The Jammu and Kashmir administration will cover over 35,000 youths for entrepreneur skill development under the Accelerated Transformation of Aspirations and Livelihoods for Youth (ATAL) Yojana during 2021-24, an official spokesperson said on Wednesday.
This was revealed by the officials at a high-level meeting of the Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI) and the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) Ahmedabad chaired by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, he said. The spokesperson said the meeting was informed that the duration of the project is from the year 2021-24 covering 20 districts with more than 35,000 youths to be oriented, creating 10,000 Conventional Tiny Enterprises (CTE) and more than 1,000 Impact Making Enterprises (IME) to generate around 1 lakh direct or indirect employment. Laying special emphasis on promoting self-employment for the skilled youth, the Lt Governor asked the officers concerned to identify potential sectors for growth and expansion in entrepreneurship.
Jammu and Kashmir government is focusing on creating a robust ecosystem for growth and empowerment of entrepreneurs, besides paving a strong foundation to nurture the entrepreneurship abilities and skills of the youth,” Sinha said, addressing the meeting. With the intervention of the Lt Governor, the EDII will play a significant role in the implementation of Entrepreneurship initiatives in J-K, including ATAL J-K Yojana, the spokesperson said, adding it will also provide area-specific technical expertise, handholding for entrepreneurship development Solutions for the youth of J-K in talent, tradition, tourism, trade and technology. The Lt Governor asked the JKEDI and the EDII Ahmedabad to work in close coordination with Mission Youth J-K to provide sustained handholding to the young and budding entrepreneurs for their inclusive growth and development. With the expertise the EDII will bring to the table, the development of entrepreneurship in J-K would get a determined push to achieve desired results on the ground, he said.
The project would have a great impact in mainstreaming entrepreneurship among local youth, wealth creation, balanced regional growth, increased competition among existing entrepreneurs, community development, employment generation, boost in economic growth by introducing new technologies, innovation and services, the spokesperson said. Proposed interventions in J-K include entrepreneurship-orientation-cum awareness program, skill-preneurship programmes on various products/ enterprises, training of trainers programmes on entrepreneurship development and capacity building of stakeholders and NGOs, innovation-based entrepreneurship certificate programme, he said.
The spokesperson said the technology-based incubation support for new start-ups and interface with commercial technology support organisations, need-based research and policy action recommendation, project MandE, dossier and online tools are the primary responsibility of the JKEDI and the EDII.
