Tag: Top News

  • Dukaan CEO lays off 90% of his support staff in favour of AI chatbot

    Dukaan CEO lays off 90% of his support staff in favour of AI chatbot

    Suumit Shah, founder and CEO of Bangalore-based e-commerce startup Dukaan, announced via his Twitter account that he has laid off 90% of his customer support staff in favour of using an AI chatbot. 

    The bot was built by one of the firm’s data scientists, and according to Shah was able to respond to initial queries instantly, compared to the average staff time of one minute and 44 seconds.

    In his tweet, Shah admitted that the layoffs were “tough, but necessary”, explaining that given the state of the economy, startups are prioritising “profitability”.  

    Customer Support has apparently been a long-time struggle for Dukaan. In a conversation with CNN, Shah said that the company had cut the cost of its customer support function by 85% after introducing AI technology. He reasoned that this part of the business had been problematic for some time, with delayed responses and limited availability of staff at critical times, among other issues.

    That’s what prompted Shah to come up with the idea to create a personal AI-assistant for Dukaan, which would answer customer queries instantly, precisely, and from anywhere. Dukaan’s AI-lead Ojasvi Yadav stepped up to the plate.

    According to Shah’s Twitter thread, just a day after the bot was launched, Dukaan’s AI chatbot ‘Lina’ had resolved 200 lives chats and 1400 support tickets. The success of Lina propelled the team to create Dukaan’s new product ‘BOT9.ai’. It is an AI assistant, that can learn the ins-and-outs of a business, and answer customer queries instantly, 24/7. 

    As Shah tweeted, “it’s less magical, sure, but at least it pays the bills!”

    Considering the era of AI we are in now, and the general widespread layoffs by tech giants, Shah’s decision had been met with much criticism. However, Shah continued to justify the layoffs by emphasizing how AI technology can optimise their operations. 

    Moreover, Shah believes that allocating employees’ expertise to areas requiring critical thinking, while relegating routine tasks to AI-powered chatbots, improves efficiency while also allowing for a better allocation of human resources.

    Many Twitter users were enraged at the apparent pride in Shah’s tweets. One user tweeted, “You disrupted the lives of 90% of your support team & you’re celebrating it in public. You also likely destroyed your customer support (disprove with good CSAT for the bot) – all for a basic ChatGPT wrapper. This is a new low even for you.” 

    While the announcement may read as apathetic, it is not surprising that major companies are turning to AI to improve general performance and efficiency in what are considerably quite routine tasks. 

    According to a report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which looks at layoffs across every industry, around 5% of May’s job cuts in 2023 were directly related to artificial intelligence. 

    Are you worried AI is going to replace you at work?

  • Refugees, migrants return home after boat tragedy, file cases against traffickers

    Refugees, migrants return home after boat tragedy, file cases against traffickers

    After the migrant boat disaster that occurred off the coast of Greece earlier in June, claiming the lives of over 300 Pakistani immigrants, around 40-50 Pakistanis that were initially waiting in Libya to set sail for Italy are now returning home.

    According to reports by Dawn, these illegal immigrants had paid at least PKR 2.5 million each to different human traffickers and their agents, in order to reach Europe via sea travel. However, last month’s horrific tragedy has prompted many to return home to Pakistan. 

    Upon their return, complaints were lodged against the human traffickers in order to reclaim the astronomical amounts paid. According to the Station House officer of Gujrat Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) police station, Irtaza Ansar Warraich, 125 cases have been filed in the last four weeks in connection to the boat tragedy. Of these complainants, those recently returning from Libya are also included.

    Most of the returning immigrants are residents of Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin, as reported by a local senior official of the FIA in a conversation with Dawn. 

    According to one of the last total 12 Pakistani nationals who survived the boat tragedy, Usman Siddique, there is allegedly 20,000 illegal immigrants who are at human trafficker safe houses in Libya, waiting for their turn to travel to Europe.

