Plenty of opportunities for women in armed forces

Pervin Malhotra

Q.I am a school-going girl who is very athletic and loves being outdoors. I am fascinated by the Army and dream of joining it one day. At the same time, I am disappointed that I can’t serve on the frontlines, as was told to me by my uncle. What roles are open to me in the Army? — Koel ahuja

A.A twenty-one gun salute to your spirit! Your uncle is right though; the Army doesn’t allow women to be deployed in combat roles. 

Before you get disheartened, here comes the good news. The Army realises that women have a lot to offer and that their skills and particular strengths can be particularly useful in the field of languages, cyber and space operations. So not being deployed on the frontlines doesn’t mean that you can't have a fulfilling and long career in the Indian Army. 

Just recently, the Defence Ministry has confirmed that Presidential consent has been received for granting Permanent Commission (PC) for women in all branches where they are eligible for Short Service Commission (SSC). 

Up until now, women officers were given permanent commission only in the Judge-Advocate General (JAG) and Army Education Corps.

The new streams where women officers will be granted Permanent Commission are Signals, Engineers, Army Aviation, Army Air Defence, EME, Army Service Corps, Ordnance Corps, and Intelligence. There's more good news. The Indian Army has announced that it will commission its first batch of women soldiers in 2021.These women soldiers will be commissioned into the Corps of Military Police.

On the other hand, the Indian Air Force now has women fighter pilots starting with a batch of 3 women pilots in 2016. Today the IAF has 8 women fighter pilots, with Wing Commander Shailja Dhami recently becoming India's first woman officer to be appointed as flight commander of a unit. 

In the Navy, women are allowed in all non-sea going branches and cadres. In addition to education, Law & Naval Constructor branch/cadre, women SSC officers have been made eligible for grant of Permanent Commission in the Naval Armament branch, at par with the male officers.

As far as eligibility for the Indian Army branches goes, these would be the similar those for men. By and large, they call for non-medical science stream subjects at the +2 level. Entry into the armed forces for women is after completing their graduation, via the Short Service Commission entry route which would get converted into a permanent commission as per the rules applicable.

Work profile of accessory designers

Q. What is fashion accessory designing? Where do these designers work? — sonam

A.The entire spectrum of accessories include precious and costume jewellery, leather goods (including belts, buckles, buttons, handbags, gloves), glass and mixed medium products, footwear, watches, scarves, giftware, tableware, silverware, other lifestyle products and even visual merchandising. 

Fashion accessory designers work as in-house or freelance designers to design and create these accessories.

Depending upon your interest, you may subsequently choose to focus on a single accessory i.e. jewellery or footwear. Large firms employ staff designers or more frequently, commission freelance designers. Small workshops and firms usually work for orders from fashion houses or for particular wholesalers and retail outlets.

Fabricators working on their own may design and make up a limited range of special orders or produce a range of accessories to find an interested buyer.

Whatever the method, a flair for anticipating what's going to be popular combined with some luck in making contact with a firm or outlet at the right time, is essential for success. 

Courses in accessory design are offered by some of the reputed schools of fashion design like NIFT, Pearl & IAM, which offer BDes (Acessory Design) to address the entire spectrum of accessories and lifestyle products & visual merchandising. 

Students are trained to become professional designers, brand managers, stylists, visual merchandisers. 

Eligibility for hotel mangement courses

Q.I’m in Class XII. I wish to pursue a course in hotel management offered by the NCHMCT. Could you please tell me about the eligibility and selection procedure? Also will I be eligible for advanced courses abroad? 

— puran kohli

A.The National Council for Hotel Management & Catering Technology (NCHMCT), New Delhi, conducts an All-India Joint Entrance Exam (NCHM JEE) for admission to the 3-year BSc degree programme in Hospitality & Hotel Administration offered at various (52) affiliated institutes offered jointly with IGNOU. 

Through academic collaboration with Lausanne Hospitality Consultancy (the people behind the world's oldest and top-rated hospitality school, Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, Switzerland) the programme has now been upgraded to make Indian hospitality education globally relevant and acceptable across functional domains. 

The programme also involves in-depth laboratory work for students to acquire required knowledge and skills in the operational areas of Food Production, Food and Beverage Service, Front Office Operation and House Keeping. The programme imparts substantial management inputs in area such as Sales and Marketing, Financial Management, Human Resource Management, Hotel and Catering Law, Property Management, Entrepreneurship Development, Computers with special focus on Tourism Studies.

To standardise hotel management education in India, the government has granted deemed university status to NCHMCT which is also the nodal body for drawing up the course curriculum for all the IHMs and Food Craft Institutes besides conducting the JEE. 

Eligibility is Plus II or equivalent exam in any academic or vocational stream with English as a compulsory subject. The notification is available on their website: http://nchm.nic.in . 

The NCHMCT JEE 2020 test will be held on April 25, 2020 as a computer-based test.

The application form can be filled online between  January 1 and February 29,  2020.

The written objective-type exam assesses your ability in reasoning and logical deduction, numerical ability and scientific aptitude, general knowledge and English. The first three sections can be answered in Hindi or English.

To score well, do keep abreast with current events — both national and international and brush up whatever you have learnt in the last few years at school. Also make it a habit to read current newsmagazines and the daily newspapers. Flipping through a couple of books on mental aptitude and tests of reasoning will also help.

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