• As told earlier, NRA is an exam conducting body at the national level. It conducts common eligibility tests for various categories. 
• NRA replaces other exam conducting bodies like SSC, RRB and many more. NRA offers posts such as Non-Gazetted Officers, Group B (Non-Technical), Group C (Non-Technical)

Why is the Common Eligibility Test (NRA CET) being launched?

• Reducing the financial burden of both candidates and the agencies is one of the most important advantages of having an NRA CET. Candidates must pay a one-time application fee with one common test. A separate amount one has to pay for different posts as different bodies were conducting the exams.
• At least it takes 8-9 months for IBPS, RRB or SSC for the recruitment process of each post. Now, as everything is a common exam, the duration of the process reduces. 
• Travelling to the exam centres is one of the students' main challenges while competing for competitive exams. Students find it difficult to travel frequently to different exam centres for different examinations. But the NRA has decided to have at least 1 exam centre in every Indian district. So this will help candidates to save money from travelling across districts for writing exams.
• As NRA has decided to have at least 1 exam centre in every district, more female candidates will write the competitive examinations. This provides an opportunity for every female student from rural areas.
• Candidates don't have a fixed number of attempts to write the exam. Candidates can write till they are eligible, so it's helpful for many students who are willing to put in the effort.
• No more worries about the clashing of exam dates for students as NRA is the body and conducts a single exam, and there won't be any clashing of the exams.
• The main feature of NRA is that it will offer nearly 12 languages for students to write the exam. It motivates the students to appear for the exam.
• The announcement of the exam date for NRA is taking place tentatively for now and will execute in March 2022.

Advantages of NRA CET:

• The NRA will replace almost more than 20 recruiting boards.
• Candidates won't have to spend money on applications for different exams, and they need not go to different centres for different exams conducted by different boards.
• The exam takes place in 12 different languages usually used in India.
• The score you take in the CET exam will be valid for upto 3 years.
• CET exams can reduce the stress of candidates.
• The CET exam will take place twice a year to give candidates more opportunities.
• Candidates from rural areas can take the exam as at least one centre will be in every district.
• The main advantage is that no exam dates will clash.

Some Cons of NRA CET

There are some disadvantages too for NRA CET. After research, we know that around 5 crores candidates can apply and write the exam so that the competition level may increase more. Even if more candidates clear the written exam, the interview process will be hard, and a mass filter will occur.

What are some steps taken by the NRA CET?

• New exam centres are going to be available across the nation. Nearly 117 districts will have the venues for the examination.
• The examinations will take place in 12 different languages widely spoken in India.
• The exam pattern is not notified by the body yet, but the agency will soon reveal it.
• The syllabus is also not yet available by the agency, and it will come out soon.
• The Indian Government disclosed a total budget of INR 1517.57 crores for the NRA.
• Only the preliminary stage of the exam will take place by the NRA. Following the results, shortlisting of candidates is taking place. And the further stages of conducting the exam remain by the recruiting organizations for the respective departments.
• There are no allotment positions as NRA is a new initiative by the Government. They are yet to decide for the NRA's Chairman too.
• Involvement of the Senior Members from (RRB), (SSC), and (IBPS) should also be in the committee as per the reports from the government officials.
• Even the Ministry of Financial Services and Ministry of Railways members can be a part of this committee. 

Knowing the eligibility is the most important step of any entrance exam. Here's the eligibility criterion:

• One should expect the eligibility criteria to be the same for SSC and RRB exams. No minor changes have been applicable till now.
• The division of age limit takes place according to the levels, i.e. for graduates, the 10th pass and the 12th pass will have separate age limits.

( It is pending by the NRA board to decide the age limit for individual categories.)