Spotlight on Entrepreneurs
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Nusrat, a graduate from Dadoora, District Pulwama is a successful entrepreneur of the valley. She started cut flower business in 2000 with literally no financial support and today, she is regarded as a founder of cut flower industry in the state.
She always dreamt to start her own venture, hence took a bold decision to quit pensionable government job to enter the world of entrepreneurship and this is how ‘Petals and Ferns’ came into existence. “I wanted to start a business that was new and Cut flower was the best option, there was no concept of fresh flowers in Kashmir” says Nusrat. More
Sohail Rashid Shah
Being an entrepreneur is a challenge in itself. And competing with the big names in electronics and IT industry is a bigger challenge. But 27-year-old Sohail Rashid Shah has taken both challenges onto him and come out successful.
Sohail has created his own brand in Information Technology called Quecane and manufactures computer peripherals. Today, he is successfully competing with the top names in the industry.
But it hasn’t been a cakewalk for him. More
Shugufta, an energetic Kashmiri women entrepreneur started her business venture in 2011 after returning from Dubai. She holds a permanent resident visa for UAE and has been engaged in real estate business for eight long years before returning to her home land, which was her dream right from the outset.
She has always been passionate about fashion trends and the main purpose to start a business in Kashmir was to bring new fashion trends to the valley. “I love to wear trendy clothes myself and that gave me an idea to bring fashion to Kashmir keeping in mind the culture of the place”. Shugufta is the first to introduce Pakistani suits in Kashmir. More
After graduating from the University of Kashmir in 2004 with a MBA degree, Naseer went onto become a Microsoft certified Professional (MCP), Microsoft certified application Developer (MCAD), and a Microsoft certified solution Developer (MCSD). Highly educated and qualified, Naseer, like many graduates, struggled to find a job in Kashmir, which matched his skills. He decided to seek opportunities outside Kashmir with a desire to gain more knowledge and experience, and subsequently worked in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Singapore. More
From a nondescript roadside food cart to the trendy fast food outlet in one of the commercial uptown markets of Srinagar, 25-year-old Mudasir Nabi Khosa has made a huge leap in less than a year.
A college dropout, Mudasir, soon after getting married was struggling hard in his life and was trying his luck at many things such as driving an auto-rickshaw before he started a roadside food cart selling fried fish at Sanat Nagar, By Pass. More
Kashmiri Cricket Bat manufacturing has a long history in Kashmir. The first unit was set up by a Sialkot based bat manufacturer in Halmulla, Anantnag before partition in 1947. During partition, the family moved back to Pakistan but some of their employees learned this art and continued to manufacture bats in Kashmir. Since then, Halmulla village has been the hub of cricket bat manufacturing in Kashmir. All the families in this village are directly or indirectly related to this profession. In this village, Abdul Majeed Dar has been carrying the tradition forward and taking giant leaps with each passing day. More
Driven by his culinary passion, 24-year-old Adnan Mir left his call centre job in Pune city to come back home and start his own venture. For over three months now, Adnan has been successfully running his new fast-food outlet called Grills—Tikkas and Shawarmas at Nigeen on the Hazratbal Road. More
Irfan, the proud founder of Vitasta School of Law graduated from BMS College in the field of Architecture. During his studies he conceived a dream of starting a Law College of his own in his home town, Kashmir. A year later he started giving shape to his dream and established Law College at Nowgam - Budgam Kashmir in March 2010 . More
Dask Power
Khalid, a proud owner of Dask Power and an engineer by profession always had the courage to take a different path other than following a tradition of seeking a public sector job. His interest and experience in technology guided his desire to start a website as a result www.daskpower.com came into existence. More
Sector : ITUmar completed his Bachelors degree in Engineering from Bangalore University in 2002. Soon after completing his degree, Umar started working as a Business Development Manager with a German based company, INCEDA dealing with Electronic and Electrical devices for about a year before returning back to his homeland, Srinagar. More
Sector : Education and Traning
Arshid Mehraj, 27-year-old dynamic youth from Bijbihara district, Anantnag completed his Management degree in 2008 from Leicester Business School, United Kingdom. After graduating, Arshid took a job in the UK and worked there for two years; but soon he realized that the 12-hour job schedule was not meant for him. As a result, he quit his job in London to return to Kashmir to spread quality education of first-class standards in the rural hinterland. More
