Diplomat Correspondent
Jammu: DD, The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Jammu, under the visionary leadership of Prof. B.S. Sahay, Director, IIM Jammu, hosted an Orientation Session on Neo-Innovative Enterprises under Mission YUVA, a flagship youth entrepreneurship initiative of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, aimed at strengthening the innovation and startup ecosystem across Union Territory.
The orientation session brought together representatives from all 14 recognised incubation centres of Jammu and Kashmir, marking a significant milestone toward building a unified and performance-driven incubation network in the region.
The session was led by the Mission Director, Mission YUVA, Shahzad Alam, who, along with his team, outlined the vision, framework, and execution roadmap of the YUVA Neo-Innovative Enterprises Scheme.
The Mission YUVA team highlighted the government’s plans to promote innovation by enabling the Neo-innovative application portal, which will provide incubation support, financial assistance, and enterprise development pathways at incubation centres in J&K.
Participants were briefed on the complete process to accomplish the Neo-innovative segment targets under Mission YUVA. The session discussed the lifecycle of the Neo-innovative scheme of Mission YUVA, covering startup identification, application workflows, mentoring structures, funding mechanisms, monitoring systems, and graduation milestones.
The orientation also detailed the roadmap for the Innovation and Sustainability Challenge, which is to invite innovative business proposals from youth across J&K through incubation centres.
The session was anchored by the leadership and incubation team from IIM Jammu, including Prof. Jabir Ali, Dean – Faculty and Research, IIM Jammu, Dr. Muqbil Burhan, Chairperson – CEISD, IIM Jammu, Dr. Vivek Sharma, Chief Innovation Officer, DST-iTBI IIM Jammu and Druvi Sharma, Deputy Manager, DST-iTBI IIM Jammu.
Representatives from incubation centres across Jammu and Kashmir participated in the session in a hybrid mode, joining both in person and virtually from IIT Jammu – Meenakshi and Rajeev , Dr. Anil Bhatt from SKUAST Jammu, Dr. Sanjay Sharma from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU) Katra, Dr. Nasir Ahmad Rather from Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University (BGSBU) Rajouri, Jaya Bhasin from Central University of Jammu, Anil Gupta from University of Jammu, Dr. Farhat Ahmad Shaheen from SKUAST Kashmir, Waseem Barie from University of Kashmir, Parvez Ahmad from Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUS&T), Shashi Ranjan from NIFT Srinagar and Saad from NIT Srinagar actively participated and contributed to discussions on implementation strategies and collaborative execution.
The orientation concluded with a clearly defined action roadmap to: (1) Roll out applications under the YUVA Neo-Innovative Enterprise Scheme, (2) Launch the Innovation & Sustainability Challenge, (3) Enable funding support through the incubation hub, (4) Establish performance tracking and review mechanisms
Under the YUVA Neo-Innovative Enterprise Scheme of the Mission YUVA initiative of the Government of Jammu & Kashmir, IIM Jammu and IIM Jammu (Srinagar off-campus) are to function as incubation hubs. This initiative marks a decisive step toward positioning Jammu & Kashmir as a vibrant hub of innovation, enterprise development, and youth-led economic growth.DD
