<span style="color: #222222;">In Jammu and Kashmir, a day long workshop on Youth Engagement and Outreach organized by the J & K government was inaugurated by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha at Kashmir International Convention Centre (KICC) in Srinagar today.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Workshop was attended by top Industry Heads from Ashok Leyland, ICICI foundation, Bombay Stock Exchange, Universities, IIMs/IITs and policy analysts from across the country.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The outreach programme is aimed to create opportunities and infrastructure for engaging youth, addressing their issues and concerns and empower them in entrepreneurship, self-employability and create livelihood for the youth in a well curated and holistic manner.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Speaking on the occasion, the Lt Governor said that the idea behind this Youth Engagement and Outreach workshop is to create institutional mechanisms to empower and groom youngsters and to make them valuable for J&K as well as the country. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He remarked that in the past many initiatives were taken to engage the youth here but all of them somehow fell short of meeting all the requirements. He stressed the need to have an umbrella programme that dovetails all the resources meant for this purpose to achieve the goal of youth empowerment and youth development.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He also announced that a seed fund of Rs 200 crores has been earmarked for creating initial infrastructure and institutional support for meeting the initial needs of this programme. This amount, he said, would be used to create a 'Centre of Excellence' and infrastructure in districts to realize our goals of making youth the leaders of success.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Lt Governor also urged the industrial leaders to partner J&K in formulating and implementing the programme successfully on ground. He sought support of the national-level investors and industry experts in creating robust infrastructure and employment avenues for the youth of the UT.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Highlighting UT Government's efforts in promoting entrepreneurship; the Lt Governor said that within one month, two aspiring entrepreneurs from each 4,290 panchayats of J&K were selected for handholding and about 10 thousand people have been provided loans through the J&K Bank to establish their businesses.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He also stressed upon the need to create a major platform to cater to our talent pool and resources to our industrial, skill and modern technological gaps.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Lt Governor said that the UT Government is aiming to build a robust infrastructure for our youth in all 6 identified focus areas and to create more favourable factors to bridge the gap between alternate scenario and current growth rate in this Union Territory.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">   </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Lt Governor observed that valuable contribution and investment made today, will give dignity to the youth and it will restore their pride and will make Jammu and Kashmir truly a piece of art in the Country's economy.</span><br />''