Author: Kashmir Newsline

This year’s plentiful produce has given a fresh lease of life to orchardists. Saqib Mugloo Abdul Rahman Dar neatly places the cherry harvest inside boxes as the June sun swelters overhead at his orchard in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district. It has been an abundant produce and market conditions appear positive as waves of COVID19 infections have gradually eased after causing widespread economic and supply disruptions during the last two years. “This year we have a bumper crop and I am hopeful we will do better business than previous years,” Dar, 56, said as he finished his lunch and quickly went…

One wrong step led to some trials and travails but, at the end of the day, it was more than worth it. Shahnawaz Khanday I was embarking on the trek to Alpine lakes located high up in the foothills of Bramsakli for the third time in as many years. I, along with some friends, left at the crack of dawn, immediately after the morning prayers. The eight of us, including some professionals and experienced alpinists, drove straight to Halan hamlet in Kulgam which is the starting point to what are now widely known as trekking routes of Chiranbal meadow, Bramsar…

How a lively group of women in Dubai revels in esprit de corps. Sana Altaf It is 6 pm and the scorching summer heat of Dubai has started to subside. There is haze in the air as the humidity soars. Roads are busy with office-goers returning home. Cafés and restaurants are getting packed with customers. It is amid these end-of-the-day activities that Dubai’s parks start coming alive. Children of different age groups arrive at their neighborhood parks with water bottles, footballs, and cricket kits. Some children ride bicycles, others come on scooters. It is common for their mothers to accompany…

The continued fall of the value of the rupee is bad news for commoners, as they will be further burdened by the woes already brought upon them by high inflation. By Sajjad Bazaz Indian Rupee (INR) continues to dominate media headlines for all the wrong reasons. Its value against the US dollar continues to fall. On July 5, the exchange rate crossed the Rs. 79 barrier and hit a fresh low of 77.38 and then closing at all-time low of 79.37 against USD. Notably, globally well known financial services company, Nomura, in its latest report said the rupee could sink…

Can England replicate its recent success for a considerable length of time and under more testing conditions and against more formidable oppositions? Bilal Ahsan Dar England is currently no.2 in ICC’s ODI and T20I rankings both. It’s a side that’s considered favorite for any international tournament hosted by the International Cricket Committee (ICC) as far as the shorter formats are concerned. But, until last 5 or 6 years, English team was an underachiever in both the formats.. They had a disastrous outing in the 2015 World Cup. They lost with big margins and the most humiliating defeat was the one…

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…