What is the height of Mount Mukut, the peak scaled by the Indian Coast Guard mountaineering team?

The correct answer is the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling, usually shortened to HMI. The seventeen-member Coast Guard team climbed Mount Mukut under the expert guidance of that institute, and the climb formed the fifth and final phase of a preparatory programme that ran for eighteen months. Option A names an institute at Uttarkashi, option C one at Pahalgam and option D a national mountaineering body in the capital; while all are connected with mountaineering in India, none of them is the institute named for this expedition. Aspirants are advised to keep the institute's name and its location paired in memory, because questions on expeditions often ask which training body supervised the climb rather than who reached the summit. The institute's role should also be linked with the force involved and with the peak's height, since a single question may combine all three details.

The correct answer is that the Everest attempt is planned during the force's Swarnim Jayanti, the golden jubilee, in the year given in option A. The Mount Mukut climb was the fifth and concluding phase of an eighteen-month preparatory programme built around that goal, and the operational experience and lessons from it will feed into the final preparations. Option B describes a platinum jubilee, option C a diamond jubilee and option D a centenary; none of these is the occasion named for the planned Everest expedition. Candidates should remember that Swarnim Jayanti means golden jubilee, that it marks fifty years of the force, and that the Mount Mukut summit and the flag-in at Dehradun both belong to the run-up to it.

The correct answer is the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. Pushkar Singh Dhami, who holds that office, flagged in the seventeen-member team at a ceremony in Dehradun, praising the exceptional grit and endurance of the climbers and describing the achievement as an example of courage and a matter of national pride. Option A names the Governor of the state, who did not conduct the ceremony. Option C names the head of the Indian Coast Guard; the force was represented at the event by its Additional Director General, Anand Prakash Badola, who congratulated the team for its teamwork on difficult Himalayan ground. Option D, the Defence Minister, is also incorrect. Aspirants should pair the flag-in ceremony with the city and with the office of the person who received the team.

The correct answer is the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command. Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan, who holds that appointment, presided over the ceremony at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai, which falls within the area of the Western Naval Command. In his address he spoke of the value of indigenous warships in strengthening maritime surveillance and anti-submarine capability, and of the Navy's commitment to self-reliance in defence manufacturing. Option A, the Chief of Naval Staff, heads the Navy but did not preside on this occasion. Option C names the Southern Naval Command, whose chief is based elsewhere and did not conduct the ceremony. Option D, the Defence Secretary, is a civil servant in the Ministry of Defence; ministry officials attended, but a serving flag officer presides at a commissioning. Hence B is correct.

The correct answer is Junagadh. Mangrol is a coastal town and a well known fishing harbour in the Junagadh district of Gujarat, and the warship carries its name. The Indian Navy follows the practice of handing the names of notable ships to new hulls, so the name has a history: an earlier INS Mangrol, a minesweeper with the pennant M85, remained in service until April 2004, and the new craft continues that line. Option B, Porbandar, is a coastal district of Gujarat but is not the one named in connection with this ship. Option C, Devbhumi Dwarka, is also a Gujarat coastal district and is incorrect here. Option D, Valsad, lies in south Gujarat and is wrong. Candidates should link the ship, the town, the district and the state together.