Defence Weekly Current Affairs Quiz: 31 August – 6 September 2026

The correct answer is Air Vice Marshal Shakti Sharma. The Ministry of Defence release says that she became the first woman officer outside the medical stream in the Indian defence forces to attain the rank of Air Vice Marshal or an equivalent rank, and that on 1 September 2026 she assumed the appointment of Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Education) at Air Headquarters. The qualification in the record matters, and it is exactly what the other options test. Women officers had already reached two-star and higher ranks through the medical services, so a name from the medical stream cannot be the answer to this question; the release restricts the first to officers outside that stream. No other officer is named in the release at all. Remember the pairing for revision: the rank of Air Vice Marshal carries two stars, and her branch is the Education Branch, which she joined on 18 June 1994.

The correct answer is Air Force Station, Yelahanka, Bengaluru. The 16th edition of Aero India is scheduled there from 8 to 12 February 2027, in the state of Karnataka, and is organised by the Department of Defence Production under the Ministry of Defence. Option A names an air force station in the National Capital Region that hosts other military aviation events but not this one. Option C names an airport in Hyderabad which has hosted air shows in the past, which makes it a plausible distractor, but the release does not mention it. Option D is a convention centre in the capital used for summits and expositions, not an air show that requires a runway for flying displays. Remember that Aero India needs an operational airfield, because the Indian Air Force and international flying teams perform aerial displays during the five days.

The correct answer is Belgium. The joint statement records that Bart De Wever, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Belgium, was on an official visit to India at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was his first visit to India after he assumed office in February 2025, and he was accompanied by Theo Francken, the Belgian Minister of Defence and Foreign Trade, together with officials and business leaders. The Netherlands and Luxembourg in options A and C are neighbours of Belgium and are often confused with it in the examination hall; Luxembourg is also part of the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union that the statement mentions, but its Prime Minister did not make this visit. Denmark in option D has no part in this release at all. A useful anchor is that the visitor laid a wreath at Rajghat before his talks with the Indian Prime Minister.

The correct answer is the Raksha Mantri, Rajnath Singh. The release states plainly that he put out the RAKSHA document on defence diplomacy in New Delhi, and that the framework sets down India's strategic roadmap and vision for defence partnerships across the world for the next 10 years. Option D, the Defence Secretary, is wrong but tempting: Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh was present at the event, as were the Secretary for Defence Production and the Secretary (East) of the Ministry of External Affairs, yet none of them released the document. Option B is a distractor of the same kind, since senior service officers attended, among them the Chief of the Army Staff and the Vice Chiefs of the Air Staff and the Naval Staff. Option A does not appear in the release at all. For a defence diplomacy document, the political head of the Ministry is the one who signs it out.

The correct answer is GSLV-F17. The release records that ISRO carried out the successful launch of GSLV-F17 carrying EOS-05, and that the Prime Minister praised the space agency for the achievement. GSLV is short for the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, and the suffix F17 identifies this particular flight of that rocket family. Option A names the PSLV, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which is a different rocket family and is not the vehicle mentioned in this release. Option C names LVM3, the heavy-lift vehicle, which also does not appear here. Option D names the SSLV, the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, again a different family with no role in this launch. Students often confuse the rocket with the satellite, so the safest way to remember this item is as a pair: the rocket was GSLV-F17 and the satellite it carried was EOS-05. The Prime Minister called the flight a proud moment for the nation and said it reflects the excellence, innovation and growing capabilities of India's space sector.

The correct answer is Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Education), a post at Air Headquarters. She took it over on 1 September 2026, and it is with this appointment that she became the first woman officer outside the medical stream to hold a two-star rank in the Indian defence forces. Option D names a post she really did hold, but earlier: as Principal of Sainik School, Kapurthala she became the first woman officer from the three services to command a Sainik School. That is a separate first and an earlier stage of her career, so it cannot be the answer here. Options A and C are appointments in other streams of the Air Force and are not linked to her in the release. Her branch is the Education Branch, which makes the Education portfolio at Air Headquarters the natural fit and an easy memory hook.

The correct answer is the Department of Defence Production. It organises Aero India under the Ministry of Defence, which fits the show's purpose of displaying India's capability in aerospace and defence manufacturing and drawing in partnerships, investment and exports. Options B, C and D name the other departments that sit within the same ministry, which is what makes them useful distractors. The Department of Military Affairs deals with the armed forces and their functioning. The Department of Defence Research and Development runs the country's defence research establishment. The Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare looks after pensions and resettlement. Only the first is named in the release. Candidates should also remember that the 2027 edition is expected to give an impetus to Aatmanirbhar Bharat and to open avenues for Indian firms, including MSMEs and start-ups.

The correct answer is 1947. The two leaders noted that Belgium was among the first European countries to establish diplomatic ties with India, and the statement fixes that year as 1947. The arithmetic that follows is the reason the year matters for an examination: the 80th anniversary of the relationship will therefore be marked in 2027, and the statement itself describes that year as another historic occasion for the two countries. Option B, 1950, is the year India became a republic and is an easy trap for a candidate who remembers the Constitution rather than this bilateral fact. Options C and D, 1962 and 1971, are years of conflict in Indian history and appear nowhere in the release. Candidates should also recall the older link the leaders spoke of, the sacrifice of more than 9,000 Indian soldiers in the Flanders Fields during the First World War.

The correct answer is the next 10 years. The release calls RAKSHA a comprehensive framework that carries India's strategic roadmap and vision for global defence partnerships over the coming decade, and it repeats that the document gives a clear and actionable vision for the next ten years. The wording matters because examiners set questions on the exact span. Option D, twenty-five years, is the kind of horizon associated with long-term national visions and is the strongest distractor for a candidate working from memory of other policy documents. Options A and B are shorter periods that appear nowhere in this release. Keep the number with the four pillars of the document, namely Strategic Partnerships, Capacity Building, Indigenous Exports and Maritime Security, since a question may combine the two, asking how many pillars the decade-long roadmap rests on.

