Srinagar, Jan 31 (GNS): Air traffic to and fro Srinagar international airport resumed on Tuesday, a day after poor visibility and continuous snowfall forced cancellation of all 68 scheduled flights.
Official sources told GNS that two indigo flights landed at the airport a short while ago.
Earlier Director, Airport Authority of India (AAI), Srinagar Airport, Kuldeep Singh said that the visibility is good and the surface stands clear of snow for smooth arrival and departure of the flights.
Meanwhile the train services from Banihal to Baramulla and vice versa resumed this morning after a day-long suspension on Monday last due to snowfall.
However, Jammu-Srinagar highway, the only surface link connecting Kashmir Valley with the outside world, remained closed. “People are advised not to take any journey on NH-44 (highway) till the restoration work is completed,’ a traffic department official here said. (GNS)
Washington: India’s economy has retained the crown of “a bright spot” in the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook report released on Monday and it is slated to account for half of the global growth in 2023, compared to just a tenth coming from the combined might of the US, the world’s largest economy, and Europe, which comprises some of the largest economies.
The Indian economy is expected to grow by 6.1 per cent in 2023, which is 0.7 percentage points lower than 6.8 per cent in 2022, which was earlier projected by the fund in its October forecast. The growth rate will be back at the 2022 level of 6.8 per cent in 2024, the fund has further projected, based on “resilient domestic demand despite external headwinds”.
“India remains a bright spot,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, an IMF official, wrote in a blog accompanying the World Economic Outlook update, a quarterly report.
“Together with China, it will account for half of global growth this year, versus just a tenth for the US and euro area combined.”
The phrase “a bright spot” has been used for India’s economic growth for years now by the IMF, the World Bank and other similar bodies, in a nod to its inner resilience against external headwinds and bucking the trend either on the global stage or in the shrunken confine of Asia and South Asia.
India’s projected growth rate of 6.1 per cent for 2023 is 0.8 percentage points better than the IMF expectation of 5.3 per cent for a category of countries the fund describes as Emerging and Developing Asia. The 2024 match-up is even better, with India expected to got to 6.8 per cent while the Asian entity will see a decline to 5.2 per cent.
The global economy, however, is in a much better shape than how the fund saw it in October. It is projected to fall from an estimated 3.4 per cent in 2022 to 2.9 per cent in 2023, then rise to 3.1 per cent in 2024.
In October, the IMF projected global growth is forecast to slow from 6 per cent in 2021 to 3.2 per cent in 2022 and 2.7 per cent in 2023, and had called it the “weakest growth profile since 2001 except for the global financial crisis and the acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic and reflects significant slowdowns for the largest economies: a US GDP contraction in the first half of 2022, a euro area contraction in the second half of 2022, and prolonged Covid-19 outbreaks and lockdowns in China with a growing property sector crisis”.
The headwinds for 2023 global economic growth were, as projected by the IMF, “central bank rates to fight inflation and Russia’s war in Ukraine”.
Additionally, the rapid spread of Covid-19 in China dampened growth in 2022, but the recent reopening has paved the way for a faster-than-expected recovery. Global inflation is expected to fall from 8.8 per cent in 2022 to 6.6 per cent in 2023 and 4.3 per cent in 2024, still above pre-pandemic (2017-19).
Agartala: The Tripura Assembly election schedule, announced by the Election Commission on January 18, remains unchanged, Chief Electoral Officer Gitte Kirankumar Dinkarrao said on Friday, citing “confusing posts” on various social media sites.
With election to the 60-seat Tripura assembly would be held on February 16, the last date of filing of nomination papers is January 30 and the scrutiny of papers and relevant documents would be done the next day. The last date of withdrawal of the candidatures is February 2.
Vote will be counted on March 2.
The CEO, while talking to the media, said that regarding any information and dates every one must follow the EC website, Twitter handle and Facebook page. He said that after the issuance of the notification by the Election Commission on January 21, 76 candidates of various political parties, including main opposition CPI-M, filed their nomination papers so far.
Srinagar, Jan 25: Jammu-Srinagar highway, the only surface link connecting Kashmir Valley with the outside world, remained closed for better part of the day on Wednesday and it is unlikely to open tomorrow as well, officials said.
