price Index, Food prices, Sensitive Price Indicator.

Effects of governance on the Environmental Kuznets Curve in South and South East Asian Countries

The objective of this study is to examine whether the better governance can minimise the environmental loss of economic growth at early stages of economic development.For this purpose, this study investigates the impact of governance indicators on the slope of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) in 19 countries of South and South East Asia for the period 2002-2015.The empirical output of the study reveals that five out of six indicators of governance have a strong impact on the slope of the EKC. Therefore, we conclude that environmental damages of economic growth can be minimised by strengthening the government institutions, rule of law and ensuring the transparency and accountability

Environmental mobile robot based on artificial intelligence and visual perception for weed elimination

This research presents a new editing design for the pioneer p3-dx mobile robot by adding a mechanical gripper for eliminating the weed and a digital camera for capturing the image of the field. Also, a wireless kit that makes control on the motor's gripper is envisaged. This work consists of two parts. The theoretical part contains a program to read the image and discover the weed coordinates which will be sent to the path planning software to discover the locations of weed, green plant and sick plant. These positions are sent then to the mobile robot navigation software. Then the wireless signal is sent to the gripper. The experimental part is represented as a digital camera that takes an image of the agricultural field, and then sends it to the computer for processing. After that the weeds coordinates are sent to the mobile robots by mobile robot navigation software. Next, the wireless signal is sent to the wireless kit controlling the motor gripper by the computer interface program; the first trial on the agricultural field shows that the mobile robot can discriminate the green plant, from weed and sick plant and can take the right decision with respect to treatment or elimination. The experimental work shows that the environmental mobile robot can detect successfully the weed, sick plant and the hale plant. The mobile robot also travels from base to the target point represented by the weed and sick plants in the optimum path. The experimental work also shows that the environmental mobile robot can eliminate the weed and cure the sick plants in a correctly way

Agricultural Land Expansion and Food Security in Pakistan: An Empirical Analysis

This study empirically investigates the impact of agricultural land, urbanization, GDP, food import, and credit to the agricultural sector on food security in Pakistan. The study employs Auto Regressive Distributive Lag Model (ARDL) bound testing procedure to estimate the impact of these factors on food security from the period1990 to 2016. Following the literature, we have employed two dimensions of food security: food availability and food accessibility. Food availability is measured by food supply (kcal/capita/day) while food accessibility is measured by food price indices. The results indicate that agricultural land, GDP growth, and credit to the agricultural sector have a positive and an increase in urban population has a negative impact on both dimensions of food security however, food imports have a positive impact on food availability and a negative on food accessibility in the country

The Critical Review of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC)

The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) stated a nonlinear relationship between income and pollution .According to this hypothesis, economic growth is the cause as well as remedy to the environment problems. Therefore, developing countries should care about the economic growth, and economic growth would automatically care the environment at the later stage of economic development. In this research study, we examined the theoretical and empirical basis of the EKC. We found that given the controversy over the theoretical and empirical basis of the EKC, it cannot be based for the development and environment policies of the world

Spatial Environmental Criteria for Siting Industries

The paper presents the solution for identifying appropriate locations for industrial setup in Lahore districtusing GIS based multi-criteria decision analysis as decision support tool (DST). Several environmental indicators wereused in this study including air quality index, water quality index, landcover, and built-up/settlements. Thematic layerswere developed for these indicators followed by analysis in ArcGIS software’s model builder using various geoprocessing techniques. As a result the study area is divided into four types of zones (e.g., not suitable, less suitablemoderately suitable and suitable) depending on environmental criteria and industrial categorization. The results revealthat 52 % of district area goes to environmentally sensitive zone . In remaining areas possibility of setting industrieswith their pollution index is proposed. The areas are proposed considering the industry categories such as schedule Iindustries which are air emission industries and Schedule II industries which are effluent discharge industries as persectoral guidelines of Pakistan

Protective Effects of Salivary Factors in Dental Caries in Diabetic Patients of Pakistan

