In the Government of India, the posts or ranks are divided according to various groups. For Group B and Group C posts, several bodies have been set up by the Department of Personnel and Training.

These bodies include the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Railway Recruitment Boards (RRB), Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), etc. These bodies are considered to be specialized agencies for recruitment in different fields.

The Union Government of India recently made a proposition according to which, it advised that the recruitment for Group B (Non-gazetted) posts, certain Group B (Gazetted) posts and Group C posts should be conducted under a Common Eligibility Test (CET).

As per this suggestion, the union government stated that such a Common Eligibility Test should be conducted by a specialized agency rather than the several bodies that are currently carrying out these recruitments.

The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions stated that currently, candidates have to appear for different exams for these posts.

The different exams, in fact, have similar qualification requirements and thus, it is unnecessary to carry out these exams separately. Each of these exams comprises of multiple tiers for the final selection of the candidates. This makes the recruitment process very long drawn.

Since this plan is only a proposal right now, the Government has put forward the idea in front of the stakeholders and the public, so that it can get their opinions. Here are the key features of the Common Eligibility Test –

1. The registrations for CET will be through a common online portal for all the candidates.
2. For Graduate, Higher Secondary (10+2) and Matriculate (10^th pass) separate CETs can be conducted, as is currently done by the SSC, RRB and IBPS.
3. Both the candidates and the respective recruiting agency will have access to the marks received in the CET.
4. The marks obtained in a CET will be valid for a period of three years from the date of the release of the results.
5. Candidates will get a total of two additional chances to make an improvement in their scores, and the best score obtained by the candidates will be deemed as the final score.
6. For the final recruitment of the candidates, specific recruitment agencies can request for the organisation of specialization examinations.

Here are the agencies where the scores obtained in CET can be applied –

1. The state government and union territory administrations can have an MoU with the specialized agency and use the CTET scores for state government jobs.
2. The CET scores can be applicable for recruitment of candidates in the different departments and ministries of the government except for the posts for which SSC conducts examinations.
3. CET can also be used in private sector organisations.

If this scheme turns out to receive a positive outlook, it will be adopted by the Government of India, which might lead to a huge change in the dynamics and functions of the already existing recruitment bodies.