The National Recruitment Agency (NRA) will start conducting online tests for select categories of government jobs from September. Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh gave this information on Wednesday. He said that the NRA will conduct the Common Eligibility Test (CET) to screen / shortlist the candidates for government sector jobs, for which the current appointment is Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) and Institute of Banking This is done through personal selection (IBPS).
NRA will take preliminary exam
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Singh said that the NRA will conduct an only preliminary examination of the candidate. The last appointment will be through some field-specific examinations/tests. The respective agencies like SSC, RRB and IBPS will operate. Based on the score in the CET conducted by the NRA, the candidates can appear in the field-based examination/test conducted by the respective recruitment agencies.
He further said that the NRA will identify language experts, who translate the questions in all the regional languages included in the 8th schedule of the constitution. This will be on the basis of need in which a sufficient number of applicants choose to take the test in regional language. The minister said that it is expected that the NRA will start operating the CET from September 2021.
What is National Recruitment Agency?
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced this in last year’s budget. In August 2020, the Modi cabinet approved the establishment of the National Recruitment Agency on Wednesday. The National Recruitment Agency will work as a nodal agency for the appointment of all government jobs at the central level. Currently many agencies are involved for recruitment in government jobs. There are constitutional bodies from the Union Public Service Commission to the Staff Selection Commission. The NRA will take this Common Eligibility Test to select candidates for the Group-C and Group-B posts.