Greater Kashmir

CMYK

09Srinagar | March 04, 2017, Tuesday

Startup Saqib Malik saqibmalik11@gmail.com

When 23-year-old Nihal Rehman left his job of a site engineer

in Delhi, photography and social media had caught his attention and he wanted to carve a niche in these segments. Soon, it was a homecom-ing for this civil engineer who along with two friends, Zaid Qureshi and Fasahat Allaqaband in December 2014 launched a startup – Captivat-ing Kashmir.

CEO and Co-founder of this social media and digital marketing set-up, Rehman recounts the humble begin-ning, his first business transaction of Rs 1,000 for which he promoted a city-based café. “It was a story based promotion as a part of which we promoted the café for a month using images etc. Client satisfaction has been more important to us than immediate material benefits but now we are hoping for more revenue gen-eration,” Rehman says.

From providing audio-visual publicity to local ventures to now collaborating with a Delhi-based international art gallery- Egg Art Gallery, Capitivating Kashmir has come a long way.

As a part of its initiative to provide a platform to budding Kashmiri pho-tographers, Rehman along with his team is all set to hold a first of its kind three seasonal photography event.

“We want to explore visual story telling concept since images can be often more powerful than words. As a part of the three seasonal photog-raphy, we will give the participants a theme and auction their works in Kashmir. The best photographs would be showcased at the Egg Art Gallery in Delhi,” Rehman said.

The trio of Nihal, Zaid and Fasa-hat are themselves avid photogra-phers and now in an endeavour to hone the skills of photo enthusiasts in Kashmir, the trio recently held a workshop at Nishat Garden during which photojournalists Javed Dar and Showkat Nanda interacted with young photographers.

“The event was held in collabora-tion with one plus India and India pictures and received an overwhelm-ing response. We had students from

DPS and even Anantnag participat-ing in the photo meet,” says Rehman. Another facet of Captivating Kash-mir is its efforts to provide a social media and digital marketing plat-form to budding entrepreneurs of the valley.

“We did promotions for Pet Lounge for their pet products and services all under one roof concept and helped them gain a huge traction. Similarly, our association with cafes has helped them increase their busi-ness significantly,” says Rehman.

The grit and determination in Rehman and his team knows no bounds as is the buzzing enthu-siasm quite visible in this young-ster. Among other feathers added to the hat of Captivating Kashmir includes being the official social media partner for a recently held cricket league.

“There are a lot of negative per-ceptions with regard to Kashmir. We want to be the fresh breeze that hones talent and narrates stories of success and valor,” Rehman says.

Captivating Kashmir is all set to launch a story section that will high-light success stories of Kashmiris across the globe. “We hope to con-nect successful Kashmiris to aspiring entrepreneurs and talented profes-sionals. There are budding singers, poets, writers and photographers who need to be based in Kashmir but need to widen their horizon with help of interactions with the achiev-ers who can help them understand

nuances of their field,” Rehman says.Among future plans of Capti-

vating Kashmir also includes set-ting up of an office space. “We are hoping to have a permanent office space and cater to more entrepre-neurs, artists and photographers. We are looking at wider options of revenue generation even as we believe that it should be a win-win situation for us and our cli-ents,” Rehman says. Captivating Kashmir is also keen on finding ways to ensure that their business model gains commercial success. However, Rehman says at the heart of their business lies a zest to provide an artistic space to the young and talented, an initiative which Captivating Kashmir will continue to thrive on.

Among the other interesting ini-tiatives in our agenda are poetry and spoken word poetry workshops, android development programmes, events curation, and photography services (for weddings, hotels, prod-ucts, houseboats, etc, he says. The company also aspires to promote tourism in Kashmir in the near future by channelising its ideas into a visionary website and a handy mobile app. “Having received an overwhelming response from Kash-miris and non-Kashmiris alike, Cap-tivating Kashmir continues to grow with magnanimous support on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter,” Rehman said.

Chic N Stylish

Shifting paradigms

Role of institutions in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship

IncubatIonSaad Parvez saadparvez@nitsri.net

Traditionally, we tend to think of business as the principal source of

innovative new products or services in a market economy. Sources of innova-tion are changing in the contemporary economy. India, like many other econo-mies has initiated a new strategy for its economic growth and sustenance, with an emphasis on regional development. A nation wide campaign has been launched by the Government of India to implement this policy of fostering innovations and startups. As a part of this strategy the government has come up with motivat-ing slogans like Startup India, Standup India, Wakeup India, Make in India, etc. leading to a paradigm shift from its earlier policies. These articulated slogans, fol-lowed by nation wide drives undertaken by different agencies and organizations, are flagship initiatives intended to create a healthy ecosystem for nurturing inno-vations and startups. As a consequence, excellent results are being witnessed and mind boggling innovations have come up in different sectors like social reform, healthcare, communications, transpor-tation, waste management, ergonomics and so forth. Many single user innova-tors such as Flipkart, Bigbasket, Zomato, Paytm, Quikr, JustDial, Helpchat, etc have emerged who have made an impact on the current economic and social sce-nario.

