The Government of India on Wednesday approved the proposal to set up National Recruitment Agency (NRA) which aims to replace the multiple job examinations with a Common Entrance Test (CET).

The announcement was made by Union Minister Prakash Javadekar during a press briefing over several cabinet decisions. With the approval of NRA, nearly 2.5 job seekers in India who apply for multiple examinations to various government and public sector agencies will now have to appear for a single online entrance test, CET, the scores of which will be valid for up to three years.

The proposal to set up NRA for conducting CET was part of the announcements made by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union budget speech on February 1 this year.

The CET proposal seeks to cut costs, inconvenience and time — for the government, recruiting agencies and candidates — taken in recruitment process for non-gazetted posts in the government and public sector banks.

As of now, aspirants need to appear for multiple examinations conducted by different agencies at different points of time, for similar posts demanding similar eligibility criteria. This places enormous burden on time, effort and cost of young people, said a government officer.

The CET score — valid for three years from date of declaration of the result — will be made available to the candidate as well as to the individual recruitment agency. Each candidate will have two additional chances to improve his score, and the best of all scores will be considered.

CET merit list may be made available to the states by NRA on cost-sharing basis, for undertaking recruitment to state government jobs.

SOURCE : IIK