The constant and prolonged state of tension that prevails in the North has, to an extent, been instrumental in the development of road communications and a few airfields to meet the defence requirements. Development of means of transportation leads to an incremental growth in business, industry and tourism. Tourism and service industries are also growing at a fast rate as compared to the manufacturing in our country. Civil aviation will have to keep pace with this growth to develop aviation so as to make many attractive tourist destinations easily accessible to Indian and foreign tourists.

Today, in India as a whole, we have 17,21,391 retired defence personnel and 35,000 widows of whom as many as 42% hail from the six North Indian states. Each year, approximately 3000 officers, 6000 JCOs and 54000 other ranks retire from Service. If we take into account their dependants and those of serving soliders, we have about 1.5 crore of the population of our country. On retirement, the Servicemen shed their uniform and join the mainstream of civilian life. Defence personnel, by virtue of their training and upbringing, at the time of retirement, are rich in experience. They have imbibed a value system which is a boon for any society. Their qualities of courage, discipline and integrity alone make them ideally suitable for absorption into various fields in the public and private sectors. With some guidance, orientation, training and assistance, they can do extremely well as self-employed entrepreneurs.

Our country has very vast borders and Defence personnel get posted to all areas ranging from Leh (Ladakh) in north to Kanya Kumari in south and from Arunachal Pradesh in east to the deserts of Rajasthan in west. They, thus, have ground knowledge of every facet of geo-physical India; even of those areas which are inaccessible and inhospitable. But, invariably a service outfit organises itself administratively for maximum efficiency even in the remotest corners of the country. The essentials of setting up a camp, from selection of site to safety, security, hygiene and sanitation are almost like a second nature to all soldiers, having spent a considerable time during their long service doing similar activities. Activities that appeal to an adventure tourist like trekking, camping, jungle cooking, para-sailing, fishing and enjoying the countryside can best be organised by ex-defence personnel.

Service personnel, during their long service tenure, are exposed to event management and organising group activities and social functions on a continuous basis. The efficiency, spit and polish and organisational abilities of Armed Forces are legendary. Defence personnel inculcate noteworthy habits of going into minute details, visualising an event/activity and preparing and executing the same in best possible manner. Basic etiquette, courtesy and excellent personal conduct are the hallmarks of every service person. These are extremely important for tourism and aviation industries because we often hear of tourists being harassed by rude agents and touts.

By virtue of having been exposed to varied environments, the ex-servicemen could give an impetus to tourism, adventure sports as well as the hospitality industries. A large number of ex-servicemen are already undertaking tourism-related activities. The personnel from Armed Forces have graduated to a thinking ethos because of the operational commitments and the introduction of state-of-the-art technology. Training during service and rehabilitation courses produces a person who is competent and technology-savvy with a higher degree of commitment.

Today, the defence personnel retire with a very wide range of modern-day skills like expertise in medicine,which could be useful in adventure sports and tourism, cyberskills, telecommunications, radar, instrumentation and aircraft and auto-repairs, driving and maintenance of high-tech vehicles, explosive handling, ballistics, meteorology, aeronautics and maritime operations - just to mention a few.

Service personnel visit virgin areas that have not been opened to normal tourist traffic and thereby gain knowledge of vast potential of these areas, their peculiarities and infrastructural details. This knowledge can be encashed by the aviation and tourism industry by incorporating defence personnel in their functioning.

Services recruit personnel from all over the country. After retirement, most of them go back to their native places. Therefore, ex-defence personnel are available locally in most of the tourist locations who can work as on-site agents/employees with considerably low overheads as compared to establishing an outlet by the industry in far-off areas. Most of the retired personnel acquire land and property which can be suitably developed into tourist locations as camps, resorts or retreats. Some of the more enterprising ex-defence personnel are already involved in similar activities and doing very well but the whole operation can be synergised by formal agreements and procedures.