Keynote Address

Mr Hasan Nawaz Tarar, Secretary Planning, Development and Reforms, Dr Asad Zaman, Dr Musleh ud Din, distinguished economists, members of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) and the Pakistan Society of Development Economists, students, ladies and gentleman, it is indeed a great honour and privilege for me to open the PSDE’s Conference, which has become an annual feature of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists. It offers us a great opportunity to deliberate on the challenges that our country is facing. Before I proceed with what I have to say, I would like to place on record my appreciation for the outgoialso ng Vice Chancellor of PIDE, Dr Musleh ud Din, who has provided leadership to PIDE and has been instrumental in arranging this Conference. I would also like to welcome Dr Asad Zaman as the new President of the PSDE and Vice Chancellor of PIDE. I hope that under his leadership PIDE will touch, In šāʾ Allāh, new heights and become a centre of excellence, not only in Pakistan but also in Asia. Being in a meeting of economists and a leading public sector economic think tank, I am reminded of an anecdote about an economist. A man was walking by a road in countryside where he saw a flock of sheep. He could not resist and said to the shepherd that he would like to make a bet on correctly guessing the number of sheep in the flock. He said to the shepherd that he would give him a hundred dollars if he were unable to guess correctly the exact number of sheep. But if he were right, the shepherd would give him one sheep from the flock. Shepherd thought that it was a huge flock, this person had to be crazy, so it was an easy hundred dollars and accepted the bet. Within a few minutes, the man said that these were nine hundred and eighty one sheep. The shepherd was surprised because the man was exactly right. He said he was man of his word and told the man to pick up any of the sheep. The man picked up a sheep and started to walk away. As he was walking away, the shepherd said he wanted to get even with the man and asked him to make another bet. He said that he could tell him exactly what his occupation was, to which the man agreed. He was from a far off place and thought there was no way the shepherd could guess his profession. The shepherd asked him if he were an economist from a government think tank. The man was greatly surprised because the shepherd was right. He asked the shepherd how was he able to guess his profession. The shepherd asked him to put down his dog first. The man had picked up shepherd’s dog instead of a sheep! I hope it is not the case here and hopefully we have economists who can not only count the sheep exactly but who can also pick sheep from the flock and not a dog

Synthesis of novel cone-shaped CaAl-LDH directly on aluminum alloy by a facile urea hydrolysis method

The urea method is one of the unique approaches to synthesize highly crystalline-layered double hydroxides (LDHs). Herein, we synthesized calcium-based layered double hydroxide (CaAl–LDH) directly on Al AA6082 substrate by using the urea hydrolysis reaction, in an effort to obtain highly potential novel cone-shaped unique LDH structure. The as-prepared CaAl-LDH thin film is characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and further investigated the thermal properties and electron impedance spectra behavior. That simple in situ synthetic approach will be helpful to design environmentally friendly CaAl-LDH thin films that can be further investigated for numerous potential applications like environmental science, catalysts and biomedical applications

Silicon-based carbonaceous electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction and evolution properties in alkaline conditions

In this contribution, new electrocatalyst materials, namely silicon-multiwalled carbon nanotubes (Si/MWCNTs), nitrogen-doped multiwalled carbon nano-tubes (Si/NCNTs), and silicon–carbon black (Si/CB), were developed and characterized in an effort to investigate less expensive and more efficient alternatives to Pt-based catalysis for energy storage cells applications. The role of structural behavior of obtained specimens and corresponding electrochemical performances were characterized through X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, while cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were analyzed for electrochemical measurements and evaluation of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) along with oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The electrochemical studies have shown that these materials exhibit reasonable performance for both the ORR and the OER. The findings concluded that the Si/CB base catalyst has shown both OER and ORR activities in comparison to Si/MWCNTs and Si/NCNTs where only ORR performance was monitored. However, Si/NCNTs have shown much higher ORR activity compared to the others. This work highlights the comparison of three possible alternative materials as a potential catalyst to develop optimum alternatives of Pt-free catalysts for fuel cell and lithium-based battery systems

Seismic behavior of triple tunnel complex in soft soil subjected to transverse shaking

Combining multiple tunnels into a single tunnel complex while keeping the surrounding area compact is a complicated procedure. The condition becomes more complex when soft soil is present and the area is prone to seismic activity. Seismic vibrations produce sudden ground shaking, which causes a sharp decrease in the shear strength and bearing capacity of the soil. This results in larger ground displacements and deformation of structures located at the surface and within the soil mass. The deformations are more pronounced at shallower depths and near the ground surface. Tunnels located in that area are also affected and can undergo excessive distortions and uplift. The condition becomes worse if the tunnel area is larger, and, thus, the respective tunnel complex needs to be properly evaluated. In this research, a novel triple tunnel complex formed by combining three closely spaced tunnels is numerically analyzed using Plaxis 2D software under variable dynamic loadings. The effect of variations in lining thickness, the inner supporting structure, embedment depth on the produced ground displacements, tunnel deformations, resisting bending moments, and the developed thrusts are studied in detail. The triple tunnel complex is also compared with the rectangular and equivalent horizontal twin tunnel complexes in terms of generated thrusts and resisted seismic-induced bending moments. From the results, it is concluded that increased thickness of the lining, inner structure, and greater embedment depth results in decreased ground displacements, tunnel deformations, and increased resistance to seismic-induced bending moments. The comparison of shapes revealed that the triple tunnel complex has better resistance against moments with the least amount of thrust and surface heave produced

The impact of parents education, parents income, teacher education and locality of school on students relinquish school during primary level in DG Khan district

In this study, reasearcher examined the impact of parent's education, parents income, teacher education and locality of school on students relinquish school during primary level. The study data was collected from different urban and rural areas of D.G.Khan schools. The study used the multiple regressions to analyze the effect of parent's education, parent's income, teacher education and locality of school on students relinquished school during primary level of education. This research findings show that parent's education, parents income and teacher education were significant and locality of school was insignificant. It is concluded that parent's education, parents income, teacher education are affected to students relinquished school during primary level in the districtand locality of school has no affect on students relinquish school during primary

Sorption of As(V) from aqueous solution using in situ growth MgAl–NO3 layered double hydroxide thin film developed on AA6082

In this work, the MgAl–NO3 layered double hydroxide (LDH) developed by the single-step in situ growth method is used as a robust sorbent to remove arsenic from aqueous solution. The MgAl-LDH exhibiting two different distinct morphologies (platelet structure and cauliflower-shaped structure) was developed on the AA6082 substrate with the variation in synthesis parameters, where AA6082 specimen acts as both the reactant and support. The structural characterizations were investigated through scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, and energy dispersion spectroscopy, while the adsorption of arsenic on MgAl-LDH was studied through Langmuir and Freundlich models. The Langmuir isotherms have shown a maximum adsorption capacity of around 213 and 239 mg/g for platelet and cauliflower-like MgAl-LDH, respectively. The pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order Lagergren kinetic models were studied for the understanding of the adsorption kinetics. The results depicted that anion exchange and the electrostatic interaction are the possible reasons of arsenic sorption on MgAl-LDH, but the ion exchange mechanism is found to be the dominant mechanism. The maximum adsorption capacity of cauliflower-shaped MgAl-LDH was found to be slightly higher than platelet structure, but overall maximum arsenic adsorption uptake values of both in situ growth structures have found to be exceeded the mostly reported MgAl-LDH maximum adsorption capacities