PM to inaugurate north Kashmir's first BPO on Sunday

Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will inaugurate first ever business process outsourcing (BPO) unit in northern Kashmir's Bandiporadistrict on Sunday.

The prime minister will visit to all three regions of Jammu and Kashmir on February 3 to lay foundation stones for host of projects.

"(The) Prime Minister will be inaugurating BPO in Bandipora on February three. This is the first BPO in this belt.

"The aim is to attract entrepreneurs, investors andMNCs in IT and BPOs to establish their business units...with ultimate objective of enhancing employment opportunities for the youth in the district and neighbouring districts," Deputy Commissioner Bandipora Shahid Iqbal Choudhary told PTI.

The DC further said that the BPO will also provide an employment oriented investment atmosphere in Kashmir valley.

The IT enabled skills lab will train 600 educated youth every year for placement in BPOs and this will provide platform for establishment of more BPOs and attracting employment oriented investment.

It will provide jobs to minimum 215 local professionals and will also serve as a model for replication to attract job-oriented investment in Kashmir valley for local youth, Choudhary said.

IT enabled skills lab will be ready for operations and first batch will be inducted in Mid-February 2019 for training.

The BOP setup has been put in place with a main hall, office, IT room, systems room and associated facilities with furniture, furnishing, hardware, software procured and installed fully.

The BPO has the potential of transforming hundreds of lives in Bandipora a district that has often been in the grips of terrorism and terror-related activities. The rural BPO here, therefore, would provide employment opportunities and the hope of a respectable livelihood to hundreds of young people.

It is a step towards promising educated unemployed youth of providing jobs and a better future.

Officials said that in land-locked Kashmir valley, where the presence of private sector enterprises is almost negligible and employment opportunities for educated people in rural areas have so far been limited, will prove a new window of hope for unemployed educated youth.

They said there is very good response and there are also plans of opening such BPOs in other districts of the state in order to provide employment to locals.