Himalaya Harbinger, Rudrapur Burea
The Union cabinet has approved a two-year service extension for Agniveers, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General NS Raja Subramani announced on Wednesday. “… 25% of those [Agniveers] who complete their initial four-year engagement period will be enrolled as regular soldiers. Regarding the remaining 75%, the Indian Defence Forces have recommended—and the Cabinet has approved today—that they be granted a second engagement period of two years,” the CDS said. He added: “After completing this two-year engagement period, all willing Agniveers will be enrolled in the Armed Forces, subject to objective selection criteria.”The move comes weeks before the three services were to start releasing 75% of Agniveers from their first batch in phases starting mid-November.
Over 18,300 Agniveers were to exit the armed forces by December 31 after completing their four-year term.The Agnipath recruitment model—long a political flashpoint because it cuts the tenure of personnel below officer rank and offers them fewer service benefits—was introduced in 2022 to keep the armed forces young and combat-ready.
Under Agnipath, soldiers are recruited for a four-year term, with a provision to retain only 25% of them in regular service for another 15 years.
The 18,300 soldiers, who were to be released this year, account for three-fourths of the 24,400 recruits inducted into the army, air force and navy in the first round of recruitment. The first batch comprised around 19,000 Agniveers in the army, 2,850 in the IAF and 2,550 in the navy, according to official data.
Officials earlier said the scheme could be tweaked in the future to retain more Agniveers with specialised skills. The army currently has around 270,000 Agniveers, the IAF around 27,000 and the navy roughly 21,000, the officials said.
The Agnipath model marked a major departure from the military’s decades-old recruitment system, which the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government replaced when it announced the new scheme in June 2022.
