1917 to make up for the shortage of the Army. The University Corps was replaced by University Training Corps (UTC) with the passing of the Indian Territorial Act in 1920 and later renamed to University Officers Training Corps (UOTC) in 1942. In the year 1946, a Committee under Pandit HN Kunzru was set up to create a youth organization at the National Level. The recommendations of this Committee led to the formation of National Cadet Corps (NCC) under the National Cadet Corps Act XXXI of 1948 under the Ministry of Defence. The motto of NCC is “Unity and Discipline”.

NCC aims to create a human resource of organized, trained and motivated youth, develop character, comradeship, discipline, leadership, secular outlook, spirit of adventure and the ideals of selfless service amongst the youth of the country. It provides a suitable environment to motivate the youths to take up a career in the Armed Forces.

The Corps which was started with a cadet strength of 1.67 lakh now consists of 13 lakhs cadets. The network of 774 units is spread all over the country through 4880 colleges and 7783 schools.  In order to give equal opportunities, the girls division was started in 1949. NCC was given an Inter Service image in 1950 with the addition of Air Wing followed by the Naval Wing in 1952.

Institutional Training, Community development programmes cum social service activities, youth exchange programmes, adventure training and sports are some of the broad activities of NCC.

The NCC has its HQ in Delhi and is headed by the Director General (DG), an Army Officer of the rank of Lt. General. The DG is assisted by two Additional Directors General (ADG), one Major General from the Army and other a Rear Admiral or an Air Vice marshal.

Vacancies are reserved for commission in the defence i.e. Army, Navy and Indian Air force for NCC “C” Certificate holders. Other benefits are bonus marks for recruitment in Para Military Forces and Department of Telecommunications. Preference for State Services in certain states, also many industries prefer NCC “C” Certificate holders for various jobs. NCC games provide cash awards to teams and individuals for excellence. Other job opportunities include civilian gliding instructors/girl cadet instructors/ whole time lady officers.

As far as scholarship goes, every year around 500 NCC cadets who have excelled in academics receives scholarships of `6000 each followed by `500 to the best cadets and `2500 to the second best cadets in each group. Sahara Group of Companies also provides Annual Scholarship for the NCC Cadets. `6000 each for 368 cadets of junior division/junior wing, `12,000 each for 386 cadets of senior division/senior wing and `30,000 each for 66 cadets for higher studies.

For organized NCC high risk activities a financial relief upto `3 lakh is provided to the cadets in case of death or 100 % permanent disability and `2.5 lakh for normal activities.

Enrolment into the National Cadet Corps is on a voluntary basis and admissions commence at the beginning of the academic session. Students, both boys and girls can join at the age of 13 years in junior division i.e. students from class VIII to X and from class XI upto degree level in senior division. A cadet can stay in JD/JW for two years and for three years in SD/SW.