Suchergebnisse

A partnership plan for the Horizon 2020 programme was finalised between the European Union (EU) delegation and Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) visiting Pakistan in November 2017. Aimed at promoting a more binding single market for research, innovation and knowledge, the Horizon 2020 is basically a financial instrument. It is a flagship initiative to secure Europe's global competitiveness by steering economic growth and to help generate more opportunities for employment. The programme also anchors on a unanimous keystone for cooperation by both the European leaders and members of the European Parliament. Pakistan and the EU have always celebrated cordial political, economic and trade relations. As one of Pakistan's largest trading partners and the biggest market for the Pakistani exports, the EU-Pakistan trade reached €10.49 billion in 2015.[1] Since January 2014, Pakistan has also benefitted from the EU's Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) and its exports to the EU are encouraged even further. However, with the shifting political paradigms in the post-Brexit period and the rise of the right-wing nationalist/populist syndrome, Brussels is changing. Amidst rising economic crisis and growing terrorism, solutions look dim or problems would at least take time to faint. The future shape and character of the EU are in question. The EU's insistence to help Pakistan with its aim of supporting on its path towards inclusive and sustainable growth needs revamping. Pakistan's five major priority areas of governance, local development, economic growth and trade, humanitarian assistance and regional cooperation are significantly dependent upon the support of the EU.

India's bid to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to achieve the organisational power play remains unfulfilled. It is more to gain supremacy to refute the UNSC resolutions and gloss the continuing atrocities in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) completely. The Resolution 48 is the oldest of the UNSC resolutions waiting for its implementation since1948. It called for a plebiscite in the IOK to determine its sovereign status according to the will of its people. The reassertion of the Indian External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, in her address to the UN in November 2016, declaring the IOK as an "integral part of India" is a barefaced non-compliance to the global institutional framework meant to harmonise, supplement and enforce the peace efforts in the world according to the UN Charter. Swaraj's reference to the insurgency in Balochistan, in her address to the UN, is yet another blatant antithesis of the principles enshrined in the Charter to respect the mutual sovereignty and coexistence. In 2017, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), has also urged India to implement the resolutions of the UNSC.1 A country, in violation of the human rights, UNSC resolutions and international norms, does not qualify to be a member of the crisis-management body. India has certainly failed to set an example.

Following Ramsey, the existing literature on optimal quantity taxation only compares the pre and the post-tax market equilibriums in order to account for the efficiency losses. However, when the government imposes a quantity tax on the consumer, the buyer's price jumps to the pre-tax equilibrium price plus the amount of the tax, and the supply and the demand of the taxed commodity then adjust over time to bring the new post-tax market equilibrium. The existing literature does not take into account the efficiency losses during the adjustment process while computing the optimal quantity taxes. This paper derives an optimal quantity tax path in a dynamic setting minimizing the efficiency losses (output and/ or consumption lost) during the dynamic adjustment process as well as the post-tax market equilibrium.

