New Industrial Policy addresses entrepreneurship aspirations of J&K Youth: Govt
Srinagar: The J&K government is providing an enabling environment for investors to start their business ventures in the Union Territory, the government said on Tuesday.
It said that an allocation of about Rs 555.80 crore has been made under capital expenditure for the year 2022-for Industries and Commerce sector which was Rs 139.84 crore more than the previous year’s budget allocation.
“The focus of J&K Industrial Policy 2021-30 is to attract new investment, creation of employment opportunities for youth, development of backward regions and nurturing of existing industrial units,” the government said.
Referring to official figures, the government said the New Industrial Policy is expected to create 4.5 lakh jobs in J&K and has a spending outlay of Rs 28,400 crore (Rs 284 billion), the largest incentive to date, for industrial development of J&K for the next 15 years.
“It is expected to generate an investment of Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) and employment of 4.5 lakh over the plan period,” said an official.
The UT administration is building an eco-system through Industrial Policy and other entrepreneurship related initiatives for nurturing innovation and startups in J&K. The creation of Industry Innovation clusters has encouraged a new generation of entrepreneurs to lead from the front and create jobs for others.
After years of not up to the mark of performance in industrialization, J&K is at a new stage in its development trajectory. Focused attention is being given to growth of dynamic sectors including real estate, horticulture and tourism so as to create increased employment opportunities
“J&K administration has taken numerous steps to create infrastructure, schemes and policies to speed up economic development and to meet aspirations of youth so that they can contribute to society and achieve self-growth,” the government said, adding that special focus is being given on training of local youth to fulfill the needs of skilled workforce as the industries are being set up in J&K under the New Industrial Scheme,
A survey and a database of all the people who are to be connected with job opportunities is being prepared, an official said.
J&K government’s new resolution to equip its youths with entrepreneurship skills and build a database of 5 lakh youth has earned praise from PHDCCI-J&K. PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kashmir Chapter (PHDCCI), Chairman, Baldev Singh Raina, has applauded the UT administration for adopting the youth centric policies.
Notably, J&K would soon host the Global Investors’ Summit with an objective to bring together investors, decision-makers, senior government officials and local business community for a dialogue on concrete investment opportunities in the UT.
“It will be replete with Strategic Sectoral sessions, Round Table Deliberations, one-to-one Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Government (B2G) meetings. The main objective behind the summit is to increase employment opportunities by accelerating the industrial growth in the newly carved UT,” an official said.
Meanwhile, J&K Khadi and Village Industries Board (KVIB) has released a whopping amount of Rs 348.48 crore as margin money (subsidy) in favour of entrepreneurs who had applied for loans from the board since 2019.
Vice chairperson of KVIB, Dr Hina Shafi Bhat, informed that the board has released this amount to 15,459 unit holders under JK Rural Employment Generation Programme (JKREGP) and Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) directly benefiting 118,188 individuals of the UT in these 3 years.
KV News
