Defence Minister A K Antony on Sunday said careers in the armed forces would be made more attractive with better salaries, attractive incentives, and opportunities.

"We have to provide better salaries and incentives to people joining the defence forces to enable the forces to compete with the other sectors," he said.

Earlier addressing the cadets, Antony termed the National Cadet Corps a 'unique organisation which channels the energy of the youth in a constructive manner' and assured more opportunities for cadets desirous of joining the armed forces.

Antony said, "We seriously considered providing arms training to civilians but it is not feasible". NCC cadets from the Army, Navy and Air Force, presented a Guard of Honour to the defence minister on his arrival at the NCC camp.

The Republic Day camp is being attended by 1900 cadets, both boys and girls, drawn from 17 NCC Directorates covering all the States and Union Territories of the country.

NCC director general Lt Gen Prakash Chaudhary said 1,00,000 extra cadets will be trained every year due to reconstruction of the working strategy with organisations like the UNICEF.

"The NCC has signed an MoU with the UNICEF under which the NCC Girl Cadets will participate in a pilot project on the literacy mission,'' he added.