UPHESC Assistant Professor Military Science 2025 PYQs

Concept: Military Keynesianism is an economic policy idea: governments raise military spending to boost aggregate demand, employment and growth (Keynesian demand management).

1. Examples: US Cold War spending, Reagan-era defence build-up.
2. It is a theory of economics, applied through the defence budget.

Short trick: Keynes = economist → military Keynesianism = economic ideology.

Concept: After the 1962 war with China, India adopted its first Five-Year Defence Plan for 1964–69.

1. It aimed at a 825,000-strong Army, a 45-squadron Air Force, modernisation of the Navy and growth of defence production.
2. 1951–56 was the First (economic) Five-Year Plan, not a defence plan.

Short trick: 1962 shock → 1964–69 first Defence Plan.

Concept: An offset obliges the foreign vendor to plough back part of the contract value into the buyer country.

1. In India's DAP, contracts above ₹2,000 crore carry an offset obligation (generally 30%).
2. It is discharged through technology transfer, investment, local manufacture and purchase from Indian industry.

Short trick: Offset = part of the money comes back as technology and investment.

Concept: Match each idea with its originator.

1. Saptanga (seven limbs of the state) – Kautilya → IV.
2. Indirect approach – Liddell Hart → III.
3. Plan 1919 – J.F.C. Fuller → II.
4. Socialism and War (1915) – Lenin → I.

Short trick: Code reads IV-III-II-I – perfectly reversed.

Concept: UN peacekeeping rests on consent, impartiality and minimum use of force.

1. Its core task is to monitor ceasefires/truce lines and keep a stable environment for a political settlement.
2. Sanctions are imposed by the Security Council (Art. 41), not by peacekeepers; trade and arms facilitation are not their role.

Short trick: Peacekeepers = monitors of ceasefire ("blue helmets between the lines").

Concept: The Readiness for the Future of Production Report (first 2018) is published by the World Economic Forum (with A.T. Kearney).

1. It assesses 100 countries on the drivers and structure of production for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
2. WEF also publishes the Global Competitiveness, Global Gender Gap and Global Risks reports.

Short trick: Future of Production / Industry 4.0 reports = WEF.

Concept: Standard risk formula: Risk = Threat × Vulnerability × Impact (consequence).

1. Threat – who/what may attack; Vulnerability – weakness that can be exploited; Impact – damage if exploited.
2. Economic or social power are not elements of the risk equation.

Short trick: Cyber risk = T × V × I.

Concept: Akash is a medium-range surface-to-air missile developed by DRDO under the IGMDP; often called India's "Iron Dome" style air-defence shield.

1. Produced by BDL and BEL; range about 25–30 km (Akash-NG ~70 km); used by the Army and IAF.
2. ISRO, NASA and JAXA are space agencies, not missile developers.

Short trick: Missiles of IGMDP (Prithvi, Agni, Trishul, Nag, Akash) = DRDO.

Concept: Apsara, at Trombay (BARC), went critical on 4 August 1956 – India's and Asia's first research reactor.

1. Cirus (Canada-India Reactor) – 1960; Zerlina – 1961; Purnima – 1972; Dhruva – 1985.
2. Apsara was designed and built by Indian scientists under Homi J. Bhabha.

Short trick: A for Apsara = first (1956).

Concept: The Space Commission and the Department of Space were set up in 1972 (June 1972); ISRO was brought under DOS.

1. 1962 – INCOSPAR under the DAE (Vikram Sarabhai).
2. 1969 – ISRO formed (15 August).
3. 1975 – Aryabhata launched.

Short trick: INCOSPAR 1962 → ISRO 1969 → Space Commission/DOS 1972 → Aryabhata 1975.

Concept: Descending = latest first.

1. Pulwama (CRPF convoy) – 14 February 2019.
2. Pathankot airbase – 2 January 2016.
3. Raghunath Mandir, Jammu – 30 March 2002 (and again 24 November 2002).
4. Parliament attack – 13 December 2001. Order: I, III, II, IV.

