PM's advisor favours skill development among Kashmiri youth

Jammu, April 18 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's advisor T.K.A. Nair Thursday said there was a need to push for development of entrepreneurial skills among the youth to address the problem of unemployment in Jammu and Kashmir.

Nair underlined the importance of "providing required help including training, financial assistance and support to the youth to enable them establish their own enterprises" at a meeting here while reviewing skill development and special scholarship schemes in the state.

He called for creating a mechanism to address the problems being faced by budding entrepreneurs while dealing with financial institutions and other government agencies.

Nair stressed that young entrepreneurs are discouraged by cumbersome formalities and lack of information that can "easily be addressed with right support and guidance".

He added that government departments entrusted with this job should ensure that youths are provided all possible support at every level.

"The meeting was informed that 88,440 youths were given skill development training in 2012-13 in various sectors," a state government spokesperson said.

Besides this, till date 31 private organisations and six public sector units have committed to provide training to as many as 47,689 candidates from Jammu and Kashmir in the next five years, the spokesperson added.

There are over 400,000 registered unemployed youth in Jammu and Kashmir. The analysts believe that unemployment has been one of the main reasons for the youth taking to gun in the state.

The prime minister's advisor is on the last leg of his three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir to review the ground situation in the state. Earlier in the day, he met Governor N.N. Vohra and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.