National Recruitment Agency (NRA)
- NRA is a testing agency which would conduct the Common Eligibility Examination (CET) for non-gazetted Group B and C posts.
- Initially, it will conduct the recruitment examinations for Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) and Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and would gradually expand its operations.
- National Recruitment Agency will be a Society registered under the Societies Registration Act,1860.
- The NRA will be a specialist body bringing state-of-the-art technology and best practices to the field of Central Government recruitment.
- However, the present recruitment agencies i.e, IBPS, RRB and SSC will remain in place.
- Based on the screening done at the CET score level, final selection for recruitment shall be made through separate specialised Tiers (II, III, etc.) of examination which shall be conducted by these respective recruitment agencies.
Composition
- It will be headed by a Chairman of the rank of the Secretary to the Government of India.
- The NRA will have representatives from the Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Finance/Department of Financial Services, Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).
The Process
- The examinations will be conducted in 12 languages and will be based on a common curriculum.
- There will be common registration, a single fee and gradually the candidates need not travel outside the district to appear for the examination.
- There will be a special focus on creating examination infrastructure in the 117 Aspirational Districts.
- A standardised question bank with multiple questions of similar difficulty levels will be created in a central server.
- An algorithm will be used to jumble and dole out different questions, so that each candidate receives a different question paper, reducing the chances of cheating and paper leakage.
- Scores will be generated quickly, delivered online and be valid for a three-year period.
- Students can write the test multiple times as long as they are within the eligible age limit, with their best score being taken into account.
- The test will be conducted for three levels i.e, graduate, higher secondary (12th pass) and matriculate (10th pass) candidates.