Lending institutions across Jammu and Kashmir fell short of the benchmarks laid out for the territory's job-creation programmes during the 2025-26 financial year. Figures from the Union Territory Level Bankers' Committee (UTLBC) gathering in August 2026 placed this on the record.

Schemes targeting young entrepreneurs, rural households, weavers, and artisans each drew ratings of poor or unsatisfactory when the review assessed their delivery. A disparity in the data separates those who applied for loans through government agency sponsorship from those who ultimately obtained them.

The Vishwakarma scheme recorded the highest volume of unresolved cases among the programmes reviewed. Of the 39,241 cases put forward for sponsorship, lenders approved Rs 135.50 crore in funding for 14,645 recipients by 31 March 2026, covering roughly 37 per cent of the total applications submitted. Of the remaining applications, 11,912 were turned away outright while a further 12,684 sat awaiting a lending decision from banks.

Among those more than 24,500 applicants, some received outright denials while the rest were left waiting in a backlog without any outcome. Delegates at the gathering found that outputs had fallen short of the targets set out beforehand. Lenders pointed to the repayment structure as a factor behind the backlog, noting that a compressed tenure of just 18 months pushes the monthly instalment up to Rs 6,000.

Figures for the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) pointed to results that fell short of targets. Of the 11,317 cases put forward for sponsorship, lending institutions released Rs 303.23 crore to 4,849 of those applicants. Against an annual goal of Rs 926.42 crore covering 6,225 beneficiaries, lenders fulfilled close to one-third of the monetary target while bringing nearly 78 per cent of the intended recipients into the fold.

Progress on both the targets and the sponsorship front was rated as falling short of expectations. Delegates at the gathering pointed to the scheme's online portal — which had been out of operation for much of the year — as the primary driver behind the underwhelming results.

Across 19,059 loan cases taken up by banks through the National Rural Livelihood Mission framework, funding totalling Rs 637.89 crore reached 17,986 beneficiaries upon disbursement. Set against a goal of reaching 28,700 beneficiaries, the scheme carried a disbursement target of Rs 616.45 crore. Funding goals were met — and modestly surpassed, at roughly 103 per cent — yet the proportion of intended beneficiaries actually reached fell short at around 63 per cent.

Participants at the gathering found both target attainment and sponsorship penetration wanting, with reviewers pointing out that growth in average loan size — rather than any broadening of the borrower base — had inflated the headline number.

Among all sectors tracked, handicraft and handloom posted the lowest performance on record. A total of 227 applications reached the sponsorship stage through the Pradhan Mantri Weaver's Mudra Yojana. Of the Rs 10.64 crore earmarked for 1,064 beneficiaries, lending institutions channelled only Rs 2.11 crore to 142 recipients — a delivery rate that fell below one-fifth of the intended outlay.

Results under the Credit Card Scheme for Artisans and Weavers fell short of expectations by a comparable margin. Loan disbursements under the scheme reached Rs 27.75 crore, covering 1,853 of the 2,285 sponsored applicants — a figure that fell well short of the Rs 207 crore earmarked for 11,500 beneficiaries, with actual funding amounting to roughly 13 per cent of what had been set as the financial goal. Uptake and distribution across both programmes fell short of expectations.

A separate set of concerns surfaced when the J&K Rural Employment Generation Programme (JKREGP) came under review. A total of 2,045 cases were recorded under the sponsorship programme, clearing the 1,266-beneficiary benchmark by a considerable margin. Of the Rs 75 crore earmarked for 1,266 beneficiaries, lending institutions channelled Rs 67.75 crore to 1,004 recipients — leaving the programme short of both its financial and outreach benchmarks. Loan conversion covered fewer than half of all sponsored applications, while the meeting's records pointed to weak disbursement rates and limited reach despite an otherwise adequate level of sponsorship activity.

Outcomes logged under Mission YUVA pointed to a performance level that outpaced earlier benchmarks. Through the close of the 2025-26 financial year on 31 March 2026, a combined lending effort by J&K Bank and J&K Grameen Bank channelled Rs 930.56 crore to 18,753 recipients across the scheme's three variants, drawing from a pool of 47,263 sponsored cases. Of the applicants who received sponsorship, just under four in ten ultimately secured funding.

Addressing the gathering, J&K Bank's top executive disclosed that the nano variant had already brought more than 30,000 young people into its fold, with that number on track to surpass 50,000 before the close of the ongoing fiscal year.

Presiding over the gathering, the Chief Secretary called on other banks to draw lessons from J&K Bank's results and play a greater role in driving economic growth across the Union Territory. Instructions went out to the Mission YUVA department to bring State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank on board as lending partners under the scheme.

Addressing the gathering, the Chief Secretary outlined how state-backed programmes had been put in place to open up work pathways for younger people, adding that lending activity by banks held the potential to reshape the area's economic footing. Without coordinated backing from banks and sponsoring agencies, he contended, those looking to launch new ventures lack the support needed to create jobs and generate revenue.

Banks were instructed to extend straightforward access to financing across a range of government-backed schemes — among them PMEGP, JKREGP, NRLM, PMWMY, the credit facility for artisans and weavers, PM Vishwakarma, and Mission YUVA — with particular attention to programmes targeting young people and small enterprise development. Lenders across the banking sector were collectively designated as responsible parties, with the meeting's resolution directing each institution to extend straightforward financing to jobless young people through the range of available government schemes.

Sponsoring applicants through agencies had not translated into lending at scale, with banks approving only a fraction of those referred, and platform-level malfunctions — including reported outages on the PMEGP portal — compounding the gap. As the fiscal year drew to a close, a large number of young people and small-business owners had yet to receive the credit they applied for.