South Asia Investor Review

After decades of failed attempts, the Government of Pakistan has finally privatized the Pakistan International Airline (PIA) under intense pressure from the International Monetary Fund ( IMF ). Nonetheless, it is a deal that will give the national airline not only a chance to survive but to thrive in the long run. As part of structuring the sale for Rs. 135 billion, the government has assumed Rs. 654 billion in debt and pension obligations. The government gets only Rs. 10 billion in cash but it gives the new owners a clean balance sheet in return for a commitment to invest Rs. 125 billion of the Rs. 135 billion sale price in the carrier.  PIA Privatization Deal Structure. Source: Standard Capital Securities Pvt Ltd. Pakistani politicians have used state-owned enterprises like the PIA as a vehicle for doling out  political patronage . They have given jobs, including top jobs, to political cronies who have neither the experience nor the inclination to run these PSUs like busines...

Several Pakistani pharmaceutical companies have started domestic production of generic versions of GLP-1 (Glucagon-Like Peptide-1) drugs Ozempic/Wegovy (Semaglutide) and Mounjaro/Zeptide (Tirzepatide). Priced significantly lower than the branded imports, these domestically manufactured generic drugs will increase Pakistanis' access and affordability to address the obesity crisis in the country, resulting in lower disease burdens and improved life quality and longer life expectancy. Obesity causes diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and other non-communicable diseases (NCD) which are now among the leading causes of death in Pakistan.  Pakistan Pharmaceutical Companies BF Biosciences, Ferozsons, Getz Pharma and GD Searle Co are among the leading pharma producers of both injectable and pill versions of the GLP-1 and GIP drugs in Pakistan.  Over the last few years, these drugs have revolutionized treatment of diabetes and obesity. Now, Pakistani pharmaceutical companies have be...

The top 1% of Indians own 40.1% of the nation's wealth, higher than the 37% global average. This makes India one of the world's most unequal countries, according to the World Inequality Report. By contrast, the top 1% own 24% of the country's wealth in Pakistan, and 23.9% in Bangladesh. Tiny groups of wealthy elites (top 1%) are using their money to buy mass media to manipulate public opinion for their own benefit. They are paying politicians for highly favorable laws and policies to further consolidate their power. It is a phenomenon known as " elite capture ".  Wealth Inequality. Source: World Inequality Report 2026 "Extreme wealth inequality is persistent and increasing" in all parts of the world, says the report published by World Inequality Lab of the Paris School of Economics. This has serious economic, political and social implications. It is undermining democracies and empowering billionaires at the expense of the common people, including the mid...

Data Vault and Telenor Pakistan have launched the nation's first dedicated AI data center in Karachi. It is designed to support startups, researchers, and government agencies with high-performance computing and GPU-as-a-service offerings. It is equipped with more than 3,000 Nvidia's highest performance H100 and H200 GPUs for which the Trump Administration issued export licenses. These GPUs cost from $40,000 to $60,000 each, making the Nvidia chips the biggest chunk of the investment made in this AI data center. Other data centers in Pakistan also support  AI  workloads but this new data center in Karachi is specially designed for AI. It puts the country on a short list of only a handful of nations with locally hosted AI data centers. Pakistanis rank among the world's top five users of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, securing the fourth spot among 21 nations surveyed by the Schwartz Reisman Institute. The local hosting of data in Pakistan ensures data sovereignty to comp...

The World Bank researchers have recently concluded that 88 per cent live in urban areas. Their conclusion is based on satellite imagery and the Degree of Urbanization (DoU) methodology. The official Pakistani figures released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) put the current level of urbanization at 39%. The source of this massive discrepancy is the government's reliance on administrative boundaries rather than population density and settlement patterns, according to the World Bank working  research paper  titled  "When Does a Village Become a Town?".  Urbanization in Pakistan. Source: World Bank Urban areas are characterized by high population density, while rural areas are sparsely populated with more open space. Major differences include urban areas having more commercial development, diverse job opportunities, and a faster pace of life, while rural areas often focus on agriculture and have a slower pace of life with closer-knit communities but may face c...

The Indian government reported faster-than-expected GDP growth of 8.2% for the September quarter. It came as a surprise to many economists who were expecting a slowdown based on the recent high-frequency indicators such as consumer goods sales and durable goods production, as well as two-wheeler sales. At the same time, The International Monetary Fund expressed doubts about the Indian government's GDP data.  The IMF has recently expressed doubts about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP government's GDP data. It has particularly questioned the government's statistical methodologies, inflation measurement, and the estimates of the informal economy used in reporting the country's gross domestic product. Professor Arun Kumar of Jawaharlal Nehru University believes the IMF's concerns are valid. He thinks the real size of India's economy is only half of what is officially claimed.  “The economy is almost 50% wrong – when the government says it’s $3.8 trillion, my...