 Indian youths are playing a crucial role in achieving Atman Irbar and this Agnipath scheme is providing a closer step to it. It is providing the Indian youths an opportunity to fulfill their dreams of joining the different sector and it is not only empowering them with military preparedness, it also ensures that they are becoming a better citizen. So to know more about this Agnipath scheme, do watch this video continuously. Firstly, what is Agnipath scheme? It is a defence personnel recruitment scheme under which 45,000 to 50,000 soldiers will be recruited annually. Here note that most of them will leave the service in just 4 years. Of the total annual recruits, only 25% will be allowed to continue for another 15 years and a permanent commission. The most important thing to note here is the new system of recruitment under the Agnipath scheme is only for personnel below officer ranks. Non-officer rank personnel denote those who do not join the forces as commissioned officers. Now coming to the term commissioned officers, it refers to those who have been selected permanently for working with the armed forces with the rank assigned to them. It generally refers to the leadership position. So the recruits under the scheme will perform only executive tasks since the leadership position are reserved for commissioned officers. Now coming to the eligibility criteria to become Agni-Wears, see under the Agnipath scheme aspirants between the ages of 17.5 years and 21 years will be eligible to apply. For the recruitment here 2020 to 2023 the upper age limit has been increased from 21 to 23 years old. And the recruitment standards will remind the same and recruitment will be done twice a year through recruitment rallies organized across the country. Now coming to the question, what happens after selection? One selected aspirants will go through training for 6 months and then will be deployed for 3.5 years to perform their duties as defense personnel. During this period they will get a starting salary of Rs. 30,000 along with additional benefits which will go up to Rs. 40,000 by the end of the fourth year's service. Importantly during this period 30% of the salary will be set aside under a Seva Niti program and the government will contribute an equal amount every month. And it will also accrue interest. At the end of the 4 year period each soldier will get Rs. 11.71 lakh as a lump sum amount which will be tax free. They will also get a Rs. 48 lakh life insurance cover for the 4 years. In case of death the payout will be over Rs. 1 crore including pay for and served tenure. However as said earlier after 4 years only 25% of the batch will be recruited back into their respective services for a period of 15 years. For those who are reselected the initial 4 year period will not be considered for retirement benefits. And this is all you need to know about this Agnipath scheme. See you can see that I have covered it holistically from the eligibility criteria to the salary package. Now let's see why the Agnipath scheme was introduced and also about the advantages associated with this. Firstly the average age of armed forces in India which has a total number of 1.4 million personnel is 32 years today. But this will go down to 26 in the next 6 to 7 years due to the implementation of Agnipath scheme. So this is the first advantage of implementing Agnipath scheme. Secondly it is said that Agnipath will increase employment opportunities for the youth in the country. Skills and experience acquired during the 4 year service will enable such soldiers to get employment in various fields after the end of their stint with the force. This will also lead to the availability of a higher skilled workforce to the economy which will be helpful in productivity gain and overall GDP growth of our country. Thirdly high pension burden for the government regarding the armed forces can be brought down with the introduction of Agnipath scheme. This is because only 25% of Agnivis getting retained as permanent officers each year. Here one important point to note that is India pays more for the pension of retired soldiers than the amount it pays for its current serving ones. This will be changed if Agnipath gets implemented. So these are the advantages associated with this scheme. But it has some disadvantages as well. Firstly temporary nature of employment provided by the scheme is an issue. See the Agnipath scheme will provide employment to the youth of our country only for four years no. What will they do after that? It's not explained clearly. So this is a disadvantage. Secondly since the recruits are appointed for a temporary period there will be no pension for the Agnivis post retirement. And thirdly, opponents of the scheme claim that six months of training provided will be of inadequate nature for the demands of the armed forces. So these are all the disadvantages associated with the Agnipath scheme. Now coming back to what is discussed in the editorial. See the author says that Agnivis even though retired for only four years are imbued with the discipline and military values which will be of benefit to the nation, the armed forces and also to the individual. And he concludes the article by saying that all new schemes which alter the status quo will have problems associated with them. Course correction can be effected midway by taking in the feedbacks and this can also be done through Agnipath scheme. So through this video we understood what is this Agnipath scheme and we understood about its advantages also it had some disadvantages as well. If you want to know more such important topics for your UPSC preparation do watch our Hindu newspaper analysis regularly.