CDS Current Affairs Quiz: 12 October 2026

The correct answer is the Food Corporation of India. The MoU signed alongside the launch of Bharat Rice gives the Army a formal framework to use identified FCI warehouses, labour resources and material-handling equipment when operations require them, and it holds for five years with the option of extension by mutual consent. Option A, NAFED, does appear in the story, but its role is to supply the rice itself during the financial year 2026-27, not to lend warehousing. Option C, the Border Roads Organisation, was mentioned only as an example of dual use, since roads and bridges it builds are also used by local residents. Option D, the Central Warehousing Corporation, does not figure in the arrangement at all. The Defence Minister described the FCI agreement as a force multiplier for operational preparedness.

The correct answer is South Africa. INS Tarkash, a frontline guided missile stealth frigate of the Indian Navy, has been sent on an overseas deployment to South Africa to join the ninth edition of the India-Brazil-South Africa Maritime Exercise. The host navy has fielded SAS Amatola, SAS King Sekhukhune I, SAS Adam Kok III and the submarine SAS Manthatisi for the drill. Option A, Brazil, is wrong: Brazil is one of the three participating countries and has sent BNS Barroso with an integral Lynx helicopter, but it is not hosting this edition. Option C, India, is wrong for the same reason; India has sent a ship abroad rather than received the other two fleets, and the Indian presence is INS Tarkash with a Chetak helicopter. Option D, Namibia, is wrong because Namibia has no part in the IBSAMAR series, which belongs to the India-Brazil-South Africa grouping alone.

The correct answer is Cochin Shipyard Limited, Kochi. The ship was designed in India and constructed by that yard, and it carries more than 80 per cent indigenous content, which the Navy cites as evidence of India's own strength in warship design, construction and systems integration. Representatives of the yard and of its industry partners, along with micro, small and medium enterprises that worked on the project, were present when the ship was commissioned at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai. Option A, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, is a Mumbai yard but had no part in this particular vessel. Option B, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers of Kolkata, is likewise not the builder named for this ship. Option D, Hindustan Shipyard at Visakhapatnam, is also incorrect. Only Cochin Shipyard Limited is named as the designer and builder of INS Mangrol, so C alone is right.

The correct answer is NAFED, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited, which will supply the rice during the financial year 2026-27 after it is milled to prescribed defence specifications and cleared by quality-control checks. Option A, the Food Corporation of India, is the partner for the separate logistics MoU on warehousing and material handling, so it has a different role in the same announcement. Option C, an Army Purchase Organisation, is not named in the arrangement. Option D, state civil supplies corporations, also do not feature; in fact the change is that the rice moves directly to Army Supply Depots instead of depots drawing it from nearby facilities. The initiative is led by the Directorate General of Supplies and Transport and followed nearly 18 months of coordination.

The correct answer is 2008. IBSAMAR has been held once in two years since that year, under the India-Brazil-South Africa framework, and has become a settled platform for joint training and for sharing operational practices among the three navies. Because the series runs on a two-year cycle from that starting point, the ninth edition falls in the current year, which is a useful cross-check for aspirants. Option A is wrong because the naval exercise series had not yet begun then. Option C is wrong because by that year the exercise was already several editions old; counting back from the ninth edition on a biennial cycle rules it out. Option D is also ruled out by the same arithmetic, since a start in that year could not produce nine editions by now. The grouping behind the exercise, IBSA, is the one formed by India, Brazil and South Africa.

The correct answer is the Mahe class. INS Mangrol, with pennant number P82, is the third Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft of that class to enter service with the Indian Navy. Ships of this type are built for the littoral belt, where water is shallow and larger warships are less effective, and they are fitted for anti-submarine warfare, surveillance under water, low intensity maritime operations and tasks tied to mine warfare. Option A, the Arnala class, is not the class named for this ship. Option C, the Kamorta class, refers to larger anti-submarine corvettes rather than shallow water craft of this kind. Option D, the Abhay class, is also wrong. Aspirants should remember both the class name and the fact that Mangrol is the third ship of the class, since questions often turn on the serial position.

The correct answer is 10 kg and 30 kg. Procurement in these two bag sizes is meant to make the grain easier to lift, load and carry, which matters most where rations have to be taken to remote and difficult terrain such as Ladakh and the North East. The other three pairs of weights are plausible packing sizes for food grain but none of them is part of this initiative. The point behind the choice is operational rather than commercial: the Defence Minister noted that ergonomic packaging, though it may look like a small change, offers real relief to the soldiers who move rations to forward posts. Along with the packing, the rice will be milled to defence specifications and kept free of foreign matter and admixture, with minimal broken, damaged or discoloured grains.

The correct answer is Stronger Together Towards a Shared Future in the Maritime Domain. This is the declared theme of the ninth edition of the India-Brazil-South Africa Maritime Exercise, which aims at collective maritime security and at preparing the three navies to deal with challenges at sea. The edition is significant for cooperation and security in the Indian Ocean Region. The other three options are plausible-sounding slogans of the kind used for naval events, but none of them is the theme of this exercise, and a candidate should match the theme to the edition number rather than to a general phrase about the sea. The drills in this edition span surface warfare, anti-air warfare, anti-submarine warfare, naval air operations, maritime interdiction, Visit Board Search and Seizure, anti-piracy operations, search and rescue, and damage control and firefighting.

The correct answer is Junagadh. Mangrol is a coastal town and a well known fishing harbour in the Junagadh district of Gujarat, and the warship carries its name. The Indian Navy follows the practice of handing the names of notable ships to new hulls, so the name has a history: an earlier INS Mangrol, a minesweeper with the pennant M85, remained in service until April 2004, and the new craft continues that line. Option B, Porbandar, is a coastal district of Gujarat but is not the one named in connection with this ship. Option C, Devbhumi Dwarka, is also a Gujarat coastal district and is incorrect here. Option D, Valsad, lies in south Gujarat and is wrong. Candidates should link the ship, the town, the district and the state together.

The correct answer is the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command. Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan, who holds that appointment, presided over the ceremony at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai, which falls within the area of the Western Naval Command. In his address he spoke of the value of indigenous warships in strengthening maritime surveillance and anti-submarine capability, and of the Navy's commitment to self-reliance in defence manufacturing. Option A, the Chief of Naval Staff, heads the Navy but did not preside on this occasion. Option C names the Southern Naval Command, whose chief is based elsewhere and did not conduct the ceremony. Option D, the Defence Secretary, is a civil servant in the Ministry of Defence; ministry officials attended, but a serving flag officer presides at a commissioning. Hence B is correct.