Srinagar, July 2
Minister for Road, Transport & Highways and MSME Nitin Gadkari on Thursday asked the universities and trade bodies of Jammu and Kashmir to draft a vision document on potential areas of trade that would boost the businesses in the region.
The Minister also said the Centre was striving to bring “all-round development” in the union territory even as several trade bodies have for long been urging New Delhi to announce a stimulus package to revive the economy hit hard in the wake of abrogation of Article 370 in August last year.
Gadkari made the comments during a webinar organised by Fahad Mir Foundation in collaboration with Care Nature & Environment on ‘Job opportunities offered by Ministry of MSME & constraints/problems faced by the youth of J&K'.
The webinar was attended by Asgar Samoon, Principal Secretary, School Education & Skill Development, Kashmir University Vice-Chancellor Prof Talat Ahmad and Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries president Sheikh Ashiq among others.
“Nitin Gadkari while addressing the webinar said that the Central Government is trying very hard to bring all-round development to the region by focusing on various sectors of growth and trade which are unique to J-K and have tremendous potential to bring a paradigm shift in the socio-economic development of the region,” said a KU spokesperson.
“He (Gadkari) said that he is looking forward to the universities, research institutes, trade bodies, innovators, entrepreneurs, craft development institutes and government departments in the region of J&K to come forward with a vision document focusing on the potential areas of growth and trade so that both unemployment and poverty which are interlinked could be eradicated from the region,” the spokesperson added.
KU Vice-Chancellor stressed on introducing more skill-based courses in universities and colleges of J-K to increase the employability of youth or to make them successful entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
“Our university is already running a few skill based courses, including one in furniture designing. There is a huge scope to introduce more such skill based courses, especially in traditional crafts, in our universities and colleges, with technological inputs that can take the trade to an altogether different scale,” said Prof Talat Ahmad.
Referring to some of the announcements made post August 5 last year, Prof Talat Ahmed said the promise of providing 50,000 jobs and financial package to the UT should be fulfilled as soon as possible.
