‍‍‍‍Will Dry Fruit Supply Dry Up From Afghanistan To Hyderabad?

With Kabul falling into the hands of the Taliban, bilateral import-export trade between Afghanistan particularly that of dry fruits is likely to be adversely impacted.

The demand for dry fruits increases during the rainy season and due to Raksha Bandhan, but due to lack of supply, the prices are seeing an increase of about 7-12 percent. Within a week, the rates have surged by Rs 200-250 per kg. across the country.

India gets dried raisin, walnut, almond, fig, pine nut, pistachios, dried apricot and fresh fruits such as apricot, cherry, watermelon, and medicinal herbs. India's outbound shipments to that country include tea, coffee, pepper and cotton, toys, footwear, and various other consumable items.

The Afghan developments have left the dry fruit traders worried. Most of these imports from Afghanistan enter India via Pakistan from Attari border in Punjab and are supplied to northern parts of the country including Delhi. Hyderabad which is another major dry fruit importer from Afghanistan gets dry fruits via Mumbai and Dubai.

Traders are now worried on two counts. One, most of the imports which transit through Pakistan are currently stuck in Pakistan. Apart from not getting their supplies, the money they had invested to buy dry fruits is also stuck. Traders say that they have been feeling the pinch of Afghan developments for past one and half months and now they would face real problem.

Prices of all dry fruits have already started skyrocketing. For past one week, traders in Mumbai are unable to contact their suppliers in Afghanistan and cargo movement has totally stopped. Since Hyderabad gets its stocks from Mumbai, Hyderabad market too seems to be in for a gloomy situation.

Traders now recall the first ever dry fruit exhibition that was held during the annual Numaish, (Industrial Exhibition) at Nampally exhibition grounds in 2018. People from Afghanistan had come all the way and had set up stalls which proved to be runaway hit. Huge crowds were seen in front of stalls selling original Almonds, pistachios, walnuts, dates, cashewnuts, peanuts, dried apricots, blueberries etc.

The main reason for this craze was because they are organic and the quality is highly superior. Afghanistan is one of the leading producers of dry fruits in the world and among the world's tastiest. The flavour and taste is something which people particularly those from the old city are not able to forget.

The process of drying fruits is a family business in Afghanistan that has been passed down from one generation to another for many years. People typically dry their fruit in an entirely natural way either in the sun or, as it is the case with certain varieties of grapes, in unique 'raisin rooms' known as khasmish khana. Lets hope Achche Din for dry fruits will return soon. #KhabarLive #hydnews

Covid-Induced 'Work From Home' Concept Hits Govt Revenues hard In Telangana

It is not just the shortage of beds, medicines or oxygen that had caused problems for the State Government during the last two waves of corona pandemic. There is another serious cause of worry for the government and that is the concept of work from home which is becoming a hurdle to get proper Revenues from IT sector.

When there was an outbreak of corona cases during the first wave, all IT companies and ITES (IT Enabled Services) announced work from home policy to avoid spread of the virus. This concept of course had its own impact on the employees who feel that they are under greater work pressure now but as far as the government is concerned, it has a much bigger cause of worry.

The IT companies from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru which had planned to expand their branches to Hyderabad have now seem to have backtracked.
They are employing people but are encouraging them to work from home. This is adding to the worries of the government as the WFH system by the existing companies has resulted in revenue loss of nearly Rs 3,000 crore and has taken away the indirect employment of cabs, air travel, hospitality industry and other services provided by the IT firms. 

Now the decision of the many companies to encourage WFH model instead of opening new branches is threatening to result in a major blow to the revenue earning of the governments.

A top official of the state Commercial Taxes department told The Hans India that the WFH option has been playing a big havoc on the services' sectors which depend on IT companies.

Some small IT and ITES companies have vacated the campuses in Hi-Tech city. As a result, economic activity has come to standstill. If the companies run their business as usual, the government will earn money through tax collections like property taxes and turnover tax. Once the companies shift their operations from their head office to some other place in the country, the State starts losing tax money earned in different forms. Officials say that about 15 to 20 small and medium IT companies have vacated the offices in Hyderabad to cut the establishment expenses after the employees were given WFH option in March 2020. Another 10 to 15 companies headquartered in Gurgaon and Punjab have postponed their plan to open their branches in Hyderabad.

