Nazim Nazeer’s parents wanted him to be a doctor, but his heart was in beekeeping and honey. He started with two bee boxes on his house rooftop in Pulwama.

On Thursday, he told Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Srinagar, he got timely help from government schemes, and has today 2000 boxes, engages 100 youth for work, and sells several thousand kilograms of honey.

Beaming with success, the young entrepreneur was excited to share his story with the Prime Minister, who was interacting with beneficiaries of government schemes on his first visit to Jammu Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 and to participate in the Viksit Bharat Viksit Jammu Kashmir programme.

Nazim said he bought 25 boxes for beekeeping on a 50 per cent subsidy, and expanded to 200 boxes by availing Rs 5 lakh under Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme.

This led to Nazeer building a brand for himself and creating a website that further generated thousands of orders worth about 5000 kilograms across the country, growing his business to almost 2000 beekeeping boxes and engaging about 100 youth from the region.

He told the Prime Minister he had no worries after joining an FPO in 2023. The Digital India initiative of the Prime Minister transformed the fin tech landscape in the country. The Prime Minister lauded Nazim’s efforts for leading a sweet revolution in Jammu & Kashmir.

Answering Mr Modi’s query, he said he did face some difficulty initially but once he contacted the Department of Agriculture, there was support for his work. The Prime Minister said bees, in a way, work like farm labourers making it beneficial for crops.

Nazim said that landowners are ready to offer him land for beekeeping at no cost in other States also as the process is also beneficial for the farmers.

The Prime Minister suggested that he should do research on the honey produced in Central Asia around the Hindu Kush mountains and asked him to look towards crafting a new taste for honey by growing specific flowers around the boxes as it is a niche market.

Mr Modi accepted Nazim’s request for a selfie with him and later posted on X: “A memorable selfie with my friend Nazim. I was impressed by the good work he’s doing. At the public meeting he requested a selfie and was happy to meet him. My best wishes for his future endeavours.”

Ahtesham Majid Bhat, a bakery entrepreneur of Srinagar, told the Prime Minister how she brought innovations in her work through a food technology skill development programme.

She was supported by the incubation centre at Government Polytechnic for Women Skill Development. The government’s single window system helped her and her team in getting all the NoCs from various departments.

The Prime Minister told her that in the last 10 years, the government has been providing all support to crores of youth in realizing their start-up dreams. He praised her for involving her friends from different districts in her entrepreneurial ventures.

“It is our efforts that the ideas of our youth do not suffer from the deficiency of resources and finance. They should move with confidence. These daughters of Jammu and Kashmir are setting inspiring examples for the youth of the entire nation,” the Prime Minister said. He praised her specially for taking care of underprivileged daughters.

Hamida Bano of Ganderbal is in the dairy business. She told the Prime Minister that she benefited from the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) and opened a processing unit for milk products as there was plenty of milk left after making other products.

She employed other women also. She said her work involved quality check, packaging and marketing of products. Her milk products are devoid of preservatives.

The Prime Minister praised her for her business acumen and also for promoting the cause of nutrition. He complimented her for taking care of quality and doing her business in an environment-friendly way.