Army organises 'Startup Weekend' in JK

With an aim to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship, the Indian Army organised a 'Startup Weekend' in Reasi district, providing the budding entrepreanuers of the region to show their business model to investors, officials said on Sunday.

A large number of youths participated in the three-day event, which reflected a change in people's mind-set, especially after the abrogation of provisions of Article 370, they said.

The event organised by the Counter Insurgency Force (Uniform), under the aegis of White Knight Corps in collaboration with Technology Business Incubation Centre, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University concluded on Sunday.

Its highlight was the investors' meet where bootstrapped startups were able to present their business model to investors, Udhampur-based Defence PRO Lt Col Abhinav Navneet said.

He said the event was conducted with an aim to propel entrepreneurship in the region.

The Army, under its 'Operation Sadhbhavana', has been mentoring the youth of JK to become "job-creators rather than job-seekers", he said.

Lt Col Navneet said students of various university and colleges of Jammu and Kashmir and local entrepreneurs pitched their ideas during the event.

"The participation by the students reflects the mind shift of youth of Jammu and Kashmir towards entrepreneurship, especially after the abrogation of Article 370 early last month," he said.

Over 15 mentors or investors were invited from all over the country.

"All participants had 60 seconds each to pitch their ideas, these pitches were then whittled down to top ideas and teams were formed around the top ideas to come out with a prototype or a sale-able model or project," he said.

This is the very first time that serious investors and mentors have interacted at grass root level with the business owners, he said.