“The highway remained blocked for 12 hours 23 minutes due to shooting stones and mudslides at Mehar and Panthyal,” a traffic department official here said, adding, “ The highway is blocked due to shooting stones and mudslides between Chanderkot and Banihal. No fresh vehicular movement shall be allowed on Thursday from Jammu towards Srinagar and vice versa on the thoroughfare till clearance of the road.”
He said amid MeT department’s prediction heavy rainfall, snowfall for next few days, there are chances of blockade of the highway. “People are advised not to travel on highway without confirmation from TCUs .”
Mughal road, connecting twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri with Shopian, as well as Srinagar-Leh highway have been already closed for this winter.
The Mughal road has been closed for vehicular movement vide District Magistrate Shopian’s order from January 5 in view of snow accumulation. Also, the Srinagar-Leh highway was closed for vehicular movement vide Divisional Commissioner Ladakh UT’s order (no. 75) on January 6 in view of snow accumulation. (GNS)
Srinagar, Jan 25 (GNS): Jammu-Srinagar highway, the only surface link connecting Kashmir Valley with the outside world, remained closed for better part of the day on Wednesday and it is unlikely to open tomorrow as well, officials said.
“The highway remained blocked for 12 hours 23 minutes due to shooting stones and mudslides at Mehar and Panthyal,” a traffic department official here said, adding, “ The highway is blocked due to shooting stones and mudslides between Chanderkot and Banihal. No fresh vehicular movement shall be allowed on Thursday from Jammu towards Srinagar and vice versa on the thoroughfare till clearance of the road.”
He said amid MeT department’s prediction heavy rainfall, snowfall for next few days, there are chances of blockade of the highway. “People are advised not to travel on highway without confirmation from TCUs .”
Mughal road, connecting twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri with Shopian, as well as Srinagar-Leh highway have been already closed for this winter.
The Mughal road has been closed for vehicular movement vide District Magistrate Shopian’s order from January 5 in view of snow accumulation. Also, the Srinagar-Leh highway was closed for vehicular movement vide Divisional Commissioner Ladakh UT’s order (no. 75) on January 6 in view of snow accumulation. (GNS)
Hyderabad: Municipal authorities in Hyderabad have decided to demolish the six storeyed building which was gutted in a huge fire three days ago while the search continued on Sunday for remains of two missing persons.
For the fourth day rescue workers continued their operation to trace the remains of two men in the rubble at the commercial building at Nallagutta on Ministers Road in Secunderabad.
Skeletal remains of one person were found on Saturday and the same were preserved at Gandhi Hospital for DNA analysis.
Three workers Waseem, Zaheer and Junaid were reported missing after the huge fire broke out in the building. Some survivors said the three persons had gone to collect their belongings but were trapped.
Two fire service officers were injured while trying to douse the fire on Thursday. It took eight hours for the fire to be brought under control. As many as 23 fire tenders from various fire stations in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad were pressed into service.
With smoke still emanating from some parts of the building and small fires getting reignited due to inflammable material, the personnel of Disaster Response Force (DRF) and fire services were moving cautiously.
The rescue teams were using drone cameras to collect the footage from different floors and accordingly plan their operation.
The massive fire, which broke out on January 19 and raged for over eight hours, has weakened the structure and experts have warned that it may collapse any time.
The officials of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) have decided to demolish the structure. However, they made it clear that they will wait till the remains of two missing workers are traced.
Massive debris and huge amounts of inflammable material has made the task of rescue workers difficult.
Officials said the latest technology will be used to demolish the building and all precautions will be taken to ensure that the adjoining buildings are not damaged.
GHMC Town Planning wing has placed caution notice outside the building warning people not to come closer to it.
The notice states that the building is in dangerous and hazardous condition. The owners and inmates of the building have already been asked to vacate immediately as it is likely to collapse at any moment.
The adjoining buildings have also been vacated as a precautionary measure.
When archaeologists working on the route of HS2 began excavating a stretch of pasture in Warwickshire, they were not expecting to uncover what one of them calls “the highlight of our careers”. Their excavations revealed the monumental stone bases of two towers from a late medieval fortified gatehouse, the existence of which had been completely lost to history.
