Pakistan: Prospects for Private Capital Flows and Financial Sector Development

In less than a decade after the debt crisis of 1982, developing countries have experienced a surge of capital inflows in recent years. This trend became more pronounced in the 1990s resulting in overall balance of payments surpluses and accumulation of reserves. Total private capital inflows to developing countries exceeded $173 billion in 1994, compared to annual average inflows of$34 billion during 1983–90 [World Bank (1995)]. Although the characteristics of capital inflows in this episode are different than in the period prior to the last debt crisis, nevertheless concerns about macroeconomic stability, loss in competitiveness, financial sector vulnerability and excessive borrowing remain the same. While the rise in inflows during 1991–93 was supported in part by low interest rates and weak economic activity in industrial countries, improved economic policies and prospects in most recipient countries also played an important role. The larger share in inflows of those countries that achieved greater progress in economic reforms, is evidence of the importance of recipient country policies. During this period, the composition of private flows to developing countries also became more diversified. Foreign direct investment (FDI) accounted for 45 percent of total equity inflows in 1994, with debt accounting for 32 percent and portfolio flows accounting for the remaining 23 percent. According to a recent assessment [World Bank (1995)], overall private capital flows to developing countries are likely to continue to increase in the medium term, though at a much slower pace than in the early 1990s, growing on average at about 7–10 percent annually. Many countries are at the limit of prudential borrowing, so at most their net liabilities can rise in line with exports. However, within this overall trend, some economies in Asia and several transitional economies are likely to see a larger increase.

Performance studies of oil lubricated helical groove journal bearing

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The provision of helical grooves on the surface of a plain journal bearing can improve the stability of a rotor-bearing system. However, the improvement depends on the arrangement of the grooves along the axial length of the bearing. In order to verify this improved stability three types of helical groove bearing and a reference plain journal bearing were investigated. The helical groove journal bearings were: a symmetrical, an asymmetrical and a partial grooved bearing. The bearing test rig was used to measure the oil flow rate, load carrying capacity, power losses, bearing surface temperatures, and stability characteristics. A theoretical model was developed to calculate the load carrying capacity, stiffness and damping coefficients, and stability characteristics of the various types of bearing. The experimental and theoretical results show that at the expense of a reduced load capacity the helical groove bearings are more stable particularly at low eccentricity ratios. However, the experimental observations showed that the partial helical groove bearing is not a practical bearing because the bearing becomes misaligned above certain load. For a given eccentricity ratio and speed the symmetrical bearing ran hotter and with greater power losses in comparison to the other three bearings. At the same eccentricity ratio and speed, the asymmetrical bearing ran at about the same temperature as the plain journal bearing.Financial support was obtained from the Government of Pakistan

Revitalization of The Public Sphere: A Comparison between Habermasian and The New Public Sphere

‘Public sphere’ is an important component of modern polity. Civil society brings the state in touch with the needs of the citizens through the medium of public sphere. However, Habermas argues that ‘public sphere’ experienced refeudalization owing to various factors i.e. propaganda, cultural industry, market and state intervention. The ‘public’ was condemned to be mere spectator again. This article argues that modern technologies enabled new public sphere (NPS) can help restore public status as participant in the democratic process. The article compares the Habermasian ideal of public sphere with NPS and constructs a matrix, depicting the various related aspects between the two models for highlighting the revival of the public sphere

Pakistan: Prospects for Private Capital Flows and Financial Sector Development

In less than a decade after the debt crisis of 1982, developing countries have experienced a surge of capital inflows in recent years. This trend became more pronounced in the 1990s resulting in overall balance of payments surpluses and accumulation of reserves. Total private capital inflows to developing countries exceeded $173 billion in 1994, compared to annual average inflows of$34 billion during 1983–90 [World Bank (1995)]. Although the characteristics of capital inflows in this episode are different than in the period prior to the last debt crisis, nevertheless concerns about macroeconomic stability, loss in competitiveness, financial sector vulnerability and excessive borrowing remain the same. While the rise in inflows during 1991–93 was supported in part by low interest rates and weak economic activity in industrial countries, improved economic policies and prospects in most recipient countries also played an important role. The larger share in inflows of those countries that achieved greater progress in economic reforms, is evidence of the importance of recipient country policies. During this period, the composition of private flows to developing countries also became more diversified. Foreign direct investment (FDI) accounted for 45 percent of total equity inflows in 1994, with debt accounting for 32 percent and portfolio flows accounting for the remaining 23 percent

Estimation of Shadow Prices for Project Evaluation in Pakistan

The purpose of this paper1 is to estimate shadow prices of capital and labour for use in the social evaluation ofprojects.2 The Harberger approach (7) has been used here to estimate the shadow discount rale. Apart from being one of the few demonstrations of the empirical estimation by this approach in 'literature this is the correct method of .estimating the shadow discount rate where the marginal social value is not equal to the marginal social cost of funds at market equilibrium due to the presence of various distortions. The estimation, in this paper, of the shadow wage rate of unskilled labour of Pakistan improves upon other attempts by taking account of a number of factors not considered hitherto. Firstly, it takes account of the different flows of rural-urban migration to the various industrial cities to estimate more accurately the opportunity cost of employing labour in each city. Secondly, the estimate takes account of the changes in social cost brought about by changes in the consumption bundle of the immigrant labour and the physical relocation of labour. In addition the estimates have been derived under alternative assumptions regarding the marginal productivity of labour in the agriculture stack season

