Chief Minister today chaired a review meeting to assess the progress of Mission YUVA, a flagship initiative aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and employment opportunities for the youth across Jammu and Kashmir. Speaking at the meeting, the Chief Minister said that the real strength of Mission YUVA lies in the success stories emerging from the ground.
“Wherever we find a speed breaker or friction, we will remove it swiftly,” he said, emphasizing that seamless coordination between departments and banks is essential to ensure that young entrepreneurs succeed. He underlined that although the Mission is still in its early operational phase, the results are encouraging.
“We have been discussing this for some time. The actual operational duration of these schemes is barely a few months, and in any scheme, that is a very short life cycle. The first year or so is spent in learning and fine-tuning. To that extent, with more than 10,000 sanctions and around 600–670 disbursements, I believe the success of Mission YUVA will feed on itself,” he said.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary, Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister Dheeraj Gupta, Secretary Labour & Employment Kumar Rajeev Ranjan, MD & CEO J&K Bank Amitava Chatterjee, vice chancellors of several universities, Deputy Commissioners, Mission Director Mission YUVA, Director JKEDI, MD JKRLM, Directors of IIT and IIM Jammu, and representatives of BISAG, NABARD and other concerned institutions.
Outstation officers participated via video conferencing. Earlier, Secretary Labour & Employment made a detailed presentation on the implementation status of Mission YUVA from its conception to its evolution till date. He briefed the meeting about UDYAM Jagriti, a comprehensive awareness campaign, outlining its key features, phases and its role in amplifying success stories, objectives of district-level conferences and workshops, social media outreach and the dedicated mobile application.
The meeting discussed, threadbare, the next steps required to ensure the Mission’s successful implementation. It was informed that over 60,000 applications were received within just six months of the scheme’s launch. The Chief Minister reviewed district-wise data of applications received over the last two years, the status of applications at various processing levels, average timelines for verification, week-on-week sanctioning trends by banks, progress at registration cells, training coverage and trainee monitoring.
J&K Bank also made a detailed presentation on the status of loan sanctions under Mission YUVA. It was informed that from the inception of the scheme, J&K Bank has sanctioned 10,172 cases, of which 9,393 have been collateral-free, reflecting strong institutional support for young entrepreneurs.
The Chief Minister directed all departments, financial institutions and implementation agencies to work in synergy and maintain momentum to ensure timely sanctions, smooth disbursal and robust monitoring mechanisms, enabling Mission YUVA to deliver transformative outcomes for the youth of Jammu and Kashmir.