The correct answer is Geosynchronous orbit. The distinction claimed for EOS-05 in this release is precisely this: it is India's first-ever imaging satellite from Geosynchronous orbit. That is the single fact that turns an otherwise routine launch into an examinable milestone, and it is the phrase the Prime Minister himself used. A spacecraft in this orbit keeps pace with the rotation of the Earth, so it remains over broadly the same region rather than passing over it and moving on. Option A, low Earth orbit, is where a great many satellites operate, but the release does not place EOS-05 there and a low orbit would not support the claim of a first. Option B, Sun-synchronous orbit, and option D, polar orbit, are the orbits associated with earlier remote sensing spacecraft, which is exactly why they make tempting distractors. Neither is named in this release. Remember the wording of the first: imaging satellite, Geosynchronous orbit.

The correct answer is IIT Kanpur and Pune University. Among the institutional initiatives she led during her career, the release singles out the establishment of Indian Air Force Chairs of Excellence at these two places, created to carry forward academic work and strategic collaboration in the field of defence. The three wrong options pair well known institutes of technology with well known universities and will look plausible to anyone who has not fixed the detail, but no other institution appears in the release. A useful way to hold the whole story together is to read it as one line of work rather than scattered facts: she was commissioned into the Education Branch on 18 June 1994, she commanded a Sainik School at Kapurthala as its Principal, she built the Chairs of Excellence at IIT Kanpur and Pune University, and she now holds the Education portfolio at Air Headquarters.

The correct answer is 3 September 2026. The release says exhibitor registration was scheduled to commence on that date through the dedicated portal www.aeroindia.gov.in, which was built to handle registration and the booking of exhibition space for both exhibitors and visitors. Option A is the date the announcement itself was issued, one day earlier, and is the trap in this question. Option C does not appear in the release. Option D is the opening day of the show, not of registration, and the two are nearly five months apart. A clean way to hold the timeline is as three dates: the announcement on 2 September 2026, registration from 3 September 2026, and the show itself from 8 to 12 February 2027 at Air Force Station Yelahanka in Bengaluru.

The correct answer is 2028-29. The joint statement sets out a straight exchange of support: India will contest a non-permanent seat on the Security Council for the 2028-29 term, and Belgium for the 2037-2038 term, with each backing the other. Option D is therefore the term Belgium will contest, not India, and it is the distractor most candidates fall for because both figures appear in the same sentence of the release. Options A and C are not mentioned anywhere. The passage carries a second point that is frequently asked alongside this one: Belgium reaffirmed its support for India's candidature for permanent membership of a reformed and expanded Security Council, and both sides stressed that the Council must be reformed so that it represents the world as it is today, with the United Nations Charter at the centre of multilateral order.

The correct answer is Maritime Security. That pillar of the RAKSHA document speaks of strengthening India's role as a Net Security Provider and a First Responder in the Indian Ocean Region, and both phrases are standard usage in Indian maritime strategy. The other three pillars cover different ground. Strategic Partnerships in option A is about deepening bilateral and multilateral security cooperation. Capacity Building in option B covers joint military exercises, training programmes and the sharing of best practices with friendly countries. Indigenous Exports in option C is about promoting Make-in-India defence platforms so that the country becomes a dependable global hub for defence manufacturing. Candidates should be able to match each pillar with its content, because questions are often set the other way round, naming the description and asking for the pillar. All four together are meant to keep India an anchor of peace and rule-based order.

The correct answer is the Prime Minister of India. The release was issued by the Prime Minister's Office and records that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the launch as yet another outstanding achievement by ISRO and a proud moment for the nation. He shared his remarks in a post on X. He said the successful launch reflects the excellence, innovation and growing capabilities that define India's space sector, and he added that the deepening partnership between ISRO and Indian industry is adding new strength and scale to the space programme while expanding the country's capabilities across the entire space ecosystem. Option A, the President, and option B, the Vice-President, are the holders of the two offices students most often substitute for the Prime Minister in such questions, but neither is the source of these remarks. Option D, the Minister of Education, has no connection with a space launch and is easy to eliminate. Note also who the remarks were addressed to: ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organisation.

The correct answer is the 16th edition, running five days. The show is scheduled from 8 to 12 February 2027, which is a span of five days, and the release calls it the 16th edition of Aero India. Options A, B and D pair the wrong edition number with the wrong duration and are offered because candidates often recall one of the two correctly while guessing the other. The five days carry a comprehensive exhibition, business and strategic engagements between industry and government, technology demonstrations and collaborations, and aerial displays by the Indian Air Force and participating international flying teams. Aero India is described in the release as Asia's largest air show and one of the world's premier aerospace and defence exhibitions, which is why the edition number is a common examination question.

The correct answer is the India-Belgium Civil Nuclear Liability Treaty, which does not exist in this release. The joint statement lists what was actually concluded. A Letter of Intent was signed between the Defence Ministries of the two countries, giving a framework for staff talks, training, education, research and defence-industrial partnerships, and building on an understanding the two Defence Ministers reached in March 2025. An MoU was signed between India's Central Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Police of Belgium on transnational organised crime, cybercrime and the tracing of fugitives. The India-Belgium Investment Fast-Track Mechanism was launched to clear bottlenecks facing investors in both directions. A renewed MoU on renewable energy cooperation was also welcomed. Nuclear energy is mentioned only as an area of expanding economic interest, never as a treaty, so option C is the odd one out.