Ex-Servicemen's rally held at Imphal

Ex-Servicemen's rally for veterans of NE states held
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, October 15 2011: An Ex-Servicemen (Veterans) Rally and Seminar was organised at Likabali Military Station, Dhemaji, Assam on October 14 on behalf of the Spear Corp as the Year for Disabled Soldiers 2011. The seminar was organised with an aim to create awareness in the environment regarding the benefits being made available to the disabled soldiers, psychological rehabilitation of the disabled soldiers, the veterans and their families, stated a press release of PIB (Defence Wing).
Singing the National Anthem and observance of two minutes silence in remembrance of the valiant martyrs who had sacrificed their lives in the service of the nation marked the inauguration of the occasion.
The Station Commander, Likabali Military Station, addressing to veterans, disabled veterans (at about 2,500), war widows (Veer Naaris) and widows of veterans, senior officers from army and civil dignitaries, said that the soldiers who risked their lives and limbs in the highest call of duty are the real heroes.
Various stalls were set up at the venue of the Ex-Servicemen Rally by the Zila Sainik Welfare Board, to provide information for the disabled soldiers including pension benefits, re-settlement issues, vocational training, rehabilitation, employment and health/Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS).
A medical camp was also organised by the army wherein the services of various medical specialists were made available to the veterans and their families.
The army authorities had made elaborate and extensive arrangements for the event. A sumptuous lunch followed the grand event.
Retired Colonel PK Deori, on behalf of the veterans, thanked to the Chief of Army Staff, for initiating such a thoughtful and noble gesture towards the betterment of the disabled and other veterans.

Ex-Servicemen's rally for veterans of NE states held

Collector distributes aid to families of ex-servicemen

The Hindu Online edition of India's National Newspaper Friday, Jun 17, 2011
COIMBATORE: District Collector M. Karunakaran on Tuesday presented assistance to the families of ex-servicemen to a tune of Rs. 44,347 at a special camp held at the Collectorate.
At the special camp, ex-servicemen and their families presented petitions seeking employment, bank loan, drinking water connection and free house site pattas.
Later, Mr. Karunkaran handed over a cheque for Rs. 2,400 towards the monthly assistance for the months of April, May and June and orders providing Rs. 800 per month for lifetime to Karunambal, wife of K.N. Nair, who laid his life in the Second World War. He also gave a cheque for Rs. 4,800 to Bhuvaneswari from the family of an ex-serviceman towards educational assistance from the Central Ex-Servicemen Welfare Board.
A cheque for Rs. 400 was given to P. Shanthi towards concession from property tax and a cheque for Rs. 774 to another Shanthi again as concession from property tax. Twelve persons were given Rs. 3,000 each totalling Rs. 36,000 towards the assistance for last rites.
Later a conference on self-employment prospects was conducted for the benefit of ex-servicemen and their family members. Revenue and Ex-servicemen Welfare Board officials took part in the special camp.
Collector distributes aid to families of ex-servicemen
Amalgamated Special Fund (ASF) For Reconstruction And Rehabilitation Of Ex-Servicemen, Madhya Pradesh

Zila Sainik Welfare organises ex-servicemen, widows’ rally Written by Newspoint Bureau
Saturday, 11 June 2011 00:03
Jammu Tawi, June 10, Zila Sainik Welfare officer Samba Col KB Gupta today organised an ex-servicemen and widow's rally in Ramgarh which was attended by 1,000 ex-servicemen and widows. As per press release, the rally was addressed by Additional District Development Commissioner (ADDC) Samba, Anil Kumar Gupta and others. Col KB Gupta explained that children of defence personnel were entitled to 3% quota seats in all medical and engineering colleges. All children who scored 60% marks in 8th, 10th and 12th and secured 65% in graduation were allowed to One Time incentive from RSB. State Bank of India for the help of defence pensioners opened help line for sorting out the problems of defence pensioners. They have to SMS word ‘Unhappy’ to phone number 80082202020, SBI executives will get in touch and resolve the issue. Brig RS Langeh Director Sainik Welfare J&K, Anil Kumar Gupta, Additional District Development Comm-issioner Samba and others were also present.
Zila Sainik Welfare organises ex-servicemen, widows’ rally