Salivary factors have been studied for their effects on the process of dental caries in patients of diabetes mellitus type 2. In this study, protective role of salivary pH, salivary flow rate, and salivary calcium is assessed in the patients of diabetes mellitus type 2 with dental caries. The samples of saliva were collected from 400 patients of diabetes mellitus type 2 and 300 age- and sex- matched controls after getting informed consent. All the subjects were classified into four groups according to age. The severity of dental caries was counted by decayed, missed, and filled teeth (DMFT) score. The salivary pH, flow rate, and calcium levels were found to be low in patients as compared to controls. The levels of fasting blood sugar, HbA1c, and DMFT score were found to be significantly high in patients than controls. The glycemic factors were significantly correlated with salivary factors indicating their influence on progression of caries in diabetes. On the basis of findings, it is concluded that the suitable salivary pH and flow rate may be regarded as main protective factors against dental caries in diabetes. Optimum level of salivary calcium may be responsible for continuous supply of calcium to arrest the demineralization and help reduce the occurrence of dental caries

Crowding Out Effect of Public Borrowing: A Case of Pakistan

To meet the public deficit, Government of Pakistan has been disproportionately borrowing from the scheduled banks and general public which are also the source of funding for private investment. Even the public sector corporations are doing the same. From the crowding out perspective borrowing and public expenditure are the same, as borrowing is mainly undertaken for financing expenditures. The issue of crowding out or crowding in effect of public borrowing on private investment needs considerable attention. The current study has investigated the crowding-out effect of public borrowing on private investment in the country. An investment function of three independent variables, i.e. public borrowing, GDP and lending rate has been estimated through unit root test, co-integration test and vector error correction model. The time series data of 34 years, i.e. fiscal year of 1971-72 to 2005-06, taken from Federal Bureau of Statistics and Finance Division, Government of Pakistan has been used. The results do not corroborate the crowding-out hypothesis in Pakistan explaining the market imperfections and substantial amount of excess liquidity. The results provide the evidence of crowding-in effect, which explains the direction of public expenditures towards private sector through contractors, politicians and bureaucrats, instead of public projects. The provision of subsidy, transfer payments, and substantial amount of micro-credit also explain the phenomenon of crowding-in. The evidence has important implications for fiscal management. To avoid unnecessary inflation and external indebtedness associated with deficit financing, government should rely on domestic sources. As long as excess liquidity prevails in financial system, the domestic resources, other than State Bank of Pakistan may be used to meet the deficit without hurting private investment

Determinants of Food Security in Rural Areas of Pakistan

Abstract: Out of 120 districts of Pakistan (for rural areas) only 40 are food secure while 80 (67 percent) are food insecure. Within these food insecure districts, 38 (46 percent) are extremely food insecure. The matter of food security in rural areas is of immense nature and needs to be probed. A number of factors are responsible for the situation. The current paper examines the determinants of three aspects of food security in rural areas of Pakistan, i.e. food availability, accessibility and absorption. For the purpose a series of models is applied on district level data of rural areas of Pakistan. The production of wheat, rice, maize, pulses, oilseeds, poultry meat and fish at the district level is found to affect food availability positively. All the district except of Sindh are more probable to be food insecure in availability. In the food accessibility electrification and adult literacy emerged as the factors having negative effect. Child immunization, safe drinking water and number of hospitals have shown positive effect on food absorption

Impact of Supply of Money on Food and General Price Indices: A Case of Pakistan

The paper probed the impact of supply of money on food and general price indices by estimating a series of equations taking CPI food, CPI general, WPI food, WPI general, GDP deflator and SPI as measures of inflation and M1, M2 and M3 supply of money as explanatory variables. For analysis, OLS technique is used covering time series data for the years 1975-76 to 2006-07 that was made stationary by Durbin-Watson criterion. AR (1) is used to check autocorrelation. The results for CPI food, CPI general, WPI general, GDP deflator and SPI show that they are negatively related with M1 supply of money. CPI food, CPI general, WPI general, GDP deflator, and SPI are also negatively related with M2 supply of money. The results show that CPI food, CPI general, WPI general, GDP deflator and SPI are positively related with M3 supply of money. It may be concluded that supply of money M1 and M2 affects the food and general indices in the same way. However, M1 supply of money affects the CPI general strongly than CPI food