CDS (I) 2024 General Knowledge · Question 109 of 120

Correct — D, Ugram. Ugram is a 7.62x51 mm rifle designed and developed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment, a DRDO laboratory at Pune, working with an Indian private partner, Dvipa Armour India. The name is a Sanskrit word meaning ferocious, and the weapon was taken from design to a working prototype in a very short development cycle and unveiled in 2024, the year of this paper. It is intended for counter-insurgency and counter-terrorist use and is part of the wider effort to replace the ageing INSAS and to reduce dependence on imported rifles.

• (a)Heckler — Not an Indian weapon at all — the name belongs to the German firm Heckler & Koch, and it is a manufacturer's name rather than the name of a rifle.
• (b)T91 — The T91 is a Taiwanese service rifle, produced by that country's own arsenal; nothing about it is Indian.
• (c)Tikka — Tikka is a Finnish sporting-rifle brand associated with hunting and target shooting, not an Indian military development programme.

DRDO does not build weapons itself; it designs them through specialised laboratories and then transfers the technology to a production agency. Small arms and ammunition are the province of the Armament Research and Development Establishment at Pune, which has a long line of work behind it, and the newer pattern is to develop alongside an Indian private firm so that manufacture can begin quickly once trials are cleared.

This item is answerable by elimination even if the name Ugram means nothing to you, because three of the four options are foreign names in plain sight — a German company, a Taiwanese rifle, a Finnish brand — and only one is a Sanskrit word. That is a general lesson for defence questions: Indian systems are almost always given Sanskrit or Indic names, and the odd name out is usually the answer. On the present-day position, the programme has moved beyond the 2024 unveiling — Ugram was reported in 2026 to have completed Indian Army trials, so the fact to update is its status, not its parentage.

• Ugram is a 7.62x51 mm rifle developed by DRDO's Armament Research and Development Establishment, Pune, with Dvipa Armour India.
• It is gas-operated with a rotating bolt, weighs about 3.9 kg and is about 960 mm long.
• The name means 'ferocious' in Sanskrit; the rifle was unveiled in 2024.
• It is aimed at replacing the older INSAS family and cutting reliance on imported rifles.

• Reading a manufacturer's name as a weapon's name.
• Assuming a rifle in Indian service is Indian in origin — several are licence-built or imported.
• Mixing up the DRDO-developed Ugram with the AK-203, which is a Russian design made in India under a joint venture.

As a one-line 'which of these is indigenous' item. Keep a short list of recent DRDO products with the lab that made them, since CDS asks about defence procurement and indigenisation in almost every paper.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Ugram rifle has been developed by which DRDO laboratory?

  • (a)Defence Research and Development Laboratory, Hyderabad
  • (b)Armament Research and Development Establishment, Pune
  • (c)Gas Turbine Research Establishment, Bengaluru
  • (d)Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, Kochi

  Answer(b) Armament Research and Development Establishment, Pune — DRDO's small-arms and armament laboratory.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The AK-203 rifles being manufactured at Korwa in Uttar Pradesh are made under an arrangement with which country?

  • (a)France
  • (b)Israel
  • (c)Russia
  • (d)United States

  Answer(c) Russia — the Korwa plant is an India-Russia joint venture, which is why the AK-203 is licence-built rather than indigenous in origin.