Category: Business

Business

Only businessmen doing ‘Jihad’ in Kashmir: Haseeb Drabu

Editor

Acknowledging that economic scenario in Kashmir is “distressing”, the finance minister Haseeb Drabu said on Sunday that businessmen in Kashmir are “the only ones doing ‘jihad’ as they are fighting against all odds.” Speaking at the first business conclave held here, he said: “I have being stating this that businessmen in Kashmir are the only ones doing ‘jihad’ as they are fighting with the government for getting basic services; they fight against the situation. I have nothing but respect, admiration for anybody who is even investing Rs 100 in his…

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Explore the culture of the Shina-speaking Dards, Gurez and Tulail (Talial) Valleys, where the Dards Live

Editor

Explore the culture of the Shina-speaking Dards, one of Kashmir’s oldest tribes The flight from Delhi is on time and I’m soon speeding to the Tourist Reception Centre in Srinagar to collect the precious permit which will grant me access to Kashmir’s legendary Gurez Valley. Here, the likes of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Franklin D Roosevelt went riding and trekking, before the troubles closed the valley off to us mere mortals. But no longer, with tourists increasingly making their way across the Razdan Pass to remote Gurez. Dr…

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Tourism body blame media for negative publicity as tourism industry continues to suffer

Editor

“We are not how the media portrays us” is an expression common in the Valley. Kashmir’s tourism sector doesn’t just struggle in front of a disruptive militancy, there are primetime debates to counter. Chinar leaves are falling in Srinagar after long summer days, anticipation and peace. Yet the Valley’s natural and historical sites, its houseboats and shikaras, its tourism sector altogether have been missing the people they’re meant for: tourists. “Let me explain it this way, even if we offer hotel rooms for free, people won’t come,” says Wahid Malik,…

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Business leaders want Dineshwar Sharma to meet resistance camp

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Kashmir’s business fraternity on Tuesday advised interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma, who is on a maiden visit to Srinagar, to meet separatist leaders to achieve any forward movement on talks. Chairman, Kashmir Economic Alliance, Muhammad Yaseen Khan said that the interlocutor’s meeting with traders and businessmen won’t serve any purpose. “It is a futile exercise,” he said. The interlocutor, he said, should meet separatists to achieve a breakthrough. “Otherwise, we have seen in the past how these envoys meet people and do nothing.” Khan said that Kashmir needs a political solution and…

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Projecting Gulmarg festival, efforts on to woo tourists from South

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State Tourism Department takes part in ‘Discover India Travel Expo’ in Chennai Ahead of the snow fest in north Kashmir’s Gulmarg ski resort, the Tourism Department has upped its promotional campaign and is particularly focusing on the markets in South India. Even as the department participated in the ‘Discover India Travel Expo’ in Chennai today, the authorities also have several other plans to woo tourists from South India. Deputy Director, Tourism, Kashmir, Peerzada Zahoor, who inaugurated the event in Chennai, said they promoted the state’s tourism products, including food, art…

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Valley’s tourism sector pins hope on winter

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Kashmir’s tourism industry, which faced a tepid response from holidaymakers during the summer, is now pinning hope on the winter for revival of the sector. The state government was working to make Gulmarg in north Kashmir act as the “main attraction” for tourists during the winter months, a senior official said. The events being planned at Gulmarg include ski and snowboarding championships, ice-staking camps and a snow festival, said Director, Tourism, Kashmir, Mahmood Ahmad Shah. “We are also focusing on autumn but we have no other option other than promoting…

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Kashmir’s Tulip Garden replica for Canadian festival

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There is some good news for the Kashmir valley’s tourism sector at a time when it is on the revival path. A replica of the summer capital’s famed tourist spot Tulip Garden will be set up at the Canadian Tulip Festival in Ottawa next year. As the Canadian festival draws tourists from all over the world, the stakeholders say this will introduce the Valley’s Tulip Garden to the international tourist and would then help attract visitors from all over the world. “A replica of our Tulip Garden will be set…

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GST hits carpet business in Kashmir

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Closed looms, lost jobs and scanty sales: the Kashmiri carpet industry is facing a crisis of sorts after the imposition of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). At stake is the future of the Kashmiri craft and, with hundreds of carpet weavers losing their jobs and a once-thriving trade being abandoned in the three months since the new tax regime. Several carpet sellers are now searching for greener pastures like Arshad Hussain, who had been associated with this trade in New Delhi since 1994. “It seems people have stopped buying…

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Locals feeling unsafe, how can we convince tourists?: Tourism Body

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Already hit by nose-dive in tourist arrivals to Kashmir, people associated with the tourism industry now fear that the growing incidents of braid chopping and attacks on people suspected as braid choppers might “deepen the negative perception about the Valley among the prospective tourists.” On Friday, the heads of at least eight tourism organisations met Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and urged her to “take steps” to stop braid chopping incidents, stating that the “constant fear in the air is set to cast a shadow on winter tourism in Kashmir.” A…

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Roll back GST on Kashmir Arts demands NC

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National Conference Thursday expressed serious concern over the ‘continuous indifference of both state and central governments’ towards the plight of artisans, carpet workers, shawl embroidery workers, wood carvers and other skilled, semi skilled workers following the imposition of GST in J&K. The party demanded that the government initiates process of declaring handicrafts and other allied sectors GST exempted. Criticising the PDP BJP government over what he called ‘its inability and inaction to make handicrafts and allied sectors GST free’, NC Provincial Spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar, in a written statement, said,…

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