News Kashmir Magazine

G20 tourism summit : A historical opportunity for Kashmir 

News Kashmir Exclusive 

History has been written in golden words.On the shores of the Dal Lake, Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) is all set to host this year’s largest international summit from May 22 to May 24. Kashmir hosting G20 summit on Tourism is a historically much optimistic news for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. 

Tourism players in Kashmir believe that the G20 Summit can attract investors and tourists from across the globe.

Stating that G-20 was purely a peoples’ event, Jammu and Kashmir’s Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on April 15 said the event would provide a great opportunity to push J-K’s handloom, handicraft, Pashmina, and dry fruit to international markets.

To make the occasion attractive and historic, Srinagar has been transformed into a smart city.

As plans were being finalised for the third meeting of the G20 tourism working group, Kashmir is getting ready to welcome visitors from a number of nations.

“G-20 which is scheduled to be held from May 22 to May 24 in Srinagar will provide an opportunity to push J-K’s handloom, handicraft, Pashmina, dry fruit, saffron and other products to international markets.

“This is a great opportunity to showcase the real potential of the Union Territory to the world. It is not administration’s event but purely a people’s one,” the J-K LG said.

The G20 tourism summit would take place at a time when Kashmir is experiencing a boom in tourism and J-K draws significant investments in the tourism sector, besides medical cities, educational institutions, and other sectors.

We spoke to number of iconic personalities on the importance of the event for Kashmir. 

Rekha Mody, eminent women face of the country and head Stree Shakti and world traveller states:” G20 summit is a historical occasion for Kashmir. 

Biggest prospect of  prosperity of Kashmir valley is  tourism as in case of Switzerland. Peace will ensure flourishing tourism which will bring economic empowerment for all its native people. Both domestic and global tourism arrivals would see great change  with respect to Kashmir valley.”

Dr Kuwarani Ritu singh, eminent educationist and hospitality personality of the country stated :” 

Under the G20 presidency, the tourism and hospitality sector in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is poised to receive a significant boost to its economy. As one of the largest service industries globally, the tourism and hospitality sector plays a crucial role in driving economic growth and development. With the increasing influx of international tourists, Jammu and Kashmir has the potential to capitalize on this opportunity and further enhance its position as a prominent tourist destination.

The tourism and hospitality industry is one of the largest service industries in India. As other parts of hospitality rely heavily on the success of this all-encompassing sector, without travel and tourism, all businesses in any given location, would not be able to grow or even sustain themselves without this sector.

The recent upward trends in the growth of tourism in Jammu and Kashmir have greatly benefitted the hospitality sector. 

The rise in religious and experiential tourism can be catered to through Jammu and Kashmir’s cultural heritage, adventure sports, and spiritual tourism offerings along with sustainable and eco-friendly tourism practices placed ideally against the picturesque backdrop of Jammu and Kashmir’s breath-taking landscapes. 

The emergence of digital platforms and social media has transformed travel experiences, and hospitality businesses can leverage these tools to showcase their offerings.

By promoting film and adventure tourism, Jammu and Kashmir can diversify its tourism offerings and attract a wider range of travelers, ultimately bolstering the economy and creating employment opportunities within the hospitality sector.”

Elected representatives are also voicing their opinions. Safina Baig, Chairman DDC Baramulla stated : ” G20 session in Kashmir is a positive development of historic proportions.  The need of the hour is now that we build the required infrastructure to cater to growing needs of tourism and progress. Often escalating airfares is without a doubt a serious challenge and we need to take a holistic look into it and make them normal. Tourism , international summits all will contribute to peace and prosperity in region.”

Even eminent voices are sharing thoughts  on sustainable tourism.

Shahala Ali Sheikh, renowned entrepreneur and environmentalist stated :” 

 if you really think that the environment is less important than the economy – then try holding your breath while you count your money . We are hopeful that G20 Tourism summit in Kashmir would further strengthen the sustainable tourism in our entire region.”

Dr. Rashmi Singh, IAS, Commissioner Tax Jammu and Kashmir states :”Tourism promotion gives a significant boost to taxes we collect in form of GST.This is on account of hosts of services associated with tourism that come under tax net.

All hotels with room rents over 1000 have to charge GST as per recent notification. We are also bringing awareness amongst other service providers like house boat owners to collect and pay taxes on booking done by them

 Revenue thus collected after all goes to boost infrastructure which in turn further boosts tourism. So development and tax are interconnection.”

