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  • Pakistan rebuts reports of stopping payments to Google

    Pakistan rebuts reports of stopping payments to Google

    KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Saturday strongly rebutted the reports that it has stopped the payments to Google.

    Certain media has reported that Google PlayStore would not be available from December 01, 2022 due to the central bank had stopped payment to Google apps.

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    The SBP in a statement said recent news circulating in some sections of the media that certain payments to Google are stuck at SBP, are baseless and misleading. “SBP strongly refutes all such assertions.”

    The fact is that in order to facilitate the domestic entities, SBP specified certain Information Technology (IT) related services, which such entities can acquire from abroad for their own use and make foreign exchange payments there against up to $ 100,000 per invoice. Such services include, Satellite Transponder, International Bandwidth/ Internet/ Private Line Services, Software License/Maintenance/Support, and service to use electronic media and databases.

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    Entities desirous of utilizing this option designate a bank, which is approved by SBP one time. Subsequently, after designation, such payments can be processed through the designated bank, without any further regulatory approval.

    However, during recent off-site reviews, it was observed that in addition to utilizing the aforesaid mechanism to remit funds for IT related services for their own use, Telcos were remitting bulk of the funds for video gaming, entertainment content, etc. purchased by their customers using airtime, under Direct Carrier Billing (DCB).

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    DCB is, in general, an online mobile payment method, which allows users to make purchases by charging payments to their mobile phone carrier bill. The Telcos were allowing their customers to purchase above mentioned products through airtime and then remitting funds abroad reflecting such transactions as payments for acquisition of IT related services. Thus, in effect the Telcos were acting as intermediaries/ payment aggregators by facilitating acquisition of services by their subscribers.

    Therefore, in view of the violation of foreign exchange regulations, SBP revoked the designation of banks of Telcos for such payments. However, to facilitate their legitimate IT related payments, Telcos have been advised through their banks to resubmit their requests.

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    If any entity, including a telco, intends to operate as an intermediary/payment aggregator and such arrangement involves outflow of foreign exchange, it has to approach SBP, separately through its bank, for seeking special permission for providing such services under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947.

  • Google Career Certificates to bring digital revolution in Pakistan

    Google Career Certificates to bring digital revolution in Pakistan

    ISLAMABAD: The President of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi has said that the launch of Google Career Certificates to bring digital revolution in Pakistan, according to a statement issued on Thursday.

    Pakistan is in dire need to capacitate the youth to enable them to contribute in the development of country, especially those who cannot afford to attend the universities, the president said during his video keynote address in the launching ceremony of Google Career Certificates in Pakistan, being carried out jointly by Google, Institute of Rural Management (IRM) and Ignite.

    Dr. Arif Alvi further said: “I am very pleased that google, IRM and Ignite are launching google career certificates in Pakistan. This program has ensured the women participation throughout the program. These courses will play an important part in creating a shift towards digitization and introduction of digital technology.”

    He expressed hope that initiation of such projects will bring about the required digital revolution in Pakistan.

    Dr. Arif Alvi stressed the youth to take benefit of these courses and enroll themselves in digital programs to increase their earnings as they are completely online and free.

    During the ceremony, speakers from Google, Ministry of IT, Industry and Academia addressed the participants on the importance of the Google career certificates in Pakistan.

    Dr. Roomi S. Hayat said that “he hopes that with the help of such programs, soon we would be a thriving country in the digital world.” CEO Ignite said, “Ignite has always contributed to the digital economy of Pakistan and through this certificates Ignite intends to further strengthen the digital economy.”

    Participants were also given a detailed orientation session on how to enroll and join the Google Career Certificate program.

  • Google announces vaccine requirement for its officials

    Google announces vaccine requirement for its officials

    Google is the first big tech company to announce a vaccine requirement for returning to its offices. The decision may push other tech companies to follow with similar moves.

    Google will now require employees who work in its offices to be fully vaccinated and is pushing back its start date for when they need to report back to the office in response to the highly contagious delta variant spreading across the United States and around the world.

    Google made the announcement in a note sent to employees from CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday.

    In it, Pichai says the company has seen high vaccination rates for Google employees so far and that is why it is comfortable in bringing workers back into the office.

    Currently, there are some early volunteers who are already working at various Google campuses.

    “For those of you with special circumstances, we will soon be sharing expanded temporary work options that will allow you to apply to work from home through the end of 2021,” said Pichai in the note.

    In the spring, Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon started rolling out their return-to-office plans which largely involved a hybrid approach — three days of work in the office and two at home, starting for most employees in the fall.

    For the most part, wearing masks was not going to be a requirement for vaccinated in-office workers at most companies, and getting vaccines was not mandated. Now the companies’ plans appear to going through another round of revisions.

    Apple was the first company to change its fall 2021 return-to-office date, announcing in July that workers would not be required back until October instead of the previously announced date in September.

  • Google Cloud, Ericsson to jointly develop 5G, edge cloud solutions

    Google Cloud, Ericsson to jointly develop 5G, edge cloud solutions

    KARACHI: Google Cloud and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) on Monday announced a partnership to jointly develop 5G and edge cloud solutions to help communications service providers (CSPs) digitally transform and to unlock new enterprise and consumer use cases.

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