Haq's Musings

Riaz Haq writes this data-driven blog to provide information, express his opinions and make comments on many topics. Subjects include personal activities, education, South Asia, South Asian community, regional and international affairs and US politics to financial markets. For investors interested in South Asia, Riaz has another blog called South Asia Investor at http://www.southasiainvestor.com and a YouTube video channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkrIDyFbC9N9evXYb9cA_gQ

Friday, June 27, 2025

Trump Administration Seeks Pakistan's Help For Promoting “Durable Peace Between Israel and Iran”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to discuss promoting “a durable peace between Israel and Iran,” the State Department said in a statement, according to Reuters. Both leaders "agreed to continue working together to strengthen Pakistan-US relations, particularly to increase trade", said a statement released by the Pakistan government.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio

The call came after Iran and Israel agreed to a ceasefire to end what President Donald Trump described as a "12-day war". It is yet another indication of Pakistan's close ties with both Tehran and Washington. Pakistan strongly condemned Israel's "unprovoked attack" and the US bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities. It also shows Washington’s growing engagement with Islamabad at a time when the Trump administration is exploring a new diplomatic initiative with Tehran, possibly “as early as next week”. President Trump met Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir at the White House last week where they discussed Iran, which Trump said Pakistan knew about better than most other countries.

Earlier in May this year, President Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary Rubio arranged India-Pakistan ceasefire after 4 days of fighting between the two South Asian neighbors. Testifying before the US Congress earlier this month, the US Central Command Chief General Michael Kurilla described Pakistan as a “phenomenal partner in the counterterrorism world”. This statement coincided with the Washington visit of the Indian parliamentary delegation led by Shashi Tharoor. Tharoor's delegation's aim was to "isolate Pakistan" after the Pahalgam militant attack in Kashmir which India blamed on Pakistan without presenting any evidence.

Pakistan also enjoys close ties with China and Russia. China-Pakistan friendship has meant significant diplomatic support and massive investment in infrastructure, as well as the state-of-the-art military hardware for the country's armed forces. Russia, too, has drawn closer to Pakistan. It has recently agreed to invest in a modern steel plant in Karachi where an abandoned Soviet-era steel mill stands today.

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Defense Ministers

At a recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Defense Ministers meeting in China, nine member countries(China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Iran and Belarus) rejected India's attempt to insert a reference to Pahalgam in the joint statement. Earlier, India distanced itself from SCO's joint condemnation of Israel’s attacks on Iran. India also abstained from voting on a UN resolution regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict, specifically related to the humanitarian situation in Gaza. This decision continues India's pattern of abstaining on resolutions criticizing Israel.

While India claims the mantle of the "Global South" leadership, its actions do not align with its ambition. On the other hand, Pakistan's policies and actions are much more aligned with those of the BRICS nations. Pakistan is not currently a member of the BRICS yet, but both China and Russia have publicly expressed support for its inclusion as a full member.

Friday, June 20, 2025

Pakistani-American Entrepreneur's AI Startup Commands $18 Billion Valuation

Anysphere, founded in 2022 by Sualeh Asif, Arvid Lunnemark, Aman Sanger and Michael Truell, has been approached by investors about a deal that would more than double its valuation in a new funding round to $18 to $20 billion, according to Bloomberg. Sualeh Asif, 25, the Chief Product Officer and co-founder, hails from Karachi, Pakistan. He studied at Nixor College in Karachi before going to the United States in 2018. He met the other three co-founders while studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). One-half (Sualeh Asif and Aman Sanger) of the startup’s founding team is of South Asian origin. The company moved to San Francisco soon after its founding in 2022.

Sualeh Asif, Anyshphere Inc's Pakistani-American Founder

Anysphere’s lead product is an AI code editor called Cursor AI. It works as an AI assistant that writes code and also anticipates code developer's needs, identifies inefficiencies, and helps solve complex problems with relative ease. On his personal website sualehasif.me, Sualeh says: "I’m building Cursor to discover a new way to write code. I owe much of my fun to my friends and MIT. I am extremely excited about the new capabilities of LLMs and applications to code tools".