The Soldiers' 2nd Innings

Dear Brigadier Kamboj,
A book on "Life after retirement from military service" with the title, "The soldiers' 2nd Innings" was released during the EME Corps Reunion at Secunderabad on 8 Jan 2010. It has been published by Macmillan India Ltd. A synopsis of the contents and picture of the cover are attached.
This hard cover book is priced at Rs 495 and can be obtained from any of the Macmillan offices at Delhi, Bengaluru,Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Chandigarh,Coimbatore, Cuttak, Guwahati, Hubli, Hyderabad,Jaipur, Lucknow, Madurai, Nagpur Patna, Pune Thiruvanantapuram and Vishakhapatanam.
Direct orders can be sent to Mr Suresh Gopal, at his e-mail ID: sgopal@macmillan.co.in
I shall, indeed, be looking forward to hear your comments and observations on this 'labor of love' And should you need any assistance for obtaining a copy of the book please feel free to revert to me.
With best wishes,
Maj Gen Surjit Singh (Retd)

click here for Table of Contents

Turning truncated Military Career into an opportunity

Dear Brig Kamboj and Gangadharan,
Early retirement is a well known irritant of military service. Most of us aspire to prepare ourselves for a second career in industry or a government job. But ever so often I come across a person who has been able to convert this threat into an opportunity. Last week, I saw one such success story. I thought I would share the experience with your readers.
I was invited to visit the chain of schools and a Management Institute established by Col Vinod Kumar and his wife Shubhra ji in Ahmedabad. What I saw there impelled me to record my impressions in the form of the attached paper entitled "Temples of Learning" To get a birds' eye view of the schools, you may visit their website www.stkabir.com
A word about Col Vinod Kumar
Vinod is from the 30th Regular course (Naushehra Coy, later, Staff Sgt Sinhgarh Coy) He had a brilliant career. He passed out as first amongst the GCs commissioned into the EME. After graduating from the Staff College, he was GSO-2 SD in Baramula, and later AQ, IMA during the golden jubilee of the Academy. He then went as CO of the EME Bn in Ahmedabad. And that is when he got a call from within to sign off. That is a story by itself. He and his wife started a nursery school with barely twenty students, and operating form a hired flat. From there they have come a long way.
Sometimes I wonder. Why can't we produce more such success stories. Military service will remain what it is: a truncated career for more than 99% officers and men. There is a limit to how much improvement can be made in our pensions. But there is no limit to how much we can gain through our own effort and enterprise. Can we have a dialogue on this on "Report my signal"?
Regards,
Maj Gen Surjit Singh (Retd)

ESM Self Employment Schemes

Financial assistance is available under SIDBI's NEF (National Equity Fund) scheme upto rupees 50 lakh with the benefit of maximum soft loan upto Rs 10 lakh per project with 5 per cent rate of interest per annum. The objective of the scheme is to provide equity type support to entrepreneurs for setting up new projects in small scale sector, SSI and service enterprises and for rehabilitation of viable sick units in the SSI sector which fulfill the specified eligibility criteria. Assistance from NEF helps the small scale unit in strengthening their equity base and thereby improve their acceptability for term financing by primary lending institutions (PLIs).

SEMFEX-II scheme has been promoted with the assistance of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). It provides refinance to banks for financing for development of agriculture and allied activities, such as minor irrigation, farm mechanisation, mushroom cultivation, dairy, poultry, sheep and goat rearing, fisheries, plantation and horticulture agri-processing units including food processing, forestry, wasteland development, etc. NABARD supports bio-gas industries, small scale industries, tiny, cottage and village industries handloom and handicrafts and service sector activities in rural areas. Under this scheme, interest free Soft Loan Assistance for Margin Money (SLA-MM) under farm sector is provided. Refinance assistance is also available to transport vehicles. Ex-servicemen Transport Corporation, registered society and other institution can be formed to acquire a maximum of 30 transport vehicles under the SRTO Scheme.

SEMFEX-III scheme has been launched to help rehabilitate the ex-servicemen and widows to undertake rural industries. The scheme is operative in collaboration with the Khadi and Village Industries Commission. There are 110 rural industries including service sector activities which have been identified viable for financing to ex-servicemen and widows. Under this scheme ex-servicemen will be considered as a special target group and their loan cases will be sanctioned on preferential basis. The facility of margin money grant will be at the rate of 30 per cent of the project cost upto rupees 10 lakh and above this amount upto rupees 25 lakh it will be 10 per cent of the remaining cost of the project. It means that an amount of rupees 3 and 4.5 lakh would be provided as grant subsidy for the loan amount of rupees 10 and 25 lakh respectively.