    Officer Warraich also told Dawn that, since the boat disaster, at least 35 suspects involved in illegal human trafficking have been arrested, including notorious trafficker Muhammad Saleem Suniara. 

    Suniara had nine cases registered against him in FIA’s Gujrat circle alone. He is also accused of sending money via hundi to his brother Asif Suniara, who is the main person accused in the migrant boat tragedy.

    According to Aaj News, Asif is allegedly hiding in Libya currently and still operating safe houses containing migrants waiting to be moved to Europe.

  • Shehbaz Sharif, Imran Khan trade barbs on Twitter

    Shehbaz Sharif, Imran Khan trade barbs on Twitter

    Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and former Prime Minister Imran Khan engaged in a tweet spat on Twitter that started on Sunday.

    The exchange of barbs directed at each other started with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan responding to a tweet by Shehbaz Sharif where the Premier accused Khan of “using the proxies to threaten the Army Chief of an assassination attempt”.

    Hours later, Imran Khan responded by stating that the Prime Minister’s statement was “nonsensical”.

    He wrote, “You cannot fool anyone by making these nonsensical and ridiculous statements just to drive a wedge between Pakistan’s biggest political party and the establishment only so that you can save billions that you’ve stolen from the people of Pakistan.”

    Not to be outdone, Shehbaz replied to Imran Khan with yet another tweet on Monday night, calling the former Prime Minister someone “who lacks the courage to face courts on charges of corruption, pilfering and crimes against the nation.”

  • Benazir Bhutto, Malala Yousafzai in the list of the most influential women’ in the world

    Benazir Bhutto, Malala Yousafzai in the list of the most influential women’ in the world

    Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, and education activist, Malala Yousafzai, have recently been added to the list of ‘most influential women in the world’.

    In the list published recently by Marie Claire, a renowned French magazine, the late Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto and Malala Yousufzai were included in the list of 60 women.

    The women on the list belong to every walk of life, from women’s rights activists and pioneers of racial equality to inventors, scientists, actors, and world leaders.

    Succinctly expressing the achievements of the former Pakistani People’s Party (PPP) leader, the website wrote, “Bhutto became the first woman prime minister of Pakistan in 1988. After a military coup overthrew her father’s government, she inherited the leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party.”

    Moreover, describing Malala’s achievements, it added: “Yousafzai survived a gunshot wound to the face by the Taliban and has since become a spokesperson for human rights, education, and women’s rights. In 2014, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.”

    Some other prominent names mentioned in the list include Oprah Winfrey, Meryl Streep, Gloria Steinem, Jane Austen, Maya Angelou, Queen Elizabeth II and Indira Gandhi.

  • Zaka Ashraf takes charge of Najam Sethi’s vacant position in PCB

    Zaka Ashraf takes charge of Najam Sethi’s vacant position in PCB

    Zaka Ashraf has assumed the role of the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Management Committee on Thursday, following the departure of his predecessor, Najam Sethi.

    The PCB confirmed that all the necessary procedures for appointing Ashraf as the committee’s chief have been completed.

    Upon his arrival at the PCB headquarters in Lahore, Ashraf received a warm welcome from senior officials of the cricket board. He was scheduled to preside over a meeting of the 10-member committee which had received approval from the Cabinet Division on Wednesday.

    The 10-member Management Committee formed for a period of four months consists of Zaka Ashraf (ex-chairman PCB), Kalim Ullah Khan, Ashfaq Akhtar, Muhammad Mussadiq Islam, Azmat Pervez, Zaheer Abbas, Khurram Karim Somroo, Khawaja Nadeem, Mustafa Ramday and Zulfiqar Malik.

  • Protests against loadshedding turn violent in Lyari

    Protests against loadshedding turn violent in Lyari

    Residents of Karachi’s Lyari staged a protest against prolonged load-shedding in their area on Wednesday, blocking both tracks of Mauripur Road and stopping vehicular traffic, Dawn reports. Police were allegedly forced to fire tear gas shells and baton charge the protestors to clear the road. 

