Srinagar, July 31 -- By Malik Daniyal

Thousands of students leave Jammu and Kashmir for college every year, and thousands more never come back to work.

Treat that as a footnote and you miss the real story of the union territory's economy.

This is a two-stage departure, first of students, then of workers, and it explains more about Kashmir's stalled growth than any single budget line or investment summit ever could.

Start with the money.

Remittances usually flow into a region, financing consumption and investment the way Gulf earnings have long supported households in Kerala and construction booms in Punjab.

Kashmir runs the opposite script.

Long before any money comes home, households send it out, covering tuition, hostel fees and ...