Recasting India by Hindol Sengupta Read Free Book Online Page A

Qadri, head of the JKEDI. One project provides unemployed high school graduates with 35 percent of the cost of their dream project or Rs 3 lakhs, whichever sum is lower, with the remaining amount financed as a loan by the Jammu and Kashmir Bank, the biggest bank in the region. The amount for postgraduates is 35 percent of the project cost or Rs 5 lakhs; and for professionals, Rs 7.5 lakhs. The other project, financed by the National Minorities Development Finance Corporation, gives out loans of an average of Rs 2.5 lakhs to jobless young Kashmiris.
    It’s a small number, 1,700 entrepreneurs, in a state of 12 million with more than 600,000 registered unemployed people, but Qadri says the numbers are like Mir’s signboard—a small step in the right direction that has many people excited. “One of our big problems is that people feel lost—we have lost a generation to the violence. This is one way to tell people that all is not lost and they can start afresh.”
    Back at the farm in Lassipura, Khurram Mir says the whole idea of new entrepreneurship is about people regaining respect and control of their own lives in a state that is estimated to have more than 330,000 military and paramilitary troops.
    â€œThere has been a respect deficit in the state. For instance, no one has ever appreciated the time of the farmer. The power was always in the hands of the people who were buying from the farmer. With this small board, right at the point of entry, we are saying ‘you are important’ to the farmer,” says Mir, who started Harshna Naturals in 2008 after returning from America with a management degree from Purdue University. His father is one of the biggest fruit and vegetable traders in the region. “Basically I came back and told him, ‘Dad, I am starting a project that will put you out of business,’” smiles Mir. “And he said, ‘Well, we can always find other business opportunities but if the farmers continue to suffer, the state has no future. So best of luck to you.’ That was all I needed.”
    The first Rs 4 crores of investment built 5,000 metric tons (5,512 short tons) of capacity cold storage and a fruit sorting facility. Mir is now aiming to touch 40,000 metric-ton (44,092 short-ton) capacity at the cost of more than Rs 250 crore by 2014. He says there is no dearth of investors since Kashmir is one of the main production hubs for fruits in India with, for instance, 57 percent of the apple production of the country (1.8 million metric tons [1.98 million short tons] in 2010–2011).
    But conservative estimates suggest that between 10 percent and 30 percent (in some seasons as high as 45 percent) of the Kashmiri apple crop gets wasted due to the lack of storage and processing facilities in the state, and the farmer is poorer for it. “The farmer has always had to sell when the trader tells him to—this has always been the way in Kashmir. But with the right storage facilities, the power shifts back to the farmer. He can choose when he wants to sell.”
    To show that his efforts are bearing fruit, Mir forks out a set of charts that display how farmers are taking to Harshna. There are three kinds of business that Harshna is involved in: the company buys produce from farmers to stock and then sell at a later date; multinationals and big corporate houses like Reliance Fresh and Bharti Walmart use its cold storage facilities when they buy from local farmers; and local farmers themselves use the facilities.
    The vision statement of Harshna Naturals says that the aim of the company is to be used almost wholly by local farmers. They are certainly moving in that direction. In 2008–2009, big companies used more than 60 percent of Harshna’s facilities, while 30 percent was used in-house and only around 10 percent by the local farmers.
    In 2012–2013, however, the company did not use any of its facilities to buy and store for itself, exiting