NCC Organisation, Aims, Motto and History of the Movement
This domain checks whether you can place any cadet unit in the chain of command that ends at the Director General, and whether you know why the Corps was created. Questions are usually factual: founding date and statute, the motto, the three-part aim, the wings and divisions, and the A/B/C certificate ladder.
Formation
- The NCC was raised on 15 July 1948 under the National Cadet Corps Act, 1948 (Act No. XXXI of 1948) - it is a statutory body, not a departmental scheme.
- It followed the recommendation of the Kunzru Committee, set up to give independent India a single national cadet organisation.
- The first Director General was Major General Hiralal Atal.
- Lineage: University Corps (1917) → University Training Corps (1920) → University Officers Training Corps (1942) → NCC (1948).
Aim and motto
The aim has three limbs: to develop character, comradeship, discipline, leadership, secular outlook, spirit of adventure, sportsmanship and the ideal of selfless service; to create an organised, trained and motivated human resource available to the nation; and to provide an environment that draws youth towards a career in the armed forces. The motto for all three wings is "Unity and Discipline".
Structure
DG NCC (a Lieutenant General, at New Delhi) → State Directorates → Group Headquarters → Units (battalions, naval units, air squadrons). The Corps has Army, Navy and Air Force wings, each split into Junior Division/Junior Wing (schools) and Senior Division/Senior Wing (colleges).
Worked example
A cadet joins a school unit in Class IX. After two years of training including an annual training camp, he is eligible for the A certificate. On entering college he joins the Senior Division; after two years he may sit the B certificate (the A certificate is a prerequisite), and after a third year the C certificate. It is the C certificate, not the A, that earns bonus marks and preference in certain recruitment.
Traps
"NCC Act 1950"; quoting the Army motto "Service Before Self" as the NCC motto; assuming B can be taken without A; mis-stating the DG's rank.