Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 1: Today, Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo launched the highly anticipated baseline survey across the Union Territory under Mission YUVA (Yuva Udyami Vikas Abhiyan).
This survey, a collaborative effort between the Labour & Employment (L&E) and Planning Departments, aims to identify approximately 137,000 potential entrepreneurs and gather feedback from existing enterprises.
The launch event was attended by Vice Chancellors from UT Universities, the Secretary of the L&E Department, the Director General of E&S, the Director of IIM Jammu, the Managing Directors of JK Bank and JKRLM, as well as representatives from IIT Jammu, NABARD, BISAG-N, and other relevant officials, with Deputy Commissioners joining via video conference.
In his address, the Chief Secretary emphasized the importance of the survey, highlighting its key goal of supporting youth in exploring entrepreneurship and self-employment as viable career paths. He urged the responsible departments to ensure regular monitoring and accuracy throughout the process and encouraged university Vice Chancellors to leverage the data for academic research.
Dulloo also recommended that the Labour & Employment Department form a team of specialists from relevant departments and university faculty. This team would develop an analytical framework to produce a meaningful document based on the survey findings.
He stressed the necessity of outreach to every household in villages and panchayats through Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) activities to raise awareness about the survey’s significance. The Chief Secretary instructed Deputy Commissioners to provide full support to on-ground teams and to offer feedback on the online application to quickly address any technical issues faced by investigators.
He reviewed the performance of the survey app, developed by BISAG-N in consultation with the department, and underlined the need for control rooms to handle issues and ensure a smooth survey process.
During a presentation, Secretary of the L&E, Kumar Rajeev Ranjan, outlined the two main components of this initiative: surveying existing enterprises to identify their challenges and pinpointing potential entrepreneurs. The roles and responsibilities of all parties involved were clarified, with Deputy Commissioners tasked with overseeing the process within their districts. The meeting also covered the guidelines for investigators and highlighted the importance of Supervisors in verifying the data entered by surveyors.
The month-long exercise aims to cultivate an entrepreneurial culture and create an environment conducive to supporting individuals aged 18-49 in launching 137,000 new enterprises, which is expected to generate around 425,000 job opportunities in Jammu and Kashmir over the next five years.
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