Pakistan’s Karachi, hit by extremely hot weather is grappling with an unforeseen crisis even as locals battle waves of heat strokes in the past two days, leading to a spike in the number of deaths.The largest city of Pakistan is witnessing a concerning and disturbing trend — the discovery of unidentified bodies, which has now swelled to 36 in number. This has sent alarm bells ringing for the officials as neither the bodies have been claimed by anyone nor any reason identified for the unexplained deaths.

The Sindh provincial government has set up at least 77 heat wave relief centres across Karachi after the discovery of unidentified dead bodies. In the last three consecutive days, at least 36 people are reported to have perished in the intense heat wave.

The local administration was shocked at the discovery of at least 10, 15 and 11 bodies on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday respectively. The bodies were discovered by welfare organizations, whose ambulances kept shifting the bodies to hospitals.

According to an Edhi Foundation representative, most of the dead bodies were of people, who were under the influence of drugs, which, he said becomes a deadly combination with the heat wave.

“Many of the deceased individuals were reportedly under the influence of drugs at the time of the demise. It’s a lethal combination of intense heat and substance abuse”, said Azeem Khan, representative of Edhi Foundation.

Another welfare organization, whose ambulances recovered the bodies from different parts of Karachi, confirmed that some of the deceased individuals were drug addicts.

“Three of the deceased appeared to be victims of drug addictions”, said a volunteer of the Chhipa Welfare Association.

Concerns still remain around the identity of the majority of the deceased individuals, as no family member has come to claim the bodies, nor has their identity been established yet.

The alarming surge in the recovery of unidentified dead bodies in the past three days has prompted the Sindh government to take immediate steps and set up heat wave relief centres across the city.

The move also comes amid a serious warning issued by the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), predicting extreme temperatures for southern regions of the country.

Hospitals across Karachi continue to receive a massive amount of patients every day, putting pressure on the city’s medical resources.

As per sources in Jinnah Hospital Karachi, doctors are attending to hundreds of patients every day with medical issues related to heat wave.

“Many of the patients are treated and discharged after initial medical aid. But the number is increasing every day”, said a duty doctor in Jinnah Hospital, Karachi.

It is believed that their family members disowned the deceased victims of drug abuse and heat waves, as no one has come forward to claim the bodies. Moreover, the identity of the deceased has also become an issue for the authorities, as most of the deceased did not have their identity cards in their possession.

Hospitals across Karachi and the Sindh province have been put on alert while the government is trying to mitigate the flow of patients to hospitals through its 77 heat wave relief centres set up across the city. AGENCIES

 The number of babies born in South Korea marked on-year growth for the first time in 19 months in April, data showed on Wednesday, as the country is struggling to boost its ultra-low birth rate.

According to the data compiled by Statistics Korea, a total of 19,049 babies were born in April 2024, up 2.8 per cent from a year earlier, Yonhap news agency reported.

It was the first time since September 2022 that the figure logged on-year growth.

“The growth came as the number of newly married couples rose over the past couple of years after the Covid-19 pandemic, though it remains to be seen if such an uptrend could continue,” an agency official said.

The rebound was also partly attributable to a high base effect, as the number of newborns hit an all-time low of 18,528 in April 2023, falling 12.5 per cent on-year.

During the first four months of 2024, however, the number of newborns reached a record low of 79,523.

The total fertility rate, which means the average number of expected births from a woman in her lifetime, also hit a record yearly low of 0.72, which came far below the 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain a stable population without immigration.

In the first quarter of 2024, the fertility rate came to 0.76, falling 0.06 on-year.

The number of deaths rose 4 per cent on-year to 28,659 in April 2024, and the population, accordingly, declined by 9,610.

Deaths outpaced that of newborns since November 2019.

The number of couples getting married surged 24.6 per cent on-year to 18,039 in April, following a 5.5 per cent fall the previous month.

The number of couples getting divorced went up 5.7 per cent on-year to 7,701, the data showed.

South Korea is experiencing grim demographic changes, as many young people opt to postpone or give up on getting married or having babies in line with changing social norms and lifestyles.

Many have also pointed to high home prices and a tough job market as major reasons.

