COALITION REGIME AND INDUSTRIAL POLICY IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR: AGRO-BASED INDUSTRY IN BARAMULLA DISTRICT OF J&K STATE

Since 2002 political structure of the state of Jammu and Kashmir underwent a paradigm shift. A coalition era has deepened its roots in the state politics. PDP and Congress joined the governance of the state as a coalition regime in the year 2002. This coalition regime has brought up the various development policies; one among them was the industry policy which was formulated in the year 2004. Under the policy, food processing including agro-based industry was one among the main thrust areas. Similarly, in the paper an attempt has been made to analyze the factors which were responsible for the formulation of industry policy. In particular, the paper explores the agro-based industry of the Baramulla district in terms of removal of regional disparities/imbalances which exists between three regions of the State. The research paper argues that Kashmir region has widely neglected in terms of industry development while the Jammu region has been given special importance before and after the coalition regime of PDP-Congress (2002-2008).