India has amended its short-term military recruitment scheme, extending
recruits' service terms and creating a route to become regular service members,
in a partial rollback of the Agnipath programme. The Modi-led federal cabinet
approved removing the most controversial element of Agnipath, under which
recruits served four-year contracts with only 25% eligible for retention. The
change comes as sustained India–Pakistan border tensions put pressure on defense
readiness; Agnipath was introduced in June 2022 to rejuvenate the forces and cut
payroll and pension liabilities.
