SRINAGAR: The 17th meeting of the Governing Body of Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI) was held here Friday under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary, Mohammad Iqbal Khandey.
While reviewing the progress of the Institute, the Chief Secretary emphasized on giving wider publicity to various schemes implemented by the JKEDI to encourage youth towards entrepreneurship and avail financial assistance to achieve the objective.
Director JKEDI, Dr. M.I Parray briefed the meeting about the progress and performance of the Institute and said that during the financial year 2013-14 the Institute organized 175 Entrepreneurship Awareness Programmes (EAPs), 102 Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (EDPs) and 17 Entrepreneurship Orientation Programmes (EOPs) in which as many as 16000 youth participated.
Dr. Parray further informed that the JKEDI has been transformed from being a training institute to a development institute enabling development of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial culture in the State. He said the institute besides providing business and sector specific training will also provide leadership and self-development training to the youth.
He said under Seed Capital Fund scheme of SKEWPY against the target of 5000 units in a period of five years the institute has facilitated establishment of 3503 units by disbursing Rs. 119.42 crore as seed money by ending May 2014.
Under the Youth Start-up Loan Scheme of SKEWPY, being implemented with a target to facilitate establishment of 600 enterprises in the State involving a total project cost of Rs. 2716 crore, the institute has facilitated establishment of 218 units by ending May 2014, said the Director.
The Governing body meeting also reviewed the progress under Term Loan/ Education Loan Scheme of National Minority Development Finance Corporation with directions from the Chief Secretary to encourage more students including those belonging to Sikhs, Buddhists, Muslims and other minorities to avail the benefits of the scheme. Under the scheme an amount of Rs. 23.76 crore has been distributed among 1044 beneficiaries.
While reviewing the implementation of 10 Handicraft Based Clusters in and around the Srinagar, the Governing body was informed that the social intervention stage has been completed and all profiled artisans shall receive their Artisan Cards soon. The status of training in respect of each craft cluster was also presented in the meeting.
It was further informed that the Union Ministry of Rural Development has recently approved the proposal of engaging JKEDI as project implementing agency under the Self Employment Component of Himayat. Under the project 30,000 youth of J&K are to be trained over a period of 4 years starting 2014-15 with a target of 4000 candidates during the first phase and the project will be lunched shortly.
To recognize and award innovative ideas and success stories in entrepreneurship and to create a competitive environment amongst the young and budding entrepreneurs of the State, it was informed that the Annual JKEDI Entrepreneurship Awards carrying award money, citation and a trophy will be given later this year.
The Governing Body also approved the Annual Plan 2014-15 of Rs. 21.40 crore for the Institute.
Financial Commissioner Industries and Commerce, Khurshid Ahmad Ganai, Principal Secretary Planning and Development, B. R. Sharma, Principal Secretary Finance, B. B. Vyas, and other officers were present in the meeting.
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