DBT Bureau
Pune, 1 July 2024
Change of mindset and exploration of regional resources are the keys to StartUps in Jammu & Kashmir. This was stated by Union Minister of State, Dr. Jitendra Singh while addressing the valedictory function of the 2-day National StartUp Conference RASE 2024 at the National Institute of Technology(NIT) Srinagar on Sunday.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said the StartUp movement in India has picked up in a big way in the last decade and the credit for this primarily goes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who gave a call ‘Start-up India Stand-up India’ from the ramparts of Red Fort during his Independence Address. At that time the number of Startups in the country was just 350-400 and today it has gone up to 1.5 lakh while India is rated number 3 globally in the StartUps.
Somehow, Jitendra Singh said, in the earlier years StartUp movement did not catch up with an equal pace in this part of the country. This has also been so because in some of the states and UTs like Jammu & Kashmir, for several decades government jobs or Sarkari Naukri have been the main source of livelihood and that has conditioned the mindset of the youngsters as well as the parents. It is, therefore, important to create awareness that Rozgar does not mean only Sarkari Naukri and that some of the Start-up avenues may be more lucrative compared to the salaried government job, he stated.
Citing the example of Aroma Mission, he said, the Purple Revolution was born in the small towns of Bhaderwah and Gulmarg, and is now being talked about countrywide while the Purple Revolution Tableau was also displayed on the 26th January parade at Kartvya Path, New Delhi. He said, nearly 5000 youngsters have taken up lavender farming as agri Start-ups and are making handsome income. Encouraged by them, he said, some of the youngsters working in the corporate sector have also left their jobs and turned to lavender farming. The success of the aroma mission is vindicated by the fact that the example of J&K is also now being emulated by Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and some of the Northeaster States, he added.
As far as J&K is concerned, Jitendra Singh said, it could be possible to explore the areas of agri Startups also in the floriculture sector for which the CSIR has started a floriculture mission. He also referred to handcraft horticulture and textile Startups as rich domains of J&K.
The important catalyst for startup success was a close integration between academia, research and industry and for this, he called upon the various research institutes as well as the industrial agencies to come together on a single platform.
Dr Singh also reaffirmed the Ministry of Science and Technology’s commitment to supporting StartUps. He highlighted the government’s efforts to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in various sectors in J&K.
