Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 18: A one- day workshop on “Jammu and Kashmir Economy: The Road Ahead” was organized today by the Department of Economics, University of Jammu.
Prof A N Sadhu and the Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Prof Jasbir Singh highlighted the need for diversification of agriculture and horticulture sectors along with food and horticulture processing industries, besides harnessing the potential of hydropower, tourism, handicrafts, so that much needed investment opportunities are tapped.
Earlier, Prof Prakash C Antahal, Head, Department of Economics, presented a formal welcome address while Prof Falendra K Sudan, Workshop Coordinator, highlighted the objectives and significance of the workshop. Dr Shallu Sehgal conducted the proceedings and Dr Sunita Sharma presented the vote of thanks.
The inaugural function was followed by a policy session coordinated by Prof Dipankar Sengupta and Dr Aroon Sharma, wherein Vikrant Kuthiala emphasized on sector-specific consultations and estimation of industrial contribution to exports and incentives for industrial boost and new investments including infrastructural development.
Naveen Pargal emphasized on the need for small industrial clusters at tehsil levels to boost handicrafts and Manik Batra advocated for improving the ease of doing business, removing red-tape and leakages by following a Single Window Policy along with clear vision document for industry in J&K.
Mukesh Thapa emphasized on need for New Industrial Policy and industry collaboration with education, agriculture and other relevant sectors of the economy. Rajesh Gupta emphasized on development of tourism policy before the proposed Investors’ Summit be framed along with development of network of transport infrastructure in Jammu region. Annil Suri emphasized on development of manufacturing sector by providing fiscal incentives and marketing and logistics support including developing a long-term industrial policy for J&K.
In the research session, the key note speaker Prof Balwinder Singh Tiwana from Punjabi University, Patiala, talked about the development experience of Punjab and underlined that the development model followed by Punjab has failed and the State has all the problems today inspite of the fact that it was at the top during the period of green revolution and the Jammu & Kashmir should learn from the mistakes committed by Punjab.
Other resource persons of this session were Prof Raj Mahajan, Central University of Jammu; Dr Dalip Kumar, National Council of Applied Economic Research; Prof B N Singh, Dr S S Yadav and others.
Besides the research scholars, Dr Ravinder Singh, Dr Gopal Sharma, Ajaat Jamwal and Harsh Dogra and others participated in the deliberations. The vote of thanks was presented by Dr Virender Koundal.
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