SAREX-2026, 12th Maritime Search and Rescue Drill, off Paradip

The correct answer is 12th. The exercise is being held off the Paradip coast of Odisha and is inaugurated by the Minister of State for Defence, with the search and rescue demonstration at sea following a day later. Options A and B are wrong because they name earlier editions of the same series, and an aspirant who remembers only that the drill is held in the eleventh or twelfth year of the series will lose the mark; the edition number is the fact being tested. Option D is wrong because the series has not reached that number. Note that two different edition numbers appear in this news item and should not be mixed up: the exercise itself is the twelfth, while the National Maritime Search and Rescue Board meeting that is held alongside it at Bhubaneswar is the twenty-fourth.

The correct answer is 32 observers from 30 countries. The number of observers is slightly larger than the number of countries because some nations have sent more than one representative, and the Ministry of Defence treats this international presence as a highlight of the drill, since it points to shared rescue protocols and the ability of different navies and coast guards to work to a single plan. Option B is wrong because it swaps the two figures, the commonest trap in a question of this shape. Option C and option D are wrong because neither pair of numbers was announced; the figures in option D in fact echo other details of the exercise, such as the count of Coast Guard ships taking part, and are offered to mislead a hurried reader.

The correct answer is Bhubaneswar. The board meeting is convened by the Indian Coast Guard under the chairmanship of its Director General, Paramesh Sivamani, and takes up national preparedness for rescue at sea, the management of distress alerts and faster movement of rescue assets through technology and coordination between agencies. Option A is the trap: Paradip is where the exercise and the demonstration at sea take place, but the board sits in the state capital, not at the port. Option C is wrong because Visakhapatnam, although a major maritime centre, has no part in this event. Option D is wrong for the same reason. Remember the pairing: Paradip for the drill, Bhubaneswar for the board, both in Odisha, and the whole effort framed by the SAGAR vision.