BPSC 70th CCE Re-exam Prelims General Studies · Question 108 of 142

Correct — A, S. Somnath. A question that says 'current' is answered as on the date of the examination, and this paper — the 70th CCE re-examination — was sat on 4 January 2025. S. Somanath was Chairman of ISRO that day. He had assumed charge as Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman of the Space Commission on 14 January 2022, succeeding K. Sivan, and he handed over on 13 January 2025, when Dr V. Narayanan assumed charge on 14 January 2025. The margin is ten days: a candidate answering this question a fortnight later would have had a different correct answer, which is exactly why the exam date has to be part of how you read the stem. Somanath came to the chair from the directorship of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thiruvananthapuram, and his three years cover the missions the paper's other questions also draw on — the Chandrayaan-3 soft landing near the lunar south pole on 23 August 2023, now marked each year as National Space Day, and the launch of Aditya-L1, India's first solar observatory, on 2 September 2023. The office itself is worth knowing precisely: the same person holds three posts together — Chairman of ISRO, Secretary of the Department of Space, and Chairman of the Space Commission — which is why appointment orders and ISRO's own press releases speak of 'assuming charge as Secretary, Department of Space' rather than of ISRO alone.

• (b)K. Sivan — The immediate predecessor, chairman from January 2018 to January 2022, so his name is only one step out of date — and that is the trap. His tenure covers Chandrayaan-2 in 2019, which is the mission most candidates associate with an ISRO chairman, so the wrong association sticks easily.
• (c)U. R. Rao — Udupi Ramachandra Rao (1932–2017) chaired ISRO from 1984 to 1994, three decades before this paper, and had died eight years before it was set. His years cover the beginnings of the INSAT programme and the push that produced the PSLV, which is why he appears on such lists — but he cannot be 'current' by any reading.
• (d)G. Madhavan Nair — Chairman from 2003 to 2009, the period of Chandrayaan-1. Like option (c), a genuine former chairman offered to a candidate who recognises the name without holding the dates — the whole option set is a chronology test disguised as a current-affairs question.

ISRO was formed in 1969 out of INCOSPAR, the committee Vikram Sarabhai had chaired from 1962, and it works under the Department of Space, which reports directly to the Prime Minister. The head of the organisation wears three hats at once — Chairman of ISRO, Secretary of the Department of Space and Chairman of the Space Commission — so a single appointment order covers all three, and any question about 'the head of ISRO' is really a question about that combined office. The line of chairmen runs from Vikram Sarabhai through Satish Dhawan, who served the longest term at twelve years, U. R. Rao (1984–1994), K. Kasturirangan, G. Madhavan Nair (2003–2009), K. Radhakrishnan, A. S. Kiran Kumar, K. Sivan (2018–2022), S. Somanath (2022–2025) and V. Narayanan from 14 January 2025. Each name is attached to a programme, which is how examiners build option sets: Sarabhai to the founding, Dhawan to the SLV, Rao to INSAT and the PSLV push, Nair to Chandrayaan-1, Sivan to Chandrayaan-2, Somanath to Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya-L1.

Treat every question containing the word 'current' as dated to the examination, not to the day you are reading it — the same stem has a different answer in different years, and this paper sits ten days before a handover. The practical routine is to keep a one-page list of office-holders updated in the fortnight before any state exam: the Chairman of ISRO, the Chief Election Commissioner, the RBI Governor, the Chief Justice of India, the Cabinet Secretary, the Chief of Defence Staff, and the heads of the bodies that appear in the news. Then attach a second column of immediate predecessors, because the predecessor is always on the option list. The discriminator on this particular question is a single date: 14 January 2025, when V. Narayanan took over. Anything before it belongs to Somanath, and this exam falls on 4 January. Note also that the other two names are so far out of date that they can be eliminated without knowing anything current at all — a candidate who merely knows that Chandrayaan-3 landed in 2023 under a chairman who was neither Rao nor Nair is already down to two options.

• S. Somanath assumed charge as Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman of the Space Commission on 14 January 2022, succeeding K. Sivan, and served until 13 January 2025
• Dr V. Narayanan assumed charge as Chairman of ISRO and Secretary, Department of Space on 14 January 2025 — ten days after this paper was sat; he had been Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre since 23 January 2018
• K. Sivan was chairman from January 2018 to January 2022; U. R. Rao (1932–2017) from 1984 to 1994; G. Madhavan Nair from 2003 to 2009
• Missions of Somanath's tenure include the Chandrayaan-3 landing of 23 August 2023, now observed as National Space Day, and the launch of Aditya-L1 on 2 September 2023
• The head of ISRO simultaneously holds the offices of Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman of the Space Commission; the Department of Space reports to the Prime Minister

• Answering a 'current' question from today's knowledge rather than from the examination date; the handover here came ten days after the paper
• Confusing chairmen with the missions of their tenure — Chandrayaan-1 under Madhavan Nair, Chandrayaan-2 under Sivan, Chandrayaan-3 under Somanath
• Assuming ISRO's chairman is only ISRO's chairman; the appointment carries the Department of Space and the Space Commission with it

BPSC asks office-holders bluntly and dates them to the exam, so the preparation is a short, current list revised in the last fortnight before the paper. UPSC does not ask who heads an organisation; it asks what the organisation does — what Bhuvan is, what the Mars Orbiter Mission achieved, what a policy changes — so the same news has to be converted into institutional understanding rather than names.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Chairman of ISRO simultaneously holds which of the following offices ?

  • (a)Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology
  • (b)Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, Space Commission
  • (c)Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India
  • (d)Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre

  Answer(b) Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, Space Commission — the three posts are held together, which is why appointment orders name all of them.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Chandrayaan-3 made its soft landing on the Moon on which date, now observed as National Space Day ?

  • (a)22 July 2023
  • (b)23 August 2023
  • (c)2 September 2023
  • (d)14 January 2025

  Answer(b) 23 August 2023 — the landing near the lunar south pole; 2 September 2023 is the launch date of Aditya-L1, a different mission of the same season.