Author: Noc Team

FC College students win international honour


Two teams of Forman Christian College MBA students have won a reputed international honour by finishing first and second in the Globus Best-In-Strategy Invitational Championship where 139 teams from business schools all over the world were invited to compete on the basis of their performance within their schools.

All 139 teams were placed in 15 Industry groups and competed in a 15-year business simulation that mirrors competitive dynamics in the global digital camera industry. Student teams are scored on multiple financial and other dimensions as they make real time decisions on a number of complex business variables such as R and D, workforce compensation, production, outsourcing, product line performance, pricing, and finance in the simulated competitive space.

The team of Faisal Pervez, Syeda Ataat Zehra and Hassan Saqlain topped their industry, beating teams that included the formidable National University of Singapore among others. The team of Ali Imran, Sohaib ul Haq and Azhar Moazzam stood second in their industry. Remarkably, while the other competing universities have all used Glo-Bus for several years, the game was used for the very first time at FC College.

HEC scholar wins Best Poster Award in UK

Higher Education Commission (HEC) scholar Muhammad Arshad has won Best Poster Award during a competition held at the School of Chemistry, University of Bath, England, UK in which 30 postgraduate students participated.

Arshad, who was pursuing his under Split PhD Programme, has returned to Pakistan and is working as Assistant Professor at the Institute of Chemistry, University of the Punjab in Lahore under Interim Placement for Fresh PhDs Programme of HEC. Arshad’s field of research is more relevant to the medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical industry. He has also written two articles in reputed journals of England which have been highlighted as a significant contribution in Chemistry both by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and American Chemical Society (ACS) in their monthly magazines. So far, 86 scholars have been awarded scholarship under the scheme, out of which 52 scholars have returned and joined their parent organizations.

Baluchistan Govt. terminated 66 protesting doctors

24 hour deadline to stop protest ended with terminations. Young Doctor’s Association had announced a strike for their pay raise and assurance of security but the consequences had to suffer by hundred of patients. Balochistan government sacked 66 protesting doctors, including five senior medical officers. Doctors were asked to resume their duties and call off their illegal strike but they neither resumed their duties nor ensured their attendance at hospitals. Medical care to poor patients remained disrupted due to the strike, thus, the government terminated all those protesting doctors who continued their illegal strike and did not attend the patients as part of their official duty.

The government has announced that medical officers selected through public service commission would be inducted on emergency basis in order to end the miseries of tens of thousands of patients suffering from the months’ long strike. All the fresh medical officers have been asked to report in three days and their paperwork will be done after some days. Their medical report and police reports will bechecked later, as first they would be inducted to provide medical help to the patients.

 

It is Bigger and it is Better! WebX 2.0 is Here!

Blogging has taken the world by storm. It is increasingly becoming the most popular method to express one’s thoughts and feelings on the internet, as well as an effective medium to earn a respectable living. These days, all the businesses around the world and specifically the technology industry maintains at least one official web log to announce its latest developments and interact with the consumers.

Pakistan doesn’t lag behind in this field as well. In fact, many top bloggers of the world are Pakistanis who have been featured in a lot of international media outlets. A platform was needed were bloggers, social media experts & enthusiasts could come together and share their experience. “WebX” was founded by a group of bloggers from Bahria University, Islamabad, with a purpose of creating as a platform where Pakistani bloggers across the globe could share and interact with each other. In a short period of one year, WebX has become Pakistan’s largest gathering of bloggers, social media experts & web technologists!

WebX 2010 was the first grand scale national gathering of bloggers and social media experts.

 

Pakistan beat Ireland in 2nd ODI to seal series win

Half-centuries by Younis Khan and Umar Akmal led Pakistan to a five-wicket victory in the second one-day international against Ireland on Monday, sealing the tourists’ 2-0 series win. Pakistan chased down a target of 239 with eight balls to spare, with late hitting by Younis (64) and Akmal (60 not out) helping the team over the line after a slow start to its reply.

A superb knock of 109 from 107 balls by opener Paul Stirling had given Ireland a decent total to defend, two days after the home side was skittled out for 96 in the first one-dayer between the teams which Pakistan won by seven wickets. Spinner Saeed Ajmal posted Pakistan’s best bowling figures of 4-35 in Stormont.

Afridi announced retirement from international cricket

Former skipper Pakistan cricket team Shahid Khan Afridi has announced retirement from international cricket here late on Monday. Afridi told that he could no longer perform for a cricket board that did not respect its senior players. “I have decided to retire from international cricket because I am not in a mental frame of mind to continue playing under this board,” the 31-year-old said.

The hard-hitting batsman and leg-spin bowler told that there were “disgraceful” people in the board who could not tolerate outspoken people like him. “I can’t work with such people. To me self-respect is more important than anything else and this board has no respect for me,” he said. He added more that during his spell as one-day captain he was not consulted over squad selection and did not know until the last minute if he would be retained as skipper.

