Operation Sadbhavna is an initiative of

Correct — A, Indian Army. Operation Sadbhavna is the Indian Army's civic-action and outreach programme, run mainly in Jammu and Kashmir and extended to Ladakh and parts of the North-East. It runs Army Goodwill Schools, medical camps, vocational training centres, women's empowerment projects, infrastructure works and national integration tours for young people from the region, and it is separate from the Army's operational tasks.

• (b)Indian Navy — The Navy's named operations are maritime — Operation Sankalp in the Gulf, Operation Samudra Setu for repatriation by sea and Mission Sagar for regional relief.
• (c)Indian Air Force — The Air Force conducts airlift and relief operations under its own names and has no part in running this programme.
• (d)Indian Army and UN Peacekeeping Mission — United Nations peacekeeping is a separate stream of Indian deployment abroad, under a UN mandate. Sadbhavna is a domestic civic-action programme run by the Army on its own account.

Armed forces distinguish combat operations from civic action aimed at winning the confidence of a population. Operation Sadbhavna, whose name means goodwill, belongs to the second category. It is the Indian Army's own initiative in areas where it has a long-standing presence, and its budget goes on schools, health care, skills and connectivity rather than on anything military.

Named operations are a favourite examination subject and the reliable method is to attach each name to the service that owns it and to a one-line purpose. Anchored to the 2020 exam, the recognisable pairs were Sadbhavna with the Army, Sankalp with the Navy in the Gulf of Oman and Samudra Setu with the Navy's repatriation sailings during the pandemic. Names do get reused across years — the Navy revived Operation Sankalp for the Red Sea deployment from December 2023 — so a current-affairs answer is safest when it also carries the year it belongs to.

• Operation Sadbhavna is the Indian Army's civic-action programme, run principally in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
• Its components include Army Goodwill Schools, medical camps, vocational training and national integration tours.
• The name means goodwill, and the programme is distinct from the Army's operational deployments.
• Operation Sankalp is a Navy operation, begun in June 2019 in the Gulf of Oman and revived for the Red Sea from December 2023.
• Operation Samudra Setu was the Navy's repatriation of Indian citizens by sea during the 2020 pandemic.

• Assuming a Sanskrit-derived operation name implies a combat deployment.
• Mixing Sadbhavna with the Navy's Sankalp, which sounds similar and is more often in the news.
• Treating a domestic civic-action programme as a United Nations mandated activity.

An operation-to-owner item. Building a two-column list of operation names against services covers a recurring slice of the Defence and Security section.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Operation Samudra Setu, conducted in 2020, involved

  • (a)the evacuation of Indian citizens from abroad by sea
  • (b)an anti-piracy patrol off Somalia
  • (c)a joint exercise with the United States Navy
  • (d)the laying of an undersea cable to the Andaman Islands

  Answer(a) the evacuation of Indian citizens from abroad by sea — an Indian Navy repatriation effort during the pandemic.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Army Goodwill Schools in Jammu and Kashmir are run under

  • (a)Operation Vijay
  • (b)Operation Sadbhavna
  • (c)Operation Rakshak
  • (d)Operation Meghdoot

  Answer(b) Operation Sadbhavna — the Army's civic-action programme, of which the schools are the best-known component.