Making officers & gentlemen

By Ranjan K Baruah

The National Defence Academy (NDA) is an iconic institution, a global brand of excellence in the sphere of military education. Over the years it has emerged as a unique military academy, attracting the best of youth from our nation and also from friendly foreign countries and transforming them into officers and gentlemen.
NDA is located in Pune city and spreads over 7,015 acres of land.
NDA (II) Exam 2017: Union Public Service Commission shall conduct written test for NDA and NA on September 10 for admission to the Army, Navy and Air Force wings of the NDA for the 140th Course, and for the 102nd Indian Naval Academy Course (INAC) commencing from July 2, 2018. Only unmarried male candidates born not earlier than January 2, 1999, and not later than January 1, 2002, are eligible. The last date for sending online application is June 30.
The approximate number of vacancies to be filled on the results of this examination will be National Defence Academy: 335 (208 for Army, 55 for Navy and 72 for Air Force); Naval Academy: 55 (10+2 Cadet Entry Scheme). For Army Wing of National Defence Academy aspirants should be 12th pass and for Air Force and Naval Wings of National Defence Academy and for the 10+2 Cadet Entry Scheme at the Indian Naval Academy aspirants should be 12th pass with Physics and Mathematics. Students who are appearing in the 12th final can also apply for this examination.
Scheme of Examination: The subjects of the written examination, the time allowed and the maximum marks allotted to each subject will be as follows —
Mathematics: 2.5 hours (300 marks)
General Ability Test: 2.5 hours (600)
Total: 900
SSB Test/Interview: 900
Joining NDA and then becoming an officer for any boys is lifetime opportunity. Aspirants must be physical fit if they want to join defence forces. For syllabus of the NDA exams aspirants may visit the website of Union Public Service Commission.
Details are also published in the advertisements. I have used the information from the official web site of NDA/UPSC for compiling this write up. Interested may visit the official website for further details and other notifications. Though this exam is only for boys but we may wish that soon there would be similar exams for our young women.
Aspirants must be emotionally stable and socially active if they want to serve the nation by joining defence forces as officers. There are many from North East who are serving the defence forces as officers. There are officers from North East who has become Air Marshal, Lt General in the defence forces. In case of Navy we have Commodore as highest position so far from Assam. In future we wish that there would be more officers from North East who could serve the nation as officers by joining forces through NDA.
Apart from NDA and NA exams there are other options through which aspirants may join defence forces as officers. Some of the other exams are like CDSE, Technical Entry, WSES, etc. We shall publish about other options in our forthcoming editions.
Aspirants may visit the official website of Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force for career options and how to join these forces.

(Ranjan K Baruah is a career mentor and can be reached at [email protected] or 9864055558 for any career related queries)