India's Defence Minister Arun Jaitley has hailed the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) - Directorate General of Resettlement (DGR) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as a significant partnership to build Corporate-Ex Servicemen (ESM) relationship.
Speaking during the inaugural Session of DGR National Corporate Conclave in New Delhi, he pointed out that mid-career and late career stage jobs are relatively more in the private sector than public sector. "Corporate India needs trained mind and personnel. Ex Servicemen constitute a huge resource of trained and disciplined man power. These men have worked in a different environment. For them commitment to duty is paramount. They show exemplary discipline and very high integrity. They are physically fit and can perform variety of jobs. The existing situation, wherein corporate sector needs men with such qualities and ESM need reemployment, ideally fits into the supply and demand principle of economics," the defence minister said.
Ajay Shriram, President CII said that as per a CII study, the defence and aerospace sector alone has the potential of creating one million new jobs in the country. However, the manufacturing sector requires proactive measures to bridge the skill gap. A meagre two percent of Indian population is vocationally skilled. In comparison, the ratio is 75 percent in Germany, 96 percent in Korea, 80 percent in Japan and 68 percent in UK.
Shriram emphasised that with a vast experience in Skill Development, CII would be happy to work with the Ministry of Defence and help Ex Servicemen to reorient for the second innings either in the industry or as entrepreneurs. "Industry is keen to hire talent from the ex-servicemen pool. The focused initiative to promote partnership with Industry would greatly enhance the synergies of industry and ex-servicemen and create the required linkages," he said.
Jaitley further said that ESM are retired but not tired. Society owes debt and gratitude to ESM. Hinting towards India Inc, he said, it is very important that segment of society come forward and absorb these extremely talented and trained men into jobs. ESM are best suited to run Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes. He said that, "CII-DGR MoU is the continuation of the act of gratitude and I am fortunate to be associated with this."
