Defence Forces

Armed Forces offer excellent career opportunities to the enthusiastic and adventurous young candidates who wish to excel in the uniformed forces. The career provides very good openings for physical fitness, adventure and sporting opportunities on the one hand and good prospects of growth in service, new challenges, attractive salary and perks and the satisfaction of defending the borders of the country on the other. Every selected candidate has to undergo rigorous pre-commissioning training before induction into the service as an officer in the rank of Second Lieutenant (Army) or Acting Sub-Lieutenant (Navy) or Pilot Officer (Air Force), as the case many be. Facilities like free medical aid, concessional residential accommodation, free rations, free/concessional travel by rail, group insurance, Defence Service Officers Provident Fund (DSOP), etc, are also available. The defence officers also get adequate opportunities to undergo specialist training courses like Driving and Maintenance Course, Course on Marine Diving, Parachute Jumping and Sky Diving Course, Mountaineering Course, etc, in addition to routine professional courses. In addition, sufficient opportunities are also available to pursue the interests in activities like sportsboth indoors and well as outdoors.

Time-bound promotions and increments are available up to a particular limit and the officers with the outstanding performance during the entire service career may hope to rise to the highest rank in the respective service. It also enables a service officer to get an opportunity to carry out several acts of gallantry and get rewarded with a decoration from the President of India. Moreover, the service offers a very good social and regimented life alongwith the pleasure of directly defending one's motherland.




Selection Process

Combined Defence Services (CSD) Examination is usually conducted twice in a year by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in the months of May and October. The examination is conducted to select direct entry candidates as officers to the following four training academies.

(i) Indian Military Academy (IMA) Dehradun for permanent Commission in the Indian Army.
(ii) Officers Training Academy (OTA) Madras for Short-Service Commission in the Indian Army.
(iii) Naval Academy Goa, for Commission in the General Services in the Indian Navy.
(iv) Airforce Academy, Begumpet, Hyderabad for Commission in the Indian Airforce.

The selection process in which over 500 candidates are usually selected every time for all four academies, has the following three stages:

(a) Written Examination by the UPSC.
(b) Intelligence and personality test by the Service Selection Board (SSB).
(c) Medical Examination.

All such candidates as qualify all above tests may hope to get a call for pre-Commission training on the basis of their final rank and choice.

(a) Written Examination: All unmarried male graduates are eligible to appear for IMA and OTA, whereas the qualification required for Naval Academy is B.Sc. with Physics and Mathematics or Bachelor of Engineering. For Air Force Academy a degree with Mathematics and Physics or equivalent is required. The minimum age is 18 years at the time of taking the examination. The upper age limit, however, varies. It is 24 years for OTA, 23 years for IMA, 21 years for Naval Academy and 22 years for the Airforce Academy. Since the selection process takes almost one year (from the time of filling up the form), the actual lower and upper age-limits are enhanced by one year in all above cases.

Subjects of Nepal, Bhutan or Tibetan refugees who immigrated before January 1, 1962, are also eligible subject to a certificate of eligibility from the Government of India. It is also pertinent to add that no reservations on the basis of caste and tribe are there there in Defence Services. However, there are certain seats reserved for the holders of "C-Certificate" of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) who are exempted from passing the written examination. Married candidates, if otherwise eligible, are allowed to take the examination only for OTA Madras.

The written examination is objective type in nature. The candidates are tested in the following three subjects for IMA, Naval Academy and Airforce Academy.

1. English 100 marks (2 hours)
2. General Knowledge 100 marks (2 hours)
3. Elementary Mathematics 100 marks (2 hours)


For OTA Madras, only first two papers are required to be qualified. Question papers are set only in English. The English paper is designed to test the understanding of English language and the use of workman-like words. The syllabus is equivalent to the graduate level examination. The General Knowledge paper includes questions on History of India, Geography, current affairs and the matters of day-to-day observation and the experience in their scientific aspects as may be expected of an educated person without specific study of any subject. The paper in Elementary Mathematics is of matriculation standard and includes questions on Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Mensuration and Basic statistics.

There are 30 centres of examination all over the country. The names of these centres are: Agartala, Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Allahabad, Bangalore, Bareilly, Bhopal, Bombay, Calcutta, Chandigarh, Cochin, Cuttack, Delhi, Dharwar, Dispur, Gangtok, Hyderabad, Imphal, Itanagar, Jaipur, Jammu, Jorhat, Kohima, Lucknow, Madras, Madurai, Nagpur, Panaji, Patna, Port Blair, Raipur, Sambalpur, Shillong, Shimla, Srinagar, Tirupati, Trivandrum, Udaipur and Vishakhapatnam.

(b) Intelligence and Personality Test: All the candidates declared successful by the UPSC in the written examination are then put to intelligence and personality test by the SSB, popularly known as the SSB interview. This interview is a comprehensive test of one's personality, intelligence and suitability to be chosen as an officer in the Defence Services. SSB interview lasts for 3 to 4 days and has several components like intelligence tests, group discussion, small lectures on general issues, group planning, outdoor group tasks, physical fitness tests, an interview and several psychological tests like situation reaction test, picturestory writing test (TAT), etc. All these tests are intended to judge the physical and mental faculties of a candidate. In broad terms, S.S.B. interview is in fact an assessment of not only intellectual qualities of a candidate but is also an appraisal of his social traits and general interests which help in assessing his suitability for the service.

