Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra group, has always gone out of his way to make a difference in society. Mahindra has appreciated achievers, gifted cars to talented people and given scholarships to aspiring engineers. Today, he promised to hire Agniveers, the young people trained under the government’s newly launched Agnipath scheme.

Mahindra’s announcement comes amid widespread protests by youngsters against the new recruitment scheme in the Indian armed forces. The Agnipath scheme, launched last week, proposes to enrol and train recruits known as Agniveers for the Army, Navy and Air Force for four years. After the tenure, only 25 percent of the Agniveers will be retained or re-enlisted in the regular cadre, while the rest will be released. The youngsters, who are opposing the recruitment scheme, believe the move will increase the unemployment rate and uncertainty in their careers.

On Monday, Mahindra said he was pained to see the violence around the Agnipath scheme and assured the “trained and capable young people” of job opportunities at the Mahindra group.

Following his tweet, a user asked the business tycoon what jobs the group would offer the Agniveers, to which Mahindra responded, “With leadership, teamwork, and physical training, Agniveers provide market-ready professional solutions to industry, covering the full spectrum from operations to administration & supply chain management," Mahindra wrote.

This is not the first time Mahindra had taken an initiative to help people with talent.

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Earlier this year, he offered a job to Birju Ram, a differently-abled person from Delhi at one of Mahindra Logistics' electric vehicle charging yards in the national capital. Mahindra was inspired by a video of Ram driving a modified hand-made vehicle displaying a unique approach towards life despite his disabilities.

In December 2021, the industrialist had gifted a Maharashtra blacksmith, Dattatraya Lohar, a Bolero in exchange of his hand-made car that was later displayed at the Mahindra and Mahindra research facility, Mahindra Research Valley in Chennai.

In October 2021, Mahindra had tweeted about the achievements of a young boy Prem Ningombam from Imphal, who made an Iron Man-style suit out of scrap metal. Back then Mahindra expressed his wish to help Prem. Later that year, Mahindra announced that Prem was admitted to Mahindra University in Hyderabad.

Delighted that he accepted the offer to exchange his vehicle for a new Bolero. Yesterday his family received the Bolero & we proudly took charge of his creation. It will be part of our collection of cars of all types at our Research Valley & should inspire us to be resourceful. https://t.co/AswU4za6HT pic.twitter.com/xGtfDtl1K0

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) January 25, 2022

Apart from this, as a goodwill gesture, the business tycoon has gifted a number of cars to athletes for their contribution to sports.

Mahindra gifted new Thar SUVs to Indian cricketers T Natarajan, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sunder, Mohammad Siraj and Shubman Gill for their outstanding contribution in the India-Australia series last year.

In 2016, national sprint champion Dutee Chand, who qualified for Rio Olympics 2016, received an XUV 500 from Mahindra. PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik also received customised first-generation Mahindra Thars for outstanding performance at the Rio Olympics 2016.

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(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)

First Published:Jun 20, 2022 5:53 PM IST