Provincial connectivity and growth are connected to visualization of mutual progress and economic development. This is the viewpoint behind the establishment of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Developing new transport infrastructure, Gwadar Port Projects and several energy generating projects, are one of the key projects of CPEC, "All Weather Strategic Friendship" is therefore proved for Pakistan and China. China's pilot project of "Belt and Road Initiative" is the key plan, which led to the development of CPEC. It is expected from CPEC that it will reduce the transportation cost of China by providing a shorter route for China's trade to Persian Gulf and it will provide a solution to the energy shortfalls in Pakistan. Moreover, CPEC's projected prospects of economic advancement, there are some economic, security and political threats in Pakistan. This paper proposes to illuminate the significant Geo-strategic importance, opportunities and challenges for China Pakistan Economic Corridor, and it envisages to broaden the base, by including energy rich, Tajikistan economic role model Turkey and strategically located Iran. Hence, this paper provides a holistic view of previous researches on the planned subject and is not involving any data analysis as existing researches had used for analyzing a review of prospects and challenges.

Online learning systems owing to their nature are free of restrictions of time or place and can prove to be a useful platform for students where they can continue their studies when it is not possible for them to go to a university in person owing to different reasons. Such systems have also been used in Pakistan, particularly in private sector, for university and school education. This paper attempts to highlight various issues that the students are facing and the factors that have a significant effect on their online learning experience. We collected data through online questionnaires distributed to 1200 students enrolled in six private universities in Pakistan. This study employed the Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) to examine factors that influenced online learning. The results showed that teaching and professional behaviour, course instructional planning and methodology and online connectivity were significantly positively associated with online learning. With the identification of key factors that affects online learning of students, it will be more helpful to provide improved services for effective student leaning. Other crucial implications and a way forward are also discussed in the paper.

The novel COVID-19 is a highly invasive, pathogenic, and transmittable disease that has stressed the health care sector and hampered global development. Information of other viral respiratory diseases indicates that COVID-19 transmission could be affected by varying weather conditions; however, the impact of meteorological factors on the COVID-19 death counts remains unexplored. By investigating the impact of meteorological factors (absolute humidity, relative humidity, and temperature), this study will contribute both theoretically and practically to the concerned domain of pandemic management to be better prepared to control the spread of the disease. For this study, data is collected from 23 February to 31 March 2020 for Milan, Northern Italy, one of the badly hit regions by COVID-19. The generalized additive model (GAM) is applied, and a nonlinear relationship is examined with penalized spline methods. A sensitivity analysis is conducted for the verification of model results. The results reveal that temperature, relative humidity, and absolute humidity have a significant but negative relationship with the COVID-19 mortality rate. Therefore, it is possible to postulate that cool and dry environmental conditions promote virus transmission, leading to an increase in COVID-19 death counts. The results may facilitate health care policymakers in developing and implementing effective control measures in a timely and efficient way.

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