Tashkent, Aug 29: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Tashkent Saturday evening, kicking off his two-day State Visit to the Central Asian nation. In a special gesture, Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev received PM Modi at the airport, highlighting the friendship between both countries that has grown immensely over the last 12 years.

During his visit, PM Modi will hold delegation-level talks with President Mirziyoyev, advancing the shared developmental visions of Viksit Bharat 2047 and Uzbekistan-2030.

“In recent years, India-Uzbekistan Strategic Partnership has seen significant advancement. I look forward to my discussions with President Mirziyoyev on further deepening our cooperation in trade and investment, digital connectivity, defence, energy, and on advancing our shared visions of Viksit Bharat and Yangi Uzbekistan,” PM Modi said in his departure statement.

Prime Minister Modi said that he will also visit the Shastri Memorial and the Mahatma Gandhi Centre at the Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies, which he called “a tribute to the close cultural and people-to-people ties” that bind India and Uzbekistan together.

People of Uzbekistan have been eagerly looking forward to welcoming PM Modi in Tashkent and hope that his visit will add new momentum to the friendly ties between both countries.

“Welcome Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. We Uzbek people are very happy to hear the news of your arrival. We wish that the friendly ties between the two countries keep on growing…..Jai Hind, Jai Bharat, Jai Uzbekistan,” an Uzbek woman said ahead of PM Modi’s arrival.

This will be PM Modi’s fourth visit to Uzbekistan. He had earlier visited Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries in 2015, followed by visits in 2016 and 2022 to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summits.

India and Uzbekistan have maintained extensive and fruitful engagements both in bilateral and multilateral formats over the past many years. The Uzbek President visited India for a State Visit in 2018, and he also participated in the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in 2019.

From Tashkent, PM Modi will travel to Bishkek at the invitation of Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Zhaparov to participate in the 26th SCO Summit, marking 25 years of the organisation.

New Delhi, Aug 29: Nepal’s devastating flash floods serve as a reminder of the urgent need for regional collaboration, where countries under the shadow of the mighty Himalayas need to adopt a diplomatic narrative that includes ecological security as an important part of relationships, exert reports.

Popular Nepali newspaper Kantipur Friday observed that it is time for Kathmandu to immediately start working on disaster diplomacy and on the agreement with Beijing on its “implementation modality” and “framework”.

Incidentally, China and Nepal had agreed to share cross-border real-time information on floods and landslides and flag potential risks of glacial lake outburst floods. However, no formal agreement has been signed yet to implement such a mechanism despite Nepal Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal having raised the issue during his China visit in May.

Such reports emphasised the need for sharing information and cooperation in disaster reduction, where long-term risks should be taken into account in the construction of strategic structures such as roads, bridges, and hydropower projects near international borders.

Parliamentarians from across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region too had insisted on Wednesday, as news of the devastation emerged, that the tragedy underscored the urgent need for stronger regional cooperation to address climate risks that transcend national boundaries.

They were meeting for the two-day 2nd Hindu Kush Himalaya Parliamentarians’ Meet in Thimphu, where a moment of silence for the victims and their families was also observed, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), an intergovernmental knowledge and learning centre working on behalf of the people of the HKH.

Participants said the disaster highlighted the importance of collective action, stronger preparedness, and sustained regional cooperation to reduce climate-related risks and build resilience across the HKH region. ICIMOD is based in Kathmandu, and works in and for eight regional member countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. The body later examined satellite imagery and concluded that “a massive rock–ice avalanche occurred in Nepal, blocking the Lhende River and triggering cascading floods downstream”.

Their assessment pointed not to tectonic activity but to glacial instability, a phenomenon increasingly linked to climate change. This was corroborated by the US Geological Survey (USGS), which earlier took the tremor as an earthquake.

In a revised statement, the USGS stated that additional analysis of seismic waves and satellite imagery led to the determination that the seismic event was rather a glacial collapse and debris flow, and that no earthquake had occurred. Global warming and construction in nearby areas are largely being seen as the reason for the avalanche, though the actual reason may take some time to be identified, pointed reports.

Some experts compared such glaciers on mountains to cement that helps hold a building together. Mongabay, a US-based non-profit conservation and environmental science news platform, also said that the floods were triggered by a glacier collapse and landslide into a river on the Tibet-Nepal border.

Like other reports, it assumed climate change had loosened the ice “till the entire mountainside, including a glacier clinging to it, collapsed into the river flowing some 3,000 metres below”.

Pointing out that no early warning system would have helped those who were close downstream when the huge chunk and debris fell on Wednesday, the article stated that one way to manage this risk is to be able to predict such a disaster with a credible probability level, so that governments can take protective action. This, it emphasised, would need countries to comprehensively map all icebound slopes above a certain gradient. In the face of such reports, the HKH countries would need to step up research, share data, and coordinate seamlessly to be prepared for such calamities.

Nashik, Aug 29: A tragic road accident occurred near the eighth mile area on the Nashik-Mumbai highway when a speeding container truck hit four members of the same family who were walking along the road, police officials said on Saturday.

The accident left the father critically injured, while his three children also sustained injuries.

The injured were immediately taken to Nashik District Hospital in a free ambulance operated by the Jagadguru Narendra Maharaj Sansthan.

However, doctors declared the father dead after examination.

The deceased has been identified as Bhagirath Devaram Made, 45. His children — Mayur Bhagirath Made (16), Shyam Bhagirath Made (6), and Devyani Bhagirath Made (8) — were injured in the accident. The three children are currently undergoing treatment.

According to preliminary information shared by the police, Bhagirath Made was walking along the road with his three children when a speeding container truck struck them.

All four sustained injuries in the collision, the police said.

After receiving information about the accident, emergency assistance was provided and the injured were transported to Nashik District Hospital in a free ambulance, police added.

Despite all the efforts to take the injured to hospital timely, Bhagirath Made was declared dead by doctors, the police said.

Police reached the spot soon after the accident and took the container driver into custody.

Authorities are investigating the circumstances that led to the crash.

The investigators are also trying to determine whether negligence or any other factor was responsible for the accident.

According to officials, the accident has once again raised concerns about pedestrian safety on the busy Nashik-Mumbai Highway.

Officials said that heavy traffic moves throughout the day on the highway where pedestrians are always at the risk.

Motorists have been urged to control their speed and drive carefully, particularly in areas where pedestrians are present, the police officials said.

Meanwhile, people who were there insist that patrolling needs to be increased.