Entrepreneurial Orientation of Professional Graduates in Autonomous States:The Case of Jammu & Kashmir (India)

Special autonomy to manage own affairs, while staying within the overall bounds of a nation, is supposed to be a better recipe for an equitable social and economic development. In an attempt to describe the long drawn impact of special-autonomy on Entrepreneurial Orientations (EO) of professionally qualified youth, this study explores the case of the State of Jammu&Kashmir (India). The volatile State, sharing borders with hostile neighbor viz. Pakistan, enjoys an exclusive form of autonomy within India while retaining a loose suzerainty of Indian constitution. The study attempts to examine the perceptions of graduating youth towards challenges and benefits of entrepreneurship in this State. These perceptions are examined for differentials across Gender as well as Family business background for a sample of 564 respondents. These two demographics have been handled differently by legislators of an extra-autonomous J&K. The findings reveal little differential with respect to gender but a higher perception of challenges and benefits among the respondents from family business background. The possible explanation of the findings as well as the implications, are presented, in terms of the benefits and challenges of public policy handling under the conditions of special-autonomy.