Industrial Graveyard

While the law and order situation in the state and its demands for political independence dominate the media discourse on Jammu and Kashmir, little attention is paid to the economic decline that has also overtaken it. Manufacturing, in particular, is in the doldrums, with the political turmoil in the state only partly responsible bureaucratic delays and poor infrastructure are equally to blame.

Industrial gross state value added growth has been dismal for the last five years with 2013/14 when it grew 9.69 per cent the only exception. (See Poor Progress.) In 2015/16, it was as low as 0.4 per cent against a national manufacturing growth of 7.4 per cent, though it recovered the following year to 6.06 per cent, while the corresponding national growth was 7.9 per cent. The state industrial policy offers a