Recently, during the Avinya Startup Summit in Srinagar, the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha, released the ‘New Jammu and Kashmir Start-up Policy 2024-27’. The administration has set the target to nature 2,000 new start-ups by the year 2027 under its policy ‘New Jammu and Kashmir Start-up Policy 2024-27’. The policy has been framed with a vision to give impetus to the economy of Jammu and Kashmir and includes a substantial Rs 250 crore Venture Capital Fund with an initial contribution of Rs 25 crore from the JK Administration so that vital financial support is accorded for burgeoning startups.

The policy, by all means, gives special emphasis to the support for women entrepreneurs in the form of support related to patent, prototype development support through JKEDI, and easier registration with DPIIT. Out of a total of 722 startups currently in the region, 254 are women-led, and the majority are in the Construction and Engineering sector, accounting for around half of the share of all. The balance after this is Skill Development, which again comes in practical and vocational training.

Dozens of incubators in Jammu and Kashmir are playing an important role in facilitating start-up businesses at their early stage, whose numbers are bound to increase under the new policy. Sixteen partnerships and Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with various institutions will also support this initiative for a better institutional support network available to entrepreneurs.

Thus, this very strategic move promises to boost not only the local entrepreneurship but also be an attractive one for the nation over, assuring them to have fertile ground for innovation and investment. This policy shall be a cornerstone in realizing Jammu as a smart city in tandem with broader goals of realizing other smart cities in enhancing urban development through technology-driven solutions.