Khalid Bashir Gura
SRINAGAR: On February 13, the Lok Saha passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2021 that replaced an ordinance merging the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) cadre of civil services officers with the Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre. Justifying the cadre integration, Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy said the government was working to take Jammu and Kashmir on the path to development and around 170 central laws are being implemented in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution that gave a special status to the erstwhile state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulating Home Minister Amit Shah after the passage of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill in Lok Sabha on August 6, 2019.
Mixing modern melody with prose and poetry, Kashmir’s new-age singers and musicians have resurrected folk songs in a different way. Creating their own platforms, this new breed of artists is reaching out to audiences using social media. While keeping alive art and culture of the place, they are finding success as well, reports
Khalid Bashir Gura
Photographs of the Kashmiri singers whose numbers figured in the top 10, most-watched numbers on the internet in 2020. Graphics: Malik Kaisar
As the world is passing through apparently, the fourth industrial revolution, life is increasingly getting; virtual. While the process remains the same, systemic shifts now change the delivery. One of the hugely impacted spheres of activity that has undergone a Himalayan shift is the mass media.
Interested In Nature And In Love With Insects, Kashmiri Student Receives Young Naturalist Award
Khalid Bashir Gura
SRINAGAR: Fascinated by the world of insects, a little boy was always wondering about the way these small creatures lived. Critical to the existence of the world, he was curious to know more about their life. The way they communicate, fly and sleep. In his growing years, he used to grab magnifying glasses to follow them everywhere. Curiosity continued.
Suhaib Firdous Yatoo
As he proceeded in his academics, he tried to seek answers from books, within his syllabus and outside. Somewhere, he found a glimpse of his answers in his high school textbook chapter titled, Pappachi’s Moth written by Arundhati Roy in her Booker prize winner book, The God of Small Things.
The Honey Money
Khalid Bashir Gura
Hectic and labour intense, beekeeping in Kashmir gives good returns as well.KL Image:Bilal Bhadur
At a time when people are finding ways to boost immunity against Covid-19, especially in winters, honey is in demand. But the question that haunts consumers most is how pure is it, especially the corporate honey. People want to be sure that they are not consuming sugar.
The recent report of adulteration by India’s leading honey brands to maximise profits have made people sceptical. Brands that made negative news include Dabur, Patanjali, Baidyanath, and Zandu after Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) investigation revealed that out of 13 brands tested, only three passed the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) test. The testing was carried out in a German lab, perhaps one of the few that has the capacity to offer exact details about the composition of a product at a molecular level.
The Raffughar
While obediently following his parents’ dreams of chasing for a medical school seat, a young boy was fascinated by a painter’s brush. Finally, when he talked about his desires, the family threw a canvas before him. Within years he emerged with Raffughar, a new upmarket Kashmir brand, reports
Khalid Bashir Gura
Wajahat Hussain Rather, the man behind the Raffughar label
More than three decades ago, a little boy would routinely linger around signboard painters and watch keenly how they moved brushes, choose colours and created designs. Now, Wajahat Hussain Rather, 39, is a Delhi-based designer, known more for his label,