Online Exam For Select Government Recruitment, NRA Constituted: Jitendra Singh

The Minister of State for Personnel, Mr Jitendra Singh on 28th December 2020 (Monday) announced that A Common Eligibility Test (CET) will be conducted online by a newly formed body – National Recruitment Agency or NRA, starting next year to shortlist candidates for recruitment to select central government jobs.

What is the NRA?

The National Recruitment Agency was constituted with the approval of the Union Cabinet. It is a Multi-agency body that will be conducting the Common Eligibility Test (CET) across the country from next year that will screen and shortlist candidates for recruitment to select central government jobs.

How is the NRA beneficial?

How will this new reform benefit the candidates? The NRA Will ensure that every district in the country has at least one examination centre, which is easily accessible to candidates living in distant areas. It will also benefit women, Divyang candidates and even those candidates who cannot financially afford to appear for multiple tests by travelling to multiple centres.

Will the NRA Affect other recruiting agencies?

There are already some existing central recruiting agencies like SSC, RRBs and IBPS that conducts recruitments every year for various posts. Mr Singh also mentioned that NRA will be an independent autonomous organisation that will shortlist candidates for different categories, recruitment for which is already being conducted by the existing recruiting agencies: IBPS, RRBs & SSC.

According to this new reform, these recruiting agencies will continue to conduct the specific recruitments as per their requirements. The CET will only be conducted for the preliminary screening of the candidates for the jobs.

Mr Jitendra Singh said that the first common eligibility test that will be conducted by NRA is likely to be scheduled by the second half of 2021.