Date:05/10/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/10/05/stories/2005100505480500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Employ ex-servicemen, industry urged

Staff Reporter

60,000 Defence personnel retire every year; they are proficient in several skills

MANPOWER MANAGEMENT: Maj. Gen. K.S. Sindhu (left), Director-General Resettlement, New Delhi; Governor T.N. Chaturvedi, Air Marshal S. Bhojwani, AOC-in-C Training Command and Cdr. Satish N Nair, Principal Director of Employment, Directorate General Resettlement, New Delhi; at the seminar on `Defence-industry partnership' in Bangalore on Tuesday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: Indian industry should consider providing more jobs to qualified ex-serviceman in technical and non-technical fields, urged Air Marshal S. Bhojwani, saying that such an effort will help industries penetrate the rural market better.

"A lot of our Defence personnel retire at the age of 35 and go back to their villages to look after their land. Companies will do well to employ them and utilise their skills," he said at a seminar on "Defence-industry partnership in human resource management", organised by the Directorate-General Resettlement, New Delhi, and Confederation of Indian Industries, on Tuesday.

He said 60,000 Defence personnel retire every year and 80 per cent of them are aged between 35 and 45. The personnel are proficient in skills such as logistics and transport, fire safety, medicine, aviation, security, administration and engineering.

Defence Ministry's Director-General Resettlement Major General K.S. Sindhu said industry can consider providing jobs to qualified ex-servicemen in technical and non-technical fields.

"A new synergy can be worked upon with the Government giving impetus to the growth of rural sector," he said.

Business and industry must together generate more jobs for "dignified second career" for ESM as the core needs of industry and Defence forces are the same but the tools and resources are applied differently, Major General Sindhu said. He sought to dispel the notion that Defence personnel were poorly educated and rigid in their style of functioning by saying that many study on the job. All decisions are taken after conferring with team members even in the forces.

Air Marshal Bhojwani said the Defence forces were not attracting the best talent because of the fear of not being able to land a second career.

He appealed to the industry to step forward and evolve a mechanism to absorb the ESM in suitable careers.

C.P. Rangachar, Past Chairman of CII and Managing Director, Yoken India Ltd., said there is a need to retrain the ESM in the civilian way of life before recruiting them. He said there were many opportunities available to them in service sectors, including Information Technology, Business Process Outsourcing, Hospitality and Health industries.

Governor T.N. Chaturvedi said a synergy between the Defence and the industry will not only benefit the industry but also society and democracy.