The 19th meeting of the governing body of Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI) was held here today under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary, B R Sharma.The governing body reviewed the achievements of the institute in terms of providing training to the youth of the State and supporting them financially through various loan and credit linking schemes to enable them start their own ventures. It also approved the proposal to constitute a Committee headed by Commissioner Secretary, Industries and Commerce to prepare a vision document for the institute for next 15 to 20 years.Stressing on imparting relevant skills to the youth, the Chief Secretary called for introducing new and modern courses in the various programmes organized by JKEDI including the Vocational Training Programmes. He said JKEDI has a very important role to play in transforming the infrastructure and human resource available at the district level into vibrant institutes for skill transfer among youth.
He also emphasized on taking corrective measures to enable better outcomes as far as financial assistance schemes are concerned.Director JKEDI, Dr. M.I. Parray briefed the meeting about the progress and performance of the Institute over the years in bringing about a positive shift in the mindset of the youth to come forward and take up entrepreneurship as a career option. He said from 2010-11 to 2015-16, the institute has been able to facilitate the establishment of over 7200 units under the Seed Capital Fund Scheme, Youth Start-up Loan Scheme and Term Loan Scheme.He said during the financial years 2015-16, the institute has organized 674 Entrepreneurship Awareness Programmes (EAPs), 127 Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (EDPs) and 7 Entrepreneurship Orientation Programmes (EOPs). He said under Seed Capital Fund Scheme the institute has been able to facilitate the establishment of 646 enterprises in 2015-16 and for 2016-17, a target of 1200 units has been fixed.
Under the Youth Start-up Loan Scheme, the Institute has facilitated the establishment of 791 enterprises including 407 enterprises in 2015-16 and for the year 2016-17, the institute proposes to cover 1000 units under the scheme.Similarly, under Term Loan and Education Loan Schemes of NMDFC, the institute facilitated the establishment of 968 enterprises. With regard to the Education Loan, Director JKEDI said that the institute disbursed loan amount of Rs 1.94 Crore in favour of 47 candidates in 2015-16. He informed the governing body that the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs has agreed in principle, to announce the allocation to JKEDI under Term Loan Scheme of NMDFC from Rs 34 Crore to Rs 160 Crore for the current financial year. This arrangement will enable a minimum of 5000 entrepreneurs to avail soft loan during the current as well as the next financial year. He added that under Himayat Self-Employment Scheme, 3032 candidates have been trained in 2015-16 and 2006 candidates have been linked to credit facility.
He said Union Government has set a new target of 6000 candidates for current and next financial year, to be trained by the institute under Himayat with 60% of them to be linked for credit facilitation.Dr Parray further added that the institute organized 4 Vocational Training Programmes (VTPs) of 6 months duration with an intake capacity of 30 participants. He said in the month of June, 2016, the institute started 2 VTPs on ‘Integrated Fashion Designing and Dress Making’ for the female candidates at Baramulla and Pulwama districts.Other issues including restoration of damaged infrastructure at JKEDI Pampore, establishment of JKEDI campus in Jammu, augmentation of training facilities at JKEDI, Pampore, establishment of Centre for Trainings and Skill Development (CTDS) and Incubation and Business Acceleration (CIBA) at JKEDI Campus, Pampore etc were also discussed in the governing body meeting.