Calling Kashmir an ‘economic infant’, Manish Sabharwal, a business leader born and raised in Jammu and Kashmir, said that it was time to focus on development strategies in the valley, in the aftermath of the recent amendments to Article 370 and 35A.
Chairman of TeamLease Services Manish Sabharwal said that there was a need to leverage India’s economic complexity, to bring about prosperity and development in the region and said that Article 370, 35A had “artificially suppressed labour market, land markets and capital markets”.
“There are many reasons, that I can give you, or many ways I can point in which Kashmir is an infant economy, but that has to change,” he said.
“We need to put India’s economic complexity to work in Kashmir, we need a ten-year plan for education, employment, and employability,” Sabharwal said.
‘Without Economic Complexity, There Cannot be Normalcy’
Sabharwal argued that there needs to be massive investment in infrastructure, in the supply-chain for the hospitality sector, skills, and design and distribution for horticulture and handicrafts.
“From having a debt to GDP ratio of 50% to not having a single company with more than 500 employees in the valley and having only one company with a paid-up capital of more than Rs 10 crore, there are many way to show Kashmir’s economic infancy,” he said.
India, with an economic complexity that is far greater than what it was in 1991, has much more to offer to the people of Kashmir than Pakistan, Sabharwal said.
Return of the Kashmiri Diaspora
While there will be several stakeholders who will participate in Kashmir’s growth, Sabharwal said that the most important role will be essayed by the Kashmiri diaspora.
“The elites have already exited Kashmir, economically, if not physically,” he said, adding that the same was not the case with the average Kashmiri.
“There are so many skilled, talented and hungry Kashmiris, who are all across India and the world. And they need to come back and convert this sort of informal self-employment to higher wage employment.”Manish Sabharwal, Chairman of TeamLease Services
“It’s quite a young population, so offering these people economic opportunities, which leverage India’s economic complexity is really what the next decade is about,” Sabharwal said.
Signing off, he said “Finally, prosperity is about land, labour and capital combining in new and productive ways.”
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