New Delhi, June 2 (UNI) Bhaderwah town in terrorist-infested Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing a 'fragrant revolution' from obscurity to Lavender production 'adding fragrance" to the hills with young entrepreneurs involved in Lavender cultivation and earning over Rs 65 Lakh annually.

Science and Technology Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, while inaugurating a two-day Lavender Festival 2025 in Bhaderwah, said Lavender had given the small town a national identity and also a national role in India's economic growth, an official spokesman here said.

He also addressed skepticism around India’s economic resilience amid aggressive defence postures. “Despite challenging times and operations like Operation Sindoor, India’s economy has not only remained buoyant but also grown. That is a fitting reply to skeptics,” he asserted.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had boosted the Startup Movement and introduced Bhaderwah’s Purple Revolution to the world through a detailed mention in his 'Mann Ki Baat'.

“When the Prime Minister dedicated nearly ten minutes in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ to talk about this Lavender mission in detail, it gave the best possible global introduction to Bhaderwah — one that we couldn’t have imagined,” Dr. Jitendra Singh said.

Fifty distillation units were operational in Bhaderwah, supplying Lavender products to Maharashtra and other states, he said, lauding the Agri-Startup model of Lavender farming as a transformative force that has rewritten the narrative of entrepreneurship in remote and hilly terrains.

The model has not only attracted attention from neighbouring states like Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, but also from the North-Eastern states.

“Bhaderwah, once a quiet hilly town, is now a beacon of India's rural startup revolution. Lavender

has not just added fragrance to these mountains—it has added identity, income, and inspiration.”

“This single mission has answered multiple challenges,” Dr Jitendra Singh said, adding “it busted the myth that startups are limited to IT or require foreign degrees. Our youth in Jammu and Kashmir, in collaboration with CSIR-IIIM, have shown that passion, perseverance, and learning can build sustainable ventures rooted in agriculture.”

He said young entrepreneurs in Bhaderwah are earning an average of Rs 65 lakh annually through lavender cultivation and value-added products, motivating many others to leave conventional jobs and pursue farming as a lucrative business opportunity.

“This is a new paradigm the world is witnessing -- a rural, agriculture-based startup revolution that is both scalable and sustainable,” he said.

He said sectors like Lavender cultivation would further fuel India's rise. These unexplored areas, when empowered, would become pillars of value addition and employment generation. UNI RB SSP