Author: Kashmir Newsline

Lt Governor Manoj Sinha in an exclusive conversation with Kashmir Newsline Sadiq Shaban | Special to Kashmir Newsline In a freewheeling conversation, Lt Governor of J&K Manoj Sinha touched upon a host of hot button issues facing the Union Territory and how his administration is firmly handling the economic and political situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Assuring Pandit employees working in Kashmir of their safety, security and well being, Lt Governor told Kashmir Newsline in an exclusive chat that most of the Kashmiri Pandit government staff have been posted to safer locations within the Valley following a spate of targeted killings. Elaborating on the demands by a…

Kashmir’s rural economy is the backbone of Jammu and Kashmir’s GDP with the horticulture sector contributing to a whopping Rs 5000 crore to the erstwhile state’s economy that making up for seven percent of the Gross Domestic Product. The horticulture sector provides and sustains, directly or indirectly, the livelihood of seven lac families and thirty-three lac people are involved in this trade at its various stages. The agriculture sector, another key component of the rural economy and its allied sections involve seventy percent population of Jammu and Kashmir, making a large chunk of the Himalayan region self-reliant in terms of…

More than three decades after their exodus, the return of Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) remains a mirage for a host of reasons including the weaponization of the KP misery by the rightwing to further its communal agenda. Amit Bamzai A somber-looking septuagenarian Muslim neighbour looking mindlessly into nothingness surrounding him, with a pair of pink sandals resting next to him. These sandals are all that was found next to the body of Rajni Bala when she was murdered near Govt. High School, Gopalpara in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district. Bala hailed from Jammu’s Samba district and was posted as a teacher in…

To create a reasonable space with contemporary curricular focus, balanced training options and integrated counselling structures is the need of the hour. Monisa Qadri During the last decade or so, a paradigm shift has been witnessed in the field of media and journalism and most of it depends on the professional input from media schools. The expansion of media industry and the proliferation of such institutions in both public and private sector, has been somewhat proportional. Even in J&K, at least, four universities and higher educational institutions offer journalism and mass communication at master’s level while half a dozen colleges…

Intelligence throws up sordid truths that the innocent common man, smug in his mundane, pathetically mediocre existence is gloriously oblivious to. By Lily Swarn “Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know,” pronounced Ernest Hemingway. Have you seen a brilliant scientist looking radiant and chirpy? Not often enough! Or a reputed poet, grinning from ear to ear? There is an air of laden sombreness, like a pall of gloom hovering over their whole being; almost like an extended aura, that has become a part of their mysterious persona. Intellectuals and the creme -de- la creme of society have an…

Mainstream media’s connivance with the Hindu right has drawn widespread condemnation and alarm around the world. By Sanjay Kapoor While the hatred of religious supremacists for minorities has never been hidden in India or elsewhere, the manner in which some members of the clergy with godliness exuding from their long beards and flowing saffron robes converged at Haridwar, Uttrakhand, late last year to give a call, bizarrely and wantonly, for genocide of Muslims as a recompense for country’s bloodied past where Muslim invaders and rulers allegedly caused untold atrocities and destroyed Hindu temples. This congregation relied on expected historical distortions…

India’s wicketkeeper-batsman has taken the cricket world by storm with a Gilchrist-like blistering approach to decimate oppositions. Bilal Ahsan Dar Indian wicketkeeper batsman Rishabh pant is the hottest property of Indian cricket these days. An emerging superstar is fascinating everyone in the cricket world with his flamboyance and talent complemented with some phenomenal performances and game changing innings. The 24-year old dasher made his T20I debut in January 2017 and his ODI and Test debut in 2018. He was quick to make his mark in the international cricket and was named the ICC Men’s Emerging Cricketer of the year at…

Smart City Mission was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) GoI in which 100 cities were to be selected for Urban renewal and retrofitting to promote cities that provide core infrastructure, give a decent quality of life to their citizens and apply smart solutions to improve services and infrastructure. The main objective is to make life of the citizens comfortable. Some of the town planners argue that a city smart on paper must be smart on the ground also. In Srinagar, there is much room for improvement. The concept of a smart city began at a…

The ethereal trekking expedition to Mawarnag is to be experienced to be believed. Shahnawaz Khanday I expected it to be a routine weekend trek to yet another Alpine Lake. It turned out to be unlike all other trekking expeditions I had undertaken. Mawarnag expedition left all of us in the team – including many seasoned trekkers – spellbound and pleasantly surprised. Starting immediately after morning prayers, our team comprising some from Shopian and others from Srinagar, reached Ahlan Gadol in the Breng Valley of Kukarnag by 8 am.  After parking our vehicles right in the forests of Upper Ahlan amid barely…