Major Mandeep Sandhu's week-long break from his job has taken him to Goa where he is working on reviving an iron ore mine for an octogenarian, whose sons have no interest in the 75-year old family business.

"The mine seems to be a good business proposition," said Sandhu. After a survey of what could be the new venture of his Delhi-based asset reconstruction company, Sandhu is going to rejoin his duty as an army officer posted in a Delhi area.

An alumni of BITS Pillani, Sandhu has been running an innovative and "quite lucrative" business for the last 14 years while working as an officer of the Territorial army for two months each year.

"If I can imbibe even 5 per cent of the discipline that is observed in the Army in my business, I would achieve greater heights," Sandhu said.

Men like Sadhu are volunteers, who undergo rigorous tests of endurance and capabilities to become officers in the Territorial army. Raised in 1920 as a "peoples' army", the Territorial Army serves as a reserve force which can be used for national emergencies like an anti-insurgency campaign or a war.

Officers like Sandhu have to serve a mandatory two-month period in the army to go back to their professions and business for the rest of the year.

What makes successful men like Sandhu opt for a hard life of an army men? "It opens new horizons � army makes you a complete man where you start believing that any target can be achieved," says Capt Unnat Sharma, who runs a hugely successful corporate intelligence gathering firm in south Delhi.

Sharma has already served in the Territorial army for six years, including one year in Kashmir where he fought against insurgents. "With technology it's now possible to keep in touch with your business through computers and communicators while you carry on with your first love -- the army job," he said.

Sharma and Sandhu had opted for a part-time army career to fulfil their ambitions of serving "their country"  much after achieving material success. "I can afford to buy any top brand dress and accessories with the kind of money I make as a professional but frankly, no amount of money can get me the quality of life that one leads as an army officer," Sharma said.

Sanjib Kaura, the winner of the nation wide Lead India contest sponsored by the Times of India recently, is the new poster boy of the Territorial army.

Kaura gave up his highly successful corporate job abroad to return home in 1999. He successfully spearheaded an NGO campaign which persuaded the government to amend its policy and declare the right to education as a fundamental right. However, Kaura, who has launched an education project in Chamba and Kangra districts of Himachal Pradesh, continued to miss something in his life till he made it to the territorial army at 42, recently.

"Apart from my love for the military uniform, I would love to work in a government system that runs reasonably efficiently and replicate this model in other areas," said Kaura.

Maj Gen VK Datta, who heads the Territorial army, said the government was overwhelmed by the response from entrepreneurs and the corporate sector in today's world where "money power" was rated highly.

Datta is waiting for the government's nod to a proposal that would give him a mandate to raise a reserve of IT professionals who "would hack the enemy's systems in the times of war."

"Indian IT talents have proved themselves to the world and it's time for us to make use of them for an eventuality," Datta said.

For this, the mandatory two-month attachment with the army would be staggered and made more flexible to suit the needs of the private sector work culture.

A senior executive of American Express Bank, who has recently made it to the Territorial army, however, said: "The norms need to be more flexible or else the private and profit driven companies may not be inclined to spare us for too long."