Pakistan IT » Miscellaneous

NADRA Successfully Executed Phase-I of Watan Card; said Tariq Malik

Pakistan IT — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 02:24:44 +0000

“1.645 million Flood affected families were disbursed PKR 30.3 Billion rupees through Watan Card”

National Database & Registration Authority, NADRA is all set to start second phase of Watan cards after issuance of over 1.6 million Cards effectively and transparently resolving all complaints of flood victims by using its efficient Complaints Redressal System. This was stated by Deputy Chairman NADRA Mr. Tariq Malik.

“National Disaster Management Authority estimated around 1.68 million families affected by flood, and we have given Watan Cards to over 1,645,262 million, which means we have done 99 per cent of our job. Now after successful completion of the first phase we are determined and hopeful that this achievement would pave the way for the successful completion of second phase.” said Tariq Malik.

The Second Phase regarded as Citizen’s Damage Compensation Programme (CDCP) will provide Cash transfers to more than One million flood affectees households.

We are working with all Provincial Government to quickly start second phase. Good news is that World Bank has already approved $125m for second phase, said Tariq Malik.

He said NADRA in the first phase has disbursed cash assistance of Rs. 30,350,275,877 to flood affected families across the country which is a big achievement and first ever disbursement of its kind in history. NADRA has set a global example in helping people and giving them a mechanism for disbursement of cash assistance transparently.

Tariq Malik said that the Complaint Redressal System’s objective was to address the complaints from genuine and legitimate beneficiaries who were unable to get registered for Watan cards and the system has been successful in doing so. He said NADRA received 300,000 complaints from flood affected population who had been facing different problems in getting Watan and resolved them in all provinces.

He said that throughout the process NADRA ensured strong checks in the software so that only deserving families belonging to provincially notified calamity hit areas could obtain Watan Cards.

Tariq Malik said that using its multi-biometric system, NADRA has ensured transparency and thwarted several attempts of misuse of the Watan Card from miscreants. “About 1.3 million ineligible people visited NADRA Registration Centers to obtain Watan Cards but due to vigilant NADRA system they were not able to do so,” he added.

“Had our system not rejected 1.3 million ineligible applicants, government of Pakistan would have lost 26 billion rupees,” said Malik. “This is a perfect example of good governance and efficient service delivery recognized by international donors and agencies like World Bank,” he added.

He said that NADRA issued 608,825 Watan Cards in Punjab to disburse around Rs. 11.98 billion. In Sindh, the number of Watan Cards issued was 651,990 with a disbursed amount of Rs. 11.38 billion.

In Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, the number of Watan Cards issued stood at 120,918 and 243,208 with disbursed amount of Rs. 2.19 billion and Rs. 4.40 billion respectively.

In Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, 9,378 and 10,943 cards were issued disbursing Rs 155.99 million and Rs. 212.06 million respectively.

Incoming search terms:

Random Posts

Warid, Wateen Headquarter May Shift to Islamabad

Pakistan IT — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 02:22:33 +0000

The managements of Warid Tel and Wateen, the two major telecom and broadband operators of Dhabi Group, are mulling to relocate companies’ headquarter to Islamabad as a strategy to boost up their operations and business with accelerated pace.

Sources in the Dhabi Group told Telecom Recorder that management of two companies have planned to shift their head offices in Islamabad from Lahore for better coordination with telecom regulator, concerned ministry and different operators of telecom sector.

Though operator have its regional office in Islamabad, which maintain liaison with headquarter over policy issues of telecom sector directly but the new management want to establish main office in Islamabad as all four cellular operator headquarters are based in Islamabad.

Sources said the new management deliberated that the relocation of their head office may help them to implement the policies and regulations of the telecom authority with better understand as top brass will look after day to day affairs and operations in the capital of the country.

Previously, they added, the key officials Pervez Shahid and Bashir Tahir were based in Lahore, therefore, the companies head offices remain functional in their residential cities.

Sources confirmed, Zohair Khaliq the Executive Director of the Dhabi Group and former CEO Mobilink, has proposed the idea taking in confidence his fellow board members on relocation of headquarter.

According to them, he said the operations of the company will be streamlined in well connected manner if they are based in capital of the country.

Warid Tel launched its services in 2005 whereas its sister organization Wateen commenced its services in 2007.

