The Jammu and Kashmir government has constituted a five-member working group to work out modalities for operationalisation of the 'knowledge initiative' for students in the state. Amitabh Mattoo, advisor to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, is heading the group which has been directed to submit a time-bound report within 12 months, an official spokesman said. The working group will be serviced by the Higher Education Department.

He also added that Education Minister Altaf Bukhari will function as co-chairman of the group which has Secretary of the Higher Education Department, Asgar Hassan as Member Secretary, in addition to Financial Commissioner, K.B. Agarwal and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Rohit Kansal, as members. "The working group has been constituted to prepare a vision document for interventions in skills, teaching, learning, research and innovation and has been tasked to prepare a blueprint for information and communication technology initiatives that can harness the human resources talent in the state," the spokesman added.

Quoting a government order, the spokesman said that the group would also prepare policies, guidelines and schemes to ensure full literacy and competitive employability through an optimal use of existing infrastructure and human resources available in the state. Besides co-opting experts and members for the initiative as deemed appropriate in order to produce a time-bound report within 12 months, the group is expected to submit a report to the Chief Minister and work in close co-ordination with the relevant departments of the state government.