Officials said that nearly 15,000 to 20,000 working in the service sectors like canteen operations, interior and office maintenance in the IT companies have lost their livelihood. The firms engaged in the service sectors stopped filing tax returns and it was a stark example of the impact of the work from home.

"Taking commercial spaces on lease in the IT zones has also stopped. Hospitality industry and recreational zones in the IT zone have registered the lowest ever flow of visitors," said an official.

The Commercial Taxes department officials want the government to take initiative to revive the business activity in the IT zones and see that they reopen with 50 per cent attendance. #KhabarLive #hydnews 

Health Alert: Your Protein Shake Could Be Harming Your Fitness

Fake supplements dominate the market. When my father first started working out and weight training he did so at home. I used to sit on the couch and laugh (not something I'm proud of). He would then challenge me to do an exercise and I would be able to do it quite easily. I would then promptly go back to the couch. Then I went to college in Kochi, and while I was there, he continued to work out and even joined a gym.

Now, It's Time For Cowpathy - A startup Is Looking To Rule India’s Cow Economy With Dung Soap And Urine Toothpaste

A cow is silhouetted in front of manure at the farm owned by French farmer Franck Pellerin (not pictured) in La Chapelle-Caro, central Brittany, France, September 2, 2015.

You’ve heard of ayurveda, the traditional Indian medical science. So have you about Unani, the Perso-Arabic healing science. Then there is homeopathy.

Now prepare for Cowpathy.

No, it is not a whole new medical system. It is a Mumbai-based company that makes consumer products said to have high medicinal value and completely based on the cow—it uses ingredients such as dung, urine, clarified butter or ghee, and others.

Why Indian Liberals Are Falling Into The Hindutva Trap Again With 'Not In My Name' March?

It's disturbing how Muslims are lynched with the "beef" bogey so regularly, it has ceased to shock us. That is why, people in 11 cities will march silently today, black bands on their arms, placards screaming NOT IN MY NAME.

There is little doubt the BJP's rise has emboldened just about anybody to commit violence against Muslims in the name of beef. Those who belong to or support the BJP remain silent over these incidents, or worse, justify them in the name of the holy cow. Their beef is not with meat but with Muslims.

India’s Diabetes Epidemic Is Making A Worrying Demographic Shift

More than 10% of urban Indians have diabetes, at least half of Indians who have it don't know it, and the prevalence of the disease is increasingly shifting to poorer people, the largest nationally study of the disease in India has found.

The Indian Council of Medical Research-India Diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB) study is the largest nationally representative study of diabetes in India and includes data from 57,000 people across 15 states; glucose tolerance tests were performed on participants to diagnose diabetes and pre-diabetes. The study was published in the medical journal Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology late on Wednesday night.

The Spirit Of India: Sikhs And Hindus In A Punjab Village Joined Hands To Build A Mosque Ahead Of Ramzan

In a shining instance of communal harmony and the spirit of brotherhood, members of the Sikh and Hindu communities came together to build a mosque for their Muslim brethren in a village in Punjab.

A report mentioned that in the village of Ghalib Ran Singh Waal, which is dominated by Sikhs and Hindus, a mosque was inaugurated just as the month of Ramzan is going to begin. Earlier, the Muslim community had to visit nearby villages for their namaaz

.

The report quoted Liaqat Ali, a resident of the village, as saying that their long cherished demand has been fulfilled and that the beautiful Hazrat Abu Bakar mosque is an Eid gift for them.

RERA Myths Busted: No Big Relief For Stuck Home Buyers, House Prices Won't Rise

The dust has finally settled on RERA or the Real Estate Regulation & Development Act. From Monday (1 May 2017) it comes into force across India, and the day will be remembered as a special day for home buyers who have been committing the largest chunk of their life savings to an industry which has been free for all.

A press release from the Housing Ministry stated how this day marks the end of a 9-year-long wait; and for the first time 76,000 companies engaged in building and construction activities across the country will become accountable for quality and delivery. Union Minister for Housing Venkaiah Naidu in his tweets called it the beginning of a new era making buyer the king, while the developers benefit from the confidence of a King in the regulated environment.

