Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha made these remarks during his address at a day-long conference on “Education to Entrepreneurship” here at SKICC.
The conference was organized by Mission Youth, J&K in collaboration with the Taleem-o-Tarbiyat initiative to promote economic development and encourage sustainable livelihood of the youth in Jammu & Kashmir, with emphasis on education, character building, entrepreneurship, and skill development here today.
Speaking on the occasion, Sinha congratulated Zafar Sareshwala, former Chancellor, Maulana Azad Urdu University & Head, Taleem-o-Tarbiyat for taking the initiative to provide insight and the way forward on how to plan future strategies in providing skill development, education and employment opportunities to the youth of J&K.
He observed that the improvement in regulatory environment and business ecosystem is playing a major role in promoting economic growth and financial inclusion in Jammu & Kashmir.
“We are exploring all the possibilities so that financial inclusion and easy credit is accessible to all people, besides developing skills of the youth in Banking & Financial Services Sector to capitalize on vast opportunities”, he added.
A target has been set to develop and train 5000 young professionals this year, and equip them with the requisite skill sets of Financial Services Sector, the Lt Governor maintained.
Terming Skill Development as a guiding force for empowering youth and providing them opportunities to become self-dependent, Sinha observed that J&K Government has been continuously working on policy and interventions to bridge the skill gaps and create a conducive environment with collaborative efforts to generate employment opportunities in various sectors, he said.
Mentioning a recent report of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, the Lt Governor said J&K has less unemployment rate than States & UTs like Delhi, Goa, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. He added that the unemployment rate in the UT has gone down to 9% from 16.1 % in September 2020 and gave its credit to the people, especially the youth of J&K.
J&K has vast natural resources and immense potential. The UT Government is making every possible effort to ensure optimum utilization of resources and funds to create a business friendly environment, he added.
Paving way for a strong Women Entrepreneur Ecosystem in J&K, the UT Government has already announced a new scheme – Tejaswini under Mission Youth, through which financial assistance of Rs 5 lakhs to the girls between the age group of 18-35 years is provided to start their business, Sinha maintained.
“During the Back to Village programme, we had set a target of around 9000 youth to be identified for financial support for starting their enterprise. The expected target has been exceeded and 18,500 youth have been extended the financial support and now they are providing jobs to others as well”, he observed.
J&K has a vast pool of talent with majority of its population below 35 years of age. Efforts are afoot to create jobs for the big segment of the population in different sectors. The Government under Mission Youth is aiming to engage 80% youth in livelihood generation by 2025, said the Lt Governor.
“Today’s programme is a significant step towards filling the gap between market demand and supply. We are adopting the best global practices of youth empowerment and encouraging sustainable livelihood, besides spreading financial literacy”, he added.
The Lt Governor observed that the UT Government has put dedicated focus on ensuring 100% saturation of social security schemes during Jan Abhiyan so that the benefit
