Army, Navy, Air Force announce schedule of Agnipath recruitment process: Check key takeaways

New Delhi, Jun 19: Amid widespread protests, the Army Navy and the Air Force on Sunday came out with a broad schedule for recruitment of soldiers under the Agnipath scheme while asserting that it is being implemented to bring down the age profile of the armed forces.

Lt Gen A Puri, the additional secretary in the Department of Military Affairs, strongly defended the scheme, saying that reducing the age profile of the three services has been on the table for quite some time and even the Kargil review committee had made observations on it.

Addressing a press conference, Lt Gen Puri said the government was going ahead with implementing the Agnipath scheme and appealed to the youths to end their protest.

Indian Navy

• The naval headquarters will come out with a broad guideline for the recruitment by June 25.
• The first batch of recruits will join the training programme by November 21. The Navy is recruiting both men and women as Agniveers under the scheme.
• Indian Navy has 30 women officers at present sailing on different Indian Navy ships. Under Agnipath scheme, the Navy will recruit women also. They will be deployed on warships also.
• From November 21 this year, the first naval 'Agniveers' will start reaching the training establishment INS Chilka, Odisha. Both female and male Agniveers are allowed for this

Indian Air Force

• The plan for induction of recruits under the Agnipath scheme will start on June 24 and the process for online examination for phase one of the recruitment will begin on July 24.
• The Air force is planning to start the training for the first batch of recruits by December 30.

Indian Army

• The Army will issue a draft notification on Monday and subsequent notifications will be issued by various recruitment units of the force from July 1 onwards.
• Recruitment rallies under the Agnipath scheme will take place across India in August, September and October.
• The first batch comprising 25,000 personnel will join the training programme in the first and second week of December. The second lot of recruits will join their training around February 23.
• A total of 83 recruitment rallies will be organised across the country to select around 40,000 personnel.
• Around 17,600 people are taking premature retirement from the three Services every year.
• In next 4-5 years, our intake (of soldiers) will be 50,000-60,000 & will increase to 90,000 - 1 lakh subsequently. Indian Army started small at 46,000 to analyse the scheme...and to build up infra capacity.
• Intake of 'Agniveers' will go up to 1.25 lakhs in near future and will not remain at 46,000 which is the present figure.
• 'Agniveers' will get a compensation for Rs 1 crore if he sacrifices his life in service of the nation.
• The 'Agniveers' would get the same allowance in areas like Siachen and other areas which are applicable to the regular soldiers serving at present. No discrimination against them in service conditions.
• Agniveers would be entitled to honours&awards, as per extant guidelines governing the subject for Indian Army.
• Agniveers can be posted to any regiment/unit & can be further transferred to other regiments/units in org interest.