Survey Aims to Identify 137,000 New Entrepreneurs in J&K: Officials
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Jammu, December 6 (NationPress) The Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir, Atal Dulloo, convened a meeting on Friday with various stakeholders to discuss a baseline survey aimed at identifying 137,000 young individuals as prospective entrepreneurs.
An official announcement indicated that Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo held discussions with all stakeholders to evaluate initiatives taken by the Labour & Employment and Planning Departments to identify approximately 137,000 youths for transforming them into successful entrepreneurs.
In addition to the Secretaries of the Labour & Employment and Planning Departments, the meeting included the Principal Secretary of the School Education Department, the Commissioner Secretary of Higher Education, the Director Generals of Employment & Skill Development and Budget, and the Managing Directors of HADP and JKRLM, along with representatives from IIM, NABARD, JK Bank, BISAG-N, and other relevant officials.
Deputy Commissioners participated in the meeting via video conferencing.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary was presented with a demonstration of the online application that will facilitate the survey, managed by approximately 20,000 investigators designated by the Planning Department to conduct this initiative across the entire Union Territory.
Dulloo emphasized that the survey's objective is to identify J&K youth interested in self-employment through various entrepreneurial activities, with government support under Mission YUVA (Yuva Udyami Vikas Abhiyan).
He encouraged youth enrolled in universities and colleges to participate in this survey to make it a valuable exercise for understanding their aspirations for self-employment and the challenges they encounter.
The Chief Secretary also urged stakeholders to collect as much data as possible from this survey to generate comprehensive analytics for better understanding. He noted that this data would aid the administration in implementing various schemes and formulating future policies.
He stressed the importance of appointing a senior officer as a nodal officer for ongoing monitoring of this exercise and suggested conducting training sessions for investigators, as well as running continuous awareness campaigns through both social and mainstream media.
In his presentation, Kumar Rajeev Ranjan, Secretary of the Labour & Employment Department, informed attendees that the initiative consists of two main components: examining existing enterprises to identify challenges and pinpointing potential entrepreneurs within the population.
He further explained that an online app developed by BISAG-N for the department would capture data in real-time, utilizing a set of questions based on designed questionnaires.
The goal is to promote an entrepreneurial culture and create a supportive ecosystem for individuals aged 18-49 to establish at least 137,000 new enterprises, generating approximately 425,000 job opportunities over the next five years.
Regarding the survey execution, Satveer Kour, DG of Employment & Skill Development, informed the meeting that a group of Master Trainers from each district would be selected by the respective Deputy Commissioners to undergo a week-long training in both Srinagar and Jammu.
She added that a tabulation plan and workflow would be developed over two weeks, followed by two weeks of training for field staff who would conduct the enumeration in towns and villages of the Union Territory, supervised by employees from the Labour and Planning Departments.
Furthermore, a Youth Skill & Entrepreneurship App has been created for the implementation of Mission YUVA. The app is designed to cultivate a necessary ecosystem by involving 1,000 motivators, 80 Business Help Desks, Incubation Centres, and an innovation hub at IIM Jammu.
This app will serve as a comprehensive solution for providing job opportunities to registered youth, offering skill courses in both online and offline formats, enhancing soft skills, delivering career counselling, and facilitating applications for credit from various financial institutions with essential interest subvention and subsidies.
Additionally, it was noted in the meeting that this portal would also assist users in receiving job alerts, generating CVs for job applications, obtaining DPRs for enterprises using Artificial Intelligence, and improving their capacity and market connections through e-commerce and global markets.
