IAF Exams Go Online

New Delhi: An online examination system for the Indian Air Force was launched on Monday. The IAF is switching over to online testing from January 2018, for which online registration will start from December 15. The web portal for online examination was launched by Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre.

The IAF is the first of the three services to take up IT-enabled online testing for induction in the Officers and Airmen cadres. The online exam system has been developed in collaboration with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). The proposal was approved in principle in October.

"The selection system for officers and airmen cadres in the IAF has been continuously evolving and sustained efforts are in place to strengthen the testing system. Though the existing system is time-tested and well proven, constraints of testing capacity and geographical reach were major limitations in according opportunity to all deserving and eligible candidates from across the country, especially the rural youth," an official statement said.

To improve upon the system and to make it more candidate-friendly while enhancing organisational efficiency, a MoU was signed on October 31 with C-DAC, a Government of India agency.

"The project will be implemented with effect from January 2018 for Air Force Common Admission Test (AFCAT) for Officer's cadre and Scheduled Test for Airmen Recruitment (STAR) for Airmen cadre," the statement said.

Earlier, the IAF had over 100 centres across India for Officer cadre exam and 14 for Airmen selection exams. Certain states and Union Territories did not have any testing centre. Consequently, candidates had to spend considerable time and resources on travelling to the allotted centres.

In the new system, there would be about 760 examination centres all over the country. "It will enable approximately four lakh candidates for Airmen's selection and two lakh for Officer's selection, to appear in the exam every six months." IAF Vice Chief, Air Marshal S.B. Deo, along with other senior Air Force officers were present during the inauguration. (IANS)