In early 2024, Anysphere raised $60 million in a Series A financing (co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital and included Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe) at a $400 million post-money valuation, according to TechCrunch. It was followed by a $105 million Series B funding round in December 2024. Earlier this month, Anysphere said it raised $900 million at a valuation of $9.9 billion, including the new investment, in a round led by Thrive Capital. Andreessen Horowitz, Accel and DST Global also participated.

Several investors have recently floated a funding offer that would value Anysphere at $18 billion to $20 billion, according to Bloomberg. The startup's revenue has recently surpassed $500 million on an annualized basis.

“We have not engaged with or spoken with any investors about financing since our Series C,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Truell wrote to Bloomberg in response to a query. “We’re not focused on fundraising and have lots to do on building the technology, product, and team. Cursor can be made much more useful, and we’re spending time on that.”

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Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel

PakAlumni Social Network

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Clean Energy Revolution: Soaring Solar Energy Battery Storage in Pakistan

Pakistan imported an estimated 1.25 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of lithium-ion battery packs in 2024 and another 400 megawatt-hours (MWh) in the first two months of 2025, according to a research report by the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). The report projects these imports to reach 8.75 gigawatt-hours (GWh) by 2030. Using 5.2 hours per day of peak sunlight translates into 1,898 hours per year. It means that each gigawatt of installed solar capacity can produce up to 1.8 terawatt-hours of electricity in a year, and each gigawatt-hour of battery capacity can store up to 1.8 terawatt-hours of electricity over a year. Currently, Pakistanis consume about 110 terawatt-hours of energy from the grid in a year.

Battery Storage Growth in Pakistan. Source: IEEFA

Chinese battery packs have become particularly affordable with rapidly declining prices due to falling raw material costs, overcapacity in manufacturing, and increased production efficiency. Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries have become the most affordable packs, with prices at $75 per kilowatt-hour as of last year, according to Statista.

Pakistan Leads in Solar Generation Mix. Source: Reuters

Pakistan is investing in battery storage projects to improve grid stability, integrate renewable energy sources, and reduce reliance on traditional power sources. These projects are being developed by both public and private entities, with significant funding from international organizations like the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Home With Rooftop Solar Panels and Battery Storage

Daily Charge-Discharge Cycle For A Home With Solar Panels and Battery Storage

While negatively impacting demand for grid electricity in the short term, the increasing use of battery storage solutions by rooftop solar consumers will likely improve grid stability, integrate renewable energy sources, and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Here's how the IEEFA report explains it:

"The grid should adapt to changing consumer dynamics and increasing adoption of alternative energy sources. BESS (Battery Energy Storage Solutions) has inherent peak shaving abilities, which could work to the grid’s advantage and result in cost savings by reducing centralized generation. As more distributed solar systems operate, the grid is already experiencing peak-demand shifting. Consumers with solar PV installations defect from the grid during the day but reappear during the night, leading to declining minimum demand during the day but a rising peak demand during the evening (known as the duck curve). Daytime demand is expected to decrease even further if rapid solarization continues, which may jeopardize system stability. Instances of extremely low demand, such as during holidays, may cause utilities to trip, leading to the risk of grid failure. Conversely, the surge in evening peak requires a quick rampup of fossil fuel-based power generation".

Battery packs are the most expensive components of electric vehicles today. Lower battery pack prices will make electric vehicles more affordable, leading to wider adoption and lower transport emissions. As a signatory to the Paris Agreement, Pakistan is pushing to grow electric vehicle adoption. The country’s New Energy Vehicle (NEV) policy for 2025–2030 targets 30% of all new vehicles to be electric by 2030, rising to 90% by 2040.

Pakistan has contributed only 0.28% of the CO2 emissions but it is among the biggest victims of climate change. The US, Europe, India, China and Japan, the world's biggest polluters, must accept responsibility for the catastrophic floods in Pakistan and climate disasters elsewhere. A direct link of the disaster in Pakistan to climate change has been confirmed by a team of 26 scientists affiliated with World Weather Attribution, a research initiative that specializes in rapid studies of extreme events, according to the New York Times.

Sunday, June 8, 2025

Builder.AI: Yet Another Global Indian Scam?

