Cabinet approves National Recruitment Agency to conduct Common Eligibility Test

After the Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar said during a press briefing that the historic move will allow job-seekers to take one common test.

This would help them save examination fees apart from other expenses (such as travel, boarding, and lodging) spent to reach examination centers.

Currently, candidates seeking government jobs have to appear for separate examinations conducted by multiple recruitment agencies despite the eligibility criteria being similar.

Hence, candidates end up paying a hefty amount as examination fee to multiple agencies, apart from the expenses borne to travel long distances to appear for each examination.

An average of 2.5-3 crore candidates appear in each of these examinations.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh said candidates can now appear for the CET and apply to any or all of these recruitment agencies for the higher level of examination.

The initial plan is to establish 1,000 exam centers across India, Singh said, adding there will be at least one exam center in each district. This would ensure that no candidate has to travel long distances.

The CET will be conducted to screen/shortlist candidates for the Group B and Group C (non-technical) positions.

Initially, the CET scores will only be used by three major recruitment agencies, but other agencies will be included later.

The score will be valid for three years and there will be no bar on the number of attempts, but the upper age limit will apply.

The NRA will have representatives from the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Finance/Department of Financial Services, the Staff Selection Commission, the Railway Recruitment Board, and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).

A sum of Rs. 1,517.57 crore has been sanctioned to establish the NRA, to be based in Delhi. The Chairperson would be of the rank of a Secretary to the government.