G20 tourism summit in Kashmir is a great opportunity to see peace and prosperity in entire region.

Rain Drains Trade 

Rameez Makhdoomi 

We are going through an era of economic slowdown. The pandemic of Coronavirus has adversely hit hard economy of every region in one way or the other.

In this context, the festivity season becomes great opportunity to revive fortunes. Kashmir valley too is witnessing since some years much slow economic activity and Eid ul Fitr like grand festival offers buisness community to gain profit from their buisness activity and earn valuable financial resources.

Unfortunately enough, during the ongoing Eid Ul Fitr festival the heavy rain continued for several days hit hard the economic fortunes of scores of traders and buisnessmen.

On their part, Traders stated that  sales dipped by 50% due to incessant rains before Eid. 

Rains drenched valley plains for the third day in a row on Thursday, with traders expressing disappointment over a “50 percent” dip in sales, ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

It is worth mentioning here that diverse works of progress and development  being done through Smart City project in the city for the past several months had also kept Eid shoppers away from prominent markets, especially Polo View,  Lal Chowk and the Residency Road. Many customers preferred to visit markets in the Old City for Eid shopping instead of the city centre.

The worst hit were the street vendors of Kashmir who depend on festivals like Eid for their livelihood.  Heavy and drenching rains made their street vending almost impossible. 

However, the positive aspect was that Bakery related buisness and Butchers , poultry professionals did a sound buisness.

Trade and Buisness experts have often opined that 

the overall business post-Covid is down in the different areas of Kashmir  Valley markets.

Young girls and women who are often seen in Kashmir buying 

utensils, fashion products, clothes, or jewellery but due to the inclement weather, they thought  twice about whether to venture out or not. 

In related development, On the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr, the Divisional Commissioner (Div Com) Kashmir, Vijay Kumar Bidhuri  extended his greetings to the people of Kashmir.

In his festival message, Div Com Kashmir prayed that this Eid brings peace and prosperity and espouses harmony among citizens.

He said this festival teaches “us to share happiness with poor and needy people by offering charity generously.”

The need of the hour is both the Government and society ponders over the fact that how to compensate for the losses of traders and also street vendors especially in the backdrop of recent heavy rains during current festivity season.

Without a doubt rain has drained trade in Kashmir.

World Haemophilia Day 

April 17, 2023 is World Hemophilia Day. The theme of the event this year is “Access for All: Prevention of bleeds as the global standard of care”. Building on last year’s theme, the call to action for the community in 2023 is to come together and advocate with local policy makers and governments for improved access to treatment and care with an emphasis on better control and prevention of bleeds for all people with bleeding disorders (PWBDs). This means the implementation of home-based treatment as well as prophylactic treatment to help those individuals have a better quality of life.

World Hemophilia Day is a global healthcare event celebrated on the 17th of April every year, started by the World Federation of Haemophilia (WHF) with the intention to raise a call for the government authorities and local policymakers for the provision of a better treatment and care in addition to promote better control and prevention with haemophilia.

A rare severe, inherited haemorrhagic disorder, haemophilia is caused by malfunction of factor VIII and factor IX protein (factors required for blood clotting/ coagulation), leading to an abnormality in blood coagulation. Although people of all races and ethnicities can be diagnosed with haemophilia, men are more likely to be affected because the ailment is connected to the X chromosome. There is a 

50% probability that a boy whose mother carries the haemophilia gene will also be affected by haemophilia, and her daughter being 50% risk of being carrier. Hence, haemophilia is more common in males, despite the fact that it can affect females causing difficulties with menstruation and childbirth.

In 2000, it was estimated that 4 lakh persons, or around 1 in 10,000 live births, were affected by this disorder worldwide, and only 25% of those affected had access to adequate treatment. In 2019, however, a meta-analysis showed that the number of men with the inherited bleeding condition is far higher, at 11.25 lakh. 

Even in high-income nations, only about 15% of the global population, has access to effective treatment for haemophilia. The lack of resources for diagnosis and treatment leads to high mortality and morbidity rates in low- and middle-income countries.

We in Jammu and Kashmir like region should also take pledge to provide best diagnosis, care, drugs and treatment to hundreds of patients facing this Haemophilia disease.

In India, a large  per cent of haemophilia cases are still undiagnosed especially in remote area, and the need of the hour is we pledge to make situations better for Haemophilia disease patients.

