In anti-theft drive, LESCO plans to install smart meters

LAHORE: Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) is planning to embark on a drive to replace decades-old electricity meters with smart meters in an attempt to control tempering and theft – the main reasons behind the piling circular debt and increase in tariffs.

In the first phase, Lesco will install smart meters in two circles – fifth circle covering Gulberg, Defence Housing Authority and adjacent posh localities, and seventh circle covering Samanabad, Gulshan Ravi and adjacent areas.

“We believe that cases of meter tempering and power theft are higher in posh areas than middle and low-income localities as the former consume more electricity,” said Abdul Rehman, Director Operations of Lesco, while talking to The Express Tribune.

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is providing funding for the project as installation of smart meters is quite expensive. At present, both USAID and Lesco are conducting a feasibility study, which will determine the project cost.

After assessing results in the first two circles, Lesco will extend its drive to other circles as well, though it may find it tough to replace old meters with efficient ones in all the five districts that it covers.

Recently, the power distributing company installed smart meters as a pilot project in an area of the Walled City named Dehli Gate. It was a small-scale project, but results were encouraging.

“After putting in place smart meters, our losses in Dehli Gate has come down to 7% from the previous 17%,” Rehman said.

The concept of smart meters is not new in Pakistan as power distributing companies including Lesco have installed such meters on few of their feeders to determine how much electricity is generated and consumed.

A smart meter is an electrical meter that records consumption of energy and communicates that information every day to the utility for monitoring and billing.

Such an advanced metering infrastructure differs from traditional automatic meter reading in that it enables two-way communication between the meter and the central system. Unlike home energy monitors, smart meters can gather data for remote reporting.

Rehman believes that updating the meter system will help the company reduce line losses and theft to a satisfactory level.

At present, a special drive against electricity theft is going on and is giving satisfactory results.According to Lesco statistics, data of 6,000 consumers have been examined since July to find cases of meter tempering and theft, of which first information reports have been lodged against only 1,250 consumers and 700 have been arrested.

“The numbers are quite disappointing keeping in view the total 3.5 million consumers of Lesco, meaning data of less than 1% of consumers have been checked so far,” he said.

Manuel Pellegrini eager to establish European pedigree

LONDON: Manuel Pellegrini faces the first major test of his Champions League credentials as Manchester City manager tonight when his side tackles defending champions Bayern Munich at the Etihad Stadium.

City have been eliminated from the Champions League at the group phase in the past two seasons and one of the reasons why Pellegrini was selected to succeed Roberto Mancini was his track record at the continental level.

Real Madrid went out in the last 16 under Pellegrini’s stewardship in 2010, but he steered modest Villarreal to the semi-finals in 2006 and led Malaga to the quarter-finals last season.

In all-conquering German and European champions Bayern, Pellegrini could not have asked for a more demanding first European home fixture with City.

However, having worked in Spain for the duration of Bayern coach Pep Guardiola’s spectacular four-year tenure at Barcelona, the 60-year-old Chilean believes he knows how to get the better of him.

“It is very difficult at this moment to improve with Bayern because they won the last three competitions, but he (Guardiola) will find a way because he is a very good manager,” said Pellegrini.

“He knows the way we play, so he will try different things. But we know things about Guardiola, too. I lived in Spain nine years so I know exactly the way Guardiola plays.”

Both teams opened their Group D campaigns with 3-0 victories, Bayern overwhelming CSKA Moscow at the Allianz Arena and City scoring three second-half goals away to Czech champions Viktoria Pilsen.

Pellegrini will hope to recall David Silva and Sergio Aguero after both players missed the trip to Villa Park through injury.

Giggs on brink of Champions League record

Manchester United’s poor start to the season has left the club reeling and new boss David Moyes under scrutiny but Ryan Giggs will offer a reassuring presence when he reports for Champions League duty in Ukraine this week.

Should Moyes turn to the evergreen midfielder tonight against Shakhtar Donetsk, Giggs will register a record 145th appearance in Europe’s premier competition (including qualifiers), moving him ahead of former Real Madrid striker Raul in the appearance list.

Giggs, who won 13 Premier League titles and two Champions Leagues under former manager Alex Ferguson, is now part of Moyes’s coaching staff but has plenty to offer on the pitch.

“Really? Wow. I didn’t know that,” was Giggs’s reaction in an interview on the club’s website when told of the milestone.

“It’s a great competition and I’ve been lucky enough to win it twice and play a lot of memorable matches.

“There have been so many great players to have graced the tournament and Raul is up there as one of the very best — he has a great goal-scoring record and he’s won it three times.

“If I do pass him it will be a great source of pride for me.”

World population to shoot up to 9.7 billion in 2050: Study

PARIS: The world’s population will rise to 9.7 billion in 2050 from the current level of 7.1 billion and India will overtake China as the world’s most populous nation, a French study said Wednesday.

A bi-annual report by the French Institute of Demographic Studies (Ined) projected there would be 10 to 11 billion people on the planet by the end of the century.

