Finmin asks banks to explore employment opportunities for 'Agniveers'

The finance ministry on Thursday held a meeting with heads of public sector banks and financial institutions to explore employment opportunities for 'Agniveers' in their respective organisations.

The Union Cabinet on June 14 approved a short-term recruitment scheme for the armed forces called Agnipath. The youths selected under this scheme will be known as 'Agniveers'.

It was also decided that banks would explore possibilities of supporting 'Agniveers' through suitable credit facilities for skill upgradation, education for setting up businesses and to take up self-employment, a finance ministry statement said.

The existing government schemes such as Mudra and Stand Up India would be leveraged for extending such support to 'Agniveers', it added.

In order to identify ways in which the banks and financial institutions can support the 'Agniveers' on completion of their tenure of duty, the Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS) held a meeting with chief executives of public sector banks (PSBs), public sector insurance companies (PSICs) and financial institutions (FIs) here.

In the meeting, Joint Secretary, Department of Military Affairs made a presentation on the salient aspects of the Agnipath scheme.

During the meeting, it was decided that PSBs, PSICs and FIs would explore employment opportunities for 'Agniveers' in suitable capacities based on their educational qualifications and skills through suitable benefits/ relaxations, etc, it said.