Obstacle Avoidance Methods in UAVs

We contributed a method for avoiding obstacles using monocular vision as the only sensor in UAV (Unmaned Aerial vehicle). The vision based ROS (Robotic operating system) node detects the known obstacles in front of the UAV. Unknown obstacles can be taken care of by adding he information of all the obstacles seen in the scene to a map. The distance to obstacle in this research is calculated by just increasing size of the obstacle in front of the UAV. The image processing libraries were used from OpenCV to do thresholding, noise removal and contours detection. This research also tests and evaluate the path planning of UAV using MoveIt architecture, and evaluates the different results obtained.Hence we show the effectiveness of the monocular vision and size as a constraint algorithm in UAVs to detect and avoid frontal obstacles

Higher Dimensional Inhomogeneous Perfect Fluid Collapse in \emph{f(R)} Gravity

This paper is about the $n+2$-dimensional gravitational contraction of inhomogeneous fluid without heat flux in the framework of $f(R)$ metric theory of gravity. Matching conditions for two regions of a star has been derived by using the Darmois junction conditions. For the analytic solution of equations of motion in modified $f(R)$ theory of gravity, we have taken scalar curvature as constant. Hence final result of gravitational collapse in this frame work is the existence of black hole and cosmological horizons, both of these form earlier than singularity. It has been shown that constant curvature term $f(R_{0})$ ($R_0$ is constant scalar curvature) slows down the collapsing process.Comment: 17 Pages, to appear in European Physical Journal

Zero-tillage Technology and Farm Profits: A Case Study of Wheat Growers in the Rice Zone of Punjab

This study presents the results from a field survey of the wheat growers in the rice-wheat zone of Punjab. The late maturing basmati rice varieties and the post paddy-harvest conventional tillage practices to prepare seedbed for wheat sowing often result in delayed planting of the crop. The late sowing is a major factor responsible for low wheat yields obtained by the farmers of the area. Introduction of the new zero-tillage seed drill in the area during early 1980s made it possible to sow wheat in freshly harvested untilled paddy fields utilizing residual moister. Presently, more than eighty thousand hectares of wheat are sown with zero-tillage drill technology. The partial budget analysis showed that zero-tillage is more profitable than conventional wheat sowing methods of ‘wadwatter’ or ‘rauni’. The new technology saves tillage and irrigation costs, results in yield gains through a possible improvement in sowing time and enhanced fertilizer and water use efficiencies. The results showed that the zero-tillage adopters earn an extra income of 253 and 2278 rupees per acre of wheat over that earned from wheat sown with rauni and wadwattar methods respectively. The results of multiple regression analysis confirmed that the zero-tillage technology enhances water and fertilizer use efficiency. However, sufficient evidence was not present to prove any positive or adverse affect of the technology on the incidence of weeds in wheat crop. It is suggested that this aspect of zero-tillage technology be focused more in future research.wheat; Zero-tillage; technology; irrigated Punjab; rice-wheat zone; Pakistan

Zero-tillage Technology and Farm Profits: A Case Study of Wheat Growers in the Rice Zone of Punjab

The rice-wheat cropping zone of Punjab is the main producer of high-valued and fine quality basmati rice in Pakistan. The rice produced in this area is famous for its grain length and aromatic characteristics. Being an important export item, rice contributes significantly to the national foreign exchange earnings. Wheat is the other major crop of the rice-wheat system and being the staple food is central to national agricultural policies. Rice is grown on a vast area in this zone during Kharif mostly followed by wheat in the Rabi season. Studies have shown that a large gap exists between the potential and yields actually realised by the wheat growers of the area [Byerlee, et al. (1984); Hobbs (1985) and Sheikh, et al. (2000)]. Farmers’ practices regarding land preparation for paddy, wheat planting time, and other conflicts endogenous to the rice-wheat based cropping system were identified as the major factors limiting wheat yield in the area. The flooded and puddled soils that are well suited for paddy production as compared to well-drained conditions required for wheat is such an example of the system conflicts. The farmers in the rice-wheat zone of the Punjab predominantly grow basmati varieties, which are late maturing as compared to coarse varieties of rice. Therefore, paddy harvest is generally delayed at most of the farms in this zone. The late paddy harvest coupled with poor soil structure and loose plant residues create problems for preparation of a good seedbed and planting of wheat often gets late [Byerlee, et al. (1984)]. The farmers also had to resort to the broadcast method for wheat sowing which results in poor and patchy plant stands.

Comprehensive Performance Analysis of Neurodegenerative disease Incidence in the Females of 60-96 year Age Group

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and dementia are gradually becoming more prevalent chronic diseases, characterized by the decline in cognitive and behavioral symptoms. Machine learning is revolu-tionising almost all domains of our life, including the clinical system. The application of machine learning has the potential to enormously augment the reach of neurodegenerative care thus building it more proficient. Throughout the globe, there is a massive burden of Alzheimer's and demen-tia cases; which denotes an exclusive set of difficulties. This provides us with an exceptional opportunity in terms of the impending convenience of data. Harnessing this data using machine learning tools and techniques, can put scientists and physicians in the lead research position in this area. The ob-jective of this study was to develop an efficient prognostic ML model with high-performance metrics to better identify female candidate subjects at risk of having Alzheimer's disease and dementia. The study was based on two diverse datasets. The results have been discussed employing seven perfor-mance evaluation measures i.e. accuracy, precision, recall, F-measure, Re-ceiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) area, Kappa statistic, and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE). Also, a comprehensive performance analysis has been carried out later in the study