Author: Kashmir Newsline

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…

How the closing of the mind continues to harm the Muslim world. Faheem Gundroo The beginnings of Islam were extraordinary. Its rise even more so. Perhaps, with no parallel in the human history. In 732 CE, its expansionist troops came close to making the entire Europe Muslim. Edward Gibbons had famously stated: “Had the battle of Poitiers been won by the Caliph, and not the Franks, the interpretations of Quran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford and her pulpit might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Muhammad.” If I was…

July 4 – 10