Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday inaugurated the 41st National Convention of Chemical Engineers alongside a National Seminar on “Biomass: A Sustainable Resource for Decarbonising the Economy” in Srinagar, bringing together academics, researchers and industry professionals from across the country to deliberate on India’s clean energy transition.
Addressing the gathering, the Chief Minister drew attention to Jammu and Kashmir’s substantial agricultural, horticultural and forestry resources, framing them as an underutilised asset in the national push toward decarbonisation. He noted that biomass waste generated across the Union Territory’s orchards, farmlands and forests carries significant potential to be converted into clean energy, offering both an environmental dividend and a new avenue for economic activity in rural areas.
The Chief Minister called for closer collaboration between academic institutions, research bodies and industry to ensure that innovations developed in laboratories do not remain confined to research papers but are translated into practical, field-level applications. This “lab to field” approach, he said, was essential if India’s chemical engineering community was to meaningfully contribute to the country’s clean energy goals rather than simply producing theoretical advances.
Omar Abdullah also used the platform to urge the assembled engineers to rethink the very approach to development in Jammu and Kashmir. Rather than measuring progress solely by the volume of new infrastructure built, he said, the emphasis must shift toward constructing infrastructure that is resilient, sustainable and built to last, particularly given the Union Territory’s vulnerability to extreme weather events and its fragile mountain ecology.
The convention, organised under the aegis of India’s chemical engineering fraternity, is being held in Srinagar at a time when the Union Territory’s government has been actively courting investment and expertise in renewable energy as part of its broader economic revival strategy. Biomass-to-energy conversion, in particular, has drawn growing policy attention nationally as India works toward its net-zero commitments, and Kashmir’s horticulture-heavy economy generates substantial organic waste that experts say remains largely untapped as a fuel source.
By hosting a national gathering of this scale, the Jammu and Kashmir government appears keen to position Srinagar not merely as a beneficiary of clean energy policy but as an active participant in shaping it, leveraging the region’s natural resource base to attract technical partnerships and investment in sustainable infrastructure.
