Background: In the current era, malnutrition among children considers main reason of morbidity and mortality in the world scenario while more specifically in developing countries. Malnutrition in children severely affects their physical growth and academic achievements. This study aimed to find out the effect of socioeconomic factors on malnutrition, children aged under 5 years in Multan district of Punjab province, Pakistan. The study used the data of 2497 children, obtained from Multiple Integrated Cluster Survey 2018 and employed Binary logistic regression approach for empirical estimation the effects of socioeconomic factors on malnutrition among children. Results: Empirical estimates of the study specified the prevalence of higher frequency of stunting (18.58), wasting (28.43) and underweight (19.54) among children particularly in rural areas of the study district Multan. Stunting status was significantly associated with children of some month (OR = 1.247, CI 95% 0.543-1.546), family size (OR = 0.589, CI 95% 0.431-3.715), maternal education (OR = 1.432, CI 95% 0.528-1.972), wealth quintile (OR = 2.174, CI 95% 1.234-3.376) and sanitation facility (OR = 0.789, CI 95% 0.627-1.987). Wasting status was mostly correlated with male children (OR = 1.208, CI 95% 0.769-1.352), children of urban areas (OR = 0.594, CI 95% 0.476-1.987) and food shortage (OR = 1.367, CI 95% 0.782-2.543). Underweight status was close relationship with male gender (OR = 1.213, CI 95% 0.821-2.897), incomplete immunization (OR = 1.342, CI 95% 1.041-2.658) and treated water access (OR = 0.689, CI 95% 0.542-2.743). Conclusion: In this study, prevalence of higher-level malnutrition was estimated due to lower socioeconomic status among major population in the community specifically in rural areas. The government needs to enhance economic opportunities, promote healthcare education, increase nutritional access and generate improving personal hygiene habits through appropriate economic, political and social policy measures. The outcome of these policies will enhance individual economic resources; ensure nutritional safety, increasing maternal schooling and helpful for improving child health.

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Given that development initiatives could at from time to time be a “zero-sum game”, this study looks at the unforeseen effects of microfinance in Pakistan for females' “empowerment”. So as to discover the complexities of the microfinance impact on females in societies with various disadvantages in Pakistan, the research uses a participation-based methodology involving household “questionnaires surveys, focus group discussions and major interviews.” The effects of multiple regressions, median closure, and themes studies indicate that the financial effects of microfinance for women are often closely connected to disputes between spouses, child labour, heterosexual monogamy and the lack of supposed traditional women's duty due to their entrepreneurship. With limitations on scientific findings regarding the possible negative effects of females' “empowerment” in Pakistan, the study evaluated a crucial research gaps which will allow non-governmental organisations, policymakers and other stakeholders to design and execute better initiatives that minimize the adverse concerns

The crisis of COVID-19 comes with a calamitous economic stance. The South Asian countries experience their nastiest economic performance in the last four decenniums, and a moiety of the countries are falling into recession. This paper checks the impact of the first,second and third waves of COVID-19 outbreak on the stock market indices of all the South Asian countries, including India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, SriLanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, and Bhutan. The study has utilized the Event Study Methodology and results exhibit that COVID-19 decreases the mean returns of all the stock market indices and increases their volatility,which designates that Corona does influence all the stock markets of South Asia in decrementing their returns and incrementing volatility. Overall, the negative effect of the first wave of COVID-19 is not paramount across all the indices except the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), albeit its second wave did not affect any of the stock market indices significantly. In contrast,the third wave affects the stock markets indices of Pakistan (PSX) and Afghanistan (AFX).