Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that the time to conduct the Common Eligibility Test (CET) for government jobs recruitment had been decided. The first such test is likely to be held around September. There will be a common entrance test for Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) and Railway Recruitment Board (RRB).

The government job aspirants, a Common Eligibility Test (CET) will be conducted across the country from this year to screen and shortlist candidates for recruitment to central government jobs," said Singh.

He added that the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) will be a multi-agency body which will conduct the common test to screen and shortlist candidates for Group B and C (non-technical) posts. NRA will also make independent, autonomous organisation responsible for shortlisting candidates for certain categories for which recruitment is carried out through Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).

There will be a separate CET for three levels of graduate, higher secondary (12th pass) and the matriculate (10th pass) candidates. The CET score will be valid for three years. There is no restriction on the number of attempts taken by the candidate to appear in the CET subject till the upper age limit.