The biggest recruitment drive? India Railways starts hiring process for 89,500 positions

In a drive that is touted to be the biggest recruitment process in the world, the Indian Railways has started hiring for 89,500 positions. The positions include technicians, porters, assistant loco pilots, gangmen, trackmen, cabinmen and much more. This drive seeks to recruit youth from across various educational qualifications - from high school pass to engineers. This drive will also give a boost to the current government's employment generation.
 
According to reports, around 1.2 lakh positions are vacant in the Indian Railways now, with around 40,000-45,000 employees retiring every year. Moreover Piyush Goyal's attempt to increase safety and security in the railways, combined with enough provisions in this year's budget has led to this enormous drive. Nevertheless, the additional hiring will cost Rs 4,000 crore a year.

The minister is also planning to alter the 'top-heavy' job structure by hiring massively in the Group D and trim the railway board by half. The recruitment process for 62,907 Group D posts has started.

According to reports, staff expenses have grown from Rs 69,713.22 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 72,705.57 crore in 2017-18 and are expected to be around Rs 76,451.89 crore in 2018-19.

Employees who are hired will be extended a monthly salary of Rs 18,000 per month and allowances as per the Seventh Central Pay Commission (Level 1). Applicants must be 18-31 years of age and will be recruited by the Railway Recruitment Cell. Candidates that are high school pass or have an ITI or industrial training institute degree are eligible to apply for it, last date being March 12.

The minister had also tweeted that apart from these vacancies, Indian Railways is also aiming to train 30,000 apprentices this year.