Jammu and Kashmir’s entrepreneurs are waiting for another industrial policy. Since the 2021–2031 framework appeared to lose momentum in September 2023, the wait has stretched from the period before the elected government took office into its tenure. The Chief Minister’s indication that work is moving offers some encouragement. But industry needs more than the reassuring sound of a policy being prepared.

We have been here before. A new policy arrives with promises of investment, employment and a business-friendly environment. Entrepreneurs read the fine print, departments begin interpreting it, and everyone hopes that this time the machinery will run smoothly. 

Sometimes the machinery seems to need a subsidy of its own.As I argue in my latest book, Reboot Industry, the problem is not that J&K has lacked industrial policies. It is that too many have offered temporary relief without tackling the conditions that make running a business difficult. Incentives can help an enterprise get started. They cannot, by themselves, keep its lights on, move its goods or persuade several departments to agree.

The next policy should therefore begin with a simple question: what would make industry viable after the concessions end? Unless that question shapes the answer, we risk another attractive document followed by another long wait.

The EODB Act is hope!So, what is ‘Waiting for Godot?’Waiting for Godot a masterpiece of absurdist theatre written by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett in 1948, the play premiered in Paris in 1953 and remains one of the most influential theatrical works of the 20th century.The plot revolves around two characters, Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), who stand by a solitary tree on a barren road. They are waiting for the arrival of a mysterious figure named Godot, who never appears. To pass the time, they engage in a variety of discussions, argue, eat, play games, mimic each other, and contemplate suicide.

Should we wait for the correct Policy which will never come? Or come to disappoint?The incentive trapFrom the mid-1980s through the policies of 1995, 1998 and 2004, and into the 2016 framework, fiscal concessions dominated the approach. Tax holidays, capital subsidies, interest support and transport assistance were intended to attract investment to a region facing  political uncertainty, difficult terrain and high operating costs.

That intention was understandable. J&K needed jobs and enterprise, while investors needed reassurance. The difficulty was allowing incentives to become the main strategy rather than one part of it. A discount on the cost of setting up a factory is useful; it is less useful if........

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