NayaPay teams up with Frontier Works Organization (FWO) to modernize M-Tag payments in Pakistan

Morning! This year, SATs are going digital for the first time in the US. The exam has also been shortened from 3 hours to 2 hours and 14 minutes. But the biggest change is the test itself - it's adaptive. Depending on how you answer questions, the test changes in real time. For example, in the math section, if you do well on the first set of questions, the next set will be more challenging 🤯.. guess we got done with it at the right time 🤷‍♀️

In this week’s edition:

💡 Where Info Meets Inspo: Ahmed from DHL (Europe)

⏲️ Indian skinny fat might have limited days left

📜 Temporary government’s not-so-temporary work

💰 Nvidia jumps to $2 trillion

🛣 Bye to toll plaza chaos

- The Itla Squad 💼

Itla Careers

Where Info Meets Inspo 💡

Where Info Meets Inspo is an Itla segment where we highlight professionals who work within the tech and business realm - in Pakistan or abroad. Hit reply if you’d like a chance to be featured.

How would you explain your job to someone with no exposure to your field?

Imagine all the things you find annoying about your university administration. From the weird policies on how to enter through the university gate every day to the annoying time needed to get your transcript or degree.

My job would be to observe the people involved in these processes and how they interact with machines like computers to deliver you these services. Additionally, I would also observe how their physical environment affects their job description as well. Based on my findings I would collaborate with the people involved to understand how we can redesign the process in a way that it brings out more value with the same resources.

In a DHL context, it could mean providing a customer shipment tracking details faster and more accurately or how to reduce the number of shipments that get damaged while transportation.

What’s the most interesting project you’ve worked on?

Personally for me the most interesting project at DHL was working with operations where my problem statement was to improve the productivity of our frontline agents.

Situation: In our largest operations facility (which was bigger than a football stadium with 7,000 employees), we faced an efficiency challenge concerning the frequency of shipments moving on our sorter belts. While this appeared complex to many, I found it a fascinating problem to dissect and understand.

Task: My primary responsibility was to lead the initiative to optimize this process. On investigating, I realized that the root causes spanned both organizational behaviors and structural issues. With such a diverse array of causes, it was essential to prioritize and focus on specific areas with the most significant impact potential.

Action: Through careful analysis and collaboration with senior management, we decided to prioritize enhancing the productive capacity of our shop floor management and agents. For the management, there was a noticeable gap in performance management due to a lack of granular and reliable performance data. We addressed this by overhauling the data landscape, resulting in a user-friendly dashboard for daily performance reviews. As for the agents, high turnover rates necessitated frequent retraining and onboarding. To combat this, we developed a micro-learning training program that allowed management to swiftly address knowledge gaps, ensuring agents reached their optimal productive capacity in less time.

Result: These strategic changes led to significant improvements in our transportation connectivity. Our efforts are projected to yield a benefit of 3.2 million euros annually.

Going through that experience really stretched me personally and professionally. Personally, I had to soldier through the language barriers, keep my mind sharp and my body healthy for the daily shifts at night. Professionally, I was going through a steep learning curve and navigating through complexity on a daily basis.

What’s your favorite tech/business-related media you read/watch/listen to?

My primary sources of learning are books and podcasts. With the book-reading experience being richer than anything else. I have yet to come across a medium that adds as much value as a good book.

It’s hard to pick favorites but one book that has impacted my thinking a lot recently is ‘Multipliers by Liz Wiseman’. A podcast that I like listening to a lot is ‘Work Life by Adam Grant’.

Business

Global 🌎️

Bye, Indian skinny fat

Will ‘skinny fat’ still be a thing? We’ll have to see since Indian pharmaceutical companies are joining the weight-loss treatment market to help people lose weight. They want to make medicines that are similar to Wegovy, a popular drug made by Novo Nordisk used to treat obesity.

The details:

• Experts think the weight-loss market could be worth over $100 billion each year by 2030 so obviously big Indian drug companies like Sun Pharma, Cipla, Dr. Reddy's, and Lupin are making their versions of Wegovy to make money treat obesity like any other pharma…

• Novo Nordisk (Denmark-based) and Eli Lilly (US-based) can't make enough weight-loss drugs to meet global demand. So, Indian companies are stepping in to help.

• Like the classic Indian way, they will make the same product and sell it for cheaper which means it will be easier to get for people all over the world.

Way forward: Indian drug companies are making plans to make new kinds of weight-loss drugs that could work even better, and teach people in India about these drugs so they can use them to get healthier.

TLDR: Indian pharmaceutical companies are entering the weight-loss market to produce cheaper alternatives to drugs like Wegovy by Novo Nordisk. With global demand outpacing supply, Indian firms aim to make these medications more accessible worldwide. They plan to innovate and educate to promote better health outcomes.

What else is new in news

✶ US’s Joe Biden forgives $1.2 billion in student loan debt for 153,000 individuals. This action will erase the debts of those who borrowed $12,000 or less and have been making payments for at least 10 years.

Local 🇵🇰

The temporary government’s not-so-temporary work

The recent changes in government and economic policies have left many wondering about what comes next for the country's economy. Let's break down the key actions taken by the outgoing caretaker government.

