Enforcement Officer / Accounts Officer (EO/AO) 2020 recruitment test, advertisement 421. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, NMJX-U-GTA); answer as per the official UPSC final answer key. This question is in Part B. Answer last reviewed 24 August 2026.

As a routine exercise, Operations ‘Garam Hawa’ and ‘Sard Hawa’ are conducted by

(a)BSF
(b)ITBP
(c)CRPF
(d)CISF

Answer

Why

Correct — A, (a) BSF. Operations 'Sard Hawa' and 'Garam Hawa' are two seasonal counter-infiltration drives conducted by the BORDER SECURITY FORCE on the India-Pakistan frontier, and their names are the clue to what they are. Sard Hawa means 'cold wind' and is the WINTER drive, mounted in January, when dense fog on the Rajasthan desert stretches around Bikaner and Jaisalmer and on the Jammu sector of the International Boundary cuts visibility to almost nothing and creates ideal conditions for infiltration and smuggling. During it, leave is curtailed, extra personnel are moved on to the infiltration-prone stretches, and thermal imagers and night-vision devices are pushed forward alongside intensified camel, foot and vehicle patrolling. Garam Hawa means 'hot wind' and is the SUMMER twin, mounted around May and June, when heat waves, the loo and dust storms do to visibility and to vigilance what fog does in winter. The phrase 'As a routine exercise' in the stem is doing real work: both are regular, calendar-driven exercises repeated year after year, not responses to any particular incident, and that framing is itself a hint towards a force with a standing border-guarding mandate.

Why the others are wrong

(b)ITBP — The Indo-Tibetan Border Police is not the force that runs these operations. Its mandate is the India-CHINA border, which it guards along its full length in the Himalaya from the Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Jachep La in Arunachal Pradesh, and it was raised in the aftermath of the 1962 conflict. Its specialisation is high-altitude and mountain warfare — its border outposts are among the highest manned positions in the world, and it also supplies mountaineering and disaster-response expertise. Fog on the Rajasthan desert border and the loo of a north Indian summer belong to a different frontier and a different force.
(c)CRPF — The Central Reserve Police Force does not conduct these operations. It is India's largest central armed police force and the oldest of them, and its role is INTERNAL security rather than border guarding — assisting state governments in maintaining law and order, counter-insurgency operations, anti-Naxal operations through its specialised units, election duty and the protection of vital installations. It is deployed across the country wherever a central reserve is required, which is precisely why it is not tied to any one border and does not mount seasonal drives along one. It is the most-selected wrong option in questions of this kind simply because it is the most frequently seen name.
(d)CISF — The Central Industrial Security Force has no border role at all, so it cannot be the answer. It was created to provide security to public sector industrial undertakings, and its mandate has since widened to airports, seaports, nuclear and space installations, government buildings, heritage monuments and metro rail systems. Its work is static installation security and access control, carried out at fixed premises across the country. Anyone who has passed through the security check at an Indian airport has met the CISF, and nothing about that role connects to seasonal patrolling on an international boundary.

Concept

India's Central Armed Police Forces are divided by mandate, and almost every exam question about them is answered by knowing which force is responsible for which frontier or function. The BORDER SECURITY FORCE guards the borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh; it was raised on 1 December 1965 in the aftermath of that year's war, when the earlier arrangement of leaving border policing to state forces was judged inadequate, and it is the largest border-guarding force in the world, with its own artillery, air wing, water wing and camel-mounted units. The INDO-TIBETAN BORDER POLICE, raised on 24 October 1962 after the conflict with China, guards the India-China border. The SASHASTRA SEEMA BAL guards the borders with Nepal and Bhutan, and the ASSAM RIFLES, the oldest paramilitary force in the country, the border with Myanmar. The CENTRAL RESERVE POLICE FORCE, raised in 1939 as the Crown Representative's Police and renamed under the CRPF Act of 1949, is the internal security reserve and the largest of the forces. The CENTRAL INDUSTRIAL SECURITY FORCE, constituted in 1969, secures industrial and other installations including airports and metro systems. The NATIONAL SECURITY GUARD is the counter-terrorism and counter-hijack force. All of them come under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Named operations are a productive corner of this subject because a name usually encodes the purpose: Sard Hawa and Garam Hawa encode the season, and the pattern of pairing a winter and a summer drive reflects the practical reality that the Rajasthan and Jammu frontiers are hardest to watch at the two extremes of the year.

Defence and internal security current affairs appear regularly in the general awareness blocks, and named operations are among the most heavily used items because they can be keyed unambiguously. The reasoning route through this one is available even to a candidate who has not read about the operations: the names are Hindi words for cold wind and hot wind, which point to weather and therefore to open terrain and patrolling; the stem calls them routine, which points to a standing seasonal task rather than an emergency deployment; and of the four forces offered only two guard a border at all, with the desert and fog imagery pointing to the western one. Note the shape of the stem — the English column prints it as an unfinished sentence ending 'are conducted by', with the options completing the line rather than answering a question.

