India Narrative

After his three-year-long tryst with terrorism and being in jail for three years, the pioneer of Kashmir's unceasing gun culture and the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) founder Maqbool Bhat's successor, Yasin Malik, enjoyed "the freedom of the both worlds" for 25 years-- from 1994 to 2019. From the day Malik, then a 28-year-old school dropout and the son of a government bus driver, was permitted to address his first press conference from the Principal Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar Dr. Ghulam Qadir Allaqaband's chair in 1994 to the day of the 40 CRPF men's killing in a major terror attack in 2019, all criminal cases against him were virtually dumped. He was left free to grow as a politician, visit the world, marry in Pakistan and hold campaigns and demonstrations across the country for "Kashmir's freedom from India" and against the Indian security forces. While in Pakistan, Malik shared stage with the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba ideolo

New Zealand’s Lake Taupo with its azure serene waters and surrounding mountains and peaks reflects peace and serenity which people visiting the area can immediately feel. Yet, deep below these calm waters, as per a sciencealert.com report there is a geological unrest. This is what has been stated by a new paper published in the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. The lake, which is situated in the centre of New Zealand’s north island, enjoys the distinction of being the largest freshwater lake in Australasia. The past of this lake has been violent. It is in the lap of a prehistoric caldera which has derived from the Spanish word for cauldron or boiling pot and came into being during Earth’s last super-eruption which took place 25,400 years ago – the Oruanui eruption. During the release of magma during a supervolcano occurring in an eruption like the Oruanui one, the depleted magma vents cave in, the surface of the earth sinks resulting in a permanent change in the landscape

 “The winter is coming” may have become an overplayed phrase from the fantasy series Game of Thrones. But, with the spectre of gas shortages looming on account of the Ukraine-Russia war, Europe, particularly Germany should be bracing for  real-life difficulties, especially when a harsh winter is closing in.  A host of factors have contributed to a grim energy situation, used for heating , transportation and electricity in Europe. When the rest of Europe was reeling under energy related pressure, Germany was relatively well positioned because of established and uninterrupted channels of energy imports from Russia as well as the size of its economy which allowed it to sustain large energy imports unlike other European economies. However, rapidly changing metrics of global security, the lingering impact of the pandemic leading to disrupted supplies, a pent-up demand, climate policies of countries to shift away from traditional sources of energy and above all, the Russia-Ukraine war have a

Russian energy major Rosneft has announced the discovery of a huge oil deposit on the shelf of the Pechora Sea flowing from the Ural Mountains to the Arctic Ocean in the northwest of Russia. Containing an estimated 82 million tonnes of oil, it is believed to be one of the largest discoveries on the Russian shelf in recent times. “The field was discovered based on the results of drilling a prospecting and appraisal well at the structure of the same name in the Medynsko-Varandeysky license area. The work was carried out by specialists from RN-Bureniye and RN-Shelf-Arktika (part of Rosneft) using advanced Russian equipment and in accordance with the highest standards of industrial safety and environmental protection. The resulting oil is light, low-sulfur, low viscosity," the company said in a statement recently. As geological explorations continue in the region, the latest discovery comes at a time when the Western countries remain committed to phase out dependency on Russian energy

The Indian economy will eventually pick up despite inflation and challenges like domestic strife. On the other hand, there is a looming global unrest as public resentment against governments rise over food and fuel inflation. At Canary Wharf, one of London's premium destinations, India Narrative catches up with Supriya Ravishankar, working as a risk analyst with Sibylline, a strategic advisory firm, that identifies opportunities and forecast risks for the corporate sector. As the South Asia analyst, Ravishankar is constantly monitoring South Asian countries to provide analytical information to Sibylline’s clients which could include organisations ranging from the hospitality industry to publishing and media, finance and defence as well as international development organisations. She says that her job as a risk analyst involves constant monitoring of news, cross-verifying information, breaking-down complex events and presenting these to clients. “It is as much a communications job a

