By TwoCircles.net Staff reporter
New Delhi: Only seven Muslims have made it to the final list of this year’s National Defence Academy & Naval Academy (NDA) out of the total 423 qualifying candidates. This makes the precentage of Muslims as 1.65%. Aaqib Khursheed Lone tops the list by coming in at rank 10.
Last year 16 Muslims qualified for the NDA course. The percentage of Muslims last year was 3.53%, a record high since started tracking in 2006.
The UPSC conducts the exam for admissions to NDA twice a year and the TCN has been tracking the merit list since 2006 results for the second examination. The percentage of successful Muslim candidates has revolved around 1%. Only once has it crossed over 2% and that was in 2010 when 17 Muslims were in the list of 742 qualifying candidates, making it 2.29%. This year’s number 16 is one fewer than the record high of 2010 but since the list of total qualifying candidates is only 453, therefore the percentage is more than one percentage point higher.
The UPSC declared the result last Thursday for the written part of the National Defence Academy & Naval Academy Exam(II), held on September 27, 2015 and the interviews held by the Services Selection Board of the Ministry of Defence.
This list of qualifiers is for admissions to the Army, Navy and Air Force wings of National Defence Academy for the 136th Course and also to the Naval Academy for the 98th Indian Naval Academy Course (INAC) commencing from July, 2016.
List of successful Muslim candidates:
10 AAQIB KHURSHEED LONE
54 MD ABDUL KALAM
96 SHAHID NAZIR
114 INZEMAM ALI SIDDIQUI
148 ASIF RAZA
177 PH KHURSEED ALAM
218 MD SAQIB
Results of the Combined Defence Services Examination (II), 2015 was also announced same day. Three Muslims qualified to find a spot among 166 candidates for 141st Course of Indian Military Academy, Dehradun.
List of successful Muslim candidates in CDS:
60 JAMSHEED NASIR
159 MOHAMMAD JUNAID KHAN
163 MOHD ZUBAIR TALHA