The Hindu Business Line : Armed forces tie up with B-schools to train personnel

THE Ministry of Defence (MoD) has turned to India Inc to help out with tackling its jobless retired. It has also started making some of its officers and soldiers a tad industry-friendly by putting them through B-school courses while they are still in service.

Some 60,000 service personnel still in the highly productive 35-45 age group are compulsorily retired every year from the services, and meeting the private sector industry half-way for their sake has become a necessity, according to senior military officers speaking at a CII-MoD seminar on Defence-industry partnership in human resource management held here today.

"We are seeing it as a national social responsibility and looking at the issue consciously for the last 2-3 years," Mr Kuldip Sindhu,Director-General Resettlement (DGR), told Business Line.

The problem is more acute in the Army, the world's fourth largest and which retires 50,000 of the total number; the retired mostly end up in security service.

According to Mr Sindhu, the DGR has tied up with a few management institutes - including IIM-Lucknow, Narsee Monjee Institute, MDI Gurgaon, and SIES College of Management, Mumbai - for senior officers to take six-month management courses.

Last year, 39 completed a stint; 50 more are undergoing managerial training this year.

The next move is to have three-week capsules at IIMs and other B-schools for officers above the major-general rank.

IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Bangalore are also in the reckoning.

On the positive side, 16 companies are ready to offer retail distribution outlets in non-urban areas where most of the retired soldiers retire.

CII, on its part, is looking at options to bridge the gap, said Mr C.P. Rangachar, Director of Yuken India Ltd.

These could be outplacement, continuing education, six-month sabbatical to work in civilian industry atmosphere, and entrepreneurship support in manufacturing, contract farming, food technology, and service sectors.

"The new focus is on training. We are also talking about companies taking in retired officers as consultants. After all, the domestic industry gets Rs 10,000 crore worth of Defence works each year," said Mr Sindhu.

The MoD encourages its officers to explore second-career opportunities with three months' resettlement training in IT, tourism, sports, and entrepreneurship development.

They can also take a two-year study leave. For the junior ranks, it conducts 500 re-orientation courses based on current industry needs.

The MoD plank is that the best management practices are the same as what the armed forces practise; and that armed services personnel make very good managers, thanks to their discipline, loyalty, integrity, selfless service, strategic thinking, exposure to risks, crises, and high technology, besides experience in managing men, materials, and logistics.

However, the forces are up against biases and have not been able to market the employees well to the `real' world, said Mr S. Bhojwani, AOC-in-C, MoD.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Unshredded metal scrap imports from Bandar Abbas barred

Submarine batteries tender — HBL Nife says Navy denied it a fair chance

Armed forces tie up with B-schools to train personnel

Dell in talks with Defence Ministry