PUNE: Kashmiri Pandit Hindu Youth has launched KP Startups & Business Conferences with a vision to create a platform for the KP Startups and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to come together and grow. The ecosystem aims to nurture entrepreneurship and facilitate success stories.
They also aim at assisting them in reaching out to SMEs, potential customers, Angel and Venture Capitalists. As a part of this initiative and pre-launch, the first KP Startup conference was organised in Delhi on April 7, 2018. The conference was attended by 25 SMEs and startup owners.
Addressing the media at Patrakar Bhavan on Saturday, Rohit Kachroo, Co-Convenor & Spokesperson of KP Startups, said, “Kashmiri Hindus Pandits are in exile since early 1990 after Islamic religious fundamentalists in the valley of Kashmir took to armed subversion and terrorism and drove us out of our centuries-old habitat. Kashmiri Hindu Pandits have been subjected to the most brutal atrocities and we have been isolated politically and economically. There are about seven lakh Kashmiri Pandits living across India. There are a very few left in the valley. KP Startups is a platform for our community to sustain itself economically in these turbulent times. One of the core priorities of KP Startups is the economic improvement of the exiled Kashmiri Pandit community by being a force multiplier in the inter-community trade.”
When asked about the importance of KP Startups platform for the KP community, Abbinow Talashi, Co-Convener of KP Startups, responded, “The KP Startups envisages an ecosystem to facilitate learning, sharing and mutual benefit of Kashmiri Pandit Hindus. KP Startups & Business Conferences will actively work towards changing the mindset of the community from being job oriented to business oriented.”
The core team and organisers of Pune Conference are Rakesh Ganjoo from Bangalore, Umesh Talashi from Jammu, Uday Tikoo and Rahul Kher, both from Pune, Vikram Koul from Ludhiana, Abbinow Talashi from Delhi and Rohit Kachroo from Pune.
All of them are running their businesses successfully and hence decided to help their community members. “Our community is 100 per cent educated. But they want to run businesses on their own. We want to help them grow as businessmen. When I started the garment business six years ago, there was no one to guide me. Had there been someone, my business would have been much successful. I don’t want others to struggle the same way as I have done,” added Koul.
Similarly, Ganjoo and his wife Kavita Shinde run a travel business, Umesh runs an event management company, Tikoo has training and consultancy firm, Abbinow has an IT company, and Kachroo too runs an IT firm.
2ND CONFERENCE
KP Startups is also now organising the 2nd Business conference in Pune on Sunday, July 8, 2018, and about 60 to 70 SMEs and startups from across India (Pune, Mumbai, Thane, Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Jammu & Kashmir etc.) will participate in the conference.