Dr. D. Mukhopadhyay
The State of Jammu & Kashmir is the crown of India in terms of its strategic importance in the federal structure of Indian polity. It is popularly known as the paradise on earth. The State is attributed with snow clad mountains, green forests, mighty rivers and distinct cultural ethos. But the State is not industrially developed in comparison to other States of India.
More specifically, the economy of the State is agro based and tourism is the main source of State Revenue.
There are ten Universities in the State who churn out thousands of graduates and post graduates and these educated youths are the seekers of white-collar jobs mainly in government and organized sectors of the economy. The unemployment problem of the State has reached the alarming stage. According to the last Census, population of J & K has increased from 101.44 lakhs in 2001 to 125.49 in 2011. The number of registered employment seekers has increased by 15.15% during the same period. The number of job seekers according to the Census 2011 are 43.23 lakhs of which 26.44 lakhs belong to the main streams and 16.79 lakhs belong to marginal sector. The employment opportunity has hardly increased and the degree of unemployment dominates the economy by and large.
About 70% of the population depends on agriculture but agriculture is uncertain source of employment generation whose success and failure depend on the whims of nature. Therefore, alternatives other than agriculture as a supplementary source of earning need to be made in place in order to engage both educated and uneducated mass.
Disguised unemployment is the order of the day. Due to paucity of industrial growth in J & K, there is prominent figure of unemployment youth and the State Government in particular and Central Government in general cannot be the only entities of employment generation but other alternative is essentially the answer to the unemployment problem of the State. Due to limited job opportunity, the figure indicating the degree of unemployment is increasing by leaps and bounds and it is almost becoming more than 200% in every five years. The number of unemployed youth registered in District Employment Exchanges had increased from 1, 06,150 in 2008 to 3, 07,850 in 2013. It is worth mentioning that the statistics provided by the Employment Exchanges are partly correct since many employment seekers do not get themselves registered with the Employment Exchanges. It is the need of the hour to have effective functioning and investment in manufacturing and service sectors besides the agricultural sector in order to provide meaningful employment to the unemployed youth of the State.
Moreover, it may be logical to state that the Government itself alone cannot provide and create employment but the young educated and graduates and post graduates should be motivated to become employment creators for themselves as well for others thorough entrepreneurship development and government should provide the basic infrastructure for the same.
The term ‘Entrepreneur’ is derived from a French word ‘entreprendre’ i.e. individuals who are undertakers of risk of new enterprise. Richard Cantillon, French Economist, coined the term ‘entrepreneur’. According to Richard Cantillon, entrepreneur is a person who pays a certain price for a product to resell it at an uncertain price and making a decision about obtaining and using resources while assuming the risk of enterprise. The entrepreneurs search for an opportunity for using the available resources for earning commercial profit.
The economic development comes into existence through intellectual process of mobilization, combination and allocation of productive resources and the same task is meaningfully carried out by entrepreneurship which is given life force by the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur assumes risk of uncertainty by performing the task of administration, management control, obtaining right kind of technology and finally establishing commercial relationship among the agents of production of goods and services in the economy. The youth of Jammu & Kashmir needs to be motivated to become entrepreneurs and respond to the various initiatives of Governments both the Central and State Governments. Modi Government in the Centre is positive to launch various start ups including ‘Make in India’ and the educated youth needs to start new ventures with minimum seed capital. This can be helpful to both the entrepreneurs and the Governments. It is the truth that only young people can innovate, develop and give shape of reality to the dreams.
