A Thousand Shikaras

fter two decades of uncertainty, today a few young Kashmiri entrepreneurs have taken it upon themselves to light up the business environment in the troubled Valley. Breaking the psychological barriers of fear and intimidation, they have succeeded in bringing to Kashmir a slice of the India growth story. It hasn’t been easy. They have had to reinvent the business wheel, sometimes run their units at night (after a day bandh), even take the occasional attack by goons in their stride. They have had to organise curfew passes for staff, find homes for them close to work. Through all this, though, one thing they have never done is oppose a strike call given by the Valley’s leaders. Here’s to a few businessmen who really are walking the walk.

(Photograph by Waseem Andrabi)

Nusrat Jahan Ara, 34, Grows and retails cut flowers

slight Kashmiri woman from a conservative middle-class family, Nusrat is today the president of the 2,000-strong J&K Flowers Association. She grows her own flowers in a hi-tech facility in Pahalgam and holds the only franchise of ‘Ferns and Petals’ in Srinagar. Struggling with a small government job in 2000, Nusrat realised that she’d be better off starting a business. So, braving the snide remarks from neighbours, she began educating Kashmiris about cut flowers. “In Kashmir, where every house has a garden, it was an alien concept to use cut flowers,” she recalls. Nusrat began by supplying flowers for government functions and for several years was the only vendor of fresh flowers in Srinagar. Eventually it invited the wrath of the militants, who once even threatened to throw grenades at her. During the last three years of the agitations, business came down by 70 per cent and Nusrat even left the Valley for a while. But she returned, and now even exports flowers. “Working in Kashmir is tough...but after a while it becomes second nature. One just learns to take it in one’s stride,” she smiles.

Dr Amit Wanchoo, 32, CEO, Eton Laboratories

“That one decision, not to migrate, and the huge support of my Kashmiri friends ensured I didn’t get to be anti-Muslim.’

hen his grandfather H.N. Wanchoo, the well-known rights activist, was shot dead by militants in 1992, Amit’s Kashmiri Pandit family resisted migrating from the Valley and stood their ground. “That one decision and the huge support of our Muslim friends in Kashmir ensured that I did not become anti-Muslim,” says Amit. After studying medicine and qualifying as an oncologist, he got the Yale World Fellowship for emerging leaders in 2007. Amit then gave up his steady government job and joined his father’s pharma company Eton Laboratories. Something which worked for him was the absence of sales representatives from the MNC pharma firms (they had all fled in the ’90s) which helped build goodwill for his company in the Valley. With boys in the villages either joining militant ranks or landing up in jail, Amit began running an emergency medical training capsule of 21 days for village girls. During the oppressive night curfews, these girls used to handle medical emergencies in rural areas and later he persuaded the government to give them licenses to run chemist shops in villages. Amit started production of super-speciality drugs in 2007 but was immediately hit by the Amarnath agitation in the following year. During the blockade, Eton Labs offered free medicines and the goodwill that it generated saw them doubling profits in 2009. He now also runs Space Communications, an event management company, to “galvanise depressed Kashmiris through social entertainment...anything that brings life back to Kashmir. Though I don’t make much money from this venture, the aim is to make people smile once again”.

Imran Sheikh, 32, CEO, Kashmir Sunsilk Industries

I was initially labelled a money-launderer. Then I was labelled a government stooge. Now there is no label and I continue to grow.”

hen he was just 10 years old, Imran was kidnapped by militants. Though he was eventually released, this led to his being packed off to a boarding school in Ooty, which was followed by university in Sharjah and then New York, where he got a degree in systems management. With a great job in British Petroleum, Imran wasn’t keen to head back to Kashmir. But the family wanted him back to run the old-style trading business in shawls and cotton yarn used for weaving carpets. When he returned in 2003, Imran’s first priority was to overhaul the old business and get into manufacturing of silk yarn. So, Kashmir Sunsilk Industries began manufacturing silk yarn for carpets in Bangalore and Delhi in 2007. While his father handled manufacturing, Imran took to marketing the yarn in the bylanes of violence-prone, downtown Srinagar. He also revolutionised the company’s interactions with weaver artisans, in the process unlearning some concepts acquired in the US. The results were positive: in the past three years, Sunsilk Industries has notched up 12 state and national level awards for quality management and highest turnover in the small and micro industries category (the company’s turnover increased from Rs 16 crore in 2008 to Rs 56 crore in 2010-11). It hasn’t been easy—against much opposition from employees, he introduced CCTVs in the company’s scattered downtown godowns and units. “I was initially labelled a money-launderer. When I made money on volumes and not on margins, people said that I am harming Kashmiris by undercutting in prices. A third label was that I was a government stooge. Now there is no label and I continue to grow,” says Imran.

Khurram Mir, 29, CEO, Harshna Naturals

“My aim is to see the farmers empowered, so it is an enterprise with a conscience. Our investors have to add value.

ill four years ago, Khurram Mir was a successful industrial systems engineer in Washington DC, aspiring to own a Beamer a few years down the line. With a master’s degree in operations research from Purdue University, the future looked bright. The last thing on his mind was a return to his homeland, Kashmir, especially in an atmosphere of curfews and killings. But in 2008, this son of an apple orchardman from Shopian did just that. He headed home to start Harshna Naturals, Kashmir’s first integrated cold chain facility for post-harvest storage, ripening and processing of apples and veggies at Pulwama. Starting with an initial investment of Rs 4 crore in partnership with a Delhi businessman, he has expanded to the present 5,000 metric tonnes capacity. Khurram’s biggest challenge was to change the traditional mindset of farmers and convince them of the benefits of post-harvest technology. “I wanted to show them how to increase the shelf life of their apples and brought in big players like Bharti Field Fresh and Reliance Fresh to help them eliminate the middleman.” From just 5 per cent of capacity being booked by farmers in 2008, this year Khurram reports that all of it has been taken up, leaving none for the multinationals. With competition coming up in the region, Khurram is moving into other areas. He now wants to set up a Mega Food Park that will provide 8,000 jobs. “My aim is to empower the farmers, so it is an enterprise with a social conscience. Our profits are marginal and we welcome only those investors who are not looking for great profits but can add value to the enterprise,” he says.

Farooq Amin, 32, MD, Kanwal Spices

We lost Rs 40 lakh a month during the four-month-long agitation last year. But that is part of life in Kashmir....”

min’s family ran a small spices business of turmeric and chillies, National Masala Mills in Anantnag, which barely survived the turbulent years. This was also the time when Farooq left the Valley to continue his studies in Delhi. He later went to the University of Lincoln in England and returned in 2002 with an MBA. It took him three years to adapt himself to the system in Kashmir, and he used his skills to turn around the old enterprise from a four-product outfit to one that now boasts of a range of 98 products. These include the popular ‘ver’, a traditional Kashmiri spice paste, sauces, jams and now also bakery products and processed foods. The company was renamed Kanwal (lotus) Spices and in 2005 Farooq began Kashmir’s first indigenous mineral water facility called Triesh, which produces 50,000 bottles a day. “We lost Rs 40 lakh a month during the four-month-long agitation last year but that is part of life in Kashmir. I had better opportunities outside, but I wanted to do something for the state, to generate employment and bridge the gap between the youth and the government”, he says. Amin claims that 70 per cent of the investment in private sector enterprise is being fuelled by “returning youngsters” like him. “That (leaving during the turmoil) was a brilliant decision by my family. If I had stayed back, none of this would have been possible,” he says.