New Delhi: A new scheme called 'Agnipath' was rolled out by the centre on Tuesday for the recruitment of soldiers in the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.
The scheme, which will mostly be on a short-term contractual basis, was launched with an objective to slash the rising salary as well as pension bills.
The Cabinet Committee on Security gave its approval, after which, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced the new scheme at a media briefing.
While announcing the launch of the scheme, the Defence Minister said that the Agnipath recruitment scheme is a transformative initiative that will provide a youthful profile to the Indian Army.
"Under the Agnipath scheme, Indian youngsters will be provided an opportunity to serve in the armed forces as 'Agniveer'," the Defence Minister added.
The drastic changes in the recruitment process will witness the induction of the soldiers initially for a period of four years and some of them would be retained based on their performance.
Navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar said that under this scheme, young talented people from different parts of the country will get enrolled on the armed forces.
The Agnipath scheme, which was earlier deemed as the "Tour of Duty", was unveiled in the presence of the chiefs of the three services.
It is to be noted that this new scheme was meticulously contemplated for the last two years and it was announced after taking everything into consideration.
The soldiers who will be inducted under the scheme will be called "Agniveer".
The scheme intends to deduct the salary and pension bills of the three services, which have been swiftly going up.
It is worth mentioning that the defence budget of Rs 5,25,166 crore for 2022-23 included Rs 1,19,696 crore for defence pensions alone.
The allocation for revenue expenditure happened to be Rs 2,33,000 crore. The expenses on payment of salaries and maintenance of establishments are included under the revenue expenditure.
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