Incoming search terms:

You might also like:

Mobile operators to generate billions in revenues from hypochondriacs

Pakistan IT — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 02:11:01 +0000

The global market for machine-to-machine (M2M) healthcare applications will be worth €69 billion in 2020, a large portion of which could go to the mobile operators, according to a new report from Machina Research.

The company predicts that connected devices in the healthcare space will number 774 million by the same date, identifying people’s concern for their health and well-being as “the single most significant driver behind the largest M2M healthcare opportunities,” in terms of connected devices. In other words, healthcare monitoring devices for the market segment known as the “worried well” will be very popular.

Consumer-oriented devices will make up 76% of the total connected devices, or 586 million units, but the revenue opportunity will be greatest in the non-consumer space, where devices cost significantly more.

As a result, the lion’s share of M2M healthcare revenues will go to established medical equipment manufacturers. However, that still leaves a significant sum for other players, including mobile operators, to fight for.

“We expect that €3.1 billion of this [€69 billion] revenue will go to mobile network operators for provision of data carriage services,” said Jim Morrish, director at Machina Research and author of the report,Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communications in Healthcare 2010-20.

“A further €36 billion will be contested between systems integrators, device manufacturers, mobile operators and other service providers,” Morrish answered, noting that medical equipment makers stand to capture €30 billion.

Realistically, the analyst firm puts the opportunity for mobile operators at around €26 billion, if they position themselves well in the value chain. It advises mobile operators to “focus mainly on the consumer connected healthcare market, where brand assets, distribution channels and billing and customer service capabilities can be leveraged most effectively.” However, they should also consider partnering with systems integrators and medical kit makers in certain areas, such as clinical remote monitoring of patients in their homes and assisted living solutions.

Random Posts

Newspaper from China Warned Google Regarding Hacking Claims

Pakistan IT — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:36:29 +0000

The issue of Gmail hacking has taken a serious turn when the government officials from both the countries involved. The U.S is symbolizing these attacks with the cyber war. China is an emerging super power and having 450 million internet users. So China can affect the global economy of internet.

An official newspaper of china has taken this issue and said that Google may have to pay price for these hacking claims. It means China and its government is rejecting the accusations of hacking.

It is written in the People’s Daily overseas edition:

“Deliberately pandering to negative Western perceptions of China, and strongly hinting that the hacking attacks were the work of the Chinese government. Google’s accusations aimed at China are spurious, have ulterior motives, and bear malign intentions. Google should not become overly embroiled in international political struggle, playing the role of a tool for political contention. For when the international winds shift direction, it may become sacrificed to politics and will be spurned by the marketplace.”

China says that Google is just playing bad politics and this accusation process may hurt Chinese business. So Google should stop this. The friction between the China and Google may affect the U.S-China relations as the whole issue has become political.

In past, the relationship of Google and China was tensed because of the hacking and censorship issue. Google has partially come out of China and it is losing much of its business. The issue has become politicized and it should be resolved soon. The officials from both sides are giving statements that may hurt anyone’s feelings.

The investigation process is taking place and it will soon be revealed that who is the culprit. I personally feel that Google is just blaming China and nothing is in between. It is taking revenge from China for the censorship issue.

You might also like:

Gmail Hacking Issue Become Sterner

Pakistan IT — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:01:45 +0000

The issue of Gmail hacking is creating tension between both Google and China. It is also becoming the issue of countries and people are linking it with the cyber military warfare. As this is the era of technology and war between countries can be done in many ways. The physical presence is no issue these days. The people from U.S.A and China both are getting aggressive and denying each other’s statements.

As we all know that China is an emerging super power and it is the hub of world’s electronics so there is a factor of jealousy among various countries including west. Officially neither Google nor U.S officials are blaming the government of China. There are many rumors regarding this hacking issue but most of them are focused on China.

U.S.A never leaves any issue that is related to its sovereignty and they do certain investigations for getting into the roots of it. Though it is bit difficult to know who is actually behind the hacking scene but every possible step will be taken by U.S and Google with the collaboration of FBI. The two military officers from china have written a paper regarding this issue and they mentioned many things in it.

