Prof. Dr. Saleem Raza Samo, Vice chancellor, Quaid-e-Awam University of Science, Engineering & Technology (QUEST) Nawabshah had a wonderful meeting with Prof. Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed, Chairman, Higher Education Commission (HEC), along with Tahir Mahmood Chaudhry and discussed how to improve the quality of education, mutual responsibility for solving Pakistani issues mainly 13 challenges, including education, energy, healthcare, water, food safety and security, exports, digitalization, industry-academia collaboration, placement, minimizing extremism, support to the government to cope up with financial management through institutional excellence, better self-management.
Chairman HEC assured the participants of extending every support by HEC required to achieve these targets. Dr. Samo shared the achievement of QUEST and alignment in this regard..n

To celebrate the 75th Independence Day, Pakistan Cables employee volunteers visited a children’s Emergency Room to spend time with the children admitted to the ER facility for treatment. Volunteers distributed toys among children creating a memorable day for all involved. Prior to the volunteer activity, the Company also made a donation to ChildLife Foundation, an NGO that manages the Children’s Emergency Room at Sindh Government Hospital Korangi 5, Karachi.
“This day provokes Pakistanis to think about giving back and serving others, and it’s a great time for companies to take initiative in organizing community service events for employees. Our staff volunteering initiative brings our vision to life that focuses on transforming lives. ChildLife Foundation is a unique public-private sector partnership success story, and we are happy to have made a meaningful contribution towards it,” said Mariam Durrani, General Manager, Marketing & Brands, Pakistan Cables Ltd.
ChildLife Foundation runs state-of-the-art children’s Emergency Rooms in partnership with the government in major cities, in addition to telemedicine satellite centers in district and tehsil level hospitals in rural areas. The Foundation is celebrating saving lives in 75+ hospitals on Pakistan’s 75th Independence Day.
Dr. Ahson Rabbani, CEO ChildLife Foundation, said, “ChildLife serves Pakistan’s sickest and poorest children 24/7, completely free of cost through its growing network of children’s ERs and Telemedicine Satellite Centres. We are grateful to have reliable supporters like Pakistan Cables, whose active investment in saving Pakistan’s future – its children – is commendable. We hope to nurture our partnership with them to achieve our mission of a child-safe Pakistan.” –PR

Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh has said that the provincial government was trying to bring Thar coal to work to meet the energy needs of the country so that the country could be saved from the economic crisis by saving a huge amount of money spent on the import of oil and gas.Shaikh met the officials of the Shanghai Electric Company at the energy department office.
The energy minister was briefed on the use of underground water at the Thar and the supply of water to the Thar Coal Project from the Nabi Sir Vijehar pipeline.Imtiaz Shaikh said that the Sindh government was working expeditiously on projects in Thar Coal Field to meet the country’s energy needs from the Thar Coal Power Project and trying to provide all possible facilities to the companies working on the projects.n

