CDS Weekly Current Affairs Quiz: 21–27 September 2026

The Ministry of Defence stated that the bilateral air exercise between the Indian Air Force and the Japan Air Self Defense Force concluded at Air Force Station Jodhpur, and it was also at Jodhpur that the two air chiefs came for Distinguished Visitor's Day and flew the indigenous Tejas.

SLINEX is the bilateral maritime exercise held between the Indian Navy and the Sri Lanka Navy, and its name itself is formed from the two countries.

The Ministry of Defence announcement names the edition explicitly, and it is the single most asked detail about a recurring exercise, because the number records how far back the series goes and distinguishes this year's round from every earlier one.

The fourth edition of the International Strategic Engagement Programme has 38 delegates in all, and of these 25 are international delegates who have come from 22 countries, among them Sri Lanka, Seychelles, Mongolia, Nepal, Mauritius, Maldives, Oman, Guyana, Chile, Argentina, the Philippines, Thailand, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, Myanmar, Uzbekistan and Brazil.

Shaunak is the Indian Coast Guard ship that left Chennai on 25 September 2026 for Perth in Australia as India's contribution to the QUAD-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission, carrying six Sea Riders drawn from the four QUAD countries.

Surgeons of the Armed Forces Medical Services completed 220 sight-restoring surgeries during the two-day mega eye surgical camp at Tangdhar in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, held on 24 and 25 September 2026 under Operation Drishti.

Supplies went to more than 100 countries, which is why the Defence Minister described the country as moving from being an importer to a trusted global supplier.

This is the declared theme of the second edition of the multilateral air exercise, which the Indian Air Force is conducting from 26 September to 12 October 2026 at Air Force Station Jodhpur.

INS Sahyadri is a frontline stealth frigate and INS Kulish is a missile corvette, and the two sailed to Subic Bay in the Philippines for the Experts Working Group activity on maritime security, whose closing ceremony was held on 25 September 2026.

Veer Guardian is the bilateral air exercise between the Indian Air Force and the Japan Air Self Defense Force, and the release describes the drill as strengthening the strategic partnership between the two air forces of India and Japan.

The Ministry of Defence described the exercise held from 17 to 21 September 2026 as the 13th edition of the India-Sri Lanka bilateral maritime exercise, and it concluded at Visakhapatnam.

VARUNA is the naval exercise that India holds with the French Navy, and the supporting detail in this announcement points the same way, since the Indian ship has berthed at Toulon, a French port on the Mediterranean, for the harbour and sea phases of the exercise.

The programme is put together by the two ministries along with that secretariat, and it is conducted in association with the National Defence College, which is where such strategic courses are run.

The officers who boarded the ship for the passage are called Sea Riders, and the split is worth memorising because a paper setter can ask about it directly: India and Japan contributed two officers each, while Australia and the United States contributed one officer each, which adds up to six…

Tangdhar lies in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, a shelling-prone area close to the Line of Control, and the camp there had to be run from an underground operation theatre for that reason.

After the earlier goal of Rs 30,000 crore in annual defence exports was met in the previous year, the government fixed a higher goal of Rs 50,000 crore to be reached by 2029.

The flying phase of Exercise Tarang Shakti 2026 opened at Air Force Station Jodhpur the day after the inaugural ceremony, and the visiting contingents are operating from there through the exercise window of 26 September to 12 October 2026.

The activity opened at Naval Operating Base Subic on 21 September 2026 with the Philippine Navy as host, and Japan shared the chair of this Experts Working Group session on maritime security.

The Ministry of Defence release states that the Japan Air Self Defense Force participated in the exercise with the F-2A fighter aircraft, while the Indian Air Force deployed a mix of the Su-30 MKI, the Rafale and the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas.

The release lists VBSS among the Special Forces drills carried out in the sea phase of SLINEX-26, along with slithering operations.

What it does list are professional engagements in harbour and at sea of three kinds: cross-deck visits, in which sailors of one navy go aboard the other's ship; operational interactions, in which the two crews compare their drills and procedures; and sporting engagements between the ships' companies.

The Vice-President offered these three ideas as the philosophy behind the programme while urging countries of the Global South to respond together to challenges that cut across technology, cyberspace, artificial intelligence, energy and maritime security, climate change and supply chains.

MAHASAGAR is the name given to India's maritime vision, and the QUAD-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission is described as an expression of it, alongside the Indian Coast Guard's own commitment to collective engagement and a secure maritime environment in the Indo-Pacific.

The correct answer is Brigadier Sanjay Kumar Mishra, Head of Ophthalmology at the Army Hospital (Research and Referral), Delhi Cantonment, whose team carried advanced phacoemulsification, vitreoretinal and glaucoma equipment across mountainous terrain to reach Tangdhar.

The comparison the Minister drew is the part worth memorising: the same allocation stood at around Rs 2.53 lakh crore in 2013-14, which makes option A a real figure but from the wrong year, and therefore the most attractive distractor in the set.

Seven friendly foreign countries have sent flying contingents to Tarang Shakti 2026, and the list is Australia, the United States of America, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The Ministry of Defence placed the participation of INS Sahyadri and INS Kulish at Subic Bay within the Act East Policy and within this MAHASAGAR vision, which describes how India wants security and growth to advance together across the wider maritime neighbourhood.

The purpose is twofold: the armed forces get their missiles delivered on time, and DRDO is freed to concentrate on research and development while industry takes up the production load.