‘Phillauri’ film review: A mournful ghost gives love lessons to a hysterical groom

Anshai Lal’s debut is an enjoyable but overstretched yarn about the inadvertent wedding between a young man and a ghost from many years ago.

Kanan has the pre-wedding jitters, and all the marijuana in the world cannot cure him of his belief that he is getting married too early.

When Kanan (Suraj Sharma) lands from Canada in Amritsar for his big fat Punjabi wedding (there is no other kind, it seems), he is informed that he is “manglik”: if he weds, great misfortune will befall him. Since superstition always comes with an exit clause, Kanan’s otherwise posh family (his grandmother’s diet consists of many glasses of whisky) makes him marry a tree before his actual wedding. On this tree lives the ghost of Shashi (Anushka Sharma), the latest in a long line of unhappy female spirits who have been unable to transit to the other world because they have unfinished business in this one.

Kanan is understandably spooked by Shashi, beautifully conceptualised by the visual effects team as a shimmering vision in white and gold who leaves a trail of glitter. Rather than warding off trouble, Kanan’s cheat wedding only compounds his misfortune. Does he actually want to marry Anu (Mehreen Pirzada), and has Shashi’s appearance reminded him of the folly of it all?

Anushka Sharma is her customary efficient self, and works better in the comic moments, but the movie’s best scenes belong to Suraj Sharma’s Kanan, whose hysterical voice and stricken visage mark him out as the perfect victim of a haunting.

Anshai Lal’s directorial debut plonks the idea of an inadvertent wedding between a human and a ghost (borrowed from the 2005 animated movie Corpse Bride) between the present and Shashi’s past in the early 1900s in Punjab. Shashi is too obedient to flout her stern brother’s diktats that well-behaved women do not waste their time on poetry and music. She nevertheless falls for folk singer Roop Lal (Diljit Dosanjh), but accepts him only after he starts behaving more like a gentleman than the proto rock star that he is. A similar kind of behaviour change is being attempted in the present, as Anu tries to remind Kanan of his vows.

In another more subtle parallel, Shashi learns that the world still has use for “frying pans” – as the first music records are referred to – when she sees a DJ spins tunes at Kanan’s nuptials.

The present is an altogether more fun place than the past. Shashi and Roop Lal are barely convincing as star-crossed lovers despite being luminously shot by Vishal Sinha in golden yellows and earthy browns. For all their squabbling, Kanan and Anu actually seem like a couple in love (but with caveats).

The idea of a ghost who has been floating around for decades results in a time warp that affects the narrative pacing. This is one wedding that seems to be in no hurry to be conducted, and Kanan and Anu seem to have all the time in world to sort out his haunting. Day turns into night and night into day as the film shifts between now and then. The sense of being trapped in between the hands of the clock leaches into the running time. At 127 minutes, Phillauri doesn’t simply have enough to go on. Lal, working on a screenplay by Anvita Dutt, lets several scenes roll on several indulgent minutes in order to reserve his punch for the twist-laden climax.

The spirit is willing but the flesh is a bit weak. Had the narrative threads been braided together even more tightly, Phillauri could have been an even more enjoyable comedy about the need to make peace with the past. Potentially neurosis-inducing problems (the curbing of ambition and dreams, the belief that elders know best, damaging superstitions) get the kid glove and soft-focus treatment. The fate of Shashi and Roop Lal isn’t as engaging as Kanan’s disenchantment with his fate. The real ghost in Kanan’s bedroom isn’t the vision in white-and-gold from many years ago – it’s his present, and possibly dull future.

In Their Search For Pure Islam, Many Muslim Sects Consider Others 'Insufficient' Or 'Infidels'

By NEWSCOP | INNLIVE

One of the key reasons why Muslim societies are in ferment concerns a theological tradition practiced by Islamic clerics to declare other Muslims as munafiqeen (hypocrites), kafir (infidels), or simply insufficient Muslims.

On 5 August, the Mumbai-based Urdu daily Roznama Inquilabpublished a report on its frontpage raising alarm that Qadianis have been included in the 2011 census report as Muslims.

'Cow Vigilantes': Has Moditva Started Ascending Over Hindutva?

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

Indeed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at those indulging in "cow vigilantism” thrice: First, he made it clear to them thatswayamseva wasn't about suppressing and terrifying others; it was about empathy and sacrifice.

