Twenty Years Behind

Start-up noise grows every year in the valley, but ground-level transformation remains slow, scattered, uncertain, and poorly coordinated.

- Fiza Masoodi

At a recent entrepreneurship event in Srinagar, a senior government official made a comment that silenced the room for a few seconds.

He said Kashmir is still twenty years behind in building a real startup culture.

It sounded casual, almost like a passing remark, but it hit the audience hard.

Many young founders, mentors, and incubators sat there wondering what this gap truly means and why it still exists despite the noise around innovation.

The remark pushed everyone to think beyond the buzzwords.

Over the last few years, Kashmir has seen hackathons, pitch days, workshops, and a growing list of incubation centres. They speak about disruption, hustle, innovation, and the future. They push young people to dream bigger, work faster, and think globally.

This is important. These efforts matter. They create energy and hope.

But the event in Srinagar showed that hope alone cannot build an ecosystem. Something deeper is missing.

The panel of experts and officials pointed to a simple truth: Jammu and Kashmir still does not have a brand of its own that can stand on a national stage.

There is no single product or startup that represents the region the way Punjab owns agro-processing, or Bengaluru owns tech.

Everyone is waiting for that one breakout story that can act as the face of this place.

Until that happens, the ecosystem remains scattered, enthusiastic in pockets but unsure of its long-term direction.