Senior Colonel Ye Zheng and his colleague Zhao Baoxian said:

“Just as nuclear warfare was the strategic war of the industrial era, cyber-warfare has become the strategic war of the information era, and this has become a form of battle that is massively destructive and concerns the life and death of nations. The targets of psychological warfare on the Internet have expanded from the military to the public”

China is also going through the censorship issue regarding facebook and twitter and from this we can know that there are certain restrictions over freedom of expression in China. We cannot comment on it because this is a personal matter of China and they better know what they have to do with it.

Now let me tell you a bit about the place named as Jinan that is in China and some unknown people are accused from that place for hacking. If you see Jinan from Google earth you will notice that it is same as other cities of China having low level construction. It is also having university and lot of railway lines.

Google says that in Jinan there might be servers of computers who have hacked Gmail accounts or there might be a laptop of a hacker from where Gmail accounts have been compromised. Now this cyber attack is considered as a military cyber war and many of military officials from U.S have accepted this.

Now the investigation is going on and we have to see the real culprit behind this, but as I told you before that this issue has become diplomatic and it might affect various countries relationship because of the involvements of senior U.S officials.

You might also like:

UBL WIZ Card, An ACCA Prepaid VISA Debit Service

Pakistan IT — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 14:30:54 +0000

UBL Wiz is a Prepaid VISA Debit Card. It is an internationally accepted VISA Debit Card that allows spending online and at shopping outlets in addition to cash withdrawals at ATMs.

UBL Wiz Card can be used everywhere VISA cards are accepted. Whether you are using it online, paying for petrol, shopping or dining, you are accessing money directly from your prepaid card, without having to visit the bank.

UBL Wiz is the 1st Prepaid VISA Debit Card in Pakistan. It is instantly available at selected UBL branches with the facility of re-load, allows you to spend online and at shopping outlets and withdraw cash at ATMs. It is also accepted at all VISA locations internationally.

Available to all CNIC holders

All valid CNIC holders in Pakistan can own a UBL Wiz Prepaid VISA Debit Card. An individual can purchase up to three cards at a time on his/her CNIC – one of each category, i.e. a person can have a single UBL Wiz Ladies, UBL Wiz Teen and UBL Wiz Travelers card at any given point in time.

24×7 Toll Free Contact Centre

If you have any queries or need assistance with your UBL Wiz card, you can talk to an agent at our 24 hour Contact Centre at 0800-11-825. You can also use the telephone next to all UBL ATMs and be instantly connected to our customer service representative via a hotline facility.

UBL Wiz – Your ATM Card

UBL has its own network of 336 ATMs in 85 cities, which continues to expand by the day. Moreover, UBL is also part of the 1 Link, MNET and VISA networks. These allow you to use your UBL Wiz across Pakistan at more than 3,000 ATMs displaying the 1 Link and MNET logo and at more than 2 million ATMs in 150 countries. The UBL Wiz card is also accepted on all VISA certified machines displaying the VISA Plus sign.

Online Shopping

UBL Wiz provides you convenience and security to shop online. In order to activate your card for online transactions, you will need to sign up for the facility and enable your card.

Other Facilities
Mini Statement Payments

You can get a free of cost mini-statement that shows the recent transactions on your Wiz Card, at any time through UBL ATM’s.

UBL e-statement facility

UBL e-statements give you the flexibility to choose how frequently you want to receive your e-statements i.e. daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or semi-annually. This facility is available absolutely free of cost for Wiz card holders!

Balance Enquiry

You can check the available balance in your account at any UBL, 1 Link or MNET ATM and get a slip of your account balance.

Incoming search terms:

You might also like:

Russia Won’t Ban Gmail or Skype Amid Security Concerns

Pakistan IT — Sat, 07 May 2011 13:44:49 +0000

It looks like Russia won’t be banning Skype or Gmail, after all. The Kremlin was reportedly considering blocking both services, along with Hotmail, in response to a major cyberattack that crippled the country’s most popular blog and an independent news site. Some within the Kremlin had believed the services posed a major threat to national security, but some critics had thought the government may have just been looking for an excuse to tighten its control over the Web — ahead of December’s parliamentary elections and next year’s presidential race.

source: AP/HuffPost

You might also like:

Facebook Strikes Deal to Create New Social Network in China

Pakistan IT — Sat, 07 May 2011 13:39:49 +0000

Facebook is reportedly working with China’s largest search engine to create a new, jointly owned social network. The collaboration with Baidu would allow Facebook to get a foothold in the Chinese market while giving Baidu the chance to capitalize on Mark Zuckerberg’s network-building expertise. The new site would still need to be approved by Chinese’s Internet regulators, who retain final say on pretty much everything. And it definitely wouldn’t be able to use the Facebook.com URL, which remains blocked throughout the mainland.

