More than nine lakh aspirants have applied for the Agnipath recruitment scheme for the Navy, including 82,000 women candidates. The Navy will recruit 3,000 from the total number of applicants as Agniveers. In all, the armed forces plan to induct 46,000 Agniveers including 3,000 in the IAF and 40,000 in the army.
Announcing that the registration for the Navy’s selection process ended on Wednesday, officials said here 9.55 lakh Agniveer applicants, including 82,200 women aspirants had registered. The Navy started the registration process of June 25.
Once selected after clearing the written and medical tests, the training of the Agniveers is likely to commence from November this year at INS Chilka, they said. Moreover, 20 percent of the seats will be earmarked for women for various duties.
The IAF received 7,49,899 applications under the newly launched Agnipath scheme and closed registration in the first week of July. This number of aspirants was more than last recruitment numbers which stood at was 6,31,528.
The candidates, who applied through online registration for the Agnipath scheme for the IAF, will now have to clear a written examination. The successful candidates will then appear for physical fitness and medical test. The shortlisted aspirants will be inducted into the IAF as Agniveers after year long training.
Officials also explained that the intake of Agniveers would be progressively increased in the next few years. Intake of recruits under Agnipath will increase from 46,000 annually in the first four years, to 90,000 in the fifth year to 1,25,000 from the sixth year.
The main focus of the Agnipath policy is to have a youthful profile and soldiers who are technology savvy to fight modern day warfare.
As regards the Army, the recruitment rallies will start in first week on August to November. The Army will recruit around 25,000 Agniveers in first batch by first half of December and remaining in the second batch by first half of February 2023. For this, 83 rallies are planned across the country covering all states. Terming ‘Agnipath’ scheme as the “only progressive step” to make the Army younger, Additional Secretary in the Department of Military Affairs Lt General Anil Puri had said a few weeks ago that efforts to bring down the average age of the armed forces first came about three decades ago and was also reiterated by the Kargil review committee.
With Agnipath scheme, the average age profile will come down from 32 to 26 years in line with the age profile of major armies worldwide, he said. All recruitment in the forces for soldiers, sailors and airmen will now be through the Agnipath route.
The Agnipath scheme termed as “transformative” to have a fitter and young profile to fight modern day war was rolled out on June 14 by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh here in the presence of the three Services Chiefs.
The scheme led to mass protests in many parts of the country with the agitators damaging public property. Several veterans, political parties and others raised doubts about the new policy as it does not provide pension and other benefits provided to regular soldiers.
However, the government ruled out rolling back the new policy and said it consulted various stakeholders for more than two years before firming up the Agnipath scheme. It also said the scheme will not impact the operational preparedness of the armed forces and the regimental ethos. After a stint of mandatory four years, 25 percent of the Agniveers will be selected for regular service of 15 years or so with full pension benefits. The remaining 75 per cent Agniveers will be absorbed into various state and central government institutions including the defence ministry which has reserved ten percent vacancies in various departments and defence public sector undertakings. The home ministry also reserved ten percent vacancies for the demobilised Agniveers in the central para military forces. The Govt also rolled out various beneficiary schemes for demobilized Agniveers.