Profitable small business ideas in Kashmir

Profitable small business ideas in Kashmir

Kashmir needs no introduction. Its picturesque beauty and exotic house boats have attracted tourists from across the world for several decades now. Besides that, it houses exotic spices, beautiful pashminas, and colourful tulips make capital city Srinagar a paradise.

But running a business in the Valley isn’t easy as the political turmoil the region faces is a big challenge for businesses and entrepreneurs. Despite being in news for all the wrong reasons, the Valley is home to several innovative ideas and entrepreneurs executing them.

The challenging unemployment rate is one of the serious concerns for the people of Kashmir. Even today, it is sad to find that most people living in Kashmir still haven’t shunned the mindset that advocates running after govt jobs while on the other hand ruling governments don’t seem to be showing seriousness towards directing district industry centers to provide timely financial support to the aspiring entrepreneurs of Kashmir.

With an aim to facilitate the growth of startups in the state, the Jammu and Kashmir government also launched its first startup policy in September 2018.

Here The Kashmir Upfront lists some best bussines ideas in Kashmir:

1. Agriculture business

A study carried out by Startup Kashmir indicates that the agricultural sector alone contributes around 23% towards the GDP of Jammu and Kashmir. However, unfortunately, the sector still remains in an unorganized form and largely an uninterested area.

Entrepreneurs can create countless jobs for unemployed youth while bringing further development to the agriculture sector of Kashmir.

Kashmir, being a region situated on high altitude and having the presence of mineral-rich soil, there is arguably a great potential in the following agriculture and farming related niches:

Potato cultivation

Onion cultivation

Potato seeds

Mushroom cultivation

Saffron cultivation

Vegetable Seeds

Cut flowers

Apple orchards

Walnuts

Almond

Strawberry cultivation

Particularly potato, onion, mushroom, and strawberry are imported in large quantities from other states. What Kashmiri entrepreneurs can do is to stop such a huge outflow of money while growing locally, advocates Startup Kashmir.

2. Dairy farming business

Kashmir even imports huge quantities of milk from outside. While Zam Zam Dairy and other local brands have already taken measures but not enough to fulfill large gaps in quality milk supply in most urban areas of Kashmir, hence inviting the serious entrepreneurial attention.

3. Butter and curd production

Beyond milk, there is also a huge local market constituting households, restaurants, hotels etc for butter and curd products in Kashmir.

4. Poultry farming business

The local consumption of poultry is high but production is very weak in Kashmir, hence, allowing a huge outflow of money to other states. The local entrepreneurs can stop that to happen while opening more poultry farming units in Kashmir.

5. Recycling business

Recycling sector is yet to receive full entrepreneurial focus in Kashmir. Despite the presence of many local recycling collection centres in the valley, there are large quantities of discarded paper, plastic, aluminium cans, metal scraps etc that await efforts of local entrepreneurs. You can make money while selling such recyclables to recycling plants.

6. E-commerce solutions 

A large number of local retailers, restaurants, hotels, and enterprises that operate in other fields are in need of professionals who can help them capitalise on the growing trend of online shopping.

How as an e-commerce professional you can offer help is by creating various e-commerce solutions such as online portals, virtual shopping carts, SEO, SEM and SMO services etc as required by their businesses.

7. Computer support services

Individuals who own computers, banks, government and educational institutes constitute potential target markets for computer support services that involve diagnosing, troubleshooting and repairing problematic computer devices in Kashmir.

8. Web design and development

The use of the internet as a means to access information about jobs, shop online, learn about educational notifications is constantly increasing in Kashmir, thus, making it very important for business establishments, educational institutions like universities, colleges, schools etc to create web portals and we are sure that Kashmir has no shortage of youth that can provide web design & development services.

9. Tourism-related business

Tourism is a major industry in Kashmir, providing somewhere around 30% employment to local population. For your information, more than a million tourists visit Kashmir every year and their number keeps on increasing with each passing year.

We know that more the tourist inflow, more money to rush into the economy of Kashmir through their spending on restaurants, hotels, transport and on many more things.

10. Sheep farming business

The local population in Kashmir consumes around 51, 000 tonnes of mutton annually, claims Startup Kashmir. Nearly 21, 000 tonnes are imported from outside the state. What it means is that local entrepreneurs can replace imported mutton quantity with local produce while opening sheep farm units across Kashmir.