SAREX-2026 Opens Off Paradip With 30 Nations Joining

The correct answer is off Paradip. The exercise was inaugurated by the Raksha Rajya Mantri on 7 October 2026 and the sea phase was set to be conducted off Paradip, on the Odisha coast, the next day. Thirty-two delegates from thirty friendly foreign nations were to take part in or observe the drill, along with representatives of international organisations. Option A, off Kochi, is wrong: Kochi is a major naval station on the Arabian Sea side but is not the location named for this exercise. Option C, off Port Blair, is wrong: although the Andaman and Nicobar Islands sit inside the Indian Search and Rescue Region, the exercise was not held there. Option D, off Visakhapatnam, is wrong as well: it is a large eastern port and naval headquarters, yet the venue announced for SAREX-2026 was Paradip and not Visakhapatnam. Remember that the exercise brought together the Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Coastal Police, ports, civil agencies and the shipping community in what was described as a Whole-of-Government and Whole-of-Nation approach.

The correct answer is 4.6 million square kilometres. At its twenty-fourth meeting the National Maritime Search and Rescue Board looked at how prepared the country is to run rescue operations across this whole stretch of ocean, and discussed technology integration, real-time information sharing, management of distress alerts, vessel tracking and coordination between agencies. Options A, C and D give other figures that do not match the extent announced for the region. The number is worth memorising together with the rest of the meeting’s detail: it was chaired by Director General Paramesh Sivamani, who is Director General of the Indian Coast Guard and Chairman of the Board, it was held on the same day as the inauguration of the exercise, and it also saw the presentation of the National Maritime Search and Rescue Awards for the year. The Chairman stressed that lessons learnt in earlier missions and multi-agency exercises must translate into greater mission readiness.

The correct answer is LEOSAR to GEOSAR to MEOSAR. India began with Low Earth Orbit Search and Rescue, moved on to Geostationary Search and Rescue, and is now progressing towards Medium Earth Orbit Search and Rescue. The Minister described the Indian Earth Orbit Local User Terminal, known as MEOLUT, reaching full operational capability as a significant advance in this field and congratulated ISRO along with the associated teams. Option A reverses the first two stages and so is wrong. Option C places Medium Earth Orbit capability first, which inverts the actual order of development. Option D puts the geostationary stage last, which is also incorrect. For the examination, pair this sequence with the other facts of the day: the exercise name SAREX-2026, the venue off Paradip, the thirty foreign nations involved, the Coast Guard motto Vayam Rakshamah meaning “We Protect”, and the aspiration of Viksit Bharat 2047 that the Minister linked to stronger rescue capability.