While that find was remarkable in itself, the ruins were even more significant than they first appeared – and might even rewrite the history of the English civil war.
Peppering the sandstone walls were hundreds of pockmarks made by musket balls and pistol shot, showing that the building had come under heavy fire. Experts think this may be evidence that the gatehouse was shot at by parliamentarian troops heading to the nearby Battle of Curdworth Bridge in August 1642, which would make this the scene of the very first skirmish of the civil war.
The finds were “a real shock”, said Stuart Pierson of Wessex Archaeology, who led excavations on the site. “The best way to describe it is that we were just in awe of this tower.
“People always say that you want to find gold in archaeology, but I think for a lot of us finding that tower will always be better than finding gold. I think it’s the highlight of our careers finding that, and I don’t think we’re going to find anything like that again.”
Musket ball impact marks on the outside wall of Coleshill gatehouse. Photograph: HS2/PA
The team knew that a large Tudor manor house had stood somewhere near the site at Coleshill, east of Birmingham, but its location had been lost. As they started excavating, they were astonished at the state of preservation of its vast ornamental gardens – larger in scale than at Hampton Court.
Pierson had said to colleagues that he expected there might be the remains of a gatehouse, “but we figured a small box structure. We weren’t thinking anything involving towers.” He was on holiday when the first walls were uncovered. “My colleagues say their favourite memory from the site was my expression when I [returned and] saw this complete tower,” he said.
Taken together, the finds make the site “nationally significant – and a bit more”, he added.
In the lead up to the civil war, which pitched forces loyal to King Charles I against parliamentarian soldiers seeking to topple him, Coleshill Manor was in the hands of a royalist, Simon Digby. The position of his grand home, next to a key strategic crossing of the River Cole, would have put it directly in the path of parliamentarians on the march to Curdworth Bridge. While it is impossible to prove, experts think it is highly likely that it is their musket balls – dozens of which were recovered from the site – which struck the gatehouse on this journey.
While the discovery potentially rewrites the history of the start of the civil war, Pierson said, it can also tell us more about the experience of those living through it. “What it gives us is a more personal [insight] to the civil war. There are always stories about royalty and the lead parliamentarians, but there’s not so much focus given to the people themselves, even the upper classes who found themselves involved but weren’t necessarily really part of it.”
The discovery features on Digging for Britain on BBC Two at 8pm on Sunday 22 January.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Abu Dhabi: Dubai has been ranked as the world’s most popular destination for holidaymakers in 2023, according to Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards.
Known for its luxury hotels, record-breaking buildings, traditional souqs and family-friendly attractions, Dubai retained the title for the second year in a row.
The winners are determined based on the quality and quantity of reviews and ratings provided by millions of travelers from all over the world.
This year’s winners were chosen based on the quality and quantity of travelers’ reviews of accommodations, restaurants and things to do at destinations around the world between November 2021 and October 2022.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council, took to Twitter to share the news.
Sheikh Hamdan said the honor from Tripadvisor supports the goal of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, which was launched by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai on January 4, to consolidate Dubai’s position as one of the world’s top three destinations for tourism and business.
“Dubai’s tourism, hospitality and events sectors have been at the forefront of a rebound and acceleration of global growth in these sectors over the last two years and will continue to play a key role in shaping their evolution in the future,” Sheikh Hamdan added.
Following @HHShkMohd’s ambitious D33 agenda, which includes making Dubai a top 3 global tourism destination, the city has retained its #1 spot in the 2023 Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards. pic.twitter.com/xBomXPf655
According to the latest data from the Department of Economy and Tourism in Dubai, Dubai received 12.82 million international visitors overnight between January and November 2022, which exceeds the 6.02 million tourists attracted by Dubai in the corresponding period in 2021.
During this 11-month period, 794 hotel establishments comprising more than 145,098 rooms opened their doors to guests, achieving strong occupancy levels of 73%, among the highest occupancy rates internationally.
Most popular travel destinations in 2023
In 2022, Dubai also received the highest tourism spending among all cities in the world, at 108 billion Dirhams (Rs 23,86,84,22,04,240), according to the latest World Travel and Tourism Council.