Short trick: 2019 → 2016 → 2002 → 2001.

Concept: IFR 2016 was held off Visakhapatnam (4–8 February 2016), theme "United Through Oceans", reviewed by President Pranab Mukherjee.

1. Navies of 50 countries took part; about 100 ships (including around 24 foreign warships) were reviewed.
2. It was India's second IFR – the first was at Mumbai in 2001.

Short trick: IFR 2016 Vizag – 50 nations, "United Through Oceans".

Concept: The McMahon Line: A Century of Discord (2019) was written by former Army Chief General J.J. Singh.

1. It traces the 1914 Simla Convention line, its rejection by China and its role in the 1962 war and later stand-offs.
2. Brig. J.P. Dalvi wrote Himalayan Blunder on the 1962 war.

Short trick: J.J. Singh – McMahon Line; Dalvi – Himalayan Blunder.

Concept: Act East Policy was announced by PM Modi in November 2014 (East Asia Summit, Myanmar), upgrading the 1991 Look East Policy.

1. (A) true – launched in 2014.
2. (R) true – the landlocked North-East depends on Bangladesh for transit, ports (Chittagong, Mongla) and connectivity.
3. But the launch of a policy in 2014 is not "explained" by the India–Bangladesh relationship; the policy is aimed at ASEAN/Indo-Pacific.

Short trick: Both true, unrelated cause → option B.

Concept: The Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) is the line of present positions of Indian and Pakistani troops in the Siachen Glacier region.

1. It runs about 110 km north from NJ 9842, where the LoC ends, up to Indira Col.
2. Created after Operation Meghdoot (1984).
3. India–China = LAC; India–Pakistan (J&K) = LoC; India–Afghanistan = Durand Line (in PoK).

Short trick: AGPL = Siachen = India–Pakistan.

Concept: Exercise Poorvi Prahar (November 2024) was a tri-service (Army, Navy, Air Force) integrated exercise in Arunachal Pradesh's eastern sector.

1. It practised integrated joint operations in mountainous terrain, using drones, loitering munitions and helicopters.
2. Part of the drive towards jointness and theatre commands.

Short trick: Poorvi = East, Prahar = strike → tri-service exercise in the East.

Concept: A flag march is a visible march of armed forces/police through a sensitive area before or during unrest, elections or festivals.

1. It shows the presence and strength of the State, deters miscreants and builds public confidence.
2. Its aim is to maintain peace and law and order – not training, tourism or provoking tension.

Short trick: Flag march = show of force for peace.

Concept: India's land boundary is about 15,106 km with seven countries.

1. Bangladesh – 4,096.7 km (longest); China – 3,488 km; Pakistan – 3,323 km; Nepal – 1,751 km; Myanmar – 1,643 km; Bhutan – 699 km; Afghanistan – 106 km.

Short trick: B-C-P-N-M-B-A: Bangladesh longest, Afghanistan shortest.

Concept: Match each operation with its year.

1. Operation Cactus – 1988, India foiled the coup in the Maldives → III.
2. Operation Grand Slam – 1965, Pakistani thrust on Akhnoor → I.
3. Lightning campaign – 1971, rapid Indian advance to Dhaka → II.
4. Operation Vijay – 1999, Kargil (also the 1961 Goa liberation) → IV.

Short trick: Cactus-Maldives 88, Grand Slam-Akhnoor 65, Lightning-Dhaka 71, Vijay-Kargil 99.

Concept: K. Subrahmanyam (1929–2011) is called the doyen of India's strategic affairs community.

1. First director of IDSA; convener of the first National Security Advisory Board, which drafted the nuclear doctrine (1999).
2. Chaired the Kargil Review Committee (2000).

Short trick: Doyen = K. Subrahmanyam (IDSA, nuclear doctrine, Kargil report).