ICAR entrance tests on June 1

All India Entrance Examinations (AIEE) for Bachelor’s, Master’s and doctoral degree programmes in various agricultural universities and deemed universities under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) quota will be conducted on June 1, an official statement said on Monday.

ICAR conducts AIEEs for admission to 15 per cent of seats of undergraduate degree programmes and 25 per cent seats each of master’s and doctoral degree programmes at ICAR accredited AUs under the ICAR-AU system.

The online applications for ICAR’s AIEE, to be conducted by National Testing Agency, is already open and applicants can enrol for the entrance test till March 31 at https://icar.nta.nic.in and the payment of application fee can be done using credit/debit card, net banking and UPI, it said.

At present, there are 74 AUs comprising 63 State Agricultural Universities; three Central Agricultural Universities (CAU, Imphal, RLBCAU, Jhansi and Dr. RPCAU, Pusa, Bihar) and four ICAR-Deemed-to-be Universities: Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, and Central Institute of Fisheries Education, at Mumbai. Besides four central universities with agricultural departments such as Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Aligarh Muslim University, Visva Bharati, Sriniketan and School of Agricultural Sciences and Rural Development at Medziphema in Nagaland would also enroll students under this system.The admit cards can be downloaded from April 25 onwards. The results will be declared on June 15.

The candidates having passed with 10+2 Senior Secondary or equivalent examination of a recognised Indian Board/university can apply for appearing in the examination for admission to an undergraduate degree programme. Admission through this examination will be made to B Sc (Hons) degree programmes in agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, forestry, community science, food nutrition and dietetics, sericulture including B.Tech degree programmes in agricultural engineering, dairy technology, food technology and biotechnology.

The computer-based test will have 150 multiple-choice questions with 600 marks. Based upon the subjects studied in 10+2 examination, the candidates can opt any three subjects, either Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Agriculture) for appearing in the examination. Online counselling for admission will be conducted by ICAR. The undergraduate students, based on prescribed criteria, shall be eligible for National Talent Scholarship (NTS) of ₹3,000 per month.

For master’s and doctoral degree programmes, the ICAR shall award 600 ICAR-PG scholarships and 300 JRF/SRF, respectively. Those candidates who are not able to secure ICAR-PG Scholarship, based upon prescribed criteria, shall be eligible for NTS (PG) amounting to ₹5,000 per month.

While the amount of ICAR PG scholarship is ₹12,640 per month, JRF/SRF is awarded ₹31,000 for the first two years of study (JRF) and ₹35,000 for the final year of study (SRF).