JAMMU, MARCH 11:In his special address on the first day of a 2-day conference of experts on the theme of ‘Accelerating Employment avenues through Entrepreneurship in J&K’, Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo today contemplated creating a feasible and enabling ecosystem for giving rise to over 50,000 success stories of entrepreneurship in the next 5 years here.
The conference organized jointly by the Labour & Employment, Skill Development Departments and Mission Youth is a platform for subject experts from different sectors including the local administration, academic institutions, financial organizations, and other concerned stakeholders, who have made a mark in their areas of operation.
In his address, the Chief Secretary talked at length about the performance of the UT in raising the necessary infrastructure and formulation of policies for attracting investments to create employment opportunities for the local youth.
He mentioned several mega infrastructure projects like highways and tunnel projects costing around Rs 60,000 Cr, the Udhampur-Baramulla Rail line costing about Rs 40,000 Cr, Hydropower projects of Rs 20,000 Cr, Jal Jeevan Mission of Rs 13,000 Cr to provide drinking water to all besides 2 AIIMS, IIT, IIM and other infrastructure projects in medical and education sectors.
He made out that coming up with these projects had created many job opportunities for our youth. He remarked that in addition to these, the second set of opportunities included giving push to key drivers of our economy like Tourism, Agriculture, and Handicrafts.
Dulloo maintained that the arrival of more than 2 crore tourists in 2023, and the initiation of the Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP) aiming at providing job opportunities to about 3 lakh people and creating 19000 enterprises besides making a substantial increase in productivity and farmers’ income are other focus areas of administration.
The Chief Secretary referred to the New Central Sector Scheme (NCSS) for industrial development and doubling of exports in handicrafts sectors as other propellers in the creation of employment here.
He further added that to saturate the employment requirement of the UT and to fulfill the evolving aspirations of our youth, the UT needs to generate as many success stories of gainful enterprises as possible by enabling a suitable ecosystem here that smoothens and hastens the progress establishing enterprises all over J&K.
He called on all the stakeholders including the administration, credit lending institutions, and other organizations to simplify their processes and be readily available to aspiring entrepreneurs for their handholding and capacity building. He called on devising a strategy out of this conference that is particular to our UT and ushering in an environment that is favorable for making entrepreneurship of their choice by our talented youth.
In his keynote address the former Bureaucrat and Advisor to PM, Amarjeet Sinha highlighted the importance of professional knowledge that upgrades micro enterprises into small ones and small enterprises into medium business establishments. He discouraged laying focus on concessions like subsidies instead of prioritizing providing end-to-end solutions for the development of enterprises.
He made out that by making quality interventions in the development of professional human resources J&K can develop a successful base of first-generation entrepreneurs. He advised giving more encouragement to entrepreneurial activities in the fields of green products and certified organic farming.
He termed J&K a treasure that could be turned into an entrepreneurship hub of high-end products. He said that the handicrafts, dry and fresh fruit value addition can accommodate many more entrepreneurs in its fold. He called for adopting models like ‘Buddha fellows’ by credit organizations and the establishment of producer companies in different sectors promoting the enterprises of rural women here.
In his address, the former IAS Officer, DK Singh emphasizes turning young, motivated job seekers into entrepreneurs by providing them support in establishing backward, and forward linkages besides access to timely, low-cost, and adequate credit. He suggested availing the services over the Udyam portal to access a platform for making success in the MSME sector.
In his speech, the Principal Secretary, of Finance, Santosh D Vaidya asked for replicating our stellar examples in the areas of sports, Agriculture, and Horticulture that have impressed none other than the PM recently. He called for making such examples in the service sector and other areas of our strength here.
He asked for equitable development by resorting to sustainable growth by addressing the challenges faced in terms of availing technology (automation), trade frictions, and growth in the economy. He termed that the generation of livelihoods that sustain families is a challenge the world over and can be addressed by equitable development of the economy only.
The technical session also witnessed presentations by the Secretary of Labour in which he gave a model on the development of nearly 4 lakh jobs and channeling Rs 10,000 Cr credit investment across sectors.
The other presentations included those on the development of the Agricultural sector and the creation of successful enterprises there. The day also gave glimpses to participants about the possibility of growth in Tourism, Handicrafts, and Industries by their respective Administrative Secretaries throwing light on their plans to create thousands of new jobs through entrepreneurship and self-employment here in the UT.
