Kasho-Nomics -- Economics for Kashmir

When ever a Govt gets serious about Kashmir they announce a huge economic package and it is happy situation some ppl feel happy Govt n Politicians give interviews and again few months down the line new issue arises and is back to square one.

What is the simplest thing's that can be done with ease with less economical impact and turn around Kashmir, do we need a sunk investment or we need investment which can guarantee Returns.

Kashmir or J and K State as whole has a limited population and hence opportunity, We have least no of people below poverty line.

If i am to make basic changes in system i will take few steps.

• Involve Panchayats and ensure every one in village or town has proper food and shelter, very few families in Kashmir struggle for basic needs of life, it was disheartening to see a program on NDTV regarding a widow of a person killed by Army struggle to keep up her family as her husband was only bread earner. I no we have very few such families in whole Kashmir not even 5K i bet, cant we just pass on Rs 1000 per month to such people, and guarantee their children health and education.



• Micro finance - - If people want to start some kind of business or means to earn livelihood we should have authorities to disburse micro finance, it has done wonders in Bangla Desh and South India.



• Mass Education, This is very critical Govt needs to open more school, Professional colleges and Institutes like IIM's and IIT's. We need to engage youth in education, give scholarships. Even if we dont have enough or no jobs in state but we can go out and grab jobs else where in India the point is that we are qualified. And as we are building talent pool may be in future we can set up service based industry in Kashmir. which is difficult now as we dont have enough talent pool, opening up few universities in Kashmir has really helped i see so many Kashmir's coming to Mumbai and trying jobs here and in gulf, these ppl are are mostly from these new universities setup recently.



• Forget Manufacturing concentrate on Services sector, i don't no y people still dream of setting manufacturing in Kashmir, Ppl bring in raw materials in trucks as no railway line still connecting to Jammu and then manufacture things out of that raw material and then transport back to Mainland India, where is the economic sense. we can maximum do with things for which raw materials are available with in valley.



• Tie ups with Middle east countries setting up employment exchanges in their so that un employed youth get jobs outside valley, we can invite companies from rest of India for selection of our people by organizing job fares, centre and state govt both will have to work towards it and at same time we need to set up centre where in we can prepare people with basic skills needed to secure the jobs as it is beyond merit companies need ppl with good communication and reasoning power, we need to set up such centre which will equip our people with job related skills



• Medical facilities and medical tourism, we can build on that we have huge talent pool in kashmir, Kashmir Govt spends around Rs 400 per anum per head for health of each that is huge and i guess highest in India, even if 100 flows into real use (discounting 300 as corruption) still we are a long way ahead. why does not Govt insure all people for health cover of say bare minimum 20k per family. that will not cost much when done at state level. This will ensure Health for all our people, access to great health care setting up of huge private sector institutes in health care and stop brain drain in medical sector. Kashmir can be destination for health tourism as cost of health care is very less almost 1/6th of Delhi and Mumbai.



• Setting up regional centres to help Fruit growers to market their produce in rest of India, Himachal ppl have gone that well, every were i go i see Himachal apple not a single kashmiris apple.

Govt needs to take steps now or we will loose one more generation of development, we have a long road to travell as have messed up a lot.

I don't know what a Kashmiri man wants all i know is for kashmir to have identity and relevance in present world we need to be better economically, educationally and intellectually.