(c) Medical Examination: The candidates declared successful after SSB interviews are then required to undergo a detailed examination by a medical board in the nearest Military Hospital. This test again lasts for 3 to 4 days. The minimum required standards of medical fitness are quite stringent which are different for all three wings of services. To avoid last minute disappointment the candidates are advised to get themselves medically examined on their own before they apply for the examination.


Pre-Commission Training

A merit list is finally prepared, consisting of candidates who qualify all the three tests listed above. On the basis of their ranking in the final merit list and choice of service, the candidates are selected for pre-Commission training in the concerned Academy and are called upon to join the Academy as a "Gentleman Cadet".

The training is quite rigorous in nature and lays emphasis on physical fitness, drill, academics, weapon training, tactics and professional competence at junior leadership level. After a given duration of training (which varies from Academy to Academy) the successful candidates are Commissioned in the concerned Defence Service i.e. Indian Army, Indian Navy or Indian Airforce. It is also pertinent to add that all the cadets Commissioned through OTA Madras as short-service Commissioned Officers are initially Commissioned for a period of five years, after which they have an option to either continue or leave the service. All the non-optees are then released from service who are eligible to get all the benefits, except pension, that are available to ex-servicemen. Service record of those who opt to continue is scrutinised and all those found suitable are then granted permanent Commission. All those who are not found fit for permanent Commission are given an extension of service for a period of five years during which period they are allowed to apply for alternate employment and as soon as they get a job, they are released from service.

Coaching and Preparation
Candidates are advised to carry out a planned preparation for the written examination. A review of previous question papers is particularly beneficial. Regular reference to a good competition magazine like "The Competition Master" may be of immense use as it would assist the candidates in preparing English and General Knowledge papers. Features on Personality Development and General Intelligence are quite useful during the SSB interview.
The interview needs special preparations. As different from usual interviews, it is a comprehensive personality test to which most fresh candidates have no previous exposure. It is suggested that the candidates should go through some standard book on SSB interviews. It is also recommended that fresh candidates should join some coaching academy providing fruitful coaching for SSB interviews. Such academies/institutions are being run by retired service officers in several cities and towns.

Further Details
Detailed advertisement is published about six months before the date of examination in all leading newspapers which gives details of the examination. Complete details like rules, syllabus, medical standards, number of vacancies, etc are given in the corresponding issue of "Employment News". In addition, candidates Information Manuals containing details of objective-type-tests including sample questions, are supplied to all candidates alongwith the admission certificate, by the UPSC.


NDA and Naval Academy

The CDS Examination facilitates the graduates to seek careers in the defence forces as direct entry officers. Another opportunity, to the bright and energetic deserving candidates is available as NDA/Naval Academy Entry officers. This avenue is open to relatively younger candidates with 10+2 qualifications. NDA and Naval Academy (Executive Branch) provides assured career at young age with no financial burden of four-year training in the various training academies. The training at NDA culminates with a graduation degree from the Jawahar Lal Nehru University. Three-year training at NDA is followed up by one-year professional training at Indian Military Academy (IMA) for the Army, Naval Academy for the Indian Navy and Air Force Academy for the Air Force.

All these wings of Defence Forces offer very good career opportunities blended with adventure. Besides offering one of the best pay structure in the government service, the forces also offer facilities like free rations, free medical facilities, free/concessional travel by rail during leave, provident fund, group insurance and concessional residential accommodation. Besides, defence forces also offer a good social and regimented life. Time-bound promotions, upto a particular level, for all officers and selective top promotions to the meritorious and bright officers is the hallmark of a career in the defence forces.

The Selection Process
The UPSC conducts the NDA and Naval Academy (Executive Branch) Examination twice every year usually in the months of April and September. Each examination is conducted to select 350 candidates, with 214 seats for the Army, 43 for the Navy 73 for the Air Force and 20 seats for the Executive Branch of Naval Academy. At the time of submitting the applications, the candidates are required to give their preferences for particular wings of the forces. The advertisement for September Examination usually apperars in April, every year, in all major national and regional newspapers. Similarly, the advertisement for April examination usually appears in September/October. Simultaneously the detailed advertisement also appears in the "Employment News" of the concerned week.

(a) Eligibility: Only unmarried male candidates of the age group of 161/2 years to 19 years are eligible to take the examination for NDA/Naval Academy (Executive Branch). Educational qualification for Army and Air Force wing at NDA is 12th pass of 10+2 pattern or equivalent. For Naval wing of NDA and Naval Academy (Executive Branch), the educational qualification is 12th pass of 10+2 pattern with Physics and Mathematics or equivalent. The candidates appearing for the final examination of 10+2 standard are also eligible to appear.

