Newsletter from Veekay

Dear Friends,
Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year. My newsletter click here.
Vinay and Kumud Singh

Extracts from Veekay Newsletter 2010
The year is coming to an end and it is time for the annual ritual of connecting with friends, acquaintances, comrades and colleagues. I do not recall the last time I sent a New Year's card or a hand written letter. Ever since we started using e-mail, letters have become passé. Until a few years ago, very few people had a computer and one had to write a letter. The advent of mobile telephony has put paid to the art of letter writing altogether. What a pity. I have begun to relish the advantages of being a senior citizen. One can buy rail tickets at a 30% discount. (Women get 50%, but Kumud is still to qualify. Even when she does, I think she would rather pay the full fare than be classified as a senior citizen!). Youngsters, especially girls, sometimes offer you a seat in the Metro. Shopkeepers, parking attendants and handymen address you as uncle, though hardly anyone calls Kumud an auntie, and woe betide anybody who dares...

There is little change in our routine. I go to the gym in the DSOI, which is a stone’s throw from my house, at 0645, returning at 0745 or so. Kumud goes at 0830 and returns only when the gym closes at 1000. By this time I have gone through my newspapers, had my bath and my breakfast and am ready to leave for Signals Enclave, where the Corps History Cell is located. On the days I have a hearing in Tis Hazari or the High Court, I have to give the gym amiss. The Ansal Plaza is next door and Kumud does not miss a movie. She is usually accompanied by my daughter in law or one of her gym buddies. They go for the morning show, when the children are at school and the tickets are cheaper. Twice a week, I too get a chance to go to the mall – it has a Reliance Fresh outlet and buying vegetables is one of the chores entrusted to me.

Ex Servicemen Hothouse of Talent

Highlights of Seminar on Defence Industry Partnership in Human Resource Management held in Chennai on 11 Jul 2007.

Mr Sajjan Jindal of the OP Jindal group, said, he had recently offered to take the entire 60,000 retiring people into employment.

Brig (Retd) T.M. Sridharan, CEO & Board Member, Hinduja group, noted that ex-servicemen were “excellent, trained, human resource”. He said that the Government spent close to Rs 15 lakh in training a recruit “before he fires his first bullet”.

Brig Sridharan said (and other speakers agreed) that the ex-servicemen, not being too young, tend to stick to a job and hence help check attrition. Wing Commander (Retd) T.R. Shankaran, Consultant, Training, Reliance Retail, stressed that there were a number of jobs that ex-servicemen could fit into, with a little re-orientation. For example, people trained in logistics could fit in supply chain management functions. Those who have worked in army intelligence and military police would fit in fraud detection. Above all, ex-servicemen, having dealt with people “24x365”, made excellent HR professionals, he said.

Two other speakers, Mr K. Ganesan, Global Head, Learning & Development and M&A, TCS, and Mr S. Ganguly, General Manager (Pers & HR) L&T, agreed that ex-servicemen were “excellent HR people”.

All speakers stressed on the need for re-orientation. Mr Ganguly said that ex-servicemen needed to be more cost-conscious in the industry. Mr Ganesan noted that they could face a culture-shock in flat organisations, where rank was no material. He offered that TCS could take ex-servicemen on paid internship for about six months without any obligation on the internees to continue.