South Korea is expected to be a highly aged country by 2072 as the median age will increase from 44.9 in 2022 to 63.4 in 2072, and the population will tumble to around 36.22 million in 2072 from last year’s 51 million. AGENCIES

Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman of the Afghan caretaker government, will lead a delegation to the third round of UN-convened talks on Afghanistan, an official said.

The conference is scheduled for Sunday and Monday in the Qatari capital of Doha, reports Xinhua news agency.

A series of issues, including sanctions on Afghanistan, restrictions on financial activities and the banking system, and details about the Doha meeting, were discussed at a foreign ministry meeting on Tuesday, a spokesman of the administration’s foreign ministry, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said on its X account.

It marks the first time the caretaker government will participate in the UN-led meeting. The government was not invited to the first meeting last May and rejected the second in February. AGENCIES

One person was killed and seven others injured when a train rammed into a bus at a railway crossing in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, police have confirmed.

In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, the police said the accident happened around 4:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday.

“A bus with 66 passengers on board was hit by a train after the bus driver failed to stop at the railway crossing. Subsequently, one person died on the spot, and seven others were injured,” the police added.

The accident happened just over a week after nine passengers were killed on a bus which caught fire just outside the small town of Rusape in Manicaland Province, reports Xinhua news agency.

Road traffic accidents involving passenger transport vehicles are common in Zimbabwe, prompting the government to engage operators to minimise them. AGENCIES

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved $150 million in financing for Sri Lanka to improve the quality and utilisation of its primary healthcare services, according to a statement.

The World Bank on Monday said the project would help improve the quality of care and increase the use of primary medical care institutions, which provide essential health services to local communities, reports Xinhua news agency.

Capacity challenges and the absence of a formal referral mechanism have led to the underutilisation of primary healthcare facilities and overcrowding in tertiary care facilities in Sri Lanka, according to the statement.

The previous World Bank-supported project already enhanced 550 Primary Medical Care Institutions with essential equipment, medicines, health workers and basic laboratory testing facilities.

The new project will scale up these efforts to cover 100 per cent of Primary Medical Care Institutions across all districts of Sri Lanka, expanding to over 1,000 facilities with a more comprehensive service package and improved quality of care, it said. AGENCIES

In a bid to curb spam calls and messages, the government has issued fresh directions to mobile services providers.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has mandated mobile services providers to enhance their mobile apps and web portals to make them more user-friendly for registration of unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) complaints.

The TRAI has mandated mobile services providers to ensure that options for UCC complaint registration and preference management are easily accessible on their mobile applications and websites.

“Also, essential details for the registration of complaints should be automatically populated, if users grant permission to access their call logs and other relevant data,” said the telecom regulatory body.

The TRAI has also implemented amendments to the performance monitoring report formats (PMRs).

All mobile services providers will now be required to submit PMRs on a monthly basis, as opposed to the previous quarterly reporting cycle, said the Ministry of Communications.

Earlier this month, the TRAI allocated 160 mobile phone series for making transactional and service voice calls for all entities regulated by RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA in the first phase, in order to prevent the duping of citizens from the fraudsters.

Once the 160 mobile series is implemented, it will help in the easy identification of the calling entity. AGENCIES

Indian equity indices opened in the green on Tuesday following positive cues from Asian peers. At 9:55 a.m., Sensex was up 212 points or 0.27 per cent, at 77,553 and Nifty was up 53 points or 0.23 per cent, at 23,591.Buying is being seen in midcap and smallcap stocks. Nifty Midcap 100 index is up 265 points or 0.48 per cent, at 55,842 and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index is up 202 points or 1.11 per cent, at 18,417.

In the Sensex pack, Ultratech Cement (NS:ULTC), HDFC Bank (NS:HDBK), M&M (NS:MAHM), Axis Bank (NS:AXBK), SBI (NS:SBI), Bharti Airtel (NS:BRTI), Bajaj Finance (NS:BJFN) and Tata Steel (NS:TISC) are top gainers. HCL Tech (NS:HCLT), Bajaj Finserv (NS:BJFS), NTPC (NS:NTPC), Asian paints, Infosys (NS:INFY) and TCS (NS:TCS) are top losers.

Asian markets are bullish. The markets of Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Seoul are in the green. At the same time, Shanghai and Jakarta are in the red. American markets closed higher on Monday. Crude oil benchmark Brent crude is at $85 per barrel and WTI crude at $81 per barrel.

