National Recruitment Agency to Conduct Online Test for Govt Jobs Twice a Year: Jitendra Singh

Terming the setting up of a National Recruitment Agency as "historic", Union minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday said it will conduct an online Common Eligibility Test for shortlisting candidates for majority of central government jobs twice a year.

He said the multiple recruitment examinations are a burden on the candidates, as also on the respective recruitment agencies, involving avoidable or repetitive expenditure, law and order or security-related issues and venue-related problems.

Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, said on an average 2.5-3 crore candidates appear in each of these examinations, but a Common Eligibility Test (CET) would enable these candidates to appear once and apply to any or all of these recruitment agencies for the higher level of examination. "This would indeed be a boon to all the candidates," he said.

Singh said there will be two tests per year under the NRA and the scores of the candidates will remain valid for three years. He said, besides Hindi and English, tests will be conducted in 12 languages in due course and efforts will be made to include all the languages mentioned in the eighth Schedule of the Constitution, according to a statement issued by the Personnel Ministry.

Singh said the decision of the Union Cabinet to set up a National Recruitment Agency to conduct a CET is a "historic, visionary and revolutionary reform" in the field of recruitment for central government jobs. Briefing the media here, he said the decision marks a paradigm shift in the government recruitment process.

Singh said the multi-agency body NRA will conduct a CET to screen or shortlist candidates for the Group B and C (non-technical) posts and will provide a level playing field to all candidates.

The minister said the move will not only lead to ease of recruitment, selection and job placement, but will also ultimately ensure ease of living, as about 1,000 centres, one in each district will be set up, where candidates can take the test.

He said the measure will immensely help the candidates from the far-flung and hilly areas and particularly the girl candidates, besides saving their valuable time and resources, the statement said. Singh said the NRA will come into force from next year and will be headquartered in Delhi.

He said state governments will also be advised to come on board in a true spirit of cooperative federalism. Singh also hoped that in the near future the private sector will also join the NRA.

He said the NRA will have representatives of the Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Finance/Department of Financial Services, Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (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 the central government recruitment, the statement said.