Key facts

Operations 'Sard Hawa' and 'Garam Hawa' are conducted by the Border Security Force on the India-Pakistan frontier.
Sard Hawa, 'cold wind', is the winter drive, mounted in January when dense fog on the Rajasthan and Jammu stretches of the International Boundary cuts visibility.
Garam Hawa, 'hot wind', is the summer counterpart, mounted around May and June against heat waves, the loo and dust storms.
During these drives leave is curtailed, additional personnel are deployed on infiltration-prone stretches, and thermal imagers, night-vision devices and camel, foot and vehicle patrols are stepped up.
Both are routine, calendar-driven annual exercises rather than responses to a particular incident.
The BSF was raised on 1 December 1965 and guards the borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh; it is the world's largest border-guarding force.
The ITBP was raised on 24 October 1962 and guards the India-China border.
The CRPF, raised in 1939 and renamed under the CRPF Act of 1949, is the internal security force and the largest of the central armed police forces.
The CISF, constituted in 1969, provides security at industrial installations, airports, seaports, nuclear and space facilities and metro systems.
The Sashastra Seema Bal guards the Nepal and Bhutan borders and the Assam Rifles the Myanmar border.
All the Central Armed Police Forces function under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Every question about these forces is answered by whose frontier or function it is

BSF→Guards the borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh. Raised on 1 December 1965 in the aftermath of that year’s war, when leaving border policing to state forces was judged inadequate, it is the largest border-guarding force in the world, with its own artillery, air wing, water wing and camel-mounted units. Both operations are its seasonal counter-infiltration drives on the India–Pakistan frontier.

The names are the clue→SARD HAWA, ‘cold wind’, is the WINTER drive, mounted in January when dense fog on the Rajasthan desert stretches around Bikaner and Jaisalmer and on the Jammu sector of the International Boundary cuts visibility to almost nothing. GARAM HAWA, ‘hot wind’, is the SUMMER twin, mounted around May and June, when heat waves, the loo and dust storms do to visibility and to vigilance what fog does in winter.

What ‘as a routine exercise’ signals→Both are calendar-driven exercises repeated year after year, not responses to any particular incident — which itself points towards a force with a standing border-guarding mandate. During each, leave is curtailed, extra personnel are moved on to the infiltration-prone stretches, and thermal imagers and night-vision devices are pushed forward alongside intensified camel, foot and vehicle patrolling.

ITBP→Guards the India–CHINA border along its full length in the Himalaya, from the Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Jachep La in Arunachal Pradesh. Raised on 24 October 1962 in the aftermath of that year’s conflict, its specialisation is high-altitude and mountain warfare, and its border outposts are among the highest manned positions in the country.

CRPF→India’s largest central armed police force and the oldest of them, raised in 1939 as the Crown Representative’s Police and renamed under the CRPF Act of 1949. Its role is INTERNAL security rather than border guarding — assisting state governments in maintaining law and order, counter-insurgency and anti-Naxal operations, election duty, and the protection of vital installations.

CISF, and the rest of the map→The CISF, constituted in 1969, secures public sector industrial undertakings and, since, airports, seaports, nuclear and space installations, government buildings, heritage monuments and metro rail systems — static installation security at fixed premises, with no border role at all. Beyond these four: the Sashastra Seema Bal guards the Nepal and Bhutan borders, the Assam Rifles the Myanmar border, and the National Security Guard is the counter-terrorism and counter-hijack force. All come under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Study next

The Central Armed Police Forces: mandate, year of raising and area of deployment for eachIndia's land borders with its neighbours, their lengths, and the force responsible for eachNamed military and security operations and what each was forThe Ministry of Home Affairs and the internal security architecture, including the NIA and the NSGBorder infrastructure programmes and the Border Area Development ProgrammeGallantry and service awards for the police and paramilitary forces

Common traps

Choosing the CRPF because it is the most familiar name. It has no border-guarding mandate.
Assuming any operation with a Hindi name on a border must belong to the army. These are BSF exercises.
Confusing the ITBP's China border with the BSF's Pakistan and Bangladesh borders.
Overlooking the phrase 'As a routine exercise', which rules out a one-off emergency response and points to a standing seasonal task.
Treating the missing question mark in the English stem as an error. The line is printed as a sentence to be completed.

Security-forces items on EPFO EO/AO papers come in three shapes: which force guards which border, which force conducts a named operation, and in which year a force was raised. All three are covered by one table of forces against mandates and dates. Named operations are asked most often when the name itself is distinctive, and a pair of seasonal operations like this one is especially attractive to an examiner because it tests the force and the reasoning behind the name at the same time.

Related PYQs

EPFO_EOAO_2020_Q45Open & attempt →

The word ‘Vaccine’ has been derived from a Latin word having meaning

(a) Antibody
(b) Immunity
(c) Cow
(d) Guinea pig

Answer(c) Cow

The other stem in this English column printed as an unfinished sentence with no question mark, so that the options complete the line. Recognising that shape at a glance saves a second reading on both.

EPFO_EOAO_2020_Q57Open & attempt →

Tri-service contingent of which one of the following countries participated in India's Republic Day parade in 2021 ?

(a) Myanmar
(b) Nepal
(c) Bhutan
(d) Bangladesh

Answer(d) Bangladesh

The other defence and security item in this block, on the foreign contingent at the 2021 Republic Day parade. Both are answered faster by reasoning from the detail in the stem — the season encoded in a name here, the anniversary implied by a year there.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following forces is responsible for guarding India's border with China ?
- (a)Border Security Force
- (b)Indo-Tibetan Border Police
- (c)Sashastra Seema Bal
- (d)Central Industrial Security Force
Answer(b) Indo-Tibetan Border Police
practice — not a real PYQ
The Border Security Force was raised in the year
- (a)1939
- (b)1962
- (c)1965
- (d)1969
Answer(c) 1965

Why