Two female candidates – Anushka Anil Borde and Vaishnavi Gorde – have secured second and third places, respectively in the entrance exam for National Defence Academy and Naval Academy – UPSC NDA & NA Examination (1), 2022.
Rubin Singh secured all-India first rank in the examination conducted this year. Out of the 669,000 applications received by the commission, 147,000 or approximately 22% of the total applicants were women.
The commission said that in the final result, 519 candidates qualified for admission to the two academies based on their performance in the written exam and interviews. They will be enrolled in the 149th course of NDA and the 111th Indian Naval Academy Course (INAC).
Last year, the Supreme Court passed an interim order allowing women to take the test.
It must be noted that the Indian army has the lowest representation of women in the armed forces at 0.56%, though the representation is better in the navy at 6.5 % and the air force at 1.08%. Women have played an integral part in every aspect of the army except combat roles: infantry and armory.
