Agniveer Recruitment 2022 | IAF Says Nearly 57,000 Applications Received In Three Days

According to an official notification, the online examination for the same will be held exactly one month later i.e. on July 24.

Representative Image. (File Photo/ PTI)

New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Monday said 56,960 applications have been received till date from the future Agniveers in response to the Agnipath recruitment application process, news agency Asian News International (ANI) reported. Earlier on Friday, the IAF started registration for the first batch of Agniveers for the new military recruitment plan.

According to an official notification, the online examination for the same will be held exactly one month later i.e. on July 24.

Earlier last week, Department of Military Affairs Additional Secretary Lieutenant General Anil Puri told ABP News in an exclusive conversation that the need for such a scheme was felt after the 1999 Kargil War with Pakistan and added the country’s future is connected with the youth.

“This scheme is needed in the army not from today, but the need was felt after the Kargil war. The Kargil War Committee had then said that the army in our country has a very important contribution in maintaining peace on the border,” Lieutenant General Puri said.

“Our average age today is 32 years, but we were then asked to reduce that age to 26 years. The only motive behind bringing this scheme is to ensure more jawans come under this. By 2030, 50 percent of our country’s population will be below 25 years of age. Our Indian Army should be the reflection of such a big demographic dividend,” he added.

Lieutenant General Puri further said “this scheme has been brought to make the army young”.

The Union Cabinet had on June 14 approved a recruitment scheme called Agnipath for the Indian youth to serve in the armed forces.

The scheme allows patriotic and motivated youth to serve in the armed forces for a period of four years.

The youth joining the armed forces under the Agnipath scheme will be known as Agniveers.

The youth in the age bracket of 17-and-half to 23 will be recruited for the armed forces under this scheme.

The Agniveers will be able to apply voluntarily for the regular cadre after four years. Up to 25 percent of the youth shall be selected from a particular batch based on merit and organisation requirement.