Agnipath scheme: 20 per cent of Agniveers inducted in Indian Navy to be women - Sources

The Indian Navy on Sunday gave details of their plan to induct Agniveers under the Agnipath recruitment scheme while adding that the naval headquarters will come out with a broad guideline for the same by June 25.

In an address to the media, Vice Admiral Dinesh Tripathi added that the first batch of recruits would join the training programme by November 21. He also confirmed the Indian Navy is recruiting both men and women as Agniveers.

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Under the scheme, 3,000 Agniveers will be inducted into the Indian Navy, of which sources say 20 per cent would be women.

"From November 21 this year, the first naval 'Agniveers' will start reaching the training establishment INS Chilka, Odisha. Both female and male Agniveers are allowed for this," Vice Admiral Dinesh Tripathi said.

"Indian Navy has 30 women officers at present sailing on different Indian Navy ships. We have decided that under the Agnipath scheme, we will recruit women also. They will be deployed on warships also," he added.

Meanwhile, Lt Gen A Puri, the additional secretary in the Department of Military Affairs, strongly defended the Agnipath scheme, saying that reducing the age profile of the three services has been on the table for some time and even the Kargil review committee had made observations on it. At a press conference, Lt Gen Puri said the government was going ahead with implementing the Agnipath scheme and appealed to the youths to end their protest. 

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Lt Gen Bansi Ponappa said the Indian Army would issue a draft notification on Monday, and various recruitment units of the force will issue subsequent notifications from July 1 onwards.

He said recruitment rallies under the Agnipath scheme would take place across India in August, September and October. 

Lt Gen Ponappa said the first batch comprising 25,000 personnel would join the training programme in the first and second week of December. A second lot of recruits will join their training around February 23. He said 83 recruitment rallies would be organised across the country to select around 40,000 personnel. 

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About the Indian Air Force's plan for induction of recruits under the Agnipath scheme, Air Marshall S K Jha said the registration process would start on June 24, and the process for online examination for phase one of the recruitment will begin on July 24. 

"We are planning to start the training for the first batch of recruits by December 30," Air Marshall Jha said. 

(With inputs from PTI)

• Agnipath
• Agniveer
• Indian Navy
• Indian Army
• Indian Air Force