The government is considering to open another Officers Training Academy (OTA) to fill the available vacancies of Army officers. The OTA provides training to those candidates who are selected for the Short Service Commission (SSC) in the armed forces through Combined Defence Services (CDS) examination, conducted by UPSC.
Though the National Defence Academy has attracted bigger number of candidates than the number of seats available in the NDA but on the contrary, OTA has witnessed a downfall in the number of candidates against the available number of seat. The data, made available by the Ministry of Defence, says that except 2008 the NDA has attracted more candidates against its seat 390. In 2009 it has reached to 500 against 390. But OTA has been getting lesser candidates against available seats in the Academy in the last four years. In 2009, only 315 candidates joined the OTA against the available 700 seats. This is just 45% of the total number of available seats in the Academy.
According to the Defence Minister A K Antony government has launched several measures to make Short Service Commission popular among the youth. The Defence Ministry has also planned to go to the universities and various institutions to attract target youths for the SSC.
