NDA (I) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 142 of 150

Correct — D, Shubhangi Swaroop. Shubhangi Swaroop, born in 1995 at Tilhar in Uttar Pradesh, was commissioned from the Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala in November 2017 as the Indian Navy's first woman pilot, and the news was fresh when this paper was set in April 2018. She had taken a degree in biotechnology engineering at the Vellore Institute of Technology and trained at the Air Force Academy at Hyderabad, and she was selected to fly maritime reconnaissance aircraft — the Dornier fixed-wing type used for coastal and ocean surveillance. Her father is a serving naval officer. The other three names in the option list are real officers commissioned in the same ceremony, which is what makes the item harder than it looks.

• (a)Astha Segal — Astha Segal, from New Delhi, was commissioned at the same ceremony but into the Naval Armament Inspection branch, which audits and assesses the state of the Navy's weapons and ammunition. She was among the first women officers in that branch, not the first woman pilot.
• (b)Roopa A — Roopa A, from Puducherry, was also part of the first group of women officers inducted into the Naval Armament Inspection branch in 2017. Her first is a different first.
• (c)Sakthi Maya S — Sakthi Maya S, from Kerala, completes the trio of first women officers in the Naval Armament Inspection branch. All three are placed here precisely because they share the ceremony and the year with the right answer.

The three services opened combat and flying roles to women in stages, and each service has its own set of firsts. The Indian Air Force commissioned its first three women fighter pilots — Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh — in June 2016. The Navy's aviation branch had carried women as observers for years, but the first woman selected as a pilot was Shubhangi Swaroop in 2017, on the maritime reconnaissance stream. Two years later Sub Lieutenant Shivangi became the first woman pilot to fly operationally for the Navy, on Dornier aircraft.

Anchor this to the exam. In April 2018 the phrase 'first woman pilot in Indian Navy' pointed unambiguously to Shubhangi Swaroop's commissioning of November 2017. Since then the ground has kept moving, and a candidate should be able to say how. Shivangi joined operational flying duties in December 2019; women were cleared to serve aboard warships; and in 2023 the Supreme Court and the services widened permanent commission and command appointments for women officers across the three forces. The safe way to hold an item of this type is by the pairing of name, service and year, because 'first woman' questions multiply — first fighter pilots, first naval pilot, first operational naval pilot — and the examiner relies on candidates blurring them together.

• Shubhangi Swaroop was commissioned in November 2017 as the Indian Navy's first woman pilot, on the maritime reconnaissance stream.
• She was part of the first batch of women officers to pass out of the Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala.
• Astha Segal, Roopa A and Sakthi Maya S were commissioned in the same batch as the first women officers of the Naval Armament Inspection branch.
• The Indian Air Force's first three women fighter pilots — Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh — were commissioned in June 2016.
• Sub Lieutenant Shivangi became the Navy's first woman pilot on operational flying duties in December 2019.

• Confusing the Navy's first woman pilot with the Air Force's first women fighter pilots of 2016.
• Confusing the first woman commissioned as a pilot with the first to fly operationally, two years apart.
• Assuming the other three names are invented — all four officers were commissioned together, which is the whole design of the item.

NDA sets a 'first woman' or 'first person' item from the twelve months before the exam, and stocks the option list with real names from the same event.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh are known as

  • (a)the first women officers of the Indian Coast Guard
  • (b)the first women fighter pilots of the Indian Air Force
  • (c)the first women to command an Indian Navy warship
  • (d)the first women cadets at the National Defence Academy

  Answer(b) the first women fighter pilots of the Indian Air Force — commissioned into the fighter stream in June 2016.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Indian Naval Academy, from which the Navy's first batch of women officers passed out, is located at

  • (a)Kochi
  • (b)Ezhimala
  • (c)Visakhapatnam
  • (d)Karwar

  Answer(b) Ezhimala, in Kannur district, Kerala.