Wrath Of Gau Rakshaks: Recall Gandhi’s Words On Hypocrisy Of Cow Protection

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

“Oh Hindu brothers, help us… those who are Hindus should assemble for cow protection and should write and make over five ‘chitthis’ to others, failing which he will be sinful of killing five cows.” These circular letters called patias were distributed all over Uttar Pradesh and Bihar from 1885 onwards to stoke communal passion.

The Big Expose: RSS Funded 'Operation Shuddhikaran'

By NEWS KING | INNLIVE

Although it did not make headlines, 31 poor tribal girls, all minors, from Assam brought to Delhi on June 11 last year have ended up in RSS-run schools in Gujarat and Punjab, as INNLIVE finds, which is part of a well-orchestrated conversion programme targeting children from poor minority communities to initiate them into Hinduism at a young age. Given the resources and reach the RSS and its sister organizations command, what INNLIVE investigation reveals may just be the tip of the iceberg.

Is This The BJP-RSS Idea Of Inculcating Education And Protecting Children?'

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

Congress says restore girls to parents, CPI(M)’s Brinda Karat says arrest those involved in trafficking racket.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ took a beating today in the light of the Outlook cover story on RSS affiliated organisations trafficking tribal girls from Assam under the garb of educating them.

The Congress came down heavily on the Modi government today. It questioned the government, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar on whether trafficking children in the age group of three to eleven from five border districts of Assam, is the Modi government’s fulfillment of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’.

Mahatma Gandhi's Murder: Subramanian Swamy Must Ask BJP Before Restarting Public Debate

By NEWSCOP | INNLIVE

Speaking in Rajya Sabha, Subramanian Swamy sought a fresh discussion in Parliament on Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. Perhaps Swamy has not heard of the perils of not letting sleeping dogs lie.

The Mahatma's murder, to use another metaphor, is a hornet's nest. Stirring it will unleash so many facts that it will end up stinging a lot of heroes we have been worshipping, including the ones held dear by Swamy and friends.

What's Wrong With Abortion Laws: The Case Of A Rape Victim Missing The 20-Week Deadline

By MENAKA RAO | INNLIVE

A 23-year-old tribal woman from Chhattisgarh was abducted, raped and got pregnant. Bureaucratic hurdles delayed her quest for an abortion.

In April, the Chhattisgarh High Court allowed a 23-year-old tribal woman to undergo an abortion even though her foetus was older than 20 weeks – the deadline set by the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1973. The woman from Jashpur district in Chhattisgarh had been raped by her boyfriend, who abducted her and took her to Alwar in Rajasthan, where she remained for nearly a year.

India's Model Villages: Why Modi's Pet Rural Development Scheme Is Not Working Properly?

By REX KUMAR | INNLIVE

Only 53 of 278 BJP MPs in the Lok Sabha have selected new villages in phase two of the scheme.

Close to two years after its launch, there seem to be few takers among parliamentarians for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship rural development scheme, the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, which aimed to develop at least three “model villages” in each parliamentary constituency by 2019. 

Soon after the launch of the scheme in October 2014, 701 of total 795 ruling and opposition MPs had adopted a village each to be developed over two years.

A 'Sikh' Student Beaten At Universiry Of Hyderabad By ABVP Activists After Being Mistaken As 'Kashmiri'

By LIKHAVEER| INNLIVE

The ghost of Rohith Vemula is back to haunt the campus as a new academic year begins.

“They want to keep the pot boiling” is a charge that comes up very often at the University of Hyderabad. As a new academic year begins, the fear is that July 2016 could to be headed the way of July 2015.

Why Indian Army Needs To Abandon The Colonial Concept Of 'Martial Races'?

By SURJIT RANA | INNLIVE

It is time to reform recruitment to our armed forces and bring the values of the Constitution into this venerable institution.

In 2012, IS Yadav, a doctor from Haryana, filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of “caste based recruitment” to the Indian Army.

Beware Of Your Mothers, Daughters Of The East!

By RUMAISA KHAN | INNLIVE

As honour killings in Pakistan are on the rise and rulings of religious bodies further disparage the status of women, the neighbouring is in dire need of a positive social change.

Can a mother as a normal human being kill her own teenage daughter on any pretext? Can she be so cruel and heartless as to burn any of her progeny to death?