The projections ran parallel to forecasts by the United Nations, the World Bank and other prominent national institutes.

A UN study in June said the global population would swell to 9.6 billion in 2050 and the number of people aged 60 and above would catapult from 841 million now to two billion in 2050 and nearly three billion in 2100.

Ined said Africa would be home to a quarter of the world’s population in 2050 with 2.5 billion people, more than double the current level of 1.1 billion.

Gilles Pison, the author of the report, said the prevailing fertility rate in Africa was around 4.8 children per woman – far higher than the global average of 2.5.

The Americas will breach the one-billion mark in 2050 with 1.2 billion inhabitants against 958 million at present.

And Asia’s population will increase from 4.3 billion to 5.2 billion in 2050, Ined forecast.

The world’s most populous nations are currently China with 1.3 billion people; followed by India (1.2 billion); the United States (316.2 million); Indonesia (248.5 million) and Brazil (195.5 million).

But in 2050, India will take pole position with 1.6 billion people with China in second place at 1.3 billion.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, will outstrip the United States with a population of 444 million against a projected 400 million Americans in the middle of the century.

Australia had a government shutdown once. In the end, the queen fired everyone in Parliament. US should follow their foot steps

The United States' self-imposed federal government shutdown has a way of making people around the world shake their heads in bewilderment. As Georgetown professorErik Voeten wrote for The Washington Post's new Monkey Cage political science blog, "I cannot think of a single foreign analogy to what is happening in the U.S. today."

But there actually is one foreign precedent: Australia did this once. In 1975, the Australian government shut down because the legislature had failed to fund it, deadlocked by a budgetary squabble. It looked a lot like the U.S. shutdown of today, or the 17 previous U.S. shutdowns.

Australia's 1975 shutdown ended pretty differently, though, than they do here in America. Queen Elizabeth II's official representative in Australia, Governor General Sir John Kerr, simply dismissed the prime minister. He appointed a replacement, who immediately passed the spending bill to fund the government. Three hours later, Kerr dismissed the rest of Parliament. Then Australia held elections to restart from scratch. And they haven't had another shutdown since.

Here's how it happened. Australia, like the United States, has both a Senate and a House of Representatives. In 1975, the chambers were controlled by different parties. The House had passed an appropriations bill to fund the government, but the Senate refused to pass it because it believed that the government was spending too much money on unworthy programs during an economic downturn. The opposition party that controlled the Senate said it would not pass the spending bill unless the government met its somewhat outlandish demand. Does this all sound familiar so far? In the Australian case, though, the opposition's demand wasn't repeal of a health-care law -- they wanted early elections, which they believed would unseat the ruling party.

Prime Minister Gough Whitlam rejected the opposition's demands but couldn't bring the parties to a compromise, and the federal budget went unfunded. Then, on the morning of Nov. 11, Whitlam announced he would hold early elections not for the House but for half of the opposition-controlled Senate (typically, only one half of the Senate goes up for reelection at a time). Kerr, as the the official representative of the queen, who is technically still sovereign over Australia, summoned Whitlam to his office and fired him at 1:15 p.m.

Fifteen minutes later, Kerr appointed the leader of the opposition Liberal Party, Malcolm Fraser, as Whitlam's replacement. By 2 p.m., before most even realized what had happened, Fraser got his allies in the previously deadlocked Senate to push through the government spending bill. Then everything kind of fell into chaos. When the ruling Labor Party, in the House, learned about Whitlam's firing and Fraser's appointment, its members revolted with a no-confidence vote against Fraser. At 4:50 p.m., Kerr dissolved the rest of Parliament, essentially firing everyone, with a formal proclamation that ended with the words "God Save the Queen."

Did you know?: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Saving Face bags two Emmys

Academy Award-winning Pakistani documentary Saving Face has been awarded two Emmy Awards at the 34th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards.

This marks the second Emmy win for the film’s director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who previously received the accolade in the Current Affairs category for her documentary Children of the Taliban.

Saving Face won the awards for the Best Documentary and Outstanding Editing: Documentary and Long Form categories. The award distribution ceremony of the 34th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards was held on Tuesday, at Frederick P Rose Hall, in New York City.

The film’s Oscar-winning directors Obaid-Chinoy and Daniel Junge along with cameraman Asad Faruqi represented the Saving Face team at the event. Obaid-Chinoy shined at the event in an ensemble designed by Sania Maskatiya which she paired with a popinjay handbag by Saba Gill.

The documentary film was nominated for five catergories: Best Documentary, Outstanding Editing Documentary and Long Form, Outstanding Science and Technology Programming, Outstanding Cinematography Documentary and Long Form, Outstanding Research.

The event was attended by more than 1,000 television and news media industry executives, news and documentary producers and journalists.

Taking over: PTCL announces bid for acquiring Warid

Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL), a unit of United Arab Emirate’s Etisalat, has submitted a takeover bid for rival mobile operator Warid Telecom, according to a filing with the Karachi stock exchange

PTCL made the offer to acquire 100% of Warid on September 30 and it is valid for 30 days, the statement said, without giving the price offered or PTCL’s plans for the company.

