The Sainik Schools are asystem of schools in India established and managed by the Sainik Schools Society under Ministry of Defence. They were conceived in 1961 by V. K. Krishna Menon, the then Defence Minister of India, to rectify the regional and class imbalance amongst the Officer cadre of the Indian Military, and to prepare students mentally and physically for entry into the National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla, Pune and Indian Naval Academy (INA), Ezhimala, Kerala. Today there are 33 such schools running and proposed for future covering all the states of the country.