SME Times News Bureau | 05 Nov, 2021
Union
Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology;
Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO,
Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Jitendra Singh accused the earlier governments of deliberately
discouraging Start-Ups in Jammu & Kashmir, including in the Kashmir
valley, so that the youth could remain perpetually dependent on salaried
government jobs and continue hanging around the political masters of
the day.
As a result, the region's immense potential for
entrepreneurship and self-livelihood remained unexplored, he said.
Addressing
an interactive meet of Agricultural Start-Ups and farmers, organised
jointly by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and
Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology
(SKUAST), the Minster said, this is for the first time in the last few
years that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
concerted and technology based effort has been made to promote the
agriculture sector for young Start-ups in the region.
Whereas, in the
past, he said, the farmers and the agriculturists would largely depend
upon the mood of climate and vagaries of nature for cultivation, in the
last few years, new areas like, for example, Lavender cultivation have
been explored at a large scale both in the Kashmir valley in the areas
around Gulmarg etc. as well as in the Jammu region in districts Doda and
Reasi.
The
Minister said that no government in any country of the world can ensure
100% salaried government jobs to every youth, but a responsible
government always plans to promote means of livelihood and this is
precisely what the Modi government is trying to seek.
He said, a
sustained awareness campaign needs to be launched among the youth and
their parents to educate them that there are much more lucrative
emoluments available through these self-livelihood and new Start-ups
options and, therefore, they should not be led to waste their time and
energy in protesting for government salaried jobs.
Reiterating
that the farming of today is no longer the farming of yesterday, Dr
Jitendra Singh said, the farmer today is actually an agricultural
technocrat or an agricultural Start-up who has the option of making
handsome profits using the new technology and provisions introduced in
the agricultural sector by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He said, the
Government of India through CSIR is providing all the relevant financial
and technical support for new modes of cultivation, multiple integrated
farming and also hybrid farming which have the capacity to double
farmers’ income by 2022, as envisaged by the Prime Minister.
On
the occasion, Dr Jitendra Singh also distributed Farming Kits to
agriculturists drawn from all the ten districts of Kashmir valley. An
MoU of collaboration was also signed between CSIR and SKUAST.
Director
General CSIR Dr Shekhar Mande, Vice Chancellor SKUAST Professor J P
Sharma and Director IIIM Dr Reddy also joined the Minister during the
interactive session with the farmers.