    The vice chairman of UC-7 in  Lyari, Zohaib Baloch, who is one of the organisers of the protest, reportedly told Dawn that Lyari residents were facing up to 16 hours of load shedding daily, which exacerbated the crisis of water in the locality. 

    A large number of people, including women and children, staged a sit-in on Mauripur Road near Dua Hotel, blocking one of the busiest thoroughfares in the city. 

    A police officer, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed that they were compelled to take aggressive action when protestors started ‘smashing’ cars and other vehicles on the road.

    Baloch, however, claims that the police charged the locals with batons and fired tear gas at them in order to disperse the protest. He adds that their protest would continue until their demands were fulfilled. 

    According to Dawn, Baloch said that residents at Mira Naka in Lyari were protesting the same problem. Alas, this is not the first time residents of what is considerably one of Karachi’s oldest neighbourhoods have staged protests against insufficient facilities and provisions. 

    In fact, just earlier this week on Monday, residents of Lyari staged a protest against long hours of gas shortages, claiming that and the scarcity of fuel forces them to burn wood to cook meals. 

    The smoke that rises from the burning wood has caused sickness in children, while the infrastructure of houses has also been affected due to the use of wood fire. 

    Residents of Mandra Para, Rahiman Soomra and Baloch Mohallo placed gas cylinders and gas stoves on the road to protest, and the protestors included women and children.

    Karachi Press Club president Saeed Sarbazi said that K-Electric might have reasons to resort to load-shedding on the pretext of ‘losses’, but a host of issues must be considered for the problem to be resolved, Dawn reports. 

    He added that residents of Lyari were of a working-class background and thereby could not afford exorbitant electricity bills, saying that the problem required a political and social initiative.

  • Neglected Thai elephant Muthu Raja returns home after two decades

    Neglected Thai elephant Muthu Raja returns home after two decades

    Thai elephant Muthu Raja has reached back home on Sunday after two decades as the animal was claimed back by its birth country over reports of mistreatment.

    The 29-year-old Muthu Raja had been sent to Sri Lanka back in 2001 as a gift by Thai authorities, but the animal was demanded back by his home country after there were reports of Muthu being allegedly tortured and ill-treated in a Buddhist temple.

    Muthu was later temporarily moved to a zoo in Colombo after public uproar against the neglect and torture. Animal welfare groups pointed out that the animal presented as gift to the country had been forced to work with a logging crew. The elephant had also sustained wounds, some allegedly inflicted by its handler.

    According to the zoo’s chief veterinarian, Muthu Raja was in pain and covered in abscesses when it was rescued from the temple last year.
    Cruelty against the largest existing land animal was unacceptable by the authorities as elephants are also considered sacred creatures in Sri Lanka and are protected by law.

    The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka said he had personally conveyed the country’s regrets to the Thai king over the elephant’s condition.
    One of the organizations that protested for the elephant’s safety, RARE (Rally for Animal Rights and Environment), expressed sorrow over the news of Muthu’s departure and further urged the authorities to take action against those responsible.

    Muthu finally reached home on a commercial reparation flight that Thai officials said cost $700,000.

    The elephant received a warm welcome at the airport by the Thai environment minister Varawut Silpa-archa. “He travelled five hours and nothing is wrong, his condition is normal,” the minister said.
    Thai authorities have planned to quarantine the elephant at a nearby nature reserve.

  • Imran Khan gets relief from Islamabad High Court in Toshakhana case

    Imran Khan gets relief from Islamabad High Court in Toshakhana case

    The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday declared the Toshakhana case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman, Imran Khan, inadmissible.

    Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court, Justice Aamer Farooq, announced the verdict while accepting Imran Khan’s plea against the trial court’s decision.

    The court has ordered the trial court to reconsider the arguments presented by Khan’s lawyer. IHC has also ordered the trial court to take a decision on Imran Khan’s plea within seven days.