Sector : IT
Abid Lone, a 21-year-old youth from Srinagar District, is a budding entrepreneur and an IT expert. Abid has completed his Bachelors of Information Technology (IT) and is presently pursuing a Masters degree in IT. More
Sector : Health Care
Ajaz is a management graduate from Amity International. After completing his studies, he worked for Hindustan Computer Limited (HCL) technologies and was earning a handsome salary that included a residential flat and a car from the company. He was happy with his job and had great potential for promotion, but destiny was leading him in another direction.. More
Faisal Parvez
Sector : Agribusiness
Faisal Parveez, a Management graduate from Symbiosis, was working in Dubai for four years. In Dubai, he decided to become his own boss by starting a business venture in his homeland Kashmir. Faisal’s father is a government employee, while his two brothers are also working in Dubai. Faisal, who was earning a handsome salary in Dubai, left his job to move ahead in life and pursue the path of entrepreneurship. He says, “I realized in Dubai that Kashmir has a lot of Potential and I should now work for myself and not others”. More
Sector : IT
In the technology industry this young Kashmiri has every right to feel on a par with the best that Silicon Valley has to offer. Coming from a family where making history is nothing new, Majid has achieved enough to make Kashmir and his parents proud. In 2003, Majid completed his Masters degree in computer applications (MCA) from Indira Gandhi National Open University IGNOU and was appointed as an administrator to the university. However Majid had other plans. More
Ufair Ajaz completed his MBA (Master of Business Administration) from Symbiosis Institute of Management Pune India in 2008. Soon after he finished his studies, he started working as a marketing officer in a multinational automotive company where he worked for two years. Belonging to a business class family, Ufair was always interested in starting a venture of his own rather than working for someone else. This sentiment urged him to get back to his homeland Kashmir.
After witnessing his father’s career in business and the kind of challenges his father, a local businessman, had endured, it was very tough for Ufair to make a choice between employment More
Syed Ashfaq is the founder of Infin Solutions Pvt. Ltd located at Gogji Bagh Srinagar, a financial services & business process outsourcing company that specializes in providing financial services solutions to retail customers & BPO services to businesses. Ashfaq received his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) degree from the Government Degree College Bemina Srinagar, affiliated to the University of Kashmir in 1997. After graduating, he began his career by joining one of the leading banks in Kashmir, The Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd (J&K Bank) as a Cashier-cum-Clerk. Working with JKB for five and a half years, Ashfaq shifted his More
Masood Wani (29) from Islamabad (Anantnag) Kashmir completed his Master’s degree in Management Studies (MBA) from the Institute of Management Studies Dehradun. Soon after finishing his studies, Masood started working in a private sector company. He worked for years before he started working for realizing his dream. He always dreamed of being self-employed and pursuing his own path wherein he can employ others to work for his company. This dream brought him back to his homeland Kashmir and he started thinking about various business ideas such as starting a juice concentration plant, setting up a mineral water plant or even a factory manufacturing corrugated boxes. He finally decided to opt for corrugated boxesMore
Syed Iqram from Rawalpora Srinagar, after passing his Bachelors in Engineering (BE) from Regional Engineering College (REC) in 1997, worked in companies like Whirlpool & BHEL as a manager. After gaining experience for nearly 10 years. In 2007 he started S.A Power Utilities Pvt. Ltd which purely deals with power infra structure, transmission and distribution and IT implementation within the power sector. More
Rubeena, a house wife from Yarikalan Chadoora District Budgam has set a good example for the female folk of this part of the world. She was married at a young age and completed her studies after her marriage. She always dreamt of becoming an entrepreneur and supporting her family and society through entrepreneurship. More
Imran, an IT (Information Technology) graduate from State University of New York, USA is a proud owner of Kashmir Sunsilk Private Limited Company. After completing his studies he could have easily opted for employment in United States and pursued a relatively easier and comfortable life, but he had some other plan and a dream to pursue in his home town so he made his way back to Kashmir. “Kashmiri’s are emotional people and prefer to come back home at some point in time, either at an earlier stage when they are young and can contribute to the society or at the later stage of their life and I decided to make it early”, says More
