JKDAF (jkdaf.org) or Jammu & Kashmir Digital Advocacy Forum, an advocacy forum in the digital sector was formally inaugurated jointly by Dr Ajai Chowdhry, Founder HCL and Prof Shakil A Romshoo, Vice Chancellor, Islamic University of Science & Technology, Kashmir.
The significance of such a forum focuses on how it can play a pivotal bridge between academia, startups and the facilitating ecosystem consisting of government, industry and the investor community. The forum has also forged strategic collaboration with CIED (Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development, IUST), SheatWork and The Kashmir Monitor to drive its impact driven vision.
Highlighting the sinificance, Dr Ajai Chowdhry, Founder HCL, noted, “Building the right ecosystem for India’s Digital Economy requires a link between educational institutions and industries. Start-ups, research, and educational institutions should work together to make India the world’s next product capital.”
Promoting innovation & growth
Emphasizing the importance of such industry-academia partnerships for India’s growth and development, Ruby Sinha, Founder, sheatwork.com elaborated, “A collaboration between the business ecosystem and academia indeed promotes innovation and growth. And, it’s very clear to me how entrepreneurship actually creates wealth for the country and also gives rise to many startups too. Entrepreneurs actually drive change because of innovation, as they develop new products and bring in new technologies that help the economy to grow as a whole.”
Prof Shakil Romshoo, VC IUST pointed out, “The country has an abundance of skilled labour. An ecosystem of start-up-led innovations and a synergy between educational institutions and industries are all that is required to propel the country’s economic development. JKDAF could help bridge the gap and contribute to the development of the ecosystem.”
Dr Manu Zarabi, Patron JKDAF had also shared the vision of the forum founded by professionals in the digital sector driven by passion with a commitment to contribute towards a thriving digital ecosystem in the UT of J&K.
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