When it comes to joining the Indian Army and serving your nation, you can go about it in more than a few ways. The Indian Army provides you the path to engage in a disciplined, trained, fulfilling, and highly productive life, working towards not only to safeguard the interest of your country but also establish a well-chalked-out CAREER for yourself.In a historical alteration in the recent past, 1992 to be precise, a momentous decision was made to induct women in the OFFICER grade of the Indian Army. Though their numbers are orders of magnitude lower than army men in the officer cadre, it still shows an incredible move to INCLUDE women in the honourable job of providing safety to India.To understand the process of joining the Indian Army, let us first discuss the two main types of commissions that employ our fine men and women – the Permanent Commission and the Short Service Commission.Permanent Commission (PC): You serve in the armed forces until the day you retire. That is, you get up until 60 years to live out your desire to serve the nation in a defence capacity. Early retirement is also on the plate. Under this commission, you can attempt to enter the Officer Grade in the Indian Army either after your high-school graduation or after your undergraduate/engineering graduation. Unfortunately, permanent commissions are only available to men and training is mainly conducted upon joining the National Defence Academy (NDA) in Pune, the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun, or the Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Gaya.Short Service Commission (SSC): As the name suggests, it is a shorter service in defence of the country. It starts with an initial contract of 10 years, followed by a possible extension of 4 years upon certain medical checks. We will be discussing those Officer Entry avenues, as available under each type of commission. Each entry type is marked as either PC or SSC for clarity. The details have been obtained from the official JoinIndianArmy.nic.in website.Getting into the army is not going to be easy, given the intense competition. So, check out this free online career test to find out what category of CAREERS would be best suited for your personality. On that last point, try out this personality test too to know who you really are.