Various institutions like NIF, IITs, IIMs, MSME and NITs are at the forefront, providing technical support and mentor-ship to these budding innovators and idea generators. For example, IIT Bombay has set up an incubation centre called SINE (Society for Innovation and Entrepreneur development) and a research park to facil-itate innovations. An important concern is the impact of this paradigm shift on the situation in the state of Jammu and Kash-mir. Have these slogans and initiatives

actually translated into policies, proce-dures and programmes in our state? What efforts are being made by the government and non-government bodies to encourage and support this new model? Due to the current state of unemployment the educat-ed and skilled youth of the state do not find many opportunities in the government or private sectors. This results in the migra-tion of these talented youth to other states for better employment opportunities. With boom in startup activities around the world as well as lack of right employ-ment opportunities in the state, most of the educated youth are looking towards innovations and entrepreneurship as a possible means of self-employment and also as a means of employment genera-tion. In Kashmir, there is an immense scope for improvement and innovation in traditional areas. For example, there is a huge scope and margin for innovation in conventional heating devices and mecha-nisms during winters, construction indus-try, minerals and stone industry, tourism industry, local manufacturing and service industries, traffic management systems, recycling of chinar and popular leaves to produce paper and other disposable items and so forth. No innovations have been carried out in optimising the dimen-sions of Hamam stones and increasing the efficiency of Hamam system. Similarly innovations are possible in redesigning a safe Kangari for household use. Our kan-dur’s tandoor has an excellent scope of improvement in design and efficiency as cost and availability of wood are deter-rent factors for its economical future use. Alternative materials for construc-tion of houseboats and shikaraas have to be developed as Devdaar wood is scarce and prohibitively expensive as well as the craft of houseboat making is slowly dying out. Glass fibre as an alternative material could be a future replacement for these water transportation vehicles thus boosting local industry and employ-ment. Design and development of alterna-

tive techniques and methods for making bricks is another area of innovation since the conventional brick kilns involve the utilization of a large area, which becomes unavailable for agriculture sector. Hence there is a tremendous scope for innova-tions in various areas in Kashmir, both in formal as well as informal sectors. In formal sector there are opportunities to set up industries in leather, perfumery, recycling plants etc which shall boost employment and create further innova-tion opportunities. Many new innovators may come forth if right and encouraging innovation culture is provided in the state. Traditional ‘inside-out’ approach to innovation assumes that prospective innovators invent and design new prod-ucts to meet the needs one may not have even realized.

The youth of today have a lot of cre-ativity and innovativeness in them and they just need someone to hold their hand and show them the right direction so that their innovative ideas are taken towards logical conclusion. This implies that there is an urgent need to establish incubation centres, research parks, startup and inno-vation forums, entrepreneur development clubs etc. at various places of the state. The incubation centres are the centres where budding innovators would get a right eco system for prototype develop-ment, technical advice and financial assistance. The government needs to adopt a proactive approach to formulate and implement an effective innovation and startup strategy by involving all the players, in order to enhance and inculcate the culture of innovation. A state wide campaign needs to be launched so that the right and relevant information with regard to various government schemes, programmes, policies, benefits and finan-cial assistance is disseminated across the masses. Productive and planned events and seminars need to be organised in vari-ous institutions such as schools, colleges, universities and technical institutions of

higher learning. The institutions of higher learning

have a major role to play in order to create the right ecosystem in their cam-puses to encourage idea generation and innovation activities among the students. Activities of research, innovation, patent application, collaborative undertakings with industry, especially in MSME sector and societal development, etc need to be undertaken and carried out with zeal and zest. Moreover, the paramount aim of institutes of higher learning must be to attract the brightest engineering talent in the state and shape them into excel-lent researchers, innovators, and entre-preneurs in addition to carrying our skill development activities. These institutes of higher learning must identify niche areas for strategising and implementing their action plan where need based projects are taken to solve problems at various social levels through innovation.

The National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar, which has been playing a pivotal role in technology and engineer-ing domains of the state in particular and the nation in general, has undertaken to create a full-scale incubation centre con-tinuing its pursuit of contributing to the society. The premise of incubation centre is based on the philosophy of creating value for present and the future require-ments. In this spirit, while the innovation is to be driven out, the centre is looking forward to provide solutions to the prob-lems of the society or suggest ways of efficiently doing things. The centre also envisages attention towards the disrup-tions in the making that we are seeing globally trending. Keeping this philoso-phy in mind, the orientation for the incu-bation centre addresses issues that are met by the local industry, initiate inno-vation to keep up with the national and global trends. The centre intends to take up various challenges of the state includ-ing grass root technologies and develop innovative ideas of the engineering stu-

dents, technocrats, innovators who intend to obtain an engineering solution for a problem. Some of the major objectives of the centre are:

• Creation of Technology Based incuba-tion on continuous basis.