Pakistan’s 75th birth anniversary coincided with news claiming to have produced a prototype of the country’s first electric car—the mode of transportation societies are forced to adopt in the wake of the impacts of climate change.
The producers of the car named Nur-E 75 unveiled it as Pakistan’s first locally manufactured electric car though at least two such efforts are known in the recent past. The first was made by Dr. Jamil Ahmed Khan at NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi, and another by Dr. Abid Karim at Usman Institute of Technology (UIT)—now a university.
UIT’s effort has also entered a mature phase and the innovators from the university led by Dr. Abid Karim are busy converting Suzuki into an electric car. He says they are waiting for the kits while their project is complete.
Meanwhile, Nur-E 75 has been produced by a non-profit organization DICE Foundation in collaboration with NED University of Engineering and Technology, DHA Suffa University, National College of Arts, Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) Punjab, National University of Sciences and Technology, Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, Amreli Steels, PSG and Kruddson Aluminum.
DICE is a US-based non-profit organization run by expatriate Pakistanis who have designed the prototype in collaboration with academia and industry.
The five-seater hatchback has a top speed of 127 kilometers per hour and will be introduced in the market at the end of 2024, a Dice Foundation statement says.
The car takes eight hours to get fully charged, after which it can run for 210 kilometers. It costs around Rs 4 million.
Dice Foundation Founder and Chairman Dr. Khurshid Qureshi termed the car a “gamechanger both for Pakistan’s economy as well as for the well-being of the common man”.
Dr. told the media that the work started in 2019 after TEVTA and Dice Foundation announced plans to develop Pakistan’s first electric vehicle. A ceremony had been organized to unveil the concept design of the car and MoU signing at the TEVTA Secretariat in Lahore.
DICE’s plans are not restricted to Nur-E 75 only, it has also planned to develop a sedan and a small SUV in the next two phases.
Nur-E 75, according to the producers, will consist of 60 percent imported parts while 40 percent be locally made.
In other words, the motor and battery—the two most essential components of the vehicle—will be imported and have a say in the assessment of the cost. However, the DICE chief says the level of local parts will hit 80 percent by 2026.
He said the battery pack has been designed and developed at DICE Energy Innovation Centre at NED University; exterior design visualization was developed at NCA, Lahore. Detailed computer-aided engineering was done at DICE automotive CAE Centre at DSU Karachi.
Fabrication and testing were done by DICE, NCA, and TEVTA teams mostly using the facility of TEVTA Punjab. Subsystems/components have been developed or acquired from the existing vendor base (Amreli Steels, PSG, Kruddsons, and others) or aftermarket.
He said some systems imported will be indigenized later. He said the vehicle control was done by the DICE team, locally. – KARACHI: ER

One does not know how Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reacted when officers around him put their plans to generate 9,000 megawatts from solar projects on a priority basis, the people in the business, however, did have their eyebrows raised for sure. And there are very pertinent reasons for it.
This is just a part of the Shahbaz government’s plan of generating 14,000 megawatts from solar energy projects this year. Seemingly, it’s a robust step to raise the share of green energy in Pakistan’s overall pool of energy.
The impetus is caused by the devastating national economy which, as the government believes cannot afford to generate energy by using expensive oil—the commodity that Pakistan solely imports.
To promote solar, the federal government wants to introduce reduced prices for solar systems and offer tax incentives. Besides, a comprehensive policy is required to provide the foundation for the shift from expensive fuels to alternative energy sources.
The prime minister said that the alternate energy policy introduced by the Imran Khan government in 2020 failed not only to produce the required results but also to attract investment.
If the former government’s line of action and its policy are lacking then the present government needs to take such potential initiatives missing in the said policy that distinguishes it from its predecessors. For instance, if the policy of Imran Khan’s government did not bear fruit then the policy should be formulated in a manner that speaks the discourse required for the country.
In addition, many other decisions are a must to get the required results. They include the policy support to localization of solar systems so that the value addition be ensured and thus imports can be reduced in this sector.
None of the components of the solar system is made in Pakistan and thus the consumers have no option but to go with the systems that are not as efficient as the modern systems being used in the developed world.
Experts say the efficiency of solar cells being used in Pakistan is not more than 20 percent as they are from older versions and produced by older assemblies being imported in Pakistan.
Since there is no local industry and the absence of research and development culture in Pakistan, the target of the government to go solar in a hefty manner seems unrealistic. ‘we shall require US$7 billion to have the capacity of 14,000 megawatts,’ says a senior engineer.
The government, he says, needs at least 2 years to formulate the policy and implement it.
Besides, Pakistan needs a culture of research and development and the engineering universities have to be pushed for research in genuine terms. We need our universities to work on increasing the efficiency of solar cells and, of course, on other components too.
Moreover, batteries are one more issue to be looked after. They are expensive and also they require a complete chain to ensure their availability.
In the presence of all these issues, the prime minister has directed prioritizing Balochistan in the provision of solar systems. As an intent, it is good but such systems require ownership that unfortunately has been missing in our societies. Therefore, the government has to make an arrangement to ensure it in a province where development outlays have gone into the vein for a long time.
The prime minister directed the authorities concerned to carry out comprehensive planning for the early execution of the solar projects. He called for giving priority to Balochistan in the provision of solar systems across the country.n