Jammu and Kashmir needs an effective policy to tackle Haemophilia as expert pulse is many cases still go undiagnosed.

Crimes against Women

News Kashmir Analysis 

Women are as important as men for taking forward the wheels of human civilization,  but unfortunately often crimes against women are blot on society.

In India too crimes against women are issues of serious nature.

Around 1 crore cases of crimes against women were registered under the national crime records bureau (NCRB) in the last five years, the central government informed Parliament few time back.

The union minister of state for home affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra was replying to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Fauzia Khan who had sought details on the crimes against women and urged the government to shed light on steps it was taking to curb such incidents.

Replying on the same, MoS Mishra said, “The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018 mandates completion of investigation and filing of charge sheet in rape cases in 2 months and trials to also be completed in 2 months (Section 173 CrPC). Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has launched the “National Database on Sexual Offenders” (NDSO) on 20 September, 2018 to facilitate investigation and tracking of sexual offenders across the country. MHA has launched an online analytic tool “Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences” to monitor and track time-bound investigation in sexual assault cases in accordance with Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018.

Nearly 31,000 complaints of crimes committed against women were received by the National Commission for Women (NCW) in 2022, the highest since 2014. In 2021, the NCW had received 30,864 complaints while in 2022, the number slightly increased to 30,957.

Of the 30,957 complaints, the maximum of 9,710 were related to the right to live with dignity that takes into account the emotional abuse of women, followed by those related to domestic violence at 6,970 and dowry harassment at 4,600, according to NCW data accessed by PTI.

The hope on ground zero is that we all give collective efforts to end crimes against women.

As a matter of fact, In 2021, on an average, there was a case of crime against women registered every 74 seconds in India.

Two minor girls were raped every day in 2021 in the national capital, which was the most unsafe metropolitan city for women across the country, according to the latest report of NCRB.

According to an analysis of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), nearly one in every three reported crimes against a woman from 2016 to 2021 pertained to the “cruelty” of her husband and/or his relatives.

The findings, published in MoSPI’s ‘Women and Men in India 2022’ report, released earlier this month, show that cruelty by husbands and their relatives is the most commonly reported form of violence against women in India.

In Kashmir valley too heinous crimes against women have taken place in recent times which have rattled entire society. The data shows sharp increase in crimes against women in Kashmir. 

Rising Crimes 

News Kashmir Analysis 

The rising crime rate in Jammu and Kashmir is a serious matter of concern. Such crimes are happening that were unheard in the history of Kashmir.

The brutal Budgam Soibug Murder has rocked entire Kashmir . This has brought to fore the utmost brutality in some minds who committ humanity ravaging crimes.

Recently, the officials  told the Kashmir News Service (KNS), that the girl was missing from last four days in Soibugh village of Budgam district. The 45-year-old man identified as Shabir Ahmad Wani son of Abdul Aziz Wani, a resident of Mohanpora Ompora, a carpenter by profession killed a 30-year-old girl of Soibug at his home in Mohanpora Ompora, he said.

He chopped off her head, sliced the body into pieces and dumped the same at different spots in Budgam, they said .

During questioning, the man has revealed that he has murdered the girl and cut her body into pieces and disposed off at different locations i,e Railway bridge Ompora and Sebden, where from her head and other parts of body were recovered last night, Police said.

The accused person has been arrested, all the body parts were recovered from location.

Last year it was known that 

overall crime graph in Jammu and Kashmir increased by 24.6 per cent in 2021 as compared to the previous year, while the cases of violent crimes declined marginally, the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) said in its latest report.

The overall crime graph in Jammu and Kashmir increased by 24.6 per cent in 2021 as compared to the previous year, while the cases of violent crimes declined marginally, the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) said .

Expert pulse is also stating that increase in thr heinous crimes especially in the valley of Kashmir over the past few years is the direct result of moral degradation in the society, as youth have lost pulse with the morality and society pulse . Moral degradation has reached optimum levels which needs to be reined in.

The need of the hour is to do a introspection in the society so as to arrest the rising rate of crimes in the society.

APTECH ROW

News kashmir Analysis 

A free and fair recruitment process in the Jobs is the need of the hour for one and all. In Jammu and Kashmir unemployment has been a plague eating the society especially our youth.

