• Industries and Commerce Department, Ladakh organized a workshop – ‘Enterprising Ladakh’ on the 8th of May for Ladakh’s budding entrepreneurs in different domains. The workshop received partnership from three leading IITs of the country, i.e. IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay, and IIT Delhi and over 40 active entrepreneurs from multidisciplinary domains.

• The teams from IITs also interacted with the entrepreneurs based in Kargil and visited Leh’s incubation centre, followed by brief interaction with ITI and Polytechnic students and faculty at the Eliezer Joldan Memorial College, Ladakh.

• The purpose of the workshop was to educate the existing and budding entrepreneurs about the sustainable utilisation of resources in Ladakh to achieve successful entrepreneurial ventures and add to employment generation in the geography.

Kanpur, 13th May’22 Industries and Commerce Department, Ladakh organized a workshop – ‘Enterprising Ladakh’ on the 8th of May for Ladakh’s budding entrepreneurs in diverse domains like food processing, handicrafts, handlooms, textiles, pashmina, emerging technologies, and business areas. Over 40 active entrepreneurs attended the workshop to understand the sustainable utilisation of resources in Ladakh to achieve successful entrepreneurial ventures and add to employment generation in the geography. The event was attended by three of the leading IITs in the country, IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi, and IIT Bombay. Dr. Anil Verma, Professor Chemical engineering, IIT Delhi, Dr. Anil Wali, MD FITT, IIT Delhi, Dr. Amitabha Bandopadhyay, Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, IIT Kanpur, professor-in-charge – Innovation and Incubation, Mr. Ankit Saxena, in-charge of social innovation, IIT Kanpur, and Mr. Shakti Tripathy, Senior Manager, Desai Sethi School of Entrepreneurship, IIT Bombay attended the workshop to share their ideas and insights for a holistic development of entrepreneurship and incubation ecosystem in Ladakh.

The entrepreneurs highlighted their critical need for assistance in developing harvesting techniques that is sensitive to Ladakh’s fragile ecosystem during the workshop. One-on-one discussions with the experts on processing technologies, storage, packaging, and marketing were also organized. The team also identified various problem statements for development of effective solutions in the domain. On the following day of the visit, the teams from the respective IITs also visited Kargil and the incubation centre at Leh to interact with the entrepreneurs. A special visit was also organized at the Eliezer Joldan Memorial College, Ladakh for the teams to interact with the ITI and polytechnic students and faculty.

The Commissioner Secretary of Industries and Commerce Department, Mr. Saugat Biswas said, “The purpose of the workshop is to assist the youth of Ladakh to become successful entrepreneurs who can generate employment by sustainable utilisation of resources in Ladakh. I believe this will allow our youth to understand the mechanism of entrepreneurship on a deeper level and find solutions to the identified gaps in our geography.”

Dr. Amitabha Bandyopadhyay, Professor-in-charge, Innovation and Incubation expressed his experience of participating in the workshop, “Visiting Ladakh and interacting with the local entrepreneurs has been an exciting experience. The workshop was a wonderful initiative by Ladakh's Industries and Commerce Department. In my opinion, it will allow all the stakeholders to understand the critical requirements of the innovators working in challenging settings like the Union Territory itself. I had a great time interacting with the young talented innovators and delegates from IIT Delhi and Bombay. We discussed some key areas for developing the incubation ecosystem in Ladakh with the Department, and I look forward to its implementation.”

Shri Moses Kunzang, Director, Industries and Commerce Department gave a detailed presentation on the importance of enterprises in Ladakh at the workshop.