\n
NEW DELHI, 14 Jun:<\/strong> India unveiled a new scheme called ‘Agnipath’ on Tuesday for the recruitment of soldiers in the army, the navy and the air force, largely on a short-term contractual basis, with an aim to cut the ballooning salary and pensions bill.<\/p>\n Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced the new scheme at a media briefing, shortly after the Cabinet Committee on Security approved it.<\/p>\n “The Agnipath recruitment scheme is a transformative initiative that will provide a youthful profile to the armed forces,” Singh said.<\/p>\n The changes in the recruitment process will see the induction of the soldiers initially for a period of four years and some of them would be retained.<\/p>\n “Under the Agnipath scheme, Indian youngsters will be provided an opportunity to serve in the armed forces as ‘agniveer’,” the defence minister said.<\/p>\n Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar said the scheme would ensure a wider talent pool for recruitment in the armed forces, adding that women will also be inducted into armed forces under it.<\/p>\n Army Chief General Manoj Pande said the scheme aims to bring a paradigm shift in recruitment in the armed forces.<\/p>\n It will help ensure optimum balance between youth and experience in the army, he added.<\/p>\n General Pande said that the army’s operational capability will be fully maintained during the initial implementation stage of the scheme.<\/p>\n The ‘Agnipath’ scheme, earlier christened as ‘Tour of Duty’, was launched in the presence of the chiefs of the three services.<\/p>\n The new scheme was announced after extensive deliberations on it over the last two years.<\/p>\n The soldiers to be recruited under the scheme will be called ‘agniveer’.<\/p>\n Currently, the army recruits young people under the short service commission for an initial tenure of 10 years, which is extendable up to 14 years.<\/p>\n The scheme is aimed at slashing the salary and pension bills of the three services, which have been increasing rapidly.<\/p>\n The defence budget of Rs 5,25,166 crore for 2022-23 included Rs 1,19,696 crore for defence pensions.<\/p>\n The allocation for revenue expenditure was Rs 2,33,000 crore. The revenue expenditure includes the expenses on payment of salaries and maintenance of establishments. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW DELHI, 14 Jun: India unveiled a new scheme called ‘Agnipath’ on Tuesday for the recruitment of soldiers in the army, the navy and the air force, largely on a short-term contractual basis, with an aim to cut the ballooning salary and pensions bill. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced the new scheme at a media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-193185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}