Who are Bhawana Kanth, Avani Chaturvedi and Mohana Singh ?
- (a)Sprinters
- (b)Rock climbers
- (c)Fighter pilots
- (d)Mountaineers
Correct — C, fighter pilots. Bhawana Kanth, Avani Chaturvedi and Mohana Singh Jitarwal were commissioned into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force on 18 June 2016, at the Combined Graduation Parade at the Air Force Academy, Dundigal, by the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. They were India's first three women fighter pilots, and the commissioning came three months before this paper was set, which is exactly why the names appear in it.
- (a)Sprinters — Not athletes. The 2016 Rio Olympics fell in August of the same year and dominated the sports news, so a sports-sounding option was a natural decoy for candidates who half-remembered the names from that summer.
- (b)Rock climbers — No connection. None of the three is associated with climbing of any kind.
- (d)Mountaineers — The most plausible wrong option, because all-women Indian expeditions to Everest have also made news in recent years. But these three were commissioned into the Air Force, not associated with any expedition.
Women had been commissioned as pilots in the Indian Air Force since the mid-1990s, but only in the transport and helicopter streams. In October 2015 the government cleared their entry into the fighter stream on an experimental basis, and the first three officers were commissioned in June 2016. The step mattered because the fighter cockpit had been the last flying role closed to women in the Indian armed forces, and it opened the way for the wider changes in women's service conditions that followed.
Anchor this to the September 2016 exam, when all three were newly commissioned Flying Officers still in training. What has happened since is worth carrying, because a decade has passed. Avani Chaturvedi became the first Indian woman to fly a fighter solo when she took a MiG-21 up alone in February 2018, received the Nari Shakti Puraskar in March 2020 and in 2023 became the first Indian woman fighter pilot to take part in an aerial wargame abroad, in Japan. Bhawana Kanth flew a MiG-21 Bison solo on 16 March 2018 and in May 2019 became the first Indian woman fighter pilot cleared to undertake combat missions. Mohana Singh was declared fully operational on the Hawk advanced jet trainer at Kalaikunda in June 2019, and in September 2024 became the first woman fighter pilot to fly the indigenous Tejas, with No. 18 Squadron at Naliya. All three now hold the rank of Squadron Leader.
- Bhawana Kanth, Avani Chaturvedi and Mohana Singh Jitarwal were commissioned into the Indian Air Force fighter stream on 18 June 2016.
- They were commissioned at the Air Force Academy, Dundigal, by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.
- Women had flown as Air Force pilots since the 1990s, but only in the transport and helicopter streams before this.
- Avani Chaturvedi became the first Indian woman to fly a fighter aircraft solo, in a MiG-21 in February 2018.
- Bhawana Kanth was cleared to fly combat missions in May 2019, and Mohana Singh became the first woman to fly the Tejas in September 2024.
- Reading a set of unfamiliar Indian names as sportspersons by default; check what made the news that year.
- Confusing the first women pilots in the Air Force, from the 1990s, with the first women fighter pilots in 2016.
- Assuming the milestone belongs to the Navy — the Navy's first woman pilot, Shubhangi Swaroop, came later, in 2017.
NDA sets at least one defence current-affairs item per paper, and 'who are these people' questions almost always name individuals who made the news within a year of the exam.
Consider the following statements regarding the Armed Forces: I. First batch of women pilots was commissioned in Indian Air Force in 1996. II. Officers’ Training Academy is located in Nagpur. III. Southern Command of Indian Navy has its Headquarters at Chennai. IV. One of the Regional Headquarters of Coast Guard is located at Port Blair. Which of these statements are correct?
- (a) I, II, III and IV
- (b) II, III and IV
- (c) III only
- (d) IV only
Answer(d) IV only
Fifteen years earlier, the same examination was testing when women first flew for the Air Force at all. Reading it beside this card keeps the two milestones apart — women pilots from the mid-1990s, women fighter pilots only from 2016.
Who among the following recently became the first woman pilot in Indian Navy ?
- (a) Astha Segal
- (b) Roopa A
- (c) Sakthi Maya S
- (d) Shubhangi Swaroop
Answer(d) Shubhangi Swaroop
The Navy's counterpart milestone, asked in exactly the same style two years later — a reminder that these service firsts are a standing NDA topic and that the branch matters as much as the name.
- practice — not a real PYQ
India's first three women fighter pilots were commissioned into the Indian Air Force in the year
- (a)2014
- (b)2015
- (c)2016
- (d)2018
Answer(c) 2016 — they were commissioned on 18 June 2016 at the Air Force Academy, Dundigal, after the fighter stream was opened to women in 2015.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Who among the following became the first Indian woman to fly a fighter aircraft solo?
- (a)Bhawana Kanth
- (b)Avani Chaturvedi
- (c)Mohana Singh
- (d)Shubhangi Swaroop
Answer(b) Avani Chaturvedi — she flew a MiG-21 alone in February 2018; Shubhangi Swaroop was the Navy's first woman pilot, not an Air Force fighter pilot.