Start up India Yatra J&K, a Government of India initiative to promote start-ups, Friday culminated here at Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute’s (JKEDI) main Campus Pampore.The culmination ceremony was marked by the distribution of awards among innovators from the state in the field of Agriculture, Social, Technology and Womenpreneur.A total of 182 participants pitched their ideas out of which 75 were shortlisted. Out of these 20 ideas were awarded in these categories based on the kind of problems targeted to be solved and revenue generation ideas.A prize money of Rs 10 lakh was distributed among the 20 winners in these categories after their ideas and innovations were duly screened by a 10-member jury team earlier. The jury award of Rs one Lakh was given to Waseem Ahmad Nadaf for his innovation in water purification.Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce Department, Shailendra Kumar was the chief guest on the occasion. In his address, he appreciated the response of the people from different age groups towards the field of innovation and entrepreneurship. He said it is a humble beginning for the state of Jammu and Kashmir and assured all possible help to the innovators present on the occasion so that they are able to convert their ideas into profitable ventures.“Government is there to support you.
The State of Jammu and Kashmir needs many more innovations to change its future,” said Shailendra Kumar, he further said consequently upon rolling out of the Jammu and Kashmir Start up Policy, a mobile application shall soon be rolled out to provide information related to the policy, its benefits and the procedure to avail benefits.Director JKEDI, Dr M I Parray, Vice Chancellor IUST, Awantipora, Prof Mushtaq Siddiqui, Director Industries Kashmir, Bilal Ahmad and Prof Sidiqqui from SKUAST-K were also present on the occasion.Earlier, Director JKEDI, Dr M I Parray welcomed the participants.The yatra was earlier flagged off by the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, and Director JKEDI, Dr M.I Parray from JKEDI Jammu on September 27 last month. The Start-up India van (Yatra van) reached many colleges and universities across the State. During yatra, there were numerous van stops and boot camps were held after the students shared their ideas with the Start-up India representatives.The Start-up India initiative of the Government of India envisages building a robust start-up ecosystem in the country to nurture innovation and providing opportunities to budding entrepreneurs. In tandem with this mission, the program has been able to gather registration of 10,999 start-ups, generating employment to 1,09,869 people.