Cover Story

Venture-backed agri-tech often caters to sprawling commercial estates, leaving small and marginal farmers behind. Shifting toward cooperative ownership models and affordable hardware ensures that the digital transition leaves no community stranded. By Ajaz Rashid Urging financial institutions, academic bodies, and private-sector venture partners to actively dismantle systemic funding barriers, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha made an […]

Beneath the serene waters of the Jhelum and the postcard valleys of Kashmir, a colossal geological engine is grinding into silence. Deep underground, pressure is mounting along silent fractures and above ground, millions inhabit concrete traps built over quicksand. By Ajaz Rashid Across the bowl of the Kashmir Valley, life unfolds against an idyllic canvas […]

Governance, Gaps, and Grievance in J&K’s Fractured Assembly By Ajaz Rashid The air inside the Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly chamber on first day of Autumn session carried the crisp chill of a valley autumn, but the temperature within the House was incendiary. Moments after Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather concluded reading the customary obituary references, […]

How El Niño and Global Warming Are Rewriting Kashmir’s Winter Script By Ajaz Rashid Across the Kashmir Valley, where generations have marked time by the first heavy snowfall and the bitter forty-day freeze of Chillai Kalan, the coming winter is shadowed by a growing climate paradox. Director of the Meteorological Department Srinagar Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad […]

At the inaugural International Film Festival of Jammu & Kashmir, Srinagar lays the groundwork to turn cinema from mere postcard escapism into an indigenous creative economy. By Ajaz Rashid The September sun dips behind the Zabarwan range, casting long, amber silhouettes across the manicured lawns of the Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre. Below the terrace, the […]

A catastrophic glacial collapse high in the Himalayas has triggered a devastating cross-border torrent, leaving hundreds dead and thousands missing across Nepal and Tibet. Search-and-rescue teams continue to scour submerged hydropower tunnels and wiped-out settlements as experts point to critical failures in real-time transboundary warnings. By Ajaz Rashid In the high, razor-sharp ridges of the […]

With young lives bearing the brunt of mountain road carnage, pedestrian and passenger fatalities continue to climb across Jammu and Kashmir. Despite a drop in total highway collisions, the lethality of crashes on northern corridors remains dangerously volatile. By Ajaz Rashid The Himalayan asphalt winds through treacherous gorges, hugging steep cliffs where one wrong turn […]

Why a Few Days of Rain Paralyse Jammu & Kashmir By Ajaz Rashid In the low-lying settlement of Sethar, nestled along the banks of the Jhelum River in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district, sleep is a luxury that vanishes with the first drops of heavy monsoon rain. When dark clouds gather over the valley, residents do […]

Researchers at IIT Kharagpur found that key alpine areas like Gulmarg and Pahalgam have warmed by nearly 1°C over the past two decades. This relentless elevation-dependent heating disrupts natural nightly freeze cycles and accelerates snowmelt across the Western Himalayas. By Prof. Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath A landmark study published in Scientific Reports, entitled “Warming of the high-mountainous […]

A relentless series of 35 cloudbursts has torn across Jammu and Kashmir, leaving a trail of destruction and claiming 31 lives. From the battered Chenab Valley to isolated mountain villages, communities are now left grappling with the tragic human and ecological cost. By Ajaz Rashid Across the steep ridges and narrow valleys of Jammu and […]