‘Entrepreneurs can take Kashmir’s economy to new heights’

BY Musaib Nisar

An entrepreneur is a term that is widely used by people to describe either their professional life or of other people they know, But when we talk about this term, What do we actually mean by it and what do others actually understand by it?

   

Well, we all know that entrepreneurs are people who set up businesses of their own and take on risks to make a living out of it and gain profits, But is that what it actually is?

The answer is No, Entrepreneurship is much more vast than how we contemplate it on the surface. The word entrepreneur itself finds its roots in a French word which is translated as ADVENTURE.

Now, Adventure and Entrepreneur doesn’t make sense right? but entrepreneurs are described as people who go on adventures, take all the risks without even knowing what hurdles, Obstacles and problems they are gonna face, But people don’t choose entrepreneurship because they have no idea of what they are doing but because they believe in their skills, in their capability of being able to tackle all the problems and come up with new creative solutions and that is exactly what makes them stand out from the crowd.

Our most commonly held misconception about entrepreneurs is that they are some special breed, uniquely creative, some rare class of people but that’s not what it is when we think about entrepreneurs on a bigger scale we think of Steve Jobs, Madame CJ Walker, Andrew Carnegie and so on. But have we ever thought of ourselves as Entrepreneurs?

No, because society has us boxed up, We live in a box where the rules are determined by people and they have scales made too. Scales that measure our success in terms of job stability, and financial stability and that is what defines our social status but ask yourself is that enough to be happy? Researchers have proven as compared to people who are confined to repetitive jobs entrepreneurs are more happy and content with their lives even if they have few achievements.

After defining what entrepreneurship actually is rather than what it is perceived as in Kashmir, we come to the topic of industries. When we talk about industries in Jammu and Kashmir we need to go back to the era of the mid-1970s. It was the first time that Kashmir witnessed the industrial environment.

The building and development of industries were a whole new exposure given to Kashmiris But during the 1990s the political unrest that was present in Kashmir at that point of time, created an environment where the industries got caught up really bad in the situation, their condition got miserable, all the investors, whether of Kashmiri origin or of non-Kashmiri origin left their investments and decided to take a time out from investing in the industrial sector over here and as well from their hard established industries, some of them had to leave due to certain reasons and the others had to back away from industries, leaving behind the ruins of once well-established business and industries.

Leaving the hard-earned and hard settled business to writhe and die in agony. It has been reported by industrial experts time and again that the state govt has failed drastically to revive the industrial environment in Jammu and Kashmir.

Not only this, Covid-19, shutdowns afterwards, Internet bans, and then the banks turmoiling a young entrepreneur have left us thinking about our place in this sector and we are much more worried about the future than ever before.

Taking this all into consideration, going through the history and coming to the future of the Industrial sector in Kashmir, There is hope, there is a chance, there is an opportunity which needs to be taken and well utilised.

As our local youth have taken the dream of entrepreneurship and are investing and working hard to establish this long lost industrial sector and refurbish it in their own colours and in the colours of Kashmir with a modern touch.

Undoubtedly there are obstacles and hindrances that a local entrepreneur continuously comes in contact with but still These young people are putting in all their effort, sweat, skill and hard work to make the private industrial sector walk its way through and reach the heights of success.

Even though it is said that the government is making efforts to develop a well-suited revival policy for these industries and has been working towards it, We still need policies that will ensure the growth and survival of these industries. Even when we have many well established industrial areas, such as; Lassipora, Khanmoh, Akhnoor, Gangyal, we still need growth in our industrial areas.

Young entrepreneurs cannot do all this by themselves, They cannot re-establish this lost empire by getting financial support from banks and various institutions, Government needs to come up with policies that will not only support these young entrepreneurs financially but will also enable these entrepreneurs to get their idea to a table and build from it what has been lost.

The entrepreneurs who had somehow gathered the courage to start up their own ideas and make their own businesses and turn their ideas into industries have all suffered losses due to the current turmoil that was built up here in Kashmir.

Then our most dreaded period in industrial history is the Covid-19 which cost many units their everything and brought them to a cliffhanger and many of the businesses got shut down because of the fact that they couldn’t return the loan money at the time.

Then the banks coming after them has also let many of our young entrepreneurs down. the government needs to see into the matters and lead the entrepreneurs to a more bright and secure future. from now onwards.

Musaib Nisar

Owner and CEO of Himaliyan Peaks Wood Industries

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