Which one of the following military operations was not undertaken by India ?

Correct — B, Operation Spider's Web. This was Ukraine's, not India's: a Security Service of Ukraine drone operation in June 2025 in which short-range drones, smuggled deep inside Russia and launched from concealed containers on trucks, struck strategic bomber aircraft at airbases thousands of kilometres from the front. It drew attention precisely because of the method — cheap drones released close to their targets rather than flown across defended airspace. The other three are Indian and span three different services and eras. Operation Ablaze was the Indian Army's precautionary mobilisation along the western border in April 1965, ordered as tension built in the Rann of Kutch before the war proper. Operation Trident was the Indian Navy's missile-boat strike on Karachi harbour on the night of 4-5 December 1971, the action commemorated as Navy Day. Operation Bandar was the Indian Air Force codename for the Balakot airstrike of 26 February 2019.

• (a)Operation Ablaze — Indian, and the least familiar of the three — an Army mobilisation on the western front in April 1965, before the September war. Its obscurity is what makes it a usable distractor.
• (c)Operation Trident — Indian. The Navy's attack on Karachi on 4-5 December 1971, using Osa-class missile boats; Indian Navy Day is observed on 4 December because of it. It was followed by Operation Python on 8-9 December.
• (d)Operation Bandar — Indian. The IAF codename for the Balakot strike of 26 February 2019, which followed the Pulwama attack. 'Bandar' means monkey, and the name was chosen for secrecy rather than symbolism.

Indian operation codenames recur across exams, and it helps to file them by service and conflict: Ablaze and Riddle (1965), Cactus Lily and Trident (1971), Meghdoot (Siachen, 1984), Vijay (Kargil, 1999), Parakram (2001-02), Bandar (2019), plus humanitarian ones such as Ganga, Kaveri, Devi Shakti and Ajay.

The reason a foreign codename can appear in an Indian exam is that operations become common knowledge when they change how a war is fought, and Spider's Web did. It demonstrated that a handful of inexpensive first-person-view drones launched from inside a country could damage strategic assets that air defences are built to protect at range, and militaries everywhere drew lessons about basing, dispersal and counter-drone cover. For an Indian candidate the useful contrast is with Operation Trident: in 1971 the Navy achieved surprise by using small missile boats in a role nobody expected them in, which is the same logic of asymmetry at a different technological moment.

• Operation Trident, 4-5 December 1971 — Indian Navy missile boats attacked Karachi; Navy Day is 4 December.
• Operation Python, 8-9 December 1971, was the follow-up strike on Karachi.
• Operation Ablaze was the Indian Army's forward mobilisation of April 1965.
• Operation Bandar was the IAF codename for the Balakot strike of 26 February 2019.
• Operation Spider's Web was a Ukrainian drone operation of June 2025 against Russian strategic bomber bases.

• Assuming an unfamiliar codename must be the foreign one. Ablaze is Indian and far less famous than Spider's Web.
• Confusing Trident with Python. Both struck Karachi in December 1971; Trident came first and gives Navy Day its date.
• Reading 'Bandar' as a place name. It was a deliberately unrevealing codename for the Balakot mission.

As an odd-one-out among operation codenames, mixing eras and services so that recognition of any one Indian operation is not enough.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Indian Navy Day is observed on 4 December to commemorate which operation?

  • (a)Operation Python
  • (b)Operation Trident
  • (c)Operation Cactus
  • (d)Operation Vijay

  Answer(b) Operation Trident — the missile-boat attack on Karachi on the night of 4-5 December 1971.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Operation Meghdoot was launched by India in 1984 to secure:

  • (a)The Sir Creek
  • (b)The Siachen Glacier
  • (c)The Chicken's Neck corridor
  • (d)Kargil heights

  Answer(b) The Siachen Glacier — the operation that placed Indian troops on the Saltoro Ridge.