Lack of funds: No entrepreneurship awareness prog held in 2020-21 at EDI

Sajidah Yousuf
Srinagar: In the year 2020-21 there has been no participation initiated by the Entrepreneur Development Institute (EDI)—owing to the lack of funds in the institute, sources privy in the department said.
According to the official figures available, “For the first time since the financial year 2004-05, there has been no Entrepreneurship Awareness Programs (EAPs) conducted nor any participation has been made respectively in the year 2020-21.”
The figures reveal that in the year 2020-21, there has been zero participation, as no program was conducted by the institute due to ‘lack of funds in the institute’.
Meanwhile, the official sources told KNO that, “In the year 2020-21, no funds were released by the government of Jammu and Kashmir.”
When contacted, Director EDI, Anil Kaul, said that he has recently assumed the charge in the institution and is not updated with this information.
“As of now, I have no knowledge as to whether there were any dearth of funds in the institution, due to which no programs were conducted in the financial year 2020-21,” he said.
Pertinently, in the financial year 2004-05, a total of 38 programs were conducted with 2170 participants, followed by 50 programs with 5012 participants in 2005-06. In 2006-07 4258 participants participated in 64 programs.
Similarly, in the year 2007-08, in 32 programs, there was a participation of 2093 people. Followed by the year 2008-09 wherein 32 programs were conducted with 3110 participants.
Likewise in the year 2009-10, 60 numbers of programs conducted in which 4761 participants participated. Similarly, in 2010-11 in 83 programs 5935 people participated, followed by 58 programs with 4422 participation in 2011-12.
The figures further reveal that in 2012-13, a total of 191 programs conducted with 8359 participants, followed by 175 programs with 11014 number of participation from the people in 2013-14.
Similarly, in 2014-15, there were 319 programs initiated with 21840 number of participants, followed by 679 programs with 30272 number of participation in 2015-16 and in 2016-17, a total of 289 programs with 22525 number of participation of people.
Likewise, in the year 2017-18, a total of 278 programs were conducted with 16682 participants, followed by the year 2018-19, in which 534 programs were initiated with 28270 participants, followed by the year 2019-20, with 6089 participants in 121 programs.