Srinagar, July 8 -- Is there a serious disconnect between academia and industry in Kashmir?

If the answer is no, then why does the same debate return every year with greater intensity as another batch of graduates enters a job market that has little room for them?

Families discuss it around dinner tables, employers raise it in business meetings, and students live with it every day.

That alone makes this a public concern.

Kashmir's universities and colleges consume significant public resources every year. Society therefore has every right to ask whether these institutions are preparing young people for the economy they will actually enter.

A degree should represent knowledge, confidence and employable skills. Many graduates instead sp...