Equal opportunity to meet national recruitment agency, expenses will decrease

The Narendra Modi government is setting up a National Recruitment Agency (NRA). It will be an important institution for the initial evaluation of candidates for the country's largest employers. At a time when jobs are declining and wages are being cut and there is an atmosphere of uncertainty in the private sector, new arrangements will soon be introduced for recruitment in railways, banks, and central police organizations. This will reduce the expenses of both employers and job seekers.

The existing recruitment body will focus on correcting the second stage evaluation of the candidates after the initial evaluation. Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav said, "The formation of the National Recruitment Agency will significantly reduce the cost of travel and logistics. Candidates will not be required to sit for many types of examinations. This will be the first stage exam. Earlier for this stage, the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) had to deal with a large number of applications. The new assessment system will reduce the number of people appearing in the exam based on the score of the NRA exam.

Similarly, the Institute of Banking Employees Selection (IBPS) used to conduct a preliminary evaluation for recruitment in the bank. IBPS director B Hridayesh Kumar said, 'Now we can focus on the main selection process. This will enhance the quality of assessment work.

Lastly, hiring organizations will not have to change much in the process. The NRA examinations will be conducted at 1,000 centers in all districts of the country.

Union Bank of India Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Rajkiran Rai said that this will also bring the rural population into the mainstream. He said, 'This will lead to a balance after a time. At present, the supply of talent has been limited mainly to the cities.

The Railway Union employs people through the Public Service Commission (UPSC), Railway Recruitment Boards (RRB) and Railway Recruitment Cell (RRC). During the last three years, 84,534 youths have been employed for various railway posts. There are expected to be 18,268 recruits in the current year. Earlier, during 2014-15 to 2016-17, 62,773 people were appointed to various posts.

The RRB has finalized recruitment to 1,27,573 posts for various vacancies of Group-C through two Centralized Appointment Notifications (CELs). Similarly, in 2018-19, 1,56,138 vacancies were notified through five CELs at various posts of Group C including Level-1.

Apart from RRBs and IBPS, the NRA will also give scores to those candidates, who are currently recruited through the Staff Selection Commission (SSC). SSC works under the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which makes appointments for various posts at the junior level in the government. Such candidates don't need to have a bachelor's degree. The NRA will get support from the three SSC, RRB, and IBPC. The NRA will conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) for second and third-tier posts (non-technical). These three organizations have a wealth of experience and data. A public sector bank said that the NRA would be able to use these to establish better standards for candidates.

At this time, candidates seeking a government job have to sit the examinations conducted by various recruitment agencies and the qualifications are the same for them. Not only this, the candidates have to pay fees to various recruitment agencies and have to travel long distances to participate in the examinations. According to the letter information office, 25 to 30 candidates sit in each of these exams. Although the cost will be reduced for both the candidate and the employer, but due to financial constraints some organizations have to reduce the new recruitment. The situation is that even after the declaration of results, call letters are not being issued or the results are not being declared at all.

Meanwhile, the expenditure on the staff of various departments is also increasing. Indian Railways' expenditure on employees increased by 64 percent to Rs 92,993.08 crore in 2020-21 from Rs 56,817.48 crore in 2015-16. On 23 January, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said that in the next two years, the Railways has decided to appoint 2,30,000 people. In 2018, the Railway Recruitment Board conducted a computerized assessment test for 1,27,278 posts. Similarly, in 2016 also, Railways took the exam for appointments on 18,252 posts. Interestingly, until the beginning of this year, such candidates did not contribute. In February, the Railways also issued notification to fill 131,000 different posts. After appearing in the NRA examination, candidates will be able to apply for one or all of the recruitment agencies for the next phase of the examination.