This study examines the relationships between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and economic growth in Pakistan from 1990 to 2019. It focuses on SMEs and the other factors responsible for the economic growth by evaluating their effects in the long-run and short-run by employing the autoregressive distributed lag bounds cointegration approach. In the long-run, the SME's output, human development index, and credit to the SME sector's expansion are identified as the main driving force behind economic growth. However, in the short-run, SME's output, human development index, credit to SME, and annual export rate are the main drivers of economic development. Empirical results are important to policy makers to promote, stimulate and support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises through their strategies.

Purpose: The prevalence of depression among the general population is closely associated with exposure to COVID-19-related news but being a recent phenomenon, little work has been done on this issue. The focus of the present study is to hypothesize the relationship between media exposure to COVID-19-related news and the prevalence of depression across populations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. and comparatively, measure the source of news watching on a gender basis during Covid-19 among the different age groups. Methods: Primary data were collected from 1150 respondents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan through a structured questionnaire. Chi-square tests were applied to measure the relationship between media exposure to covid-19 news and depression at bi-variate and multivariate analyses.  Findings: Results disclosed that media exposure to covid-19 relates news causes depression among people. In addition, Media exposure was significantly associated with the respondent’s mental health problems at a 0.01 level of significance. Implications: Findings of the study confirm most of the previous scholarly work on this issue, which concludes that watching Covid-19-related news is closely associated with a consequent increase in depression. The study recommended that health intervention campaigns should be initiated by the government on media to decrease the level of fear among people. The study also recommended that content spreading false information regarding COVID-19 may also be removed by the government from the media. Moreover, medical specialists and psychologists may be called to different media programs to share useful information about the pandemic. Official pages, containing the correct and useful information on the said pandemic, may also be created on various social sites by the government authorities for the benefit of the general population.

The study examines the impact of Micro Hydropower (MHP) projects on households’ income, consumption and diversification of livelihood strategies in District Hattian Bala, Azad Jammu and Kashmir. A multinomial logistic model is used to investigate the possible role of MHP and other control variables on households’ adoption of livelihood strategies. The Results show that MHP-micro hydropower has a positive significant effect on household’s adoption of non-farm and diversified livelihood strategies. These findings suggest that MHP projects in Northern areas of Pakistan could help in improving household’s income and consumption through adoption of high income livelihood strategies. Keywords: Micro Hydropower (MHP), Livelihood Strategies, Income and Expenditures, Poverty Alleviation, Multinomial Logistic Model

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