IAF receives highest ever recruitment registrations due to ‘Agnipath’

This is the highest number of candidates to have registered for air force jobs in any recruitment cycle, IAF said.

Nearly 750,000 candidates have registered for recruitment in the Indian Air Force (IAF) under the central government’s new Agnipath scheme for short-term induction into the armed forces, a ministry of defence spokesperson said on Wednesday.

IAF personnel at the Hindon air force station in Ghaziabad on the outskirts of New Delhi. (File Photo)

“The registration process concludes with the highest number of applications received during a recruitment cycle! 7,49,899 applications. Stay tuned for more updates,” tweeted A Bharat Bhushan Babu, principal spokesperson, ministry of defence.

This is the highest number of candidates to have registered for air force jobs in any recruitment cycle, IAF said.

To be sure, recruitment to the army had shut down for two years while the air force and navy conducted it on a limited scale in the same period owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. HT had reported in April about aspirants in Haryana who were demanding that recruitments be re-opened.

Online registrations for IAF entry under Agnipath opened on June 24 and the window closed on Tuesday. Candidates who have registered will be competing for 3,000 jobs in the air force.

According to data shared by the IAF, it has received 749,899 applications this year compared to 631,528 applications in 2021, which was the previous highest in any recruitment cycle. Those recruited under the new scheme will be called Agniveer Vayu.

Aspirants will now have to undertake an online examination between July 24 and July 31 and those who pass will have to undergo a medical examination between August and November.

The list of selected candidates is scheduled to be announced in early December and the course is scheduled to begin on December 30. Under the Agnipath scheme, the government had announced that it would recruit 46,000 candidates this year — 40,000 by the army and 3,000 each by the navy and the IAF.

Online registrations for army and navy asiprants started on July 1. The army will kick off recruitment rallies in August, followed by a common entrance exam between October 16 and November 13, according to the army’s recruitment schedule. The selected candidates will report to training centres in December. The army’s first set of Agniveers will join their units in July 2023; the navy will follow a similar timeline.

The unprecedented response IAF received under Agnipath proves that the apprehensions of those opposed to the scheme were unfounded, said Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retd), director general of the Centre for Air Power Studies.

“People still feel they have a great opportunity to serve the nation through the new scheme, and they will work very hard to compete and become permanent air warriors,” Chopra added.

Agnipath scheme was announced by the central government on June 14. It provides for recruitment of youths in the age bracket of 17-and-a-half to 21 for four years with the provision to retain 25% of them for 15 more years while the remaining 75% will get a one-time financial package of roughly ₹11.71 lakh.

The announcement led to nationwide protests with violence, stone pelting and incidents of torching trains reported from Bihar, Telangana. Later, the government extended the upper age limit to 23 years for recruitment in 2022 as a one-time waiver.