South Asia Investor Review

A London-based startup builder.ai, founded by an Indian named Sachin Dev Duggal,  recently filed for bankruptcy after its ‘neural network’ was discovered to be 700 Indians coding in India. The company promoted its "code-building AI" to be as easy as "ordering pizza".  It was backed by nearly half a billion dollar investment by top tech investors including Microsoft. The company was valued at $1.5 billion. This is the latest among a series of global scams originating in India.  In recent years, India has emerged as a major hub for global scams. The US government has alleged in court documents that a large enterprise originating from India was involved in stealing nearly $1.5 billion from elderly Americans. Recently, two Indian nationals, Pranay Mamindi and Kishan Patel, were found guilty of participating in a money laundering conspiracy, concealing the source of the money, and using the illegally gained money to further promote a criminal enterprise.  Six other defen...

The story of the padlocked grave has gone viral, thanks to the mainstream Indian news media ranging from the Times of India  to NDTV. The story links the image of a padlocked grave to rising necrophilia cases in Pakistan, with the claim that the image is an example of how parents lock their daughters’ graves in Pakistan in order to prevent rape.  Alt News , a fact-check site run by Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha, has found that the grave is in fact located in the Indian city of Hyderabad.   Fake News in Indian Mainstream Media. Source: Alt News   Indian news agency ANI Digital tweeted the image of the green padlocked grave with the claim. In its article titled ‘Pakistani parents lock daughters’ graves to avoid rape’, it cited a Daily Times article to report that parents in Pakistan protected their dead daughters against rape by putting padlocks on their graves. None made any attempt to verify it.   Padlocked Grave Fake News Made Top Google Search Res...

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan passed away this week. May his soul rest in peace. Amen. He was a true patriot who honestly served his country to the best of his ability. He strengthened his country's economy, society and military. Per capita incomes of Pakistanis doubled on his watch, lifting the country from a low-income to a middle-income country. His government liberalized media and telecommunications, leading to rapid growth in both industries.  President Musharraf dramatically accelerated his people's human development by investing heavily in education and healthcare. After what has transpired in recent years, most Pakistanis will remember his time in office as a golden age for the country.  President Pervez Musharraf 1943-2023 Higher education reform backed by huge increases in spending led to a large increase in college and university enrollment and graduation rates. He halved Pakistan's debt burden and doubled exports during his 8 years in office. Pakistan b...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Washington on September 23rd for a bilateral meeting with President Joseph R. Biden followed by a 4-nation summit involving Australia, India, Japan and the United States.  An unhappy meme of his visit went viral on social media as Mr. Modi wrapped up his visit to the United States.  Modi Washington Visit Meme It highlights four key complaints about how the Indian prime minister was treated by the White House: 1. President Biden did not receive Prime Minister Modi at the White House porch. This is in sharp contrast to the reception President Donald J. Trump gave Pakistani  Prime Minister Imran Khan  during the latter's visit in 2019. President Trump greeted Prime Minister Khan in the driveway as the latter emerged from his car.  2. US media did not cover Modi's visit. ( Pakistan 's Imran Khan was on the Newsweek cover while Modi was in Washington). The media coverage Modi did receive in the US media was about lectures f...

Hamid Mir, a primetime TV talk show host, has reacted angrily to an attack on fellow Pakistani journalist Asad Ali Toor this week. Without explicitly naming anyone in his emotional outburst against the Pakistan Army and the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence Service), Mir has accused their leadership of cowardice in allegedly ordering attacks on journalists. Dredging up the name of "General Rani", believed to have been the mistress of former Army Chief and President Yahya Khan in the 1970s, Hamid Mir has threatened to reveal similar scandals of current Pakistan Army generals. “If you’re breaking into our homes to assault us, well, we cannot enter your homes as you have tanks and guns, but we can make things public, things from inside your homes,” Mir said at a journalists' rally in Islamabad.      Hamid Mir (2nd from right) with Asad Toor Pakistan  ISI  has denied any role in the attack on Toor.  A  statement of the agency  said: "The ISI believes t...

Citizen journalists armed with ubiquitous smartphones and access to social media platforms have challenged the western media reporting of the latest Israeli brutal assault on Gaza. While the established western media outfits have stuck to " Israel's right to defend itself " narrative, this new breed of young journalists has posted unfiltered images and videos of the Israeli war crimes against Palestinians. Some of these powerful posts have gone viral with many young people, including Jews, sharing them broadly on social media. People, particularly Americans, who share these posts see the Palestinian struggle as a civil rights struggle not unlike the recent Black Lives Matter movement in America.  Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on CNN The western media, particularly the mainstream American media, are quick to accuse Israel's critics of being anti-semitic, a familiar tactic to distract from the Israeli crimes against humanity. A recent example is the CN...

Why are Pakistan media groups laying off employees and shutting down TV channels? Is it caused by Pakistan government cutbacks in advertising? Is it part of the PTI government's alleged efforts to censor media? Or part of the long overdue  industry shake-out  after almost two decades long un-interrupted media business expansion? Pakistan Ad Spending. Source: Aurora/Dawn How much was the Nawaz Sharif led PMLN government spending on  advertising ? Did Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi increase media advertising budgets to buy favorable coverage at taxpayers' expense? Are Pakistan government and national security establishment unique in wanting to  manage media  coverage? Do Western government manage media as well? If so, how? How do their media management techniques differ? Global Advertising Growth 2016. Source: Magna What is the future of media in Pakistan as the Internet penetration grows dramatically with 1-2 million more people comi...

Pakistan's 88 billion rupee media industry is in the midst of a major shakeout after a long period of rapid double-digit growth since the turn of the century. Hundreds of journalists and other staff have lost their jobs. At least one TV channel, Waqt News, has closed while several others are downsizing. While such consolidation was long overdue after nearly two-decade long period of explosive growth, the PTI government's decision to reduce advertising budget, which constitutes nearly a  quarter of all ad spending  in the country, appears to be the main trigger. Those affected by consolidation are accusing the government of exercising  press censorship  by cutting its ad spending. Pakistan Ad Spending. Source: Aurora/Dawn Rapid Growth: Rising  buying power of rapidly expanding middle class  in Pakistan drove the nation's media advertising revenue up 14% to a record Rs. 76.2 billion 2016 and another 12% to Rs. 88 billion in 2017, making the country's...

In a 2017 Super Bowl Sunday interview with President Donald Trump,  Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly authoritatively declared  Russian President Vladimir “Putin’s a killer.”  Trump replied with the question: “What, you think our country’s so innocent?” Trump did something similar more recently after his Singapore Summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim JongUn.  When Fox News' Brett Baier  raised the question  in an interview about "Kim's oppression of his own people", Trump said: “Yeah, but so have a lot of other people have done some really bad things.” American Narrative: Both O'Reilly and Baier were essentially repeating the standard American narrative that wants the world to believe that "we (Americans) are the good guys and those opposing America are the bad guys". Trump, an unconventional American leader, displayed rare candor in his responses.  The American  media and " research scholars ", managed by the "Deep State...