Srinagar, Oct 13 : Captains of industry in Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) have reportedly agreed to set up a joint business chamber, and the use of a dual currency of India and Pakistan for the purpose.

The decision was taken at a four-hour meeting between the visiting delegation of the PoK Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), here last evening.

The meeting was chaired by KCCI President Dr Mubeen Shah and his counterpart from PoK Zulfiqar Abbasi.

Srinagar, Oct 12: The Jammu and Kashmir police has started a recruitment drive for over 110 Special Polices Officers or SPOs, an auxiliary police force used mainly in counter-insurgency.

Srinagar, Oct 12 : The first ever train service in Kashmir valley commenced on Sunday.

The train left Budgam at 7:10 a. m. and arrived at Anantnag on 8:45 a. m. The train will depart from Budgam at 2:25 p. m. and will reach Anantnag at 4:00 p. m.

The train, which is expected to cover the 66-km in about 1 hour and 35 minutes including stoppage time at various stations, will be run twice a day from either side.

The stoppages are at Budgam, Srinagar, Pampore, Kakapora, Awantipora, Panjgam, Bijbehara, Rajwansher and Anantnag. The fare for the travel is 15 rupees.

The railway line between Srinagar and Jammu is 345 km long and is biggest project of the Indian Railways since independence.

Srinagar, Oct 12 : T

Srinagar, Kashmir - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday inaugurated the first-ever train service in the troubled Jammu and Kashmir state as the region was tense amid a shutdown and protests called by separatist leaders that saw two people killed and 75 injured.

Singh, accompanied by ruling United Progressive Alliance chairwoman Sonia Gandhi and other senior officials, flagged off the flower-bedecked train from the Nowgam railway station near the state's summer capital Srinagar.

The train, launched 10 years after the project was commissioned, carried schoolchildren.

Ganderbal (Jammu and Kashmir), Oct. 11 : This year the timely rains in the Jammu and Kashmir region, have given the paddy farmers a reason to smile, as they are cherishing a bumper paddy crop this time. Also, there has not been any outbreak of disease affecting their crops which has delighted them.

According to the State agriculture department, the introduction of new high yield varieties of the paddy and a pleasant weather conditions have resulted in a bumper crop.