With reference to India's defence, the terms ‘Surat’ and ‘Udaygiri’ refer to
- (a)coast guard patrol boats
- (b)cargo helicopters
- (c)maritime patrol aircrafts
- (d)warships
Correct — D, warships. Surat and Udaygiri are two indigenously designed Indian Navy warships that were launched together at Mazagon Dock in Mumbai on 17 May 2022 by the Raksha Mantri — which is what put both names in the news in the months before this paper. Surat is the fourth ship of the Visakhapatnam class, the Project 15B stealth guided-missile destroyers. Udaygiri is a Nilgiri-class ship, one of the Project 17A stealth frigates, and was described at its launch as the hundredth warship designed by the Indian Navy's own Warship Design Bureau.
- (a)coast guard patrol boats — These are Navy ships, not Coast Guard ones, and the two services do not share a naming series. Both Surat and Udaygiri are far larger than patrol boats — a destroyer and a frigate, built as principal surface combatants.
- (b)cargo helicopters — India's heavy-lift helicopters carry entirely different names, and helicopters are not launched at a shipyard in the first place. The May 2022 event these names belong to was a twin ship launch at Mazagon Dock.
- (c)maritime patrol aircrafts — The Indian Navy's long-range maritime patrol aircraft is the P-8I, and such aircraft are identified by type designations rather than by Indian city and hill names. Surat and Udaygiri were floated out of a dock, not rolled out of a hangar.
The Indian Navy names its major surface combatants on recognisable patterns, and the pattern itself is a shortcut for this kind of question. The Project 15B destroyers take the names of Indian cities — Visakhapatnam, Mormugao, Imphal and Surat — while the Project 17A frigates of the Nilgiri class take hill names ending in giri, of which Udaygiri is one. Both programmes are built in Indian yards, chiefly Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders in Mumbai and Garden Reach Shipbuilders in Kolkata, and both are stealth designs with reduced radar signatures.
You do not need to have followed the launch to answer this. Two Indian place names appearing together in a defence context, one a city and one a hill, is almost always a warship pair, because that is how the Navy names its destroyers and frigates. It is also worth being precise about what happened when. Launching a ship means floating the hull out of the building dock; commissioning is the later ceremony at which she formally enters service. As of the September 2022 exam both ships had been launched but neither was yet in service — Surat was commissioned in January 2025 and Udaygiri in August 2025, so both are operational warships today.
- Surat and Udaygiri were launched together at Mazagon Dock, Mumbai, on 17 May 2022.
- Surat is the fourth ship of the Visakhapatnam class, the Project 15B stealth guided-missile destroyers.
- Udaygiri is a Nilgiri-class ship of the Project 17A stealth frigate programme, and was called the hundredth warship designed by the Warship Design Bureau.
- Launching floats the hull out of the dock; commissioning, which comes later, is when the ship formally enters service.
- Surat was commissioned in January 2025 and Udaygiri in August 2025, both after this exam was held.
- Treating a launch as an induction into service — commissioning comes months or years later.
- Assigning Indian ship names to the Coast Guard, whose vessels are prefixed ICGS and named on a different pattern.
- Assuming a destroyer and a frigate must come from the same class because they were launched on the same day.
As this what-do-these-names-refer-to item, as a match-the-ship-to-its-class list, or as a statement pair on a newly launched or newly commissioned ship.
Which one of the following is the best description of 'INS Astradharini', that was in the news recently?
- (a) Amphibious warfare ship
- (b) Nuclear-powered submarine
- (c) Torpedo launch and recovery vessel
- (d) Nuclear-powered aircraft carrier
Answer(c) Torpedo launch and recovery vessel
The identical question shape — a naval name in the news, and four categories to sort it into. UPSC asked what kind of vessel Astradharini is; the NDA paper asks whether Surat and Udaygiri are vessels at all. Both are answered by tracking what each name in the defence news actually denotes.
Which of the following statements about ‘Jalvahak’ is/are correct? 1. It is a newly commissioned naval ship inducted into Indian Navy 2. It is a major policy for cargo promotion unveiled by the Government of India Select the answer using the code given below:
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(b) 2 only
The mirror image of this item. Here two Indian names really are warships; there an Indian-sounding name that looks naval turns out to be a policy scheme. The examiner is testing the same habit from both directions — check what the name denotes before assuming a category.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The stealth guided-missile destroyers of the Indian Navy's Project 15B class are named after
- (a)Indian rivers
- (b)Indian cities
- (c)Himalayan peaks
- (d)Indian freedom fighters
Answer(b) Indian cities — Visakhapatnam, Mormugao, Imphal and Surat make up the class.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In warship construction, 'launching' a ship refers to
- (a)the ceremony at which the ship formally enters naval service
- (b)floating the hull out of the building dock into the water
- (c)the first firing of the ship's main armament
- (d)the laying of the ship's keel
Answer(b) floating the hull out of the building dock into the water — commissioning into service comes later.