JAMMU: Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha today delivered keynote address at the “IIT-2020: The Future is Now” Global Summit, organized by PanIIT USA. The Summit aimed to bring together change-makers, innovators, and thinkers and inspire them to redefine humanity’s future.During his address, the Lt Governor appreciated the PanIIT USA for focusing on important issues like global economy, technology innovation, health, habitat conversation, and universal education through this Global Summit.Sharing his views on the global business environment, the Lt Governor stated that – “We are devising new paths, new policies, and new technological tools to strengthen our business ecosystem for the post-pandemic world”.”I have four Mantras for the ‘Present’ & a ‘New Future’- Peace, Progress, Prosperity, and People First. Being a civil engineering student, I realize that in order to create sustainable development, our growth prospects must depend significantly on policies that are inclusive, people-centric, focus on domestic investment & consumption while at the same time are enabled to compete with top players in the global market”, observed the Lt Governor.While lauding the invaluable contributions of the IIT alumni in nourishing business ecosystem to life and engineering the sustainable future, the Lt Governor remarked, “In India, we have an oasis of talent, it may look like a small drop on the global stage, but they are tributaries of a great river of technology innovation & evolution. IITs & IITians have again demonstrated their capabilities by coming up with innovative solutions to tackle COVID”.Speaking on business opportunities in J&K, the Lt Governor observed that the young population armed with new innovative ideas is ready to realize the entrepreneurial dreams and in turn contribute to making ‘Atmanirbhar Jammu Kashmir’. We have a conducive environment, a robust grass-root democratic system and talented young men and women to set up innovative business and services, he said.The Lt Governor highlighted the achievements made towards promoting budding entrepreneurs and said that the UT Government has exceeded the initial target of extended handholding to 8600 young boys and girls, two from each 4290 Panchayats, for setting up their business, and within three weeks, for which more than 12,000 applications were received.There are new found dreams of youth of Jammu and Kashmir who are keen to exploit rich dividends of real democracy and do something extraordinary for themselves and the society. We have sanctioned all the cases and today I can proudly say within a short span of a month, in our Union Territory, we have added a team of entrepreneurs in different sectors. These harbingers of change at the grass-roots with right assistance from administration can offer long-term and sustainable solutions to diverse sectors and also improve the business environment in the Jammu Kashmir Union Territory, the Lt Governor affirmed.The Lt Governor also shared his views on new entrepreneurs and current challenges, and said that the current crisis and the turmoil in several sectors have opened the doors of challenges and opportunities for new entrepreneurs.He further stressed on the need to put extensive focus by the world economy on at least 6 sectors- Infrastructure, Services, Industries, Start-ups, Agriculture and Technology where new entrepreneurs would need handholding and other assistance. The industry sector in today’s environment requires a new language of re-engineering, of creative solutions, of transforming small and medium enterprises, he maintained.The Lt Governor said that as we are becoming a ‘remote society’ in which virtual is the new normal, there is a hastened demand for closer cooperation between academia and the industry. The appetite for solutions that is in harmony with nature and humankind is much more today to facilitate smoother transformation from withering away pre-COVID to post-COVID era the world is eagerly awaiting for.Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his undeterred resolve to push for a new India would materialize as the country is striving to be ‘Atmanirbhar’ or self-reliant. His mantra of holistic, balanced growth and focus on digital infrastructure is our guiding principle, he added.The Lt Governor observed that we have made decent progress in creating digital networks across the country for effective penetration of technology at Gram Panchayat level which paid rich dividends.”I believe increased investment in design, innovation and manufacturing can make India not just ‘Atmanirbhar’ but a potent player in the global value chain. India is going to play a major role and our comparative advantage lies in large scale manufacturing infrastructure, availability of land, labour, natural resources, technological advancement, financial development and ease of doing business”, said the Lt Governor.
