Kashmir has spent years asking how to bring investment into the region. That question has begun to produce an answer. 

Factories are opening, local entrepreneurs are starting enterprises and government schemes are putting capital into hands that want to build businesses. 

The harder question now lies inside those factories: who is trained to work there, who can rise within them and how much of the income generated by them stays in Jammu and Kashmir?

J&K’s economy for 2026-27 is estimated at ₹3,15,822 crore. Services account for about 61 percent of the economy, agriculture for about 20 percent and manufacturing for 19 percent. 

Manufacturing therefore has a substantial place in the economy, although its present scale remains too limited to absorb the large pool of young people seeking work.

Official figures show how quickly industrial activity has grown. 

The budget records 2,227 organised industrial units starting production since 2020, with investment of ₹15,940 crore and employment for 73,827 people. 

Another official account puts the figures at 2,279 units, ₹16,598.97 crore of investment and 75,848 jobs between 2019-20 and 2025-26.

The most revealing figure lies inside those numbers: about 90 percent of the new units were established by local entrepreneurs. 

Kashmiris are investing in their own businesses. They are moving into manufacturing, processing and services and creating work for others. 

The old picture of local enterprise as something centred mainly on family shops and traditional occupations has become too narrow.

Scale remains the difficulty, as many local enterprises are small and less diversified, which limits their ability to create large numbers of stable jobs. 

Kashmir already produces a surprisingly wide range of goods and services,........

© Kashmir Observer