Every August 5, India’s conversation about Jammu and Kashmir returns almost inevitably to Article 370. Supporters and critics revisit the constitutional decision of 2019, political parties repeat familiar arguments, and questions of statehood, representation, security and identity return to national headlines. Those debates are legitimate and will continue. But seven years later, there is another Kashmir story that deserves considerably more attention: development.
Increasingly, this story can be measured not merely through political claims but through roads built, railway lines completed, tourists arriving, businesses opening, hospital capacity expanding, medical seats increasing, homes receiving tap water and young Kashmiris starting companies. Jammu and Kashmir’s economy is estimated at approximately ₹2.86 lakh crore in nominal terms in 2025–26. Real GSDP is estimated to grow by 5.82 per cent during the year, while nominal GSDP is projected to expand by 8.89 per cent. Per capita income is estimated at ₹1,68,243, while nominal per capita income recorded a compound annual growth rate of 8.81 per cent between 2019–20 and 2024–25.
These figures do not suggest that every economic problem has been solved. They do, however, point towards an economy that is expanding and gradually becoming more diverse. For decades, Jammu and Kashmir was discussed primarily through the vocabulary of terrorism, separatism, Pakistan and constitutional exceptionalism. Ordinary developmental questions that would dominate political discussion elsewhere in India were frequently overshadowed. How many tourists arrived? How quickly could apples reach markets? Were new roads being constructed? Were young people starting businesses? Were villages receiving better infrastructure? Could Kashmir remain connected with the rest of India throughout the year? Today these questions increasingly matter.
Perhaps the most powerful symbol of this changing landscape is connectivity. The completion of the 272-kilometre Udhampur–Srinagar–Baramulla Rail Link through some of the most difficult Himalayan terrain represents far more than an engineering achievement. At its centre stands the 1,315-metre-long Chenab Rail Bridge, 359 metres above the riverbed and higher than the Eiffel Tower. The railway connection has finally provided the Kashmir Valley with direct rail connectivity to the rest of the national network, while the Katra–Srinagar Vande Bharat has reduced travel time between the two to roughly three hours.
Road connectivity has also expanded substantially. More than 17,600 kilometres of roads had already been completed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana in Jammu and Kashmir by March 2022, connecting over 2,000 habitations, and construction has continued since. The Sonamarg Tunnel, built at a cost of around ₹2,700 crore, has improved all-weather access towards Sonamarg. The nearly 14-kilometre Zojila Tunnel, being constructed at a cost of approximately ₹6,800 crore, will further transform connectivity between Kashmir and Ladakh when completed.
A farmer or horticulturist does not experience infrastructure as a political slogan. He experiences it through lower transportation costs, fewer disruptions and greater access to markets. A tourist experiences it through easier travel, a student through mobility, and an entrepreneur through access to customers and supply chains. That is why these connectivity projects potentially have consequences far beyond the impressive engineering statistics attached to them.
Tourism provides another striking illustration of Kashmir’s economic potential. Jammu and Kashmir recorded an all-time high of approximately 2.36 crore tourist visits in 2024. This included around 94.5 lakh pilgrims to Mata Vaishno Devi and more than five lakh Amarnath pilgrims, alongside leisure and other visitors. The significance of these numbers lies in the economic chain behind every visitor: hotels, homestays, houseboats, restaurants, taxis, guides, pony operators, handicraft sellers, photographers and thousands of other small businesses.
Kashmir was always one of India’s most extraordinary tourist destinations. What decades of instability took away has gradually been rebuilt. The process has not been without setbacks. The Pahalgam terror attack in 2025 affected tourism and demonstrated how quickly violence can damage livelihoods. Yet the tourism economy has also displayed considerable resilience. This is important because tourism is not simply about visitor numbers; it represents employment and income across an enormous network of families.
Kashmir’s future, however, cannot depend upon tourism alone. Horticulture remains central to its economy and supports approximately 35 lakh people and seven lakh families directly or indirectly. The sector contributes around 6 to 7 per cent of J&K’s GSDP. What is changing is not merely production but the infrastructure surrounding it. High and medium-density plantation coverage increased from under 900 hectares up to 2020–21 to more than 18,500 hectares by late 2024. Almond and walnut exports were valued at over ₹780 crore in 2023–24, while 17 mandis linked with the national e-NAM platform traded fruits and vegetables worth more than ₹500 crore during part of 2024–25.
The ₹5,013 crore Holistic Agriculture Development Programme seeks to take this transformation further through 29 projects covering different parts of agriculture and allied sectors. The programme envisages creating 2.88 lakh sustainable jobs, benefiting around 13 lakh families, skilling 2.5 lakh young people and facilitating approximately 19,000 enterprises. Better cold chains, food processing, logistics, branding and direct access to national and international markets could be particularly transformative for Kashmir’s apple growers and other horticultural producers.
