Rajnath Singh to brief lawmakers on Agnipath on July 11

The three service chiefs, the defence secretary and other senior officials of the ministry will be present at the briefing. This will be the first official briefing to lawmakers on the new recruitment model.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh will on July 11 brief the Parliamentary consultative committee on defence on the government’s new Agnipath model for short-term induction of soldiers in the armed forces, the defence ministry said on Thursday.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh will brief the Parliamentary consultative committee on defence on the government’s new Agnipath model for short-term induction of soldiers in the armed forces, on July 11. (HT PHOTO.)

The minister “is scheduled to brief the committee members about various aspects of the recently launched scheme through which recruitment of soldiers in all the three services will henceforth take place,” the ministry said in a statement.

The three service chiefs, the defence secretary and other senior officials of the ministry will be present at the briefing. This will be the first official briefing to lawmakers on the new recruitment model.

The Agnipath scheme seeks to recruit soldiers for only four years, with a provision to retain 25% of them in the regular cadre for 15 years after another round of screening.

The armed forces will recruit 46,000 Agniveers this year – army (40,000), and the Indian Air Force and navy (3,000 each). The process of recruitment is currently on.

India had on June 14 announced the new scheme replacing the legacy system of recruitment to lower the age profile of the armed forces, ensure a fitter military and create a technically skilled war fighting force capable of meeting future challenges. It sparked widespread protests and forced a concerted outreach by the government to scotch apprehensions about the scheme.

The scheme has drawn a good response from defence aspirants. Almost 750,000 candidates have registered themselves for recruitment to IAF under the Agnipath model. This is the highest number of candidates to have registered for IAF jobs in any recruitment cycle, as reported by HT on Thursday.

In all, the air force has received 7,49,899 applications from defence aspirants, compared to 6,31,528 applications last year, which was the highest in any recruitment cycle, according to IAF data.