Shashank, 1st position

Armaandeep, 8th position

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 15

Cadet Shashank Sharma of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Armed Forces Preparatory Institute (AFPI), Mohali, has bagged the first position in the all-India merit list for the National Defence Academy (NDA), which was released by the Union Public Service Commission yesterday. Another cadet of the same institute, Armaandeep Singh, has secured the eighth position. As many as 25 cadets of the AFPI find their names on the merit list and of them 12 are among the first 100, the AFPI Director General, Maj Gen BS Grewal (retd), said. Call letters for joining the NDA will be issued by the Army Headquarters shortly. The NDA entrance exam was held in September last year and nearly five lakh Class XII students appeared for it.Shashank Sharma belongs to Manakpur village near Ropar. His father is an employee of the BSNL and mother a teacher. Prior to joining the AFPI, he was a student of Mt Carmel School, Jindwari, Ropar. Armaandeep Singh belongs to Muktsar and is the son of an agriculturalist. Before joining the institute, he was studying at Yadavindra Public School, Mohali. After joining, all cadets of the AFPI do their Class XI and Class XII studies at Shemrock Senior Secondary School, Mohali.Earlier, on June 10, the first batch of six gentlemen cadets of this institute were commissioned as officers after passing out from the Indian Military Academy, Dehra Dun. Seventeen more cadets have recently completed their training at the NDA and will be proceeding for their final-year training at the respective service academies soon. The AFPI was set up by the Punjab Government for training selected young men from the state for joining the armed forces through the NDA. The institute was established in 2011 and its first batch of cadets passed out in April 2013. So far five batches have passed out from the institute and 63 cadets have already joined various military academies with another 20 to 25 expected to join in July this year.