Industry, traditionally constrained by geography, uncertainty and logistical costs, is another area where the numbers deserve attention. Over the past seven years, more than 2,200 industrial units involving investment of nearly ₹16,000 crore have reportedly become operational in Jammu and Kashmir. Under the New Central Sector Scheme for industrial development, hundreds of units have commenced production, involving investment running into thousands of crores and the potential creation of tens of thousands of jobs. Investment proposals are considerably larger still, although the true test will naturally be how much proposed investment translates into factories, services, employment and sustained economic activity on the ground.
Perhaps even more significant is the emergence of a new generation of entrepreneurs. Jammu and Kashmir had only 69 recognised startups in 2020. By December 2025, the number had increased to 1,255, including more than 430 women-led enterprises. These businesses span agriculture, information technology, manufacturing and services. An eighteen-fold expansion in recognised startups within five years is significant not merely because of the companies themselves but because it reflects a changing conception of opportunity.
There is a generation of young Kashmiris whose aspirations increasingly resemble those of their contemporaries elsewhere in India. They want good jobs, startups, universities, technology, sport and global opportunities. For policymakers, this may ultimately prove more consequential than many larger infrastructure projects. A society in which young people can imagine meaningful futures has a stronger defence against those who offer them only anger.
Healthcare has also undergone a substantial expansion. Jammu and Kashmir had four medical colleges in 2019; by 2025 the number had increased to eleven. MBBS capacity rose from around 500 seats to more than 1,700, while postgraduate medical seats increased from 513 to more than 800. DNB seats increased from only 20 to nearly 400, while B.Sc Nursing capacity expanded from 685 seats to more than 3,000. Hospital bed capacity increased from 18,142 in 2019 to more than 22,400 by 2025.
More than 3,100 Health and Wellness Centres have been established, while the number of Jan Aushadhi Kendras increased from 47 to more than 300. The healthcare network now also includes the development of two AIIMS, State Cancer Institutes and specialised hospitals. These numbers matter particularly in a mountainous region where access to specialised medical treatment historically meant long journeys for many families.
The transformation can also be measured through something as basic as drinking water. When the Jal Jeevan Mission began in 2019, only around 5.75 lakh rural households in Jammu and Kashmir had household tap connections, roughly one-third of the total. Coverage has since risen to around four-fifths of rural households. Such statistics may receive less attention than constitutional judgments or political controversies, but for a family in a remote village, running water inside the home can represent a far more immediate improvement in everyday life.
Education and sport are similarly expanding the range of possibilities available to young people. IIT Jammu and IIM Jammu are operational, while the expansion of medical, nursing, engineering and degree education has increased professional opportunities within the region. Jammu and Kashmir also has 100 notified Khelo India Centres, while Gulmarg has become an important venue for the Khelo India Winter Games, bringing athletes from across the country to Kashmir.
Sport has significance beyond medals. Young Kashmiris participating in cricket, football, skiing, martial arts and other disciplines are creating alternative role models and ambitions. Entrepreneurship and digital connectivity are doing something similar. For a region where young people were too often discussed only in the context of stone-pelting, militancy or unemployment, the emergence of athletes, entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers and creators represents an important shift in the public imagination.
Development, however, should never be presented as a substitute for politics. Roads cannot answer every political grievance. Tourism statistics cannot replace democratic representation. Investment cannot resolve every question of identity. Nor do aggregate growth figures mean unemployment, regional disparities or economic anxieties have disappeared. Acknowledging these realities does not diminish the developmental achievements of recent years; it makes the argument more credible.
The objective should not be to claim that every problem in Jammu and Kashmir disappeared after August 5, 2019. Clearly, it did not. The more meaningful question is whether the direction of travel has changed. Seven years provides enough distance to begin examining that question through evidence rather than slogans. An economy approaching ₹2.86 lakh crore, a railway connection through the Himalayas, record tourism, more than 2,200 industrial units becoming operational, a startup ecosystem growing from 69 recognised enterprises to more than 1,250, medical colleges increasing from four to eleven, thousands of additional medical and nursing seats, expanding household tap-water coverage and rapidly modernising horticulture together constitute a substantial body of evidence.
These figures do not settle the political argument over August 5, nor should they be expected to. They do establish that there is another argument worth having. Are people better connected? Are economic opportunities expanding? Are tourists returning? Is infrastructure improving? Are farmers gaining better access to markets? Can young Kashmiris increasingly build companies rather than simply search for government employment? Can students pursue medicine, management, engineering and entrepreneurship closer to home? Where the answer is yes, those successes should be acknowledged. Where the answer remains no, governments must work harder.
Ultimately, the success of August 5 cannot be measured only through constitutional arguments in Delhi. It must be measured in the everyday life of someone living in Srinagar, Baramulla, Kupwara, Anantnag, Jammu, Rajouri or a remote mountain village. Peace becomes durable when people have something meaningful to lose by returning to conflict. That means jobs, businesses, education, tourism, connectivity, investment and opportunity.
For too long, Kashmir was viewed almost entirely through the prism of its past. Seven years later, perhaps one of the most consequential changes is that it is increasingly possible to discuss Kashmir through the possibilities of its future. That does not require forgetting its history, denying its political debates or pretending that every problem has been solved. It simply requires recognising something that Kashmiris themselves understand well: development is also part of the story. And on August 5, that story deserves to be told too.