Through entrepreneurship, not only one young man/woman can engage himself/herself in meaningful and gainful employment but also they can engage others. If one entrepreneur could absorb two employment seekers, one hundred can absorb two hundred and so on. It is not necessary that huge capital is needed to start with. Self expertise, hired technology and want removing goods and services according the requirement of the market is enough to venture with a start up. Only young entrepreneurs can bring about economic transformation and changes in the society. Everybody knows the success story of Bill Grates, Infosys, and Reliance Industries. Even Tatas and Birlas once had humble beginning and that paves the way of becoming a banyan tree today in the map of entrepreneurship. Young people need to set up new ventures for shifting the economic resources into the areas of higher productivity and greater gains and yields. It may be mentioned in simplicity that entrepreneurship is wealth creation process. Innovation and creativity are the part of nucleus of entrepreneurship. Innovation acts as an agent for developing ideas through which the opportunities and scopes are identified and start ups that add value to the economy come into existence. Creativity is a pre-requisite for innovation. Schumpeter says that entrepreneurship is a creative activity and only the youth can create, develop and convert dreams into reality. The starting point of entrepreneurship is generation of new ideas for starting with small business which needs minimum capital and other factors of production. The business ideas do arise from the platforms of available opportunities prevailing in the existing markets and sometimes in the new markets that emerge out of the innovative power of the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs should have keen and open mind in order to shape imagination into reality.
Profit is the reward of the entrepreneurs and thus the enterprise should be engaged in such venture which can generate sufficient profit in order to maintain the perpetuity of the concern and simultaneously grow along with the passage of time. When a person is to set up his/her enterprise, firstly, they are to understand the demand of the products in the market or develop new market for the products that would meet the requirement of the market. Strategic Planning is a must before starting a venture. Strategic planning is the process of architecting the objectives of business and ascertaining resources and policies for achieving the result. Finance, production and marketing of the products or services are the core functions of an enterprise. From management point of view, planning, organizing, leading and controlling are the major constituents of day to day function of the entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs are to identify the mission, managerial strategy, staffing, motivation, performance evaluation and control mechanisms in order to take the business to ultimate target. Moreover, the youth of the State should go for Professional Qualifications in the field of Commerce, Management, Law and Engineering and after having been qualified, they can start their professional practice.
The fundamental characteristic feature of the State of Jammu & Kashmir is that of primary producing economy. Majority of population is engaged in agriculture as it has been mentioned elsewhere in the write up and it pulls the economy to backward direction. Decades’ old political instability is another reason for less economic development of the State. There is hardly any private sector investment in the State and as a result wheel of industrial development becomes junk. Therefore, self employment through entrepreneurship is an alternative for not depending totally on Government initiatives. Moreover, the people of Jammu & Kashmir are bit aversive to go to other parts of the country for job or any other economic venture. Therefore, they should be motivated by the Government and civil society to go for entrepreneurship and both State and Central Government should encourage them to become start ups in order to engage in the process of wealth creation. In this context certain policy issues and suggestions concerned are made for adoption in order to promote entrepreneurship culture among the educated youth of the State of Jammu & Kashmir. Product identification, preparation of preliminary reports, deciding the form of organization, deciding location of the business, allotment of land, strong connectivity and communication channels, providing seed capital, helping in obtaining working capital from bank and financiers, helping in legal formalities and documentation, arrangement of power connection, establishment of distribution network and easy Government clearance etc. are the important assistances that should be assisted by the Government machineries and civil society at large. Government of Jammu & Kashmir should frame a long term policy decision with regard to entrepreneurial schemes in order to solve the unemployment problem.
The State Government should strengthen the activity of State Planning Department and should also seek the assistance of the Planning Commission of India. The State economy cannot be economically vibrant and sound unless the eligible youths are employed either in organized sector or entrepreneurial schemes like self employment. The new start ups may be explored in horticulture, food processing, animal husbandry, handlooms and handicrafts, tourism and travel, education, health, projects in construction and information technology and telecommunication sectors of the economy. Under the prevailing socio-economic scenario in the State of Jammu & Kashmir for having control over unemployment problem, perhaps entrepreneurship is the only answer for solving present socio-economic and political problem and the State Government is urged upon to take into cognizance the issues raised in this write up.
(The author is Professor of Management, Shri Mata Vasihno Devi University, Katra, Jammu & Kashmir.)
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