The borrower would be required to invest his own contribution (5 percent) of the project cost and the remaining 95 per cent of the project cost would be sanctioned by the KVIC/KVIB/banks. All the schemes within the purview of KVIC are financed through the State Khadi and Village Industries Boards or banks but in some cases the project can also be directly financed by the KVIC head officer, Mumbai. However, such cases will be admissible only after prior approval from KVIC. In case of bank finance scheme the KVIC has already placed a lumpsum deposit of margin money in advance with the corporate officer of each bank of a nodal branch designated by the bank in savings bank account in the name of KVIC. The lending institution would be fully responsible for recovery of consortium bank credit.The ex-servicemen can also avail free training facilities at the KVIC training centres. Eligible ESM and widows desirous of getting loans will have to apply to the concerned Zila Sainik Board/ Rajya Sainik Board (ZSB/RSB) on the prescribed form.

Lt Col HS Oberoi
New department to look after ESM
Self-employment Schemes for ESM and Widows
DGR, MOD: SEMFEX I/ II/ III
Comment: Excellent Self Employment opportunities for the ESM. One wonders how many widows and ESM have availed of this facility? How popular and attractive is this scheme? What methods are adopted by the Regimental Centres, Veteran Organisations and IESL to popularise these schemes? Or are these schemes only on paper?

ESM Challenges and Finding Officers for the Armed Forces

Retirement Blues
A service officer leads an active life and is generally in good physical health even at retirement. Time hangs on him when he does not take up employment/re-employment after retirement. That apart, mundane matters take their toll, such as – drop in income, he goes out of circulation, a dent to his already diluted service status and dignity etc. Needless to say every officer cannot find employment. He, therefore, needs to self-employ himself. Govt must recognize the need to utilize this trained and disciplined reservoir of human resource and rehabilitate them. Among many possibilities, I have listed a few with a brief on them. In some of these cases it will be complementing the existing resources. Existing laws may have to be amended in some cases or new laws made in others. All these will add to public confidence as well as public convenience without imposing any capital cost to the Govt. In addition, some of these will add to the status and dignity of a retired officer. Click link for the complete article.
Self Employment and Rehabilitation of retired Armed Forces officers

The Problem in Recruitment of Officers
An aspiring young man wanting to join the Armed Forces today will consider the trial and tribulations he will face during his entire life span before he joins the same. Armed Forces personnel retire early and more often his post retirement years will be longer than his service career. If you improve the salary and service condition of the serving officers alone it will not meet his aspirations and his apprehensions of post-retirement rehabilitation will remain. Only a holistic approach can change this. It is of concern that young India has relegated a career in the Armed Forces to a very low priority these days affecting recruitment of required numbers and quality manpower. This has happened because of inadequate compensation, loss of status and treating the retired officers as deadwood by the Govt. Rehabilitation of these ‘veterans’, along with other corrective measures, will have a profound effect on the future intake of the Armed Forces officers. Read complete article.
Recruitment of Officers in the Armed Forces

Col B Bhattacharya (Retd)

Ex Servicemen and Self Employment

Analysts say the number of approvals required from government agencies for setting up mid- size industrial plants has increased in some sectors despite economic reforms.

To set up a mid- size factory, at least fifteen state and six central government clearances are required. And that's not all. Indian manufacturers face an average 7.4 visits each year from government officials, wryly nicknamed "inspector raj".

Drastic changes may be visible soon as the government plans to cut down the time taken for various clearances to 3 months from present 10 months. But some areas such as employment are more problematic.

It is estimated that there are 47 central government laws and 157 state regulations governing employment— often inconsistent and at times overlapping.

Reforming labour regulations is a priority for India. The current rigidities impose significant costs in terms of lost jobs, but policy makers say touching them is just too controversial. Till now there is no unified policy to regulate employing ESM as security Guards in Civil Sectors. Most of ESM working with Security Agencies are underpaid and exploited.

There is strong opposition to reforms in India from certain quarters and they embrace or include both the left and the right. Reforms have been fitful, ad hoc and they have been abandoned as soon as they have encountered political or other kinds of opposition.

Ex Servicemen need fast tract clearances for setting up mid size projects and industrial units to utilise the reservoir of latent talent available for self employment.

James Kanagaraj
Lt Col (Retd)
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Brig Sukhwindar writes...
I am afraid the Post 'Ex-Servicemen and Self-Employment' is NOT well-researched. I have been running a private ltd company in IT since 1998. Only one official has visited Me. Yes, other Sectors have more Inspectors coming. There is a lot of change now. CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, and Other Trade Orgns continuously pressurise the Govt. on the Issue. Mid-sized companies by the ESM? Just kindly look at the Outlay needed. This Article would scare away would- be ESM Entrepreneurs. Suggest the "loader" must correct the facts in the article.

Sukhwindar Singh
Brig (Retd)
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Kindly Visit
India’s Prime Minister warns business about the “cancer of corruption”
Riding a Elephant

James Kanagaraj
Lt Col (Retd)
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