While the 43-day long annual Amarnath Yatra commenced formally amid tight security from the traditional base camps of Nunwan (Pahalgam) and Baltal (Sonmarg) on Thursday, more than 35,000 local Muslims are as usual engaged with different arrangements and services of the pilgrimage. Officials of Pahalgam Development Authority (PDA), besides Tourism and Revenue departments of the Union Territory government, revealed to INDIA NARRATIVE that the first batch of the pilgrims, comprising 15,000 devotees, had darshan and attended prayers at the Amarnath cave-shrine on Thursday. "On day one today, yatra operated from both tracks-- Pahalgam and Baltal. The helicopter services too operated smoothly as the weather remained pleasant", a senior officer asserted. According to him more than 35,000 Kashmiri Muslims were currently associated with different arrangements and services to the pilgrimage. Most of the service providers, estimated to be around 20,000, are pony owners from Anantnag, Ku

Russian President Vladimir Putin has again batted for the "speedy launch" of the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) to improve the transport and logistics architecture of the Eurasian region. At this week's Caspian Summit in Ashgabat, Putin spoke in detail about the 7,200 km-long, multimodal trade corridor which will start from Mumbai, with nodes in West Asia, Central Asia, Caucasia and Russia covering large swathes of territory in landlocked Eurasia. "The speedy launch of this corridor is intended to be facilitated by the agreement between the Caspian states on cooperation in the field of transport, which came into force last year, which is aimed at turning the Caspian Sea region into a major international logistics hub," Putin told the gathering which comprised of Presidents of Azerbaijan (Ilham Aliyev), Iran (Ebrahim Raisi), Kazakhstan (Kassym-Jomart Tokayev) and Turkmenistan (Serdar Berdimuhamedov). The Russian President highlighted active

  The liberation of Donbass region in southeastern Ukraine remains the "ultimate goal" of Moscow's ongoing 'special military operation', Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Ashgabat Wednesday evening. After wrapping up his visit to Tajikistan, Putin travelled to Turkmenistan's capital city to participate in the 6th Caspian Summit. The Presidents of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan also took part in the meeting of the heads of state of the Caspian Five. On the sidelines of the event, Putin told reporters that everything was going "according to plan" in Ukraine. "The ultimate goal I have outlined is the liberation of Donbass, the protection of these people and the creation of conditions that would guarantee the security of Russia itself. That's all. The work is going smoothly, rhythmically. As you can see, the troops are moving and reaching those lines that are set as a task at a certain stage of this combat work," he sa

Pakistan faces deep uncertainty as it begins a new financial year from tomorrow. The South Asian nation would require a staggering $23 billion in order to meet its foreign debt servicing requirements in 2022-23. Political instability, corruption and policy reversals no more make headlines in Pakistan. Battling an acute economic crisis with rapidly depleting foreign exchange reserves along with rising debt, inflation and unemployment, Islamabad needs an out of the box solution to fix the deep rooted problems and bring in a new socio-economic landscape. A foreign policy analyst told India Narrative that Islamabad needs to show the courage to take the uncharted route if it is serious about fixing the economy. For one, trade and economic engagement with India is critical for Pakistan. “Economy has to be the focus and not politics,” he said. Interestingly, India and the Taliban-led Afghanistan have also started engaging but Pakistan adamantly continues to be driven by the Kashmir issue when

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shared UP’s enormous soft power by gifting heritage products sourced from each district of the state to world leaders who had assembled at the G-7 summit in Germany. For instance, the Prime Minister gifted a Gulabi Meenakari brooch and cufflink set to the US President, Joe Biden. Gulabi Meenakari is a GI tagged art-form of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.  A piece of pure, it is first moulded into a base form, and then, a chosen design is embossed in the metal. The embossed shapes are further filled with great dexterity with crushed Meena glass mixed with an intriguing natural Anardana (pomegranate seeds) glue. This is then fired to transform into a translucent coloured patch. What distinguishes it from other Meenakari is the layer of white Meena which acts as an opaque canvas for hand painted motifs. The paint is fired layer by layer for permanence. The motifs primarily use the colour pink (Gulabi), which lends its name to the craft. A matching brooch was al