About the ICAR's JRF /AIEEA PG Exams
All India Entrance Examination for Admission (AIEEA)-PG is an examination conducted for admission to Master Degree programmes in Agriculture and allied sciences (other than veterinary sciences), at Agricultural Universities. Students for 25% seats in accredited Master degree programmes in accredited colleges of accredited AUs’ are admitted through ICAR-AIEEA (PG). All (100%) seats of the four ICAR-DUs namely, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) and Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE) are also filled up through the same examination.
ICAR-AIEEA (PG) examination will be conducted at 87 cities all over the country enabling the participation of a large number of candidates seeking admission in Master degree programmes in AUs in different disciplines of Agriculture, Horticulture, Forestry, Veterinary, Animal Sciences, Agri. Engineering, Community Science (erstwhile Home Science), Fisheries, Dairy Science and other allied sciences. ICAR (PG) Scholarship for postgraduate studies namely, ICAR (PG) Scholarship, shall be awarded to 600 candidates based on merit in this examination as per their overall merit-rank and seat availability in different disciplines. The remaining admitted students will be awarded NTS (PGS). Candidates qualified for counselling will be considered for allocation of the subject and the Agricultural University as per online counselling procedure of ICAR. There is no provision of direct nomination for admission through ICAR in any Master degree programme without qualifying in ICAR-AIEEA (PG).
Major Subject Groups for ICAR’s JRF Exams
Students passed/studying B.Sc. (in Agriculture or any allied subjects like Fishery, Animal Husbandry, Dairy, Horticulture, Forestry and any others ) can write ICAR’s JRF Exam and thus can pursue their master degrees on following 91 subjects which is classified here 20 major subject-groups. These Major Subject Group for ICAR’s JRF Exam are:
Group Major Subject
Code Group Name
(1) Plant Biotechnology '
(2) Plant Sciences
(3) Physical Science
(4) Entomology and Nematology
(5) Agronomy (Order Notes)
(6) Social Sciences,
(7) Statistical Sciences,
(8) Horticulture,
(9) Forestry/Agroforestry and Silviculture,
(10) Agricultural Engineering & Technology
(11) Water Science & Technology
(12) Home Science,
(13) Animal Biotechnology
(14) Veterinary Science,
(15) Animal Sciences
(16) Fisheries Science,
(17) Dairy Science,
(18) Dairy Technology,
(19) Food Science Technology and
(20) Agri-Business Management.
Students should select one major subject-group among the following for appearing in JRF Exam. Based on his/her rank on subject group exam, he will be awarded a fellowship and he will get the opportunity to take admission in the top most agricultural university.
About ICAR: The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is the apex body for coordinating, guiding, and managing research and education in agriculture in the entire country under the aegis of DARE, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. The ICAR-AU system of India has 75 Agricultural Universities comprising 64 State Agricultural, Veterinary, Horticultural and Fisheries Universities (SAUs), 4 ICAR-DUs, viz. IARI, IVRI, NDRI and CIFE, 3 Central Agricultural Universities (CAU, Imphal, Dr. RPCAU, Pusa and RLBCAU, Jhansi), 4 Central Universities (CUs) having Faculty of Agriculture (BHU, AMU, Viswa Bharati and Nagaland University). The National Agricultural Research and Education System (NARES) of India is one of the largest in the world, admitting more than 15,000 graduates, 11,000 post-graduates, and 2,500 Ph.D annually, in different disciplines of Agriculture and Allied Sciences.
NTA is the examination conducting body and its scope is limited to conducting the examination and providing the raw scores to ICAR.
Master degrees are awarded by Agricultural Universities in about 95 sub-subjects under 20 major subject groups. Candidate should select one major subject-group among the following for appearing in the Entrance Examination, based on the compatibility with his/her own subject area at his/her graduation level. The sub- subject choices, within the major subject-group in which the candidate qualifies the entrance examination, will be available at the time of online counselling.
Numbers of seats and ICAR (PG) Scholarship/NTS (PGS) in various subjects/sub- subjects will be displayed on ICAR website www.icar.org.in at the time of counselling.
Candidates may note that all postgraduate degrees in the disciplines of Agricultural Sciences have been declared as professional degrees.
About Exam:
Online submission of Application Form: Month of April (01–30 April, 2019 last year)
Date of Examination: Month of July (01 July, 2019 as per last year)
Fee Payable by candidates: Rs 1000/- for General/OBC; 500/- for ST/SC
Duration of Examination: 150 minutes (2½ hours)
Scheme of Examination:
The test of ICAR-AIEEA (UG) is a single test of 02:30 hours duration. Details of the test are as given below:
Mode of Examination:
LAN Based CBT
Duration: 2½ hours
Number of Questions: 160
Type of Questions: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) with 4 options
Scoring :
4 marks for each correct response
-1 for each incorrect response (negative scoring)
0 for non attempt
The medium of Paper : English only
Syllabus for the Test: The Question Papers for the test shall be based on the Syllabus
prescribed by the ICAR, is available at website http://www.icar.org.in/ or our
website: http://www.agricoachingdelhi.com/ (download here)
Reservation:
There would be reservation of seats for admission to the extent of 15% for Scheduled Caste and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribe candidates in different disciplines.
Reservation of seats for EWS shall be in accordance with the Gazette Notification
Conditions for the award of ICAR (PG) Scholarship and National Talent Scholarship (PGS):
ICAR PG Scholarship will be awarded to meritorious candidates seeking admission in the Agricultural Universities where Master degree programme consists of course and research work. The scholarship would be awarded for two years.
The fellowship will be at the rate of Rs.12,640/- per month together with a contingent grant of Rs. 6,000/- per year for procurement of essential chemicals, equipment & books.
To get ICAR- PG Scholarship, the candidate must pursue a Master's degree from an AU in a state different from the one where the AU of his /her Bachelor’s degree is located.
The non- PG Scholarship/NTS(PGS) candidates shall be eligible to get revised National Talent Scholarship (NTS) of Rs. 5,000/- per month for two years.
General Eligibility Criteria to appear in ICAR-AIEEA (UG):
Candidate seeking for admission to Master’s degree programmes through entrance examination conducted by NTA, must have passed graduation with four/six (10+6 B.Sc. Ag.) degree programme from any recognized University will be eligible.
The Candidate must have passed Bachelor degree examination securing Overall Grade Point Average (OGPA) of at least 6.60/10.00, 3.25/5.00, 2.60/4.00 for General, OBC and UPS categories whereas for SC/ST candidates, the said requirement is an OGPA of at least 5.60/10.00, 2.75/5.00, 2.20/4.40, respectively. In other cases, where grade-points are not awarded and only marks are awarded, the candidate must have secured at least 60% marks for General, OBC and UPS categories whereas for SC/ST/PwD categories the requirement is 50% marks.
The candidates with a Bachelor’s degree with 3 years’ duration will not be considered for admission through ICAR AIEEA (PG) 2019 in AUs under ICAR-AU system except in two ICAR DUs, viz. IARI, NDRI.
Age Limit: Indian Nationals of at least 19 years of age are eligible to apply for the examination. No relaxation is admissible regarding the minimum age limit.
Well wishes !
Roop Singh Maitry Ex-Scientist, ICAR New Delhi