• Economic development, employment generation (targeting disadvantaged groups) and technology commerciali-sation.

• Fostering the entrepreneurial spirit.• Create awareness about Technology

Incubation and Commercialisation of R&D products and processes.

• Promote micro, small & medium industries.

• Assistance to existing incubatees by way of specialized services of the institute

• Develop innovative ideas of the stu-dents, grass root innovators, entre-preneurs and other stakeholders by application of scientific and engineer-ing principles and help to commer-cialise the ides by involving industri-alists and entrepreneurs

Like many western countries, a cul-ture of idea generation and collection has to be initiated and the concept of an Idea Bank needs to be publicized and propagated. Forums, institutes, schools, colleges, universities and other organizations need to establish idea collection centres for collecting ideas and bring them to incubation cen-tres for processing them logically and scientifically to obtain innovations. The problems of Kashmir are unique and it is unlikely that a technological solution will come from outside. The onus is on the people of Kashmir to think and innovate in order to solve problems requiring a technological intervention.

Author is an associate professor and heads Innovation, Incubation & Entrepre-neur Development Centre at NIT Srinagar.

In Kashmir, there is an immense scope for improvement and innovation in traditional areas. For example, there is a huge scope and margin for innovation in conventional heating devices and mechanisms during winters, construction industry, minerals and stone industry, tourism industry, local manufacturing and service industries, traffic management systems, recycling of chinar and popular leaves to produce paper and other disposable items and so forth.

Peerzada’s abayas with design and elegance

FaShIonendeavor deSk

Murcyleen Peerzada, a Kashmiri girl living in Mumbai, is trying to carve

a niche for herself in the world of Muslim fashion outfits for women or modest dress-ing industry, as she likes to call it.

After working in Bollywood as assistant director, Murcyleen is today redefining modest dressing industry by adding a touch of chic to traditional Abayas.

26-year-old Murcyleen’s interest in the modest dressing led her to start her epony-mous label.

“I always loved fashion. I truly believe that wearing an Abaya doesn’t mean you give up on maintaining yourself. Whenever I see a lady who is not wearing her scarf ele-gantly or whose Abaya is looking unkempt, I want to fix it. So I feel I am doing what I love,” she said.

Murcyleen, a graduate in Mass Media, says she felt the need to design stylish Abayas because “there are not many options for modest wear in the Indian markets”.

To begin with, Murcyleen has set the sights on Indian market and also has plans to foray into the Middle East. “Modest fash-ion is a billion-dollar industry today; it has grown a lot in the past one year. I felt it was the right time to tap into the market,” she says. “I really hope that women in India would love our stylised Abayas. My aim is to work around the Indian market first.”

Murcyleen’s father is from north Kash-mir’s Sopore town and her family is still connected with its roots.

“My father’s side of the family is from Kashmir. I used to spend most of my summer holidays visiting Srinagar until some years ago. My father spends a lot of time in Srinagar and we have a home there. My father has a lot of love for the Kashmiri culture and that always keeps my brother and I connected,” the young designer says.

Murcyleen, who quit films, says it is very difficult to find a right pieces of Abaya in Indian market.

“ I couldn’t find appealing pieces in India. During one of my visits to Dubai, I was fas-cinated at the options available there. I soon made up my mind to bring that variety of Abayas to India,” she says.

Asked about her designs, Murcyleen says her first collection is inspired by fairy-tale.

“I have also used coloured stones in some, giving the Abayas a royal, princess-like feel,” she says.

The USP of Murcyleen’s pieces is the colours she creates them in. She even plans to launch new abayas every six months so people have something to look forward to.

“I want to create an option for Muslim girls with a sense of style and elegance,” she says.

Her collection is based in Dubai and Mumbai, and can also be shopped online on www.murcyleenpeerzada.com.

“Modest fashion is a billion-dollar industry today; it has grown a lot in the past one year. I

felt it was the right time to tap into the market. I really hope that women in India would love our stylised Abayas. My aim is to work around the Indian market firstMurcyleen Peerzada, 26

captivating Kashmir

Transcending barriers through social media, digital marketing

“We want to explore visual story

telling concept since images can be often more powerful than words. as a part of the three seasonal photography, we will give the participants a theme and auction their works in Kashmir. the best photographs would be showcased at the Egg art Gallery in Delhi 

-Nehal Rehman, Co-founder and CEO, Captivating Kashmir