The hope on Government jobs is thus much,and burn there day and night to get Government jobs. The fraud and corrupt process in the recruitment of Government jobs has been making life of our youth hard and killing their dreams. The recruitment agencies engaged are often in the news for all the wrong reasons. Currently,  APTECH engaged by the premier Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board JKSSB has caused much furore,  which needs to be looked for the better future of our youth.

On the other hand of the spectrum the protesting youth have hit the road.

Scores of Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (JKSSB) job aspirants gathered here in Press Enclave on Wednesday, 8 March, 2023,  to protest against the purported grant of contract to APTECH Ltd. for conduct of various exams.

The protesters, as reported by GNS, demanded that the LG administration must investigate as to why paper leaks and scams only occur in Kashmir.

“All blacklisted companies should be banned in Jammu and Kashmir, until action is taken against these blacklisted companies, no student will sit for any competitive exams,” the protestors said.

The recent move of the Jammu and Kashmir government to again consider Aptech Ltd to conduct various exams including the Finance Account Assistant exam stirred the protestors.

Even in Jammu the anger hit the streets. Police resorted to cane charge and detained a large number of job aspirants in Jammu after they tried to stage a massive protest.

The protesters had assembled outside Dogra Chowk in the heart of the city and tried to take out a march but police swung into action and restored to cane-charge and detained several youths, the officials said. Police said protestors tried to take out a march in violation of prohibitory orders.

It is the need of the hour to revisit the role of the Aptech Company which is assigned to hold examinations for various posts of JKSSB in separate government departments.

Even the polity of Jammu and Kashmir is now speaking against APTECH.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Minister Sajad Lone asked JKSSB on APTECH issue that you can’t thrust a black listed company on our future:

LOne said “I have received a lot of emails and messages about APTECH which has been blacklisted in other states .

One hopes this issue is resolved soon as per wishes of youth.

Promoting Handicrafts 

News Kashmir Analysis 

Kashmir is known all over the world for its exquisite handicrafts products. Preserving traditional arts should be our priority.  One such art is the Kani Shawl art .Handicrafts is an age old industry in Jammu and Kashmir having history of centuries,  it has thrived and kept the economy of region moving. The artisans of Jammu and Kashmir are famous for making some of the exquisite Handicrafts of the world. 

Sozani embroidery, Walnut wood carving,Hand-knotted carpet, Pashmina, Papier Mache etc are some of the world known Handicrafts of Kashmir.

One of the important handicraft products of the valley of Kashmir has been the Kani shawls. Kani Shawls are woven on a fame-loom using fine wooden sticks locally called ‘Tooj’i, which have coloured woolen threads attached to them. A Kani shawl takes about three months to a year for an artisan to complete depending on the embroidery and fetches a very handsome amount nationally and globally.

Over the years fake handicrafts sold in name of handicrafts of Kashmir is a matter of serious concern.

The adverse  impact of this unscrupulous trade is that now one of Kashmir’s oldest handicraft legends and legacy, the Pashmina, is threatened by its imitations as the high-priced handmade fabric is increasingly being eased out from markets by its cheap, machine-made namesake.

It is also learnt since long  that some fake elements are selling cheap Handicrafts of Amritsar and seeling it in name of the Brand Kashmir in other parts of the country.

But Jammu and Kashmir Government along with Union Government is taking multiple steps to revive the legacy of Handicrafts of Kashmir.

In a major achievement, Jammu and Kashmir has become the first region in the country to issue Quick Response (QR) labels for its 13 different GI and non-GI registered handicrafts.

The QR code labels are a step towards providing global recognition of the traditional arts and crafts of the Himalayan region. The government has been aiming to make J-K products popular across the globe through special marketing strategies and schemes.

Recently, The Director Handicrafts & Handloom, Kashmir  launched 8 online Services for the artisans, weavers, trainees and other stakeholders. These services are integrated with the Single window system, with aim to provide all Handicrafts and handloom services under “One Umbrella-Single Window System.

The main objective of this system is to facilitate the artisans and other stakeholders to get digital clearances and other benefits in a time bound manner.

The visible efforts are being put in to  promote  revive Kashmir Handicrafts, thereby bringing visible change in the lives of Artisans and Weavers. 

The export picture is improving much .

2021-22, handicrafts products worth 563.13 crore were exported to different markets. Carpets topped the list with exports touching Rs 251.06 crore. It was followed by shawls and rumals with exports touching Rs 165.98 crore. 

One hopes all the efforts given with reference to promotion of handicrafts of Kashmir would be given.