J&K Govt. giving wings to aspiring entrepreneurs through various initiatives

SRINAGAR : To give wings to the young generation of J&K and make them able to take entrepreneurship journey, the J&K Government with the help of banks has disbursed around Rs. 1840 crores in favour of 53,299 aspiring entrepreneurs this fiscal.

The government has worked out two pronged strategy for establishing entrepreneurship ecosystem across J&K. Several investors from reputed organisations are investing here and handholding young entrepreneurs to make them job providers.

The Ministry of Home Affairs recently said that 29,806 people had been hired by the J&K administration and it was estimated that 5.2 lakh jobs have been created through self-employment programmes in the last three years across Jammu and Kashmir.

The government has introduced a variety of self-employment programmes during the last three years to aid young people in starting their businesses.

One of the J&K administration’s most fruitful efforts has been the Mission Youth programme.

Under Mission Youth, opportunities are being provided to young boys and girls to become entrepreneurs through schemes like Mumkin, Tejaswini, Rise Together and Parvaaz. J&K made significant strides towards making urban and rural women financially independent through Hausla, Saath, Umeed and House Stay programmes. As many as five lakh rural women have been empowered through Self Help Groups, thereby neutralizing the sense of insecurity and despondency.

A sustainable livelihood line in the transportation industry has been established for unemployed youth with the help of ‘Mumkin’ (livelihood generation) programme run by Mission Youth.

The ‘Spurring Entrepreneurship Initiative’ programme is built on the idea of the Youth Enterprise with Innovation (YouWiN) and Champion for an Innovation initiative, which aims to inspire young people, especially young women, to start and grow innovative businesses.

Dentists are receiving tailored financial help for opening dental clinics under sector-specific programme for dental professionals. Under this programme, around eight lakh rupees is given as financial support for starting their business.

Another initiative called ‘Rise Together’ aims to foster community-based entrepreneurship in the Himalayan region in the best possible way to create jobs and income, and foster a sense of social service among the new-age young business people.

Under the programme, qualified youth groups receive financial support of Rs 20 lakh, which is made up of a loan from the bank for Rs 17.50 lakh or 70 percent of the project cost and an upfront subsidy component minimum of Rs 2.5 lakh or 10 percent of the project cost.

Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha recently said that 30 thousand government jobs have been provided to the youth in last three years with complete transparency.

“Self-employment opportunities have been provided to 5.2 lakh young boys and girls under various programmes. Under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Program, Jammu and Kashmir has been successful in establishing 21,640 manufacturing and service units in the last financial year, thereby emerging as the best performing region in the country. Under this Programme, 1.73 lakh new job opportunities were created, which is the highest among all the states and Union territories of India,” he said.