NDA (II) 2023 General Ability Test · Question 97 of 146

Correct — C, Central Reserve Police Force. The Press Information Bureau announced the release of the CRPF's book Nation First — The Golden Saga of 82 Years by the Union Home Minister in New Delhi on 19 February 2021. It traces the force's history from its inception in 1939 and was compiled by Dr. Bhuvan Jha. The number in the title is the giveaway even for a candidate who has not seen the news: the CRPF came into existence on 27 July 1939 as the Crown Representative's Police, and 1939 plus 82 lands squarely in 2021, the year the book appeared. No other force on this list was old enough in 2021 to have an eighty-two-year saga to tell.

• (a)Indo-Tibetan Border Police — The ITBP was established on 24 October 1962, in the aftermath of the Sino-Indian War. In 2021 it was completing fifty-nine years, so an eighty-two-year history could not be its own.
• (b)Border Security Force — The BSF was raised on 1 December 1965, after the Indo-Pakistani war of that year exposed how thinly the state armed police could hold the frontier. That gives it a fifty-six-year record in 2021, not eighty-two.
• (d)Central Industrial Security Force — The CISF was set up in 1969 under the Central Industrial Security Force Act, 1968, to guard industrial undertakings, and it is the youngest of the four. Its history in 2021 ran to about fifty-two years.

The Central Armed Police Forces under the Ministry of Home Affairs were each raised for a specific need and at a specific moment, and their raising years are the cleanest way to tell them apart. The CRPF is the senior force among them, born in 1939 as the Crown Representative's Police and renamed under the Central Reserve Police Force Act when that Act came into force on 28 December 1949. The others followed the crises of the 1960s — the ITBP after the war with China, the BSF after the war with Pakistan — and the CISF came later still, to protect public sector industrial installations.

Book-and-organisation questions look like pure recall, but this one can be reasoned out. Treat the number in the title as data: it counts years from a founding, so add it to nothing and instead ask which of the four forces is old enough. Only one was founded before 1950. That habit converts a current affairs item into an arithmetic one and is worth practising, because NDA sets a book, a report or a scheme name almost every session. On the dating, the book belongs to February 2021; as of the September 2023 exam the CRPF had completed eighty-four years since 1939, and the anniversary count has moved on again since, so it is only the eighty-two in the title that fixes the volume to 2021.

• The Press Information Bureau release records that the Union Home Minister released the CRPF's book Nation First — The Golden Saga of 82 Years in New Delhi on 19 February 2021; it was compiled by Dr. Bhuvan Jha.
• The CRPF came into existence on 27 July 1939 as the Crown Representative's Police and was renamed when the Central Reserve Police Force Act came into force on 28 December 1949.
• The ITBP was established on 24 October 1962 following the Sino-Indian War, and the BSF on 1 December 1965 after the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965.
• The CISF was set up in 1969 under the Central Industrial Security Force Act, 1968; all four forces are under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

• Guessing the largest or best-known force without checking whether its age matches the number in the title.
• Mixing up the CRPF and the CISF because both begin with 'Central'; one is the reserve police force, the other guards industrial installations.
• Attaching a book or scheme to the wrong ministry or force when the name itself carries no clue.

Asked as a current affairs recall item — attribute a named publication to the organisation whose history it tells.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Central Reserve Police Force was originally raised in 1939 under which name?

  • (a)Crown Representative's Police
  • (b)Imperial Police Reserve
  • (c)Indian Reserve Constabulary
  • (d)Special Armed Constabulary

  Answer(a) Crown Representative's Police — it took its present name when the Central Reserve Police Force Act came into force on 28 December 1949.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following Central Armed Police Forces was raised in the aftermath of the 1962 war with China?

  • (a)Border Security Force
  • (b)Indo-Tibetan Border Police
  • (c)Central Industrial Security Force
  • (d)Central Reserve Police Force

  Answer(b) Indo-Tibetan Border Police — established on 24 October 1962; the BSF followed the 1965 war with Pakistan.