Reuters reported in June that Warid had been put on the block in a sale likely to fetch up to $1 billion.

The sector has been ripe for consolidation as a troubled economy and stiff competition forced profit margins lower.

Buying Warid would make PTCL’s Pakistani mobile business subsidiary Ufone the country’s second-biggest mobile operator by subscriber base, although it is unlikely to be the only bidder.

In September, China Mobile’s subsidiary Zong said it was looking seriously at acquiring Warid, the fifth-biggest Pakistani mobile company. Warid was not immediately available for comment.

Vimpelcom’s subsidiary Mobilink was market leader with 36.7 million subscribers at the end of May, followed by Norwegian company Telenor’s 31.7 million, according to the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA), the industry regulator. China Mobile’s Zong had 20.2 million, ufone 23.9 million and Warid 12.5 million.

PTCL’s statement warned the bid for Warid was subject to regulatory approvals and could be complicated by a long-running dispute between Etisalat and Pakistan’s government.

Etisalat owned 90% of a consortium that paid $2.6 billion for a 26% stake in PTCL – Pakistan’s former monopoly landline operator – in 2006, giving the UAE firm a 23% holding.

But Etisalat still owes $800 million on the deal, which included transferring ownership of about 3,000 real estate properties to PTCL from the government.

Some of those properties remain in state hands and negotiations between the parties are thought to be ongoing.

Warid’s subscriber base has fallen by nearly a third from a 2008-9 peak of 17.9 million, while Zong is the fastest-growing operator, nearly doubling its customer base since 2010-11.

Pakistan is seen as an attractive market in the long term – only 70% of its 179 million people have a mobile subscription, while the country has yet to issue 3G licences.

An auction of the licences has been delayed since at least April 2012, but once awarded, 3G is expected to release pent-up demand for mobile data, boosting operators’ revenue.

“Buying Warid can be a good idea for China Mobile, especially when new customer acquisitions have become harder,” China Mobile said in September. “In the absence of organic growth, this is the only way to leapfrog established operators in terms of subscriber numbers .”

Financial Problems.. Investors Push For Microsoft Chairman to step down.

NEW YORK/ SEATTLE: Three of the top 20 investors in Microsoft Corp are lobbying the board to press for Bill Gates to step down as chairman of the software company he co-founded 38 years ago, according to people familiar with matter.

While Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has been under pressure for years to improve the company’s performance and share price, this appears to be the first time that major shareholders are taking aim at Gates, who remains one of the most respected and influential figures in technology.

There is no indication that Microsoft’s board would heed the wishes of the three investors, who collectively hold more than 5 percent of the company’s stock, according to the sources. They requested the identity of the investors be kept anonymous because the discussions were private.

Gates owns about 4.5 percent of the $277 billion company and is its largest individual shareholder.

The three investors are concerned that Gates’ role as chairman effectively blocks the adoption of new strategies and would limit the power of a new chief executive to make substantial changes. In particular, they point to Gates’ role on the special committee searching for Ballmer’s successor.

They are also worried that Gates – who spends most of his time on his philanthropic foundation – wields power out of proportion to his declining shareholding.

Gates, who owned 49 percent of Microsoft before it went public in 1986, sells about 80 million Microsoft shares a year under a pre-set plan, which if continued would leave him with no financial stake in the company by 2018.

He lowered his profile at Microsoft after he handed the CEO role to Ballmer in 2000, giving up his day-to-day work there in 2008 to focus on the $38 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In August, Ballmer said he would retire within 12 months, amid pressure from activist fund manager ValueAct Capital Management.

Microsoft is now looking for a new CEO, though its board has said Ballmer’s strategy will go forward. He has focused on making devices, such as the Surface tablet and Xbox gaming console, and turning key software into services provided over the Internet. Some investors say that a new chief should not be bound by that strategy.

News that some investors were pushing for Gates’ ouster as chairman provoked mixed reactions from other shareholders.

“This is long overdue,” said Todd Lowenstein, a portfolio manager at HighMark Capital Management, which owns Microsoft shares. “Replacing the old guard with some fresh eyes can provide the oxygen needed to properly evaluate their corporate strategy.”

Kim Caughey Forrest, senior analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group, suggested now was not the time for Microsoft to ditch Gates, and that he could even play a larger role.

“I’ve thought that the company has been missing a technology visionary,” she said. “Bill (Gates) would fit the bill.”

Microsoft is still one of the world’s most valuable technology companies, making a net profit of $22 billion last fiscal year. But its core Windows computing operating system, and to a lesser extent the Office software suite, are under pressure from the decline in personal computers as smartphones and tablets grow more popular.

Shares of Microsoft have been essentially static for a decade, and the company has lost ground to Apple Inc and Google Inc in the move toward mobile computing.

One of the sources said Gates was one of the technology industry’s greatest pioneers, but the investors felt he was more effective as chief executive than as chairman.