DAC Clears Rs 1.10 Lakh Crore Defence Procurement Proposals

The correct answer is Rs 1,10,000 crore. The Defence Acquisition Council, meeting under the chairmanship of the Raksha Mantri, gave Acceptance of Necessity to acquisition proposals of the three Services at an estimated cost of about that amount. Acceptance of Necessity is only the in-principle administrative approval; the contract and the payment come much later, so a question that asks what the council did should be answered with the word approval and not with the word purchase. The other three options carry figures that the release does not mention at all, and a paper setter uses such near-round numbers because a candidate who has read the headline quickly will confuse one large figure with another. The safest way to remember it is as one and a tenth lakh crore rupees, cleared in a single sitting for the Army, the Navy and the Air Force together, with about 98 per cent of that value to be sourced from Indian industry.

The correct answer is the Raksha Mantri. The release states that the meeting was held under the chairmanship of Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh, so the Defence Minister heads this council. Option A names the Chief of Defence Staff, who is the senior most military officer and advises on tri-Service matters, but the release does not place him in the chair of this body. Option B names the Defence Secretary, the senior most civil servant of the ministry, whose role in the acquisition process is administrative rather than presiding. Option D names the National Security Adviser, who works on national security policy and not on the clearance of capital purchases. Candidates should link the council with the minister in the same way they link the Cabinet Committee on Security with the Prime Minister, because examinations very often ask only who presides over a named body.

The correct answer is the Indian Navy, to replace Air Route Surveillance Radars at naval air stations. The release puts the Arudhra Radar in the Navy's list, together with the design, development and later purchase of Marine Gas Turbines, and says plainly that the radar will take the place of the existing Air Route Surveillance Radars. Option A sends the radar to the Army for artillery fire control, a task done by weapon locating and fire control radars that this release never names. Option C moves it to the Air Force, whose clearances in this meeting covered fighter, transport and helicopter capability along with the Ground-Based Multi-Purpose Jammer and the DEFSAC card system, not this radar. Option D brings in the Coast Guard, which the release does not mention. Pair the two Navy items in memory, Arudhra for surveillance and Marine Gas Turbine for propulsion.

The correct answer is paper-based identity cards, passes and permits. DEFSAC stands for the Defence Forces Secure Access Card, and the release says it will replace the paper system now in use with interoperable smart cards that work on radio frequency identification. The word interoperable matters, because one card is then read at installations of all three Services rather than at one base alone. Option B names field radio sets, which belong to the communication programmes and not to this clearance. Option C names ration and canteen registers, a welfare and supply function that the release does not touch. Option D names night vision devices, which are surveillance equipment of a different kind. The item cleared alongside DEFSAC for the Air Force was the Ground-Based Multi-Purpose Jammer, meant to jam the radars of an adversary, and the two are often asked together.