via: NBC Bay Area

source: Silicon Alley Insider

Incoming search terms:

You might also like:

Julian Assange Says WikiLeaks Is More Accountable Than Most Governments, Gets a Little Sassy About It

Pakistan IT — Sat, 07 May 2011 13:37:53 +0000

Julian Assange thinks WikiLeaks is more accountable than any democratic government in the world. And if you dare say otherwise, you’ll probably get sued.

That was essentially the message that Assange conveyed over the weekend, during his first public appearance since being arrested in December, amid accusations of rape and sexual assault. Speaking to an audience at a public debate in London, Assange claimed that his whistleblowing organization is more accountable than most democratically elected governments — simply because WikiLeaks relies upon personal donations, rather than corporate money.

“We are directly supported on a week-to-week basis by you. You vote with your wallets every week if you believe that our work is worthwhile or not,” Assange explained. “If you believe we have erred, you do not support us. If you believe we need to be protected in our work, you keep us strong. That dynamic feedback, I say, is more responsive than a government that is elected after sourcing money from big business every four years.”

Things got a little testy, though, when political commentator Douglas Murray took the floor. Murray wasted no time in challenging Assange on the sources of WikiLeaks’ donations, as well as its connections to Israel Shamir — a Holocaust denier who has worked with the organization. Murray also brought up a book authored by Guardian writers David Leigh and Luke Harding. According to the authors, Assange once said that any informant who dies because of WikiLeaks’ published documents “had it coming to them.”

Assange replied to Murray by reminding him that he “is in the process of suing the Guardian” over the book, and asked Murray if he’d like to “join the queue” of people he’s suing. That prompted debate chair Jason Cowley to interject and ask, “How can the great champion of open society be using our libel laws to challenge the press?” Assange, however, was forced to cut the Q&A short, in order to make curfew, as required by his bail.

source: The Guardian

Incoming search terms:

pakistan fbr tax reminder email

You might also like:

Google and Sprint respond to Google Voice integration issues

Pakistan IT — Sat, 07 May 2011 13:28:36 +0000

You may recall from yesterday that early adopters were having a variety of issues after activating (or attempting to activate) Sprint’s new Google Voice integration feature. Well, a full day has passed, and we’ve had several calls with GV lead Vincent Paquet as well as Brian Smith, Sprint’s director of product development. Both executives have said that their respective companies have been hard at work on resolutions to each of the issues we outlined Thursday night, and some customers we spoke to yesterday are now back online. Jump past the break for a quick summary of what’s been fixed, and what remains on the to-do list.

Our primary concern yesterday was a voicemail security bug that inadvertently granted management-level access to people that one user called from the Google Voice web app. Google is not commenting on this vulnerability, but has confirmed that it’s not a threat today. The second issue was that some GV customers who were up and running with Sprint integration suddenly found themselves unable to use the service. This issue has been pegged to the removal of an accounting code — GGLVOICE — that some Sprint reps have accidentally removed. The carrier is working to prevent this from occurring in the future, and those already affected should soon be able to call in for support. Next up, some international calls were being processed through Sprint, rather than through GV, even after users activated their integration. This has been tied to the accidental removal of the same accounting code, and Google has offered to reimburse affected individuals (see the update on yesterday’s post for full details).

Finally, many users — notably those on personal accounts with corporate discounts — have been unable to activate GV integration. Sprint has promised a mid-May resolution, and we’ll certainly keep you updated. Users with these issues are still being instructed to share their concerns on the Google Voice Forum, which as of now is finally getting the attention it needs. You can also post a comment below, as both companies have been monitoring here, too. Things are looking much better today than they were yesterday, but our position remains unchanged: Unless you’ve already activated Sprint/Google Voice integration, please stand by until both companies have had a chance to work out these (very significant) kinks. You’ve been able to hold out this long — what’s another few weeks?

Update: Sprint customers on corporate and government accounts (paid for by your employer) are currently not eligible for integration. Eventually, Sprint will enable integration for some of these companies on a case-by-case basis.

Google Voice Forum

You might also like: