Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s nine software technology parks can hold just 74 people between them, and its rulers switched off mobile internet for more than 50 days in 2026. Jammu and Kashmir offers 1,710 government services online, 5G in every district and a booming start-up scene.
Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) lists nine software technology parks in its official yearbook. Together, they have room for 74 people. Its 37 freelancing hubs offer another 1,850 places for a population of 4.39 million. In an age when young people can sell code, design and data to the world from a laptop, PoJK has built a digital desert.
A Thin and Fragile Connection
The numbers expose the neglect. PoJK has just 7,699 DSL broadband connections and 19,240 fibre connections, roughly six fixed broadband lines for every 1,000 residents. Even the existing landline network sits half idle: PoJK’s 96 telephone exchanges have capacity for 50,168 lines but serve only 23,466. In 2024–25, its government allocated only Rs 401.7 million, or 1.43 per cent of its development programme, to information technology.
Pakistan’s own networks offer no rescue. In 2024, the country suffered 9,735 hours of internet disruption that cost it $1.62 billion, the highest economic loss from outages of any country in the world. Its own minister admitted that slow internet speeds had hit more than 2.3 million freelancers. The country’s software industry body warned that slow speeds and VPN restrictions could cost the IT sector up to $150 million a year. As late as January 2025, Pakistan had still not launched 5G anywhere.
Switched Off
PoJK’s rulers go further: they simply pull the plug. In September 2025, Pakistan’s interior ministry suspended mobile and internet services across much of the territory to choke a protest lockdown. On 5 June 2026, the authorities shut down mobile internet again, and by late July the blackout had lasted 53 days. The shutdown even disrupted campaigning and news reporting during the territory’s own elections. Banks closed their cash machines, blaming the internet and satellite suspension. No freelancer can meet a deadline, and no start-up can serve a customer, when the state treats the internet as a switch to flick off whenever its people protest.
Jammu and Kashmir: The State Goes Online
Across the Line of Control, Jammu and Kashmir has put government in citizens’ pockets. In July 2026, its administration launched 162 new district-level services on the eUNNAT portal, taking the total to 1,710 online citizen services. India’s national e-governance assessment ranks it third in the country. In February 2024, Jammu and Kashmir topped the national ranking for e-service delivery, and the Centre asked its officials to help Manipur copy its model.
The networks reach the remotest corners. Airtel extended 5G to every district of Jammu and Kashmir within a year of its January 2023 launch and signed up more than 0.9 million 5G customers. Jio has invested ₹6,529 crore in the Union Territory. Under India’s 4G saturation drive, 566 new towers now operate, and mobile coverage reaches 1,402 of 1,419 identified border villages. BharatNet will connect all 4,299 village panchayats with fibre, and engineers have already laid 930 kilometres of cable and installed 2,076 indigenous 4G sites.
Start-ups and IT Parks
Young Kashmiris are using that connectivity to build businesses. Jammu and Kashmir had just 69 start-ups in 2020, but by 2025–26 it had 1,305. Its Start-up Policy 2024–27 aims for 2,000 start-ups by 2027, backs them with a ₹250-crore venture capital fund and gives extra support to women founders, who already led 254 of the 722 registered start-ups in 2024. Twelve incubators nurture the youngest firms.
The infrastructure is following. The administration and IIT Jammu are building an IT and innovation park, starting with 50,000 square feet on the IIT campus in mid-2026 and adding 120,000 square feet of new space by 2028. The park will house innovation labs, technology companies and start-ups, and later expand into the Kashmir Valley. Small traders are going digital too: by September 2026, merchants in Jammu and Kashmir had opened 9,266 storefronts on India’s open e-commerce network, ONDC, including 2,067 run by young entrepreneurs under Mission YUVA.
Two Futures, One Click Apart
The digital economy rewards places that stay connected and punishes places that do not. Jammu and Kashmir lets its citizens apply for certificates from their phones, gives its villages fibre and its towns 5G, and funds young founders with venture capital. PoJK offers 74 seats in its software parks, six broadband lines for every thousand people and a government that cuts the internet whenever its citizens object. A young coder in Srinagar can pitch to the world. Her counterpart in Muzaffarabad waits for the signal to return.