The Federal Home Minister of the government of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mr. Rajnath Singh, unveiled a plan in April 2015, to settle tens of thousands of non-Kashmiri Hindus in the Muslim dominated disputed territory of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). BJP has long vowed to settle 200,000 to 300,000 Hindus in IOK. The three disclosed and two undisclosed composite Hindu townships for the non-Kashmiris, to be made on the acquired lands of the farmers would be self-contained and heavily guarded. IOK enjoys an independent constitutional status. Article 370 does not allow non-Kashmiris to own land in Kashmir. Modi is well aware that demographics can reshape politics by redrawing the boundaries of population. The decision is akin with the Israeli style settlements in Palestine. It perpetuates the cycle of vicious and unlawful politics. In an ideologically polarised society, the identity-based animus would further gratify the Indian policy of human rights violations and denial to the right of self-determination. Muslims, by far, are a majority with 68.3 per cent of the total population followed by Hindus and Buddhists in IOK. The power of numbers entrenched in democracy would clearly enjoy alliance with prevalent black laws and gradual erosion of Article 370, if settlements are encouraged. Consequently, it would generate more instability in an effort to incorporate IOK politically, ideologically and territorially. With demographics as a crucial factor in any peace building effort, Indo-Pak peace would face uphill struggle even further.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the effect of investments in organisational resources and corporate governance features on market-based performance of Islamic banks (IBs).Design/methodology/approachThe required data to calculate different constituents of banks' investment strategies and governance mechanism were hand collected from 268 annual reports. Different regression models were used to determine the impact of investment in human and structural capital and corporate governance features on market performance of IBs.FindingsThe paper finds that investments in knowledge resources (human capital, in particular) have a significantly positive impact on the market value of IBs. The results further reveal that IBs' strategy to rely on long-term human capital accumulation can be seen as idiosyncratic problem-solving knowledge capital. Based on market measure, the paper finds role duality to have a significant positive impact and the size of the advisory board to have the opposite effect on market value.Research limitations/implicationsThis study includes IBs only and ignores other Islamic financial services providers such as Takaful (insurance) companies. The study leaves this chasm to be filled by future researchers.Practical implicationsThe findings may serve as a useful input for both Islamic bankers and regulators to apply knowledge management in their institutions. Furthermore, the dominant role of human capital also provides insight to managers with respect to business performance levers.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this paper is to provide insight into the Islamic banking business model using a unique hand-collected data set, to identify the effect of investments in organisational resources and bank governance on market value in before, during and after financial crisis.

[Abstract] Following Ramsey, the existing literature on optimal quantity taxation only compares the pre and the post-tax market equilibriums in order to account for the efficiency losses. However, when the government imposes a quantity tax on the consumer, the buyer's price jumps to the pre-tax equilibrium price plus the amount of the tax, and the supply and the demand of the taxed commodity then adjust over time to bring the new post-tax market equilibrium. The existing literature does not take into account the efficiency losses during the adjustment process while computing the optimal quantity taxes. This paper derives an optimal quantity tax path in a dynamic setting minimizing the efficiency losses (output and/ or consumption lost) during the dynamic adjustment process as well as the post-tax market equilibrium.

This paper traces the working of various local governments within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan in terms of efficiency while providing health and educational facilities. Only those districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa having a population of at least one million, were taken into account. The performance of six district local governments in the field of education and health was thoroughly analyzed. The main focus was to assess whether local governments were efficient in the provision of the required services or otherwise. In the context of this study, local governments were perceived as firms, each aiming at the efficient provision and welfare of their respective communities / localities. Annual time-series data for the period 2004 to 2015 was taken. The study revealed the performance and efficiency of each of the selected district governments. The study also confirmed the validity of the Tiebout Hypothesis in terms of the local governments of KP in relevance to the provision of health and educational services. The district government primarily revolves around the needs and aspirations of the common people. This system can perform better if properly implemented and monitored in light of the gross root level input.

Following Ramsey, the existing literature on optimal quantity taxation only compares the pre and the post-tax market equilibriums in order to account for the efficiency losses. However, when the government imposes a quantity tax on the consumer, the buyer's price jumps to the pre-tax equilibrium price plus the amount of the tax, and the supply and the demand of the taxed commodity then adjust over time to bring the new post-tax market equilibrium. The existing literature does not take into account the efficiency losses during the adjustment process while computing the optimal quantity taxes. This paper derives an optimal quantity tax path in a dynamic setting minimizing the efficiency losses (output and/ or consumption lost) during the dynamic adjustment process as well as the post-tax market equilibrium.

Following Ramsey, the existing literature on optimal quantity taxation only compares the pre and the post-tax market equilibriums in order to account for the efficiency losses. However, when the government imposes a quantity tax on the consumer, the buyer's price jumps to the pre-tax equilibrium price plus the amount of the tax, and the supply and the demand of the taxed commodity then adjust over time to bring the new post-tax market equilibrium. The existing literature does not take into account the efficiency losses during the adjustment process while computing the optimal quantity taxes. This paper derives an optimal quantity tax path in a dynamic setting minimizing the efficiency losses (output and/ or consumption lost) during the dynamic adjustment process as well as the post-tax market equilibrium.