Till two years ago, ‘Agnipath’ was the title of a poem by Harivansh Rai Bachchan, and of a film made famous by his son. Now it denotes a tour-of-duty scheme by which the armed forces recruit soldiers, and is listed as one of the many reasons that stopped the BJP from getting majority in the recent Lok Sabha elections. The Agnipath scheme, by which Agniveers are being inducted into the armed forces, was launched in 2022 primarily with an aim of reducing the expenditure on defence pension. At that point of time India had about 27 lakh ex-servicemen and seven lakh widows, making a total of about 34 lakh defence pensioners. With about 60,000 soldiers retiring every year, the figure today should be over 35 lakh. Soldiers, other than officers, retire between the age of 35 and 52 years depending on the rank they retire at. They retire after having served for 17 to 32 years. With the average life expectancy in India having gone up to around 70 years, an average retiree draws pension for more than 30 years. In other words, most of them are paid more when they are not working than when they were working. Hence, the government thought of reducing this annual financial outlay.
Denne historien er fra July 07, 2024-utgaven av THE WEEK India.
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Denne historien er fra July 07, 2024-utgaven av THE WEEK India.
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Use multi-asset investing to overcome portfolio volatility
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Twist of faith
Upamanyu Chatterjee is back with his wry sense of humour in his new novel, and most of it is directed at religion and spirituality
THE GLORY OF SARI
Saris of Memory weaves together history and textiles, highlighting key moments from the author's collection
We win together
We invented chess, which was pretty cool of us. The original game 'chaturanga'that is four divisions (infantry, cavalry, elephantry and chariotry)-was a war strategy game. When the game travelled to the Middle East, they mangled the Sanskrit and it ended up being called 'shatranj' instead.
BEATS THAT HEAL
Music ignites the light within us, says Grammy-winner Chandrika Tandon
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The road to peace
Future political dialogues should explore means of ensuring a more robust autonomy to tribal communities
Diary of a Sherpa
Amitabh Kant's new book is a comprehensive account of the G20 Summit held in Delhi in 2023
The annoying orange
Everything is great. All is sunshine. I am an eternal optimist.\" It's the fad of our TikTok times everything is not great, the sun sets daily, nothing is eternal. If anything, everything is ephemeral, night brings darkness, and optimism often crumbles under the weight of history. British philosopher Roger Scruton warned: \"Hope untempered by the evidence of history is a dangerous asset, one that threatens not only those who embrace it, but all those within range of their illusions.\"
NO SEAT, YET UPBEAT
The Congress is buoyed by its increased vote share in Delhi, and feels it can push the AAP into further decline
