Indian Army was founded on 1st April 1895. Indian Army is the part of the Indian Armed Forces and its headquarter is located in New Delhi. The mission of the Indian Army is to ensure National security and National unity and defend the nation from external aggression and internal threats and maintain peace and security within India’s border. It is the Indian Army who is working day and night in all typical situations to let all other citizens of India to get a peaceful sleep in the night. 15th January is the day that is celebrated as the Army day. The motto of the Indian army is “Service before self”. Indian army is a land-based branch and is the largest component of Indian armed forces. The supreme commander of the Indian Army is the President of India and is commanded by the Cheif of Army Staff. Read this complete article to get information about how to join the Indian army after 12th class.

How To Join Indian Army After 12th Class?

To join the Indian Army directly after 12th class, the information for students is mentioned below.

Eligibility Criteria: The eligibility criteria of students who want to join the Indian army after the 12th class are listed below.

• Candidate’s age must be in between 16.5 to 19.5 years at the time of commencement of course.
• Applicant must have passed 12th class with Physics and Mathematics as their compulsory subjects.
• Candidates who will appear in the 12th board are also eligible to apply.
• The applicant must be unmarried.

Ways to Join Indian Army

There are two ways through which candidates can join the Indian army.

1. Applicant to have clear the NDA and NA exam that is held twice in a year.
2. Technical Entry Scheme- TES for High School Science Graduates.

NDA and NA is a national level entrance examination that is conducted twice in a year i.e NDA-I and NDA-II for the sessions of January and July. The exam is conducted by Union Public Service Commission(UPSC). The exam is conducted with the purpose to recruit candidates in Army, Navy and Air Force. Candidates will be called for the next round i.e SSB interview based on their performance in the entrance exam.

Technical Entry Scheme(TES) 

The Technical Entry Scheme(TES) is for high school science graduates and is opened twice in a year.

There is a total of 85 vacancies are offered under this scheme. The eligibility of candidates for TES is mentioned below.

• Age limit: Candidate’s age must be in between 16.5 to 19 years at the time of admission.
• Qualifications: Candidate must have completed 12th class with Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics as compulsory subjects and must have scored an aggregate 70% marks and above.
• Marital Status: Unmarried

These are the basic eligibility criteria of candidates for TES as described by the official authority.

Selection Process

The complete selection process of candidates in the Indian army is mentioned below. 

• If candidates want to join the National Defence Academy(NDA), then he/she have to appear for the NDA written examination,
• Notifications regarding the exams will be given on the official website of Armed forces. 
• The first part of the selection is the entrance exam which is a pen and paper-based written exam. The questions asked in the exam will be of Multiple Choice Questions(MCQs).
• The questions to be asked in the entrance exam will be from General Knowledge, Mathematics, Physics, English, etc. 
• The qualifying candidates in the exam will be called for the Interview round conducted by the Service Selection Board(SSB).
• Then SSB Officers will evaluate each candidate’s performance and accordingly with that, they will assign marks to them. In this way, evaluation is made for each test in those series of tests.
• In the end, those candidates who have scored a ‘minimum qualifying marks’ in each test will be ‘recommended’. Other candidates who have not scored minimum marks will be disqualified the selection process. After that, qualified candidates will be sent for the medical checkup.
• Then according to the result of medical checkup, a final selection of candidates will be done and they will be sent for 3 years at NDA, Pune and for 1 year in IMA, Dehradun.