    It is worth mentioning that investigations are underway against Imran Khan in the Toshakhana case at the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), where he will today appear before the NAB inspection team in Islamabad.

  • Naila Kiani and Samina Baig become first Pakistani women to summit Nanga Parbat

    Naila Kiani and Samina Baig become first Pakistani women to summit Nanga Parbat

    On Sunday, Naila Kiani and Samina Baig were two of the 52 climbers that scaled Nanga Parbat, the ninth-tallest mountain in the world with a peak that stands at 8,126 metres. They officially became the first Pakistani women to ever summit Nanga Parbat, a mountain known to be a particularly treacherous one to climb.

    Both women were part of different expedition teams. Naila Kiani’s ascent was announced by the Secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan (APC), Karrar Haidri in the following statement:

    “Today on July 2, 2023, at 10:18am, Naila Kiani scaled the majestic Nanga Parbat, standing tall at an inspirational height of 8,125 metres. She became the first Pakistani woman to climb Nanga Parbat.”

    Nanga Parbat is one of the 14 ‘eight-thousanders’, as recognised by the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA). This means their summits are in the ‘death-zone’, i.e. past 8000 metres, where oxygen levels are too low to sustain human life for an extended time-span.

    Naila has now scaled seven out of these 14 peaks. ACP said that apart from Nanga Parbat, Naila has scaled Mount Everest, K-2, Lhotse, Annapurna, Gasherbrum I and Gasherbrum II. “She serves as a bright example of how people can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles,” Mr Haidri stated.

    Samina Baig also became the first Pakistani woman to scale peaks on all seven continents.

    The Killer Mountain

    Nanga Parbat is notorious for being an extremely difficult climb, earning the nickname Killer Mountain for its high number of climber fatalities, and the way its unforgiving terrain pushes climbers to their limits.

    In the same expedition, a Spanish mountaineer died at Nanga Parbat Base Camp number 5, ARY News reports. Police reported the man died due to a heart attack.

    Last year, the Pakistan Army had to rescue two climbers who were stranded after summitting Nanga Parbat, according to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

  • Bilawal visits Tokyo, says Pakistan needs ‘trade, not aid’

    Bilawal visits Tokyo, says Pakistan needs ‘trade, not aid’

    Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, on his maiden visit to Japan, has declared his intention to boost trade and promote diplomatic ties between the two countries on Sunday. He stated that Pakistan needed trade and not aid.

    Giving an address at an event organised by the Pakistani diaspora living in Tokyo, Bilawal maintained that the two countries have agreed to further deepen and enhance their mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation in multiple areas. These include trade, investment, human resource development and exchange, IT, tourism and agriculture sectors.

    “We have also jointly agreed to explore the possibility of working together on targeted programs with higher impact in the domains of solarisation, desalination, and water purification and housing and infrastructure rebuilding in the floods affected areas in Pakistan,” Bilawal said in a joint press stakeout along with his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi, as reported by The News.

    Empowering our workforce

    In addition, the two sides have agreed to conduct language skill assessment tests for the Japanese language in Pakistan to facilitate the movement of skilled workers. The Nation reported that Bilawal underscored the importance of Pakistanis living abroad, stating: “The overseas Paki­stanis are our assets, who are play­ing vital role to promote bilateral ties between Pakistan and Japan. Our population consists of 65 per­cent youth and we want Pakistani youth to get employment in Japan.”

    Potential for growth

    The Foreign Minister met with repre­sentatives of the Japan Interna­tional Development Agency (JICA) and the Japan External Trade Orga­nization (JETRO) to discuss poten­tial for trade and investment. He also stated that Pakistan’s incumbent government was working on economic diplomacy in order to bring prosperity to the country.

    Bilawal also went on to praise Japan’s advancement in IT and other fields, saying Pakistan could learn from them. Both sides have seen a new vigour in their relationship through continued high-level exchanges.