A London-based startup builder.ai, founded by an Indian named Sachin Dev Duggal, recently filed for bankruptcy after its ‘neural network’ was discovered to be 700 Indians coding in India. The company promoted its "code-building AI" to be as easy as "ordering pizza". It was backed by nearly half a billion dollar investment by top tech investors including Microsoft. The company was valued at $1.5 billion. This is the latest among a series of global scams originating in India.

In recent years, India has emerged as a major hub for global scams. The US government has alleged in court documents that a large enterprise originating from India was involved in stealing nearly $1.5 billion from elderly Americans. Recently, two Indian nationals, Pranay Mamindi and Kishan Patel, were found guilty of participating in a money laundering conspiracy, concealing the source of the money, and using the illegally gained money to further promote a criminal enterprise. Six other defendants from India also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

These global scams appear to have started amid widespread unemployment in India. Many of the scammers previously worked in call centers where they learned to use computers and telecommunications networks to reach out and talk to Americans. In 2022, U.S. citizens fell victim to a massive loss of over $10 billion from phishing calls orchestrated by illegal Indian call centers, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Indian-Americans, too, have been found guilty in a number of high-profile scams. A federal jury convicted former Theranos executive Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, an Indian-American entrepreneur, on all 12 counts of fraud in 2022. Balwani was born in 1965 in Pakistan to a Sindhi Hindu family. His one-time girlfriend and partner Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, was convicted on similar charges earlier that year. Both face up to 20 years in prison.

Last year, a federal judge sentenced former Outcome Health CEO Rishi Shah, an Indian-American, to 7½ years in prison for a massive fraud scheme that prosecutors say enabled a “jet-set lifestyle” featuring private aircraft, yachts and a tony Chicago home.

In 2020, Dr. John Nath Kapoor, Indian-American CEO of Insys Therapeutics, was found guilty of conspiring to recklessly and illegally boost profits from the opioid painkiller Subsys, a fentanyl spray designed to be absorbed under the tongue, according to multiple media reports.

Rajat Gupta, an Indian-American former global head of McKinsey & Company, was convicted of insider trading in 2012. He was charged with passing on confidential business information about Goldman Sachs to hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. Gupta was found guilty on multiple counts of conspiracy and securities fraud and served a two-year prison sentence.

India Ranks Number One For Misinformation and Disinformation

Beyond the hub of scams and frauds, it seems that India has earned a reputation as the epicenter of misinformation and disinformation. According to experts surveyed for the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Risk Report, India was ranked highest for the risk of misinformation and disinformation. This was on full display during the recent conflict with Pakistan.

After the recent Pahalgam militant attack in Kashmir, the Indian government immediately blamed it on Pakistan without any investigation or evidence. More than a month later, the perpetrators have neither been clearly identified nor apprehended. And yet, the government of Prime Minister Modi proceeded with air strikes inside Pakistan. Pakistan retaliated and shot down several Indian fighter jets, including its most advanced French Rafales. The conflict began to quickly escalate with strikes and counter-strikes, with the world fearing a nuclear exchange. This prompted the United States and several other countries to intervene and force a ceasefire in less than 4 days of armed conflict.

During this short 4-day period, the Indian mainstream media was filled with lies. Here's how the Washington Post reported this: "Times Now Navbharat reported that Indian forces had entered Pakistan; TV9 Bharatvarsh told viewers that Pakistan’s prime minister had surrendered; Bharat Samachar said he was hiding in a bunker. All of them, along with some of the country’s largest channels — including Zee News, ABP News and NDTV — repeatedly proclaimed that major Pakistani cities had been destroyed".

It is unfortunate but true: Fraud and falsehood have become endemic in the Indian society. Part of the blame falls squarely on the ruling BJP party which promotes falsehoods. In 2018, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-hand man and home minister Amit Shah told his party's volunteers commonly known as Modi Bhakts: "We can keep making messages go viral, whether they are real or fake, sweet or sour". "Keep making messages go viral. We have already made a WhatsApp group with 32 lakh people in Uttar Pradesh; every morning they are sent a message at 8 am", Shah added, according to a report in Dainik Bhaskar, an Indian Hindi-language daily newspaper.

PakAlumni Social Network