GN Bureau | January 13, 2016
...Mufti Mohammad Sayeed became the union minister for civil aviation and tourism in the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1986, and it helped Mehbooba pick a job with a reputed travel company. She never wore headscarf back then, and had an upscale lifestyle.
Mehbooba had a rather low self-esteem, as her siblings were doing well in life – sisters Rubaiya and Mehmooda are doctors and brother Tassaduq was in the US studying film-making (he was to later make his Bollywood debut as cinematographer in Vishal Bharadwaj’s Omkara in 2006). She felt that unlike them, she had not made her parents proud.
So when her father sought her help, Mehbooba was too overwhelmed to even think of the pros and cons of saying yes. “Frankly, I had no idea what it was all about – I just wanted to make Daddy happy,” she had told me soon after winning her first election from Bijbehara in 1996...
This is a small excerpt from our upcoming cover. Mehbooba Mufti is only a few days away from becoming the first woman chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. There are many myths and stories about Mehbooba, who would soon be in charge of a state where Pakistan has been sending terrorists for nearly three decades. Is she strong enough to take on this challenge? Governance Now gives a close account of life of Mehbooba Mufti in its next issue.
Read full story by Aasha Khosa in the January 16-31, 2016 issue
The final ‘Report of India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure’ by ‘India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure for Economic Transformation, Financial Inclusion and Development’ was released in New Delhi on Monday. The Task Force was led by the
Mahabharata: A World War By Gaurang Damani Sanganak Prakashan, 317 pages, Rs 300 Gaurang Damani, a Mumbai-based el
With the return of the NDA to power in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, all eyes are now on finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s full budget for the FY 2024-25. The interim budget presented in February was a typical vote-on-accounts, allowing the outgoing government to manage expenses in
Futuristic technologies such as 5G are already here. While urban users are reaping their benefits, these technologies also have a potential to transform rural areas. How to unleash that potential is the question. That was the focus of a workshop – “Transforming Rural Landscape:
Prime minister Narendra Modi, accompanied by president Vladimir Putin, visited the All Russian Exhibition Centre, VDNKh, in Moscow Tuesday. The two leaders toured the Rosatom Pavilion at VDNKh. The Rosatom pavilion, inaugurated in November 2023, is one of the largest exhibitions on the histo
President Droupadi Murmu on Monday morning spent some time at the sea beach of the holy city of Puri, a day after participating in the annual Rath Yatra. Later she penned her thoughts about the experience of being in close commune with nature. In a message posted on X, she said:
