Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Dr Jitendra Singh said that Kathua is, because of its resource richness with diversity as well as its geographical location, destined to be North India's StartUp destination.

The Union Minister said this after inaugurating North India’s first Industrial Biotech Park Ghatti, Kathua, Jammu along with Manoj Sinha, Lieutenant Governor, UT of J&K.

Dr. Jitendra Singh also said that this is a historic day for Kathua as the name of Kathua is now listed among those developed regions of India where biotech parks have been established, attracting innovations and research not only from the country but from the whole world.

The Minister said that the next twenty-five years are very crucial for this country and when India would be celebrating its 100 years of independence in 2047, the youth of Kathua would be among the great contributors towards making India a ‘Vishwa Guru’.

The establishment of AIIMS, IIM, IIT, IIMC, Space Centre at Central University of Jammu, Highway villages, Express Corridor, Atal Setu, Mega-Quintal Seed Processing Plants, Medical Colleges some of which have been established in Kathua are some of the national level development projects J&K has seen in last eight years.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Biotech Park would act as a hub for incubation of new ideas and will act as a robust platform to support the Agri-entrepreneurs, Startups, Progressive farmers, scientists, scholars and students not only from Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh but also from nearby States of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the biotechnology park at Kathua has a potential to produce 25 startups in a year which will be among its great contributions to this region. Dr. Singh informed that with the unlocking of space technology in India under PM Narendra Modi, sixty startups have been established in only one and a half year, Onkar Singh, the young scientist from Jammu present today here is among the best examples of it.

The Minister emphasised that the StartUps must be sustainable and connected to the livelihood which is the actual mantra of this government creating greater employment opportunities under StartUps. The ‘Botlabs’ is the best example of a sustainable startup connected to livelihood which flew 1000 drones during the beating retreat ceremony and are now earning in millions for sponsoring the drone shows in the country, Dr. Singh added.

The Minister said, the facilities like herbal extraction, fermentation, analytical lab., distillation, micro-propagation, plant tissue culture would be available in Biotech Park, Ghatti Kathua besides the provision of technology incubation, training & skill development.

Dr. Jitendra Singh also said that the work on the two Industrial Biotech Parks, one at Ghatti, Kathua, Jammu and other in Handwara, Kashmir jointly funded by the department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, Ministry of Science & Technology and Jammu & Kashmir Science, Technology & Innovation Council was started in February 2019. CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, (CSIR-IIIM) Jammu has been entrusted with the responsibility of implementation of this project.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, this biotech park will carry out research on biodiversity, medicinal and aromatic plants of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, and it will also promote green category businesses.