“Agniveer”: Centre Announces New Defence Recruitment Model |10 Points

At a press conference on Tuesday, Union defence minister Rajnath Singh with three service chiefs introduced the short-term defence recruitment policy to train an ‘Agniveer’ called “Agnipath”.

“Today, the Cabinet Committee on Security has opened a new path to create history by approving the transformative scheme of ‘Agnipath’. In this model, Indian youth would be granted with an opportunity to get inducted into any Armed forces to provide their services,” the defence minister Rajnath Singh said.

The IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, Army chief General Manoj Pande, and Navy chief Admiral R. Hari Kumar were also present when the defence recruitment was disclosed.

“With the help of the ‘Agnipath’ scheme, we tried to design a youthful profile of the armed forces. This will help to train ‘Agniveer’ for new technologies and will also improve their health levels. This scheme will help to increase employment opportunities by adding new skills in different sectors,” the minister added.

The Department of Military Affairs said, “This recruitment model is purely based on the selection process being all-India merit-based. We are looking forward to the best to serve the armed forces, the criteria of age are between 17 and a half to 21 years.  ‘Agniveers’ who got selected will serve for 4 years with us”.

Some of the Important Points of the ‘Agnipath’ Defence Recruitment Scheme

1. Both men and women apply for the Agnipath scheme according to service requirements. The scheme applies to applicants between the age of 17.5 to 21 years.
2. The demands for medical and physical fitness will be as per existing criteria. The candidates who passed their 10^th and 12^th examinations will be considered eligible for the scheme.
3. ‘Agniveers’ will be paid ₹4.76 lakhs per annum in the first year which will be increased to ₹6.92 lakhs in the fourth year of service for compensation.
4. ₹11.7 lakhs will be the sum after including contribution and interest after completion of four years in service.
5. The 30 percent salary will be contributed by ‘Agniveers’ and the central government will be donating the same amount.
6. The Seva Nidhi Package will be free from income tax.
7. After completing four years of service, the ‘Agniveers’ will get an opportunity for applying as a volunteer for a regular cadre. Depending on organizational and merit requirements, only up to 25 percent will get selected from the respective batch. A robust assessment system is being developed which will be transparent, objective, automated, and centrally maintained.
8. In case of supreme sacrifice in the timeline of duty during the tenure, worth ₹1 crore, a non-contributory insurance cover is kept for each ‘Agniveer’ plus full payment for the unserved period.
9. If any ‘Agniveer’ gets any disability during the tenure, they will get the Seva Nidhi package with full interest and full payments for the unserved portions, Apart from this, the scheme has a provision for ₹44 lakh which depends on the percentage of disability.
10. The first rally of ‘Agniveer’ will begin today for 90 days.

This article explains the 10 new short-term defence recruitments called “Agnipath” in brief, which were unveiled by Union defence minister Rajnath Singh with three service chiefs at a press conference.