What is the Basic Objective of the Agnipath Entry Scheme?

One of the most important reforms of the Indian Defence Forces has occurred in the form of the “Agnipath Scheme”. The Cabinet Committee on Security has taken a remarkable resolution on 14 May 2022 to accept this innovative scheme – ‘Agnipath’. It is the new Human resource management scheme of the Defence forces in which young individuals will be given the opportunity to serve the nation as Agniveers through enrolment in the Armed forces for four years. The aspirant recruited under this scheme will be known as Agniveers. They will be inducted into all the three arms of the defence forces, be it the Army, Navy or airforce for a period of 4 years. They will join the army as a soldier, the airforce as an airman and sailor in the navy. In this article, we will have an overview of the Agnipath Entry Scheme and the main objective of the Agnipath scheme with all the myth busters.

What Is the Agnipath Entry Scheme?

This innovative scheme based on the concept of “Tour of Duty”, will give a chance to young Indians who want to join the armed forces through this entry into all the arms – the Army, the AIrforce and the Navy.

The proposed “Agneepath Army Bharti” Scheme is a central government system for every Indian citizen. An estimate given by the government sources shows that approximately 45,000 to 50,000 soldiers will be inducted into our defence forces for various combat, technical & non-technical support roles for the service term of four years.

The candidates who will be inducted through this recruitment scheme will be called as “Agniveers”. They will get a handsome pay package added with an exit retirement package after 4 years of service along with benefits of serving the defence forces for 4 years. At present, this Entry scheme if for the NCO level, I.e. Non-Commissioned Officer, which may be further, expanded to JCO (Junior Commissioned Officer) Ranks in future. However, the ministry has not given any indication on this matter. 

It will be a pan-India merit-based recruitment process. Even after service of 4 years, 25% of the Agniveers will be retained and will join the permanent cadre based on their performance in their service. Those Agniveers who were not absorbed into the regular permanent cadre will be given preference in the recruitment of other paramilitary forces and state police forces. The government is planning to make some special provisions in the recruitment of these forces for Agniveers.

The objective of the “Agnipath” Entry Scheme

The main purpose of the Agnipath entry scheme is to bring down the average age of the defence personnel. As per the sources of the Department of military affairs, the current average age of the defence personnel is 32 years, which they are expecting to come down to 26 years after 6-7 years after inducting agniveers through this scheme. This will help in transforming our armed forces to be much younger, a techie with a modern future-ready soldiers.

Moreover, they also want to cut down and limit the inflating salary and pension bills paid to them. As per the February-2022 budget, the total defence spending was around 5.25 lakh cores, out of which 1.197 lakh cores were allocated for pension only. The part of the salary is around 1.536 lakh crore. Thus, the Defence Ministry wants to cut this fixed expenditure on pension and salary, so that they can spend more on capital expenditures like procurements of machines and equipment.

The scheme was also the need of hour as they are facing a shortage of human resources. The reason being stalled recruitments rallies for every branch for the past 2 years due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Indian government is also planning to train our youth in a professional manner to increase the accessibility of a more-skilled labour force to the economy. This will not only help the corporate sector but will also train for other jobs and businesses by giving them a perfect mindset. It is expected to be helpful in productivity gain and overall GDP growth of our economy.

These 4 years of service and training in defence forces will not only train them but also make them ready for the paramilitary forces, state reserve police forces and other such jobs in the corporate sector. The Agniveers will be preferred over others in such kind of jobs.

Details regarding this scheme are given below –

Recruiting Body	Indian Army
Name of the scheme	Agnipath Recruitment, 2022
Launched by	Department of Military Affairs
Number of Vacancies	46,000 this year
Agnipath Recruitment availability of Online Form Date	June/July 2022
Arm of Service in the defence force	Indian Army, Navy, Air Force
Years of service	4 years
Age limit	17.5-21 years (As an introductory scheme, the upper age limit is 23 years for this year)
Official link	www.joinindianarmy.nic.in

Eligibility criteria

Age Limit and Education Qualification

Selection Process

Candidates will be selected on Pan-India based on their merit and other selection criteria. As per initial reports, there will not be any change in the recruitment process.

Training

All the selected candidates will undergo rigorous military training for Six Months in the existing military training centres.

Salary and Allowances

All the Agniveers will join the forces with an annual package of 4.76 lakh rupees, which will grow up to 6.92 lakhs per annum in the fourth and final year of the service. Thus, the monthly salary will be around 30,000 with some add-on benefits, which will rise up to 40,000 until the fourth year.

During the service period, 30 per cent of their monthly salary will be saved under the Seva Nidhi Programme, and the central government on monthly basis will contribute the same amount. Apart from these contributions, they will also get the interest on this amount on yearly basis. Thus, every agniveer will get around 11.71 lakh rupees at the end of four years under this Seva Nidhi package as a lump sum.  The interesting part is that this amount will be tax-free.

Compensation

Insurance and Death compensation

Adding to these monetary benefits, there is also a facility of life insurance cover of 48 lakh rupees for four years. In case of death casualty of Agniveer, the family members will be given 1 crore rupees along with the payment of the unserved tenure.

Disability compensation

If under any circumstances, any of the Agniveer meets with an accident and gets any medical disability, then there is a provision of Disability Compensation based on the percentage of disability laid down by medical authorities. They will get a one-time ex-gratia amount of Rupees 44 lakhs on 100 per cent disability, Rupees 25 lakh on 75 per cent disability, and Rupees 15 lakh on 50 per cent disability.

Medical & CSD Facilities

During their service in the defence forces, all the Agniveers will be getting all the medical facilities at every military hospital. They will also get the Canteen facilities during their 4 years of the service period.

We hope, now you might be clear about the basic objective of the Aginpath Entry Scheme and how this scheme will be implemented.

Uniform

The candidate joined as an Agniveer will be wearing a distinctive Insignia on their uniform during their service. The design of this insignia has not been issued by the MOD, which will be issued separately.

Hope this article would have given insights into the Agnipath Entry scheme and the real objective of introducing this scheme. If you have any queries regarding the SSB interview selection procedure or need help in its preparation, do mention them in the comments or direct mail to [email protected]

Also, Read

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2. How to Develop Officer Like Qualities or OLQ for the SSB Interview?
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4. What is the Structure of The Indian Army? || Formation of the Indian Army

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