What was the theme of DefExpo–2022, held in Gujarat?

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Correct — B, Path to Pride. DefExpo 2022 was the 12th edition of India's biennial defence exhibition, held at Gandhinagar in Gujarat from 18 to 22 October 2022, and the Ministry of Defence's own curtain-raiser release of 17 October 2022 is headlined "'Path to Pride': biggest-ever DefExpo, exclusively for Indian companies, opens in Gandhinagar, Gujarat tomorrow" and states in terms that "this 12th edition of the event has been organised on the theme 'Path to Pride'". Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated it on 19 October. The theme was chosen to fit what made this edition unusual: it was the first DefExpo ever thrown open only to Indian companies — Indian firms, Indian subsidiaries of foreign OEMs, Indian joint ventures, the defence PSUs, DRDO and, for the first time, State and Union Territory pavilions. Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh described it as "a humble tribute of an 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' to Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, who was the pillar of the Swadeshi movement", and said 'Path to Pride' was "not just a theme of DefExpo 2022, but a 'Make in India, Make for the World' vision of a 'New India'". The edition set records on every count the Ministry published: 1,340 registered companies, an exhibition area of over one lakh square metres against 76,000 sq m at the previous edition, a four-venue format across Gandhinagar and Porbandar, and 451 MoUs, transfer-of-technology agreements and product launches expected at the 'Bandhan' ceremony on 20 October — almost double the previous edition's tally. The Ministry had originally scheduled this edition for March 2022 and postponed it because of logistical difficulties faced by participants, which is why an exhibition numbered for 2022 in fact opened in the last quarter of that year; it also billed the show as Asia's largest event in the defence sector.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This is the single most tempting option, and not because it is invented — it is the Ministry of Defence's own theme, but for the wrong edition. PIB's curtain raiser for the 11th DefExpo at Lucknow (5–9 February 2020) states under 'DefExpo Event and Theme' that “the main theme of the DefExpo India-2020 is ‘India: The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub’ and the focus will be on ‘Digital Transformation of Defence’”, and the 2018 curtain raiser calls the same phrase the tagline of that Expo. So the option is a real theme from the two immediately preceding editions, which is exactly what makes it dangerous: a candidate who half-remembers a DefExpo theme is more likely to remember this one. The 12th edition in Gandhinagar changed it to 'Path to Pride'.  (c) No DefExpo edition has carried this theme. It is built to sound plausible because 'synergy' is the standard word in Indian defence writing for jointness between the Army, Navy and Air Force — the language of the Chief of Defence Staff, the Department of Military Affairs and the theatre-command debate. That is an organisational reform agenda, not the branding of a trade exhibition whose purpose is to connect manufacturers with buyers.  (d) Aatmanirbharta is the policy goal DefExpo 2022 was built to serve, and the Raksha Mantri used the word repeatedly at the same press conference — the sector, he said, had "made giant strides on 'Path to Pride' with passion and dedication to achieve the goal of 'Aatmanirbharta' in defence". That sentence is the trap and its own answer: Aatmanirbharta is named as the goal, 'Path to Pride' as the journey and the theme. A single policy word is also not how these exhibitions are branded; the theme is always a short evocative phrase.

Concept: DefExpo is India's flagship biennial exhibition for land, naval and homeland-security systems, organised by the Department of Defence Production in the Ministry of Defence. It is the land-and-sea counterpart of Aero India, the aerospace show held at Bengaluru, and the two alternate so that India hosts a major defence exhibition most years. DefExpo moves between host States: the 9th edition was in Goa in March 2016, the 10th at Thiruvidanthai near Chennai in Tamil Nadu from 11 to 14 April 2018, the 11th at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh from 5 to 9 February 2020 and the 12th at Gandhinagar in Gujarat in October 2022. Each edition carries a theme that signals the Government's current defence-industrial priority, which is precisely why the theme is examinable — it compresses a policy phase into three or four words. Behind the 2022 theme sits a decade of defence-industrial reform the Ministry itself lists in the same breath: industrial licensing simplified, foreign direct investment allowed up to 74 per cent through the automatic route, successive positