NRA stands for National Recruitment Agency. It is an Indian organization which conducts the Common Eligibility Test (CET) to shortlist candidates for Non Gazetted posts (Group B and C) in the various Ministries and Departments of the Government of India. The National Recruitment Agency is headed by a Chairman who is assisted by a group of support staff. NRA is headquartered at New Delhi, India.
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CET stands for Common Eligibility Test. CET exam is a single common recruitment test for shortlisting of candidates for Non Gazetted posts (Group B/C, Non-technical staff) in various departments and agencies/companies. It acts as a preliminary stage exam. CET qualified candidates will be considered eligible to appear in the next stage (Mains/ Tier 2/ Tier 3) of respective exams conducted by IBPS, RRB, SSC, etc.
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National Recruitment Agency (NRA) is responsible for conducting the Common Eligibility Test (CET) for IBPS, SSC, RRB. Furthermore, the NRA is planning to set-up CET exam centres each districts for conducting exams smoothly.
At present, various departmental examinations are conducted by RRB, IBPS, SSC for the recruitment of Non-technical vacancies, Group B & Group C (Clerical Cadre Staff) in Banking sector, Railways, PSU and other Ministries of central government. This process is time consuming & resource intensive. Therefore, on 19th August May, 2025, PM Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet approved the proposal of the finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman to set up a National Recruitment Agency. The main purpose of NRA is to conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) for the recruitment of all Non Gazetted Central Govt Jobs.
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