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Firstpost, PTI, May 06, 2019 Mumbai:  Despite the stress on performance due to regulatory restrictions, the value of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in hospital sector jumped by a record 155 percent at Rs 7,615 crore in FY19, a report said on Monday. The total value of M&A transactions in the hospital sector in FY19 recorded an increase of 155 percent amounting to Rs 7,615 crore, the highest value in the sector in over five year, as against transactions worth Rs 2,991 crore done in FY18, according to rating agency Icra. Two largest transactions in FY19 were the acquisition of stakes Fortis Healthcare for around Rs 4,000 crore and Max Healthcare for Rs 2,351 crore. In both these cases, the deal has been signed at a premium to the then prevailing market price, it noted. The acquisition of shares in Fortis Healthcare had been done at a price of Rs 170 per share, against the then prevailing market price of Rs 144 per share, noting that as this was a primary inf...

The  Tribune, Talib Fareedi, May 06, 2019 The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Monday arrested eight Chinese men involved in trafficking Pakistani girls to China and forcing them into prostitution,  Express News   reported. The arrests were made during a crackdown launched across Punjab, including Lahore. According to the FIA, these Chinese men were involved in the practice of trafficking Pakistani girls in the guise of marriage, forcing them into prostitution later. So  far, 10 Chinese men have been arrested in the scandal. The suspects arrested on Monday include Wang Hao, Shoi Sheli, Wong Yhazou, Chang Shail  Rai, Pan Khowajay, Wang Bao, Zaothi and Kaindisko. On Thursday, FIA in an intelligence-based operation raided a wedding ceremony in Faisalabad and arrested the Chinese groom who has been identified as Chang. Zahid, a Christian father; Kashif, a matchmaking agent; Mendes, a Chinese woman;  and others...

Daily Times, Imtiaz Gul, May 06, 2019 Pakistan’s compliance evaluation by the Asia Pacific Group (APG), a regional body of the global Financial Action Task Force (FATF), is only 10 days away. The government has reportedly prepared a list of actions in response to the 27-point FATF action plan. The official document prepared for the APG review presumably lists official takeover of  Jaish-e-Mohammad, Jamaat ud Dawa and their affiliated entities in entirety, the madrassa mainstreamin g plans, and stricter control/monitoring regimes to curb terrorist financing and money laundering. Will this document be able to convey the required ‘real understanding’, within various arms of government, of the FATF action plan? Will the government’s claim it has taken over the management of all those seminaries with suspected direct or ideological links to Al-Qaeda and Daesh stand the scrutiny of the APG? Will the anti-money laundering drive draw applause from the APG as some high-profi...

The Asian Age, PTI, May 06, 2019 New Delhi:  End-user spending on IT services in India is set to hit USD 15 billion in 2019 -- an increase of 9.8 per cent from 2018, a new release by Gartner said on Monday. Spending on Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is forecast to achieve the highest growth in 2019, at 14.4 per cent year-over-year (YoY). "In 2019, end-user spending on IT services in India will represent 59 per cent of total end-user spending on IT services in emerging Asia/Pacific, and it is on track to reach 60 per cent in 2020". "High GDP growth rates are driving local organisations to increase their investment in infrastructure, applications and digital initiatives, which are increasingly moving to the Cloud," said Arup Roy, Research Vice President at Gartner. Non-traditional sectors, such as logistics, transportation and manufacturing, are also experiencing healthy growth rates, and their business models are centred on investments in IT. BPO ...