“There was no respect shown to me although I picked up a ragged and scandal-hit team and built it up into a fighting unit. We reached the 50-over World Cup semi-finals (this year) and the reward they gave me was the sack,” he said. “They sacked me without telling me. No one bothered to even speak to me. “There is a particular lobby of people … who don’t want me in the team perhaps because I don’t fit into their scheme of things. They have poisoned the chairman  against me.”

What is Whipple’s Disease?

You might not have heard the name of Whipple’s disease because it is rare. A bacterium TropHeryma Whipplie causes the disease. The disease was first noticed by the noble prize winner pathologist George Hoyt Whipple in 1907 and was named after him. The common symptoms of whipple’s disease are weight loss, joint pains and diarrhea and anemia. The main cause of the disease is infection by the TropHeryma Whipplie bacterium that damages the mucosal lining of small intestine that stops the absorption of food through the intestines. The disease is reported to be more common in white men in North America. The whipple’s disease can affect the main organs like heart, kidneys and brain and become fatal.

A patient with the symptoms of diarrhea, weight loss and joint pains should consult a doctor. The diagnosis of whipple’s disease is not easy as majority of doctors will be looking for other diseases being unaware of it. It is usually discovered at a terminal stage. The doctors take small tissues from small intestine by endoscopy and the biopsy results lead to diagnosis. The blood tests are also helpful since the patients usually have low count of red blood cells. The albumin concentration is also low in blood samples of patients having whipple’s disease.

The disease is curable by a long course of antibiotics. The patients are usually treated by intravenous injections for fourteen days followed by a course of antibiotics for 1-2 years. The patients in early stages show signs of recovery within weeks. The patient gets relieved from joint pains and Diarrhea and his body weight starts to stabilize.

Sindh to collect sales tax on 12 services

Sindh will start collecting sales tax, initially on 12 selected services from July 1. While the other federating units — Khyber Paktunkhwa, Punjab and Balochistan — still want the existing arrangements with the federal government to continue, Sindh is moving ahead to become a torch-bearer for others to follow suit.

Sindh had been agitating that the collection and distribution on sales tax on services (SToS) should be de-linked from Federal Divisible Pool, shared by provinces under the National Finance Commission (NFC) awards. The inclusion of the SToS in the divisible pool, though a provincial tax, has deprived Sindh of its fair share calculated on the basis of population and other weightages, it was maintained.

Since then it has argued by Sindh that the federal government should keep a separate account of SToS and directly transfer its proceeds to the province from where it is collected. After the 18th constitutional amendment on April 23, 2010 the sales tax on services along with central excise duty and workers welfare fund (WWF) have come under provincial jurisdiction. However, the federal government has been collecting revenue on many services under the head of federal excise duty.

The SBR is headed by a chairman with four members and unlike provincial Board of Revenue—- a government department—, it is an autonomous body. Its mandate and powers are close to those of Federal Board of Revenue. The silver-lining is that it has two senior retired FBR officers who have a rich experience on tax revenue collection. Presently, the SBR is carrying out computerisation and automation of its entire revenue collection system by launching web based recovery of taxes and fees with effect from July 1. The SRB has yet to do a lot before it starts collecting revenue. The Board is still in the process of drafting various laws eg. Sindh Sales Tax on Services Bill including Revised Bill and the Flood Tax Bill.

Initially only 12 services are being taxed whereas around 200 large and small services are still outside the ambit. The provincial government will move to bring many small services under the sales tax net. Such services as security, health, human resource development could be brought under the tax net. Currently, the provinces have to look to Islamabad for funds and Islamabad looks to Washington and we are all under vicious circle which retards growth and development of provinces and the country as a whole.

Mother’s milk helpful in improving baby’s DNA: Research

Mother’s milk was always seen as healthy food for baby, but new studies have shown that it is beneficial in many ways. Researches of University of Illinois have now established that mother’s milk is helpful also in improving DNA and immunity of baby. In a study, 10 babies were breast fed by their mothers and other 12 babies were fed with supplementary foods.

At the end of the study, the researches found that only mother’s milk has the capability to influence baby’s entire body mechanism. The milk also was seen as making significant improvements in DNA and immunity. It was found that mother’s milk protects baby from all kinds of virus and as a result of it the baby leads a healthy and normal life.

Jolie and Pitt ready to get married?

Seems like Hollywood hot couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are now ready to walk down the aisle after being together for six years and raising as many kids. In a recent interview, the 47-year-old actor, who once said he would wait to wed until ‘it’s legal for everyone else’,” has revealed that he and Jolie may reconsider.

Pitt said his brood might be the driving force behind him getting married a second time as they have shown interest in their mother and father tying the knot. “The kids ask about marriage.  It’s meaning more and more to them. So it’s something we’ve got to look at,”