Who will give jobs to 'retired' Agniveers? Several private honchos, states step up

However, various sections of people have criticised this move, pointing out that in the past, the jobs offered to the regular retired army personnel have been few and far between
The list is here | (Pic: EdexLive)
The list is here | (Pic: EdexLive)

Widespread protests over the Agnipath scheme were witnessed across the country. One of the major concerns of the agitating youth was regarding their future post-Agnipath. It had been stated by the government that under the scheme only 25% of the hired youth would be retained by the Indian Armed Forces and the rest 75% would have to leave the services after four years. The youngsters are concerned about what they would do after leaving the Armed Forces and worried about securing jobs.

In order to alleviate their worry, the BJP government along with several other private players have stepped up and stated that the youth who had served in the Armed Forces would be given jobs in government as well as corporate industries. However, various sections of people have criticised this move, pointing out that in the past, the jobs offered to the regular retired army personnel have been few and far in between. And in such a scenario, making promises of jobs to the youth was unjust.

Nevertheless, here is a list of the top government and private entities which have eagerly offered jobs to the youth post-Agniveer:

Anand Mahindra - Chairman of the Mahindra Group was one of the first to offer jobs to Agniveers after they are demobilised. The business tycoon tweeted about it, saying “The Mahindra Group welcomes the opportunity to recruit such trained, capable young people”. In another tweet he added that there is large potential for Agniveers in the Corporate Sector, and said that they would “provide market-ready professional solutions to industry, covering the full spectrum from operations to administration & supply chain management”.

Harsh Goenka - Chairman of the RPG Group followed the Mahindra Group and tweeted, “The RPG group too welcomes the opportunity to employ the Agniveers. I do hope other corporates will also join us to take this pledge and assure our youths of a future,” expressing his enthusiasm to employ the Agniveers.

N Chandrasekaran - Chairman of the TATA Group has also shown his agreement towards hiring the Agniveers. He has stated that TATA would get a pool of disciplined and trained youth in the process. He added in a statement, “We recognise the potential of the Agniveers and welcome the opportunity this represents, as per an article by Business Standard.

RAXA Security Solutions - GMR Infrastructure Limited (GIL), a listed entity of GMR Group, announced that it would give priority in jobs to Agniveers in its subsidiary RAXA Security Solutions, which is a premier security company of the GMR Group and provides man-guarding services, techno security solutions, fire services, and cyber security services.

The Chief Ministers of BJP-led states - Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka and Manipur have all claimed that the Agniveers would be given preference for jobs in the police force and for other government posts.

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath and Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan have stated that the youth, after serving in the Armed Forces, would be prioritised for posts in the UP and MP police respectively. And the Manipur government has made a similar announcement.

Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar announced schemes would be brought out by the government that would give the Agniveers a preference in government jobs across various sectors. 

Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said that besides being preferred for the Assam police, the Agniveers would be prioritised under the Assam Arogya Nidhi, a yearly financial assistance scheme to provide medical reimbursement to families with yearly income less than Rs 5 lakh.

Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said the government would give preference to Agniveers in recruitment to police services in the state.

More rally behind it
Additionally, the CEOs of many corporate groups have expressed that Agniveers would prove to be assets for private companies. Sajjan Jindal, Chairman of JSW Group said, “Four years of military training will groom the individuals get the best jobs available in the market”.  

“Agniveers will play a key role in furthering economic growth and strengthening society in the coming years,” said Sudarshan Venu, Managing Director of TVS Motor Company, as per Business Standard. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the Head of pharma-major Biocon, stated, “I firmly believe that Agniveers will have a distinct advantage in recruitment in the industrial job market,” in a tweet.

Sanjiv Bajaj, Chairman and MD of Bajaj Finserv has opined that the Agniveers can be inducted into various domains of the corporate sector after they leave the Armed Forces. And through a series of tweets, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Co-founder of InfoEdge, which is the parent company of Naukri.com has eagerly expressed similar opinions.

And Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals, Sangita Reddy tweeted that Agniveers would prove to be market-ready professionals for the industry. It is also known that leading companies, like Infosys, Mahindra Group and IBM, among others, have special provisions for hiring military veterans.

Moreover, Lt Gen Anil Puri, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Defence, has informed, via a TV channel, that the Union government has approached top 85 Indian companies including Reliance and Bharat Forge to hire Agniveers once they retire, and the feedback has been positive, as per the Business Standard report.

All the same, some CEOs also wonder if only four years of training is enough to hire the Agniveers for corporate jobs. “It would depend on the candidate and not automatically guarantee that ex-servicemen of Agnipath would be good candidates. We have few ex-servicemen currently on our payrolls and find years of training make them committed and diligent in work,” said Ameera Shah, MD of Metropolis Healthcare.

And despite all the positive feedback from the other CEOs, it is still not clear for what job roles the Agniveers would be hired.

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