The details:

• Prices for gas and electricity went up to fix money problems and improve how energy is managed.

• Selling off parts of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to private companies aims to get more money and reduce the government's responsibilities.

• Companies that manage power distribution, called DISCOs, will be run by private businesses to make them more efficient and profitable.

• Changing how the tax department works hopes to make it easier to pay taxes and stop people from cheating on their taxes.

• New rules for building oil refineries and giving out natural gas aim to get more companies to invest in these industries and rely less on imports.

Zooming out: The Express Tribune's economic analysis said that the interim government was the most empowered team of people to make decisions for long-term policymaking, stressing the need to retain key figures in finance, energy, and IT for continued success.

TLDR: The government spent Rs191 billion on development projects, missing the Rs494 billion target by 61%. Despite attempts to cut spending, they fell short, leading to issues with fund allocation and project completion. Pakistan pledged to accelerate spending and transfer projects to provinces. Provinces like Punjab exceeded expectations, focusing more on infrastructure improvement.

News Flash

✶Because people complained, the state-owned Utility Stores Corporation (USC) quickly made 40 important items cheaper, up to 17% less than what you'd find in regular stores. More price drops are coming before Ramadan. Before this, the prices at USC stores were almost the same as in regular stores, which made people mad at the temporary government and USC.

Tech

Global 🌎️

Nvidia chipping away at $2 trillion

Nvidia, a small company that makes computer chips, has reached a huge milestone. They're recently briefly crossed worth of $2 trillion, putting them in the same league as Apple and Microsoft. Why? They are really good at what they do.

The details:

• Nvidia's quick growth is mostly because it produces chips for AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology. In less than a year, their worth went up from $1 trillion to $1.83 trillion.

• Last year, Nvidia made a record $60.9 billion in sales, which is a huge 126 percent more than the year before.

• Even though the company is doing well, other companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Intel are also making AI chips. But it's not easy for them to match Nvidia's quality and how many chips they can make (which is humungous).

Way forward: and it is not done. Nvidia is coming up with new and better chips. Their latest one, called the H200, is even better than the last one (H100) as this H200 one can remember more things and move data faster. They're also starting a new business where they'll make custom AI chips for other companies.

TLDR: Nvidia, a chip-making company, briefly hit a $2 trillion valuation, joining tech giants like Apple and Microsoft. Their success in AI chip production got their valuation from $1 trillion to $1.83 trillion in less than a year. Despite competition, Nvidia's quality and production capacity remain unmatched. They continue to innovate with new chips like the H200 and expand into custom AI chip production, signaling further growth in the tech industry.

What else is new in news

✶AT&T, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the United States, is offering affected customers a $5 credit to compensate for a recent outage. This outage, which occurred on Thursday, disrupted phone calls, texts, and internet access for thousands of users (but instead of a virtual-PTI-jalsa, it was due to a network misconfiguration according to the company).

Local 🇵🇰 

NayaPay takes the wheel in ending toll plaza chaos

Ever had to endure your sister's cringe-worthy playlist during a road trip? Well, as annoying as that may be, there's something even more frustrating: those unexpected toll plaza stops. Imagine you're in a rush, trying to find loose change while steering the wheel and desperately hoping you don't drop any coins onto the car mats. That might be a thing of the past - thanks to NayaPay.

The details: NayaPay and Frontier Works Organization (FWO) are teaming up to change how we pay tolls on Pakistan's highways. They're making it all modern by digitizing M-Tag payments.

• You can now recharge your M-Tags right from your phone using the NayaPay app. No more waiting in lines or hunting down recharge spots.

• Starting January 1, 2024, the National Highway Authority (NHA) says everyone driving on the motorways gotta use M-Tags. 

• The bigwigs at NayaPay and FWO got together and signed a deal. This partnership, with a little help from One Network (ONPL), is gonna bring some major changes to how we handle tolls on highways as it has expertise in Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS), Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), and M-Tag services.

Zooming out: NayaPay's recent partnership with Alipay+ is gonna make paying tolls easy with QR codes. This will help tackle issues like limited payment options and high transaction costs. With all these cool partnerships, NayaPay is leading the charge toward a future where paying tolls and other digital transactions are easy for everyone in Pakistan.

TLDR: NayaPay and Frontier Works Organization (FWO) are joining forces to digitize M-Tag payments, making toll payments on Pakistan's highways easier and more convenient. With the NayaPay app, you can recharge your M-Tags from your phone, eliminating the need for cash payments at toll booths.

Tech tour of news

✶For the past week, access to the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has been blocked in Pakistan, with no explanation from authorities. Additionally, VPN services have been restricted, making it difficult for users to access the site as reported by NetBlocks, a global internet monitor.

More interesting Itla (اطلاع) we consumed:

🏡 If you haven’t already guessed, we sorta kinda love interior designing. Maybe it’s the aesthetic videos of architectural digest, the gorgeous houses, or the passionate way the owners talk about the littlest details. This house tour by Tan France has all three (plus the addition of a Pakistani/Indian touch in a very British and American house was chef’s kiss).