[ Bengia Ajum ]
ITANAGAR, 2 Aug: In a first of its achievement, Gaurav Panwar a 2022 batch APCS officer currently posted as circle officer at Parbuk in Lower Dibang Valley district has cleared the examination for Territorial Army (TA) and has been selected for commissioning as Lieutenant.
In doing so, he has become the first civil servant from the state to clear examinations for TA and fourth in the country. Earlier an IAS, IRS and RAS officer had cleared this examination.
Gaurav completed his schooling from Air Force School, Hindan and B. Tech from SRM University, Chennai. He is also an alumnus of Indian Naval Academy, where he successfully completed the Naval Orientation Course.
In the written examinations thousands of candidates appeared of which 2485 received a call for the preliminary interview. From it only dozens received the recommendation to join the TA. The exam was conducted by the Service Selection Board (SSB). While he will continue to serve as APCS officer in the state, annually he will have to serve for one month in the Territorial Army.
TA is a voluntary service commitment and not a full time employment.
While talking to this daily, he said his training at the Naval Academy before joining APCS motivated him to try for TA. “I didn’t know much about TA until I read the book ‘India’s most fearless’ where I read about IRS officer Major Pradeep Shaury Arya. Despite being a civil servant he was awarded the Shaurya Chakra for gallantry. That motivated me for TA as there is no better feeling than serving the motherland. Also I saw the importance of civil-military coordination after joining civil services and felt that I can bridge that gap between two, which would help us be better at our service,” he added.
Regarding the TA exam, he shared that it has several stages, which ranges from written exam to 5 day SSB exam. “SSB involves aptitude test, psychology test, military planning exercise, group obstacle task, individual endurance tests, command task, picture perception and description test and interviews, to name a few,” shared Gaurav.