Mandar Bhojane, Research Analyst at Choice Broking, said, “On the daily chart, Nifty formed a bullish piercing candlestick pattern with good volume, indicating a bullish reversal from the support level of 23,400.”

“If the index closes above the 23,600 level, it could further rise to 23,800 and 24,000 levels in the upcoming days. On the flip side, if the price breaks the 23,300 level, it could correct further to the 23,000 level,” he added.

Among the sectoral indices, PSU banks, Auto, Fin Service, Metal and Media are major gainers. IT, FMCG and Realty are major laggards. AGENCIES

Samsung Electronics (KS:005930) said on Tuesday it has completed building infrastructure to produce faster and more efficient chips for artificial intelligence (AI) computing.The infrastructure for so-called compute express link (CXL) technology was built at Samsung Memory Research Center in Hwaseong, about 45 kms south of Seoul, the company said in a statement.

The CXL technology allows an efficient operation among computer processing units, accelerators and memory chips. It is considered next-generation memory technology following high-bandwidth memory, reports Yonhap news agency.

Samsung said the infrastructure was certified by Red Hat, a US software company.

Song Taek-sang, head of the new DRAM solution development team at Samsung Electronics, said the company’s partnership with “Red Hat is able to deliver CXL memory products with enhanced reliability to our customers.”

“Through our continued collaboration spanning software and hardware, we will remain at the forefront of developing innovative memory solutions as well as the CXL ecosystem,” Song said in the statement. AGENCIES

Propelled by strong government impetus and the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative, the revenue of the top 25 private aerospace and defence companies is set to grow 20 per cent to Rs 13,500 crore this fiscal (FY25), a report showed on Tuesday.Operating margin is likely to rise 50-60 basis points on sustained revenue growth, economies of scale and better-fixed cost absorption, and should remain stable over the medium term, aided by price escalation clauses in contracts, according to the report by CRISIL (NS:CRSL) Ratings.

While public sector undertakings (PSUs) dominate the Indian defence industry, the revenue share of private players has been on the rise.

This is because liberalisation in defence equipment manufacturing and increasing transparency in bidding guidelines have helped private entities secure more orders in domestic and overseas markets.

According to Jayashree Nandakumar, Director, CRISIL Ratings, the order book to operating income is expected to improve to around 4.5 times in fiscal 2025 to Rs 50,000-Rs 51,000 crore, from 3.5 times in fiscal 2023, driving revenue growth.

The report further mentioned that gross current assets may increase further from the already high level of 450-500 days on average, driven by large inventory and receivables of around 230 and 120 days, respectively.

“Players may undertake capital expenditure (Capex) of Rs 650-700 crore this fiscal to expand their existing capacities by 12-14 per cent and require an additional Rs 600-700 crore to meet the incremental working capital expenses,” said Sajesh KV, Associate Director, CRISIL Ratings. AGENCIES

JSW Steel USA, a subsidiary of India’s leading steel company, on Tuesday said it plans to invest $110 million in steel projects in the state of Texas.

The company said this investment will enable the production of high-quality monopile steel plates to support the Joe Biden administration’s new actions to expand offshore wind energy by deploying 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030, enough to power 10 million homes with clean energy.

JSW Steel USA is part of the $24 billion JSW Group, with over 800 employees.

“The new investments will enable us to progressively deliver high-quality steel products while further defining our niche markets through a ‘Made in America’ speciality steel portfolio,” said Parth Jindal, Director of JSW Steel USA.

“These investments have the potential to significantly reduce US import reliance in the infrastructure and renewable energy sectors,” he added.

This portfolio expansion will also support the expanded development of the domestic renewable energy market by increasing JSW USA’s service capacity towards its customers within the offshore wind market.

These new projects, which further build upon JSW USA’s recent $145 million investment in its Mingo Junction facility (Ohio), are expected to be completed and commissioned by FY26.

“Without a doubt, the ‘Lone Star State’ is the best place to live, work and raise a family — and continued investment will ensure future growth and economic opportunities for the entire region. I’m proud to represent JSW and am excited for what is in store,” said Congressman Brian Babin, representing the 36th district of Texas and the city of Baytown.

Atul Keshap, President of the US-India Business Council (USIBC), said through initiatives like this, the US and India will continue to see convergence based on trust, partnership and mutual progress. AGENCIES