Nagpur: Technical glitches marred the first ever Air Force Common Admission Test (AFCAT) conducted on outsourced basis on Sunday. The test which was earlier conducted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) itself was outsourced to government-owned IT undertaking C-DAC this year. Question papers could not be downloaded at 86 centres, including Nagpur, apart from other issues faced.
The test was conducted at 536 centres across 99 cities, out which it passed off successfully 450 centres.
Highly placed sources in the IAF said fresh test will be conducted for the affected centres at a date to be announced soon.
The test at 86 centres where it could not take place smoothly has been cancelled and fresh exam will be conducted for them. For the rest of the centres, the test remains valid.
In Nagpur, Jhulelal Institute of Technology (JIT) was the only centre for AFCAT being conducted for entry to different branches of the armed force.
JIT officials claimed that around 110 students had reported for AFCAT at their Bokara-based college. “Only 75 could take the test,” a JIT official said, adding the notification regarding re-test for affected aspirants would be announced by the IAF later.
IAF officials here said since the problem was not local but nationwide, the Delhi office or the C-DAC will issue a clarification.
Sources added that the question papers were being allotted through a single server. The IAF had outsourced the online test to Pune-headquartered Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) for the first time this year. An official from C-DAC said on Sunday that they had been receiving queries from across the country but it being a holiday they couldn’t do much.
The competitive exam helps students in getting selected for short service commission (SSC) in flying branch and permanent commission (PC)/short service commission (SSC) in ground duty (technical and non-technical) branches.
The IAF is the first of the three services to take up IT-enabled online testing for induction in the officers and airmen cadres. The online exam system has been developed in collaboration with the C-DAC.
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