National Recruitment Agency will be boon for crores of youngsters: PM Modi

The National Recruitment Agency will prove to be a boon for crores of youngsters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday stressing that through the Common Eligibility Test it will eliminate multiple tests and save precious time as well as resources.

"The #NationalRecruitmentAgency will prove to be a boon for crores of youngsters. Through the Common Eligibility Test, it will eliminate multiple tests and save precious time as well as resources. This will also be a big boost to transparency," the Prime Minister said in a tweet.

A government release said the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister has given its approval for creation of National Recruitment Agency (NRA), paving the way for a "transformational reform in the recruitment process for central government jobs."

"A multi-agency body called the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) will conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) to screen/shortlist candidates for the Group B and C (non-technical) posts. NRA will have representatives of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Finance/Department of Financial Services, the SSC, RRB & IBPS. It is envisioned that the NRA would be a specialist body bringing the state-of-the-art technology and best practices to the field of Central Government recruitment," the release said.

It highlighted that NRA shall conduct a separate CET each for the three levels of graduate, higher secondary (12th pass) and the matriculate (10th pass) candidates for those non-technical posts to which recruitment is presently carried out by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).

"Based on the screening done at the CET score level, final selection for recruitment shall be made through separate specialised Tiers (II, III etc) of examination which shall be conducted by the respective recruitment agencies. The curriculum for this test would be common as would be the standard. This would greatly ease the burden of candidates who are at present required to prepare for each of the examinations separately as per different curriculum," the release stated.

According to the release, candidates would have the facility of registering on a common portal and give a choice of Centres. "Based on availability, they would be allotted Centres. The ultimate aim is to reach a stage wherein candidates can schedule their own tests at Centres of their choice."

The CET would be available in a number of languages, it said while adding that this would greatly facilitate people from different parts of the country to take the exam and have an equal opportunity of being selected.

The release emphasised that a single eligibility test would significantly reduce the recruitment cycle. "Some departments have indicated their intention to do away with any second level test and go ahead with recruitment on the basis of CET scores, Physical Tests and Medical examination. This would greatly reduce the cycle and benefit a large section of youth."

"The government has sanctioned a sum of Rs 1517.57 crore for the National Recruitment Agency. The expenditure will be undertaken over a period of three years. Apart from setting up the NRA, costs will be incurred for setting up examination infrastructure in the 117 Aspirational Districts," it said.