For being eligible to appear in the examination, a candidate must be a citizen of India or a subject of Bhutan or Nepal. Tibetan refugees or persons of Indian Origin migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia and Vietnam, with the intention of permanently settling in India, are also eligible. However, candidates belonging to these categories shall need to obtain a certificate of eligibility from the Government of India.

A candidate seeking admission to the examination must send his application form to the UPSC on the proforma given in the advertisement for this examination. The admission to the examination is purely provisional as no certificates are required to be attached with the application.

(b) Written Examination: The candidates are tested in two papers of 21/2 hours duration each. First paper is of "Mathematics" and carries a maximum of 600 marks. The question papers consist of objective type questions and are set in English only. There is no fixed pass percentage of marks and depending on the number of candidates appearing in the examination and their overall performance, the qualifying marks are determined.

The paper-I on Mathematics is of Matriculation Examination standard and consists questions on Arithmetic, Mensuration, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry and Statistics. Paper-II on General Ability consists of two parts. Part-A comprises of the test of English Language to judge the general understanding of English Language by the candidates and carries 200 marks. Part-B of Paper-II consists of General Knowledge carrying 400 marks and has six sections. The weightage given to these six sections of General Knowledge is: Physics 25% Chemistry 15%, General Science 10%, History, Freedom Movement etc 20%, Geography 20% and current Affairs 10%.

There are 40 centres of examination. The names of these centres are: Agartala, Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Allahabad, Bangalore, Bareilly, Bhopal, Bombay, Calcutta, Chandigarh, Cochin, Cuttack, Delhi, Dharwar, Dispur, Gangtok, Hyderabad, Imphal, Itanagar, Jaipur, Jammu, Jorhat, Kavaratti, Kohima, Lucknow, Madras, Madurai, Nagpur, Panaji, Patna, Port Blair, Raipur, Sambalpur, Shillong, Shimla, Srinagar, Tirupati, Trivandrum, Udaipur and Vishakhapatnam.

(c) Intelligence and Personality Test: Just like the CDS Examination, all the candidates declared successful in the written examination are required to qualify an intelligence and personality test conducted by the Services Selection Board (SSB). The intelligence tests at SSB are both oral as well as written and are designed to judge the basic intelligence of the candidates. During the four-day-personality test, the candidates are also put to Group Tests such as group discussion, group planning, outdoor group tasks etc. All these tests are aimed at judging the behaviour of the candidate in a group. In addition the personality test also requires a candidate to deliver an impromptu lecturette on the subjects of general interest as well as to clear ten obstacles in 30 seconds. This way mental calibre as well as physical robustness of the candidates is judged. The SSB interview is also blended with a series of psychological tests like Situation REaction Test (SRT) and pictures story writing. These psychological tests are aimed at judging the trait of positive outlook of the candidate. In broad terms, the intelligence and personality test is not only the test of intellectual faculties of the candidates but is also directed at judging their social traits, interest in current affairs and physical and psychological toughness which finally helps to judge their suitability for the services.

The candidates declared successful after the SSB interview are then required to undergo a comprehensive medical examination by a medical board in a local Military Hospital. To avoid the last minute disappointment the candidates are advised to get themselves medically examined as per the prescribed standards. Prescribed standards of medical fitness are given in the detailed advertisement given in the Employment News.

The Training Academies
On the basis of performance of the candidates in the written examination and the personality test, final merit list is prepared and published in all leading newspapers. The candidates, on the basis of their rank in the final merit list and preference, are asked to join at the NDA or Naval Academy (Executive Branch).

The three-year training at NDA includes the qualifying of certain physical standards, basic knowledge of three wings of the armed forces and study of academics leading to a graduation degree. In addition, basic etiquettes of the forces, discipline in the armed forces and basics of drill etc are also taught. After successful training spreading over six terms of six months each at NDA, the candidates, as per their choice, go to the Indian Military Academy for Army or to the Naval Academy for Navy or to the Air-Force Academy for Air Force for two terms of six months each. On successful completion of training at these academies, the cadets are Commissioned into the defence forces as Second Lieutenant (Army) or Acting sub-Lieutenant (Navy) or Pilot Officer (Air-Force). During the last six months of training the cadets are also entitled to the salary which is given to them in lump-sum, on commissioning.

Coaching and Preparations
Preparations for the written examination needs special attention, Mathematics paper, being theoretical in nature is comparatively easy to prepare. Paper-II (General Ability) needs special attention and preparation which consists of English and General Knowledge. Regular reading of "The Competition Master" is particularly useful for Paper-II as it effectively helps the candidates to prepare for English Language and General Knowledge. Similarly, SSB interview being different from routine interviews needs special preparations. There are certain academies, particularly those run by former officers of the defence forces, which provide useful coaching to the candidates preparing for the interview. The candidates may choose genuine academies and undergo coaching for the interview.

Further details about the examination are available in the detailed advertisment which appears in the Employment News. Information about the examination is also given in the "Candidates Information Manual" which gives details about objective-type tests. This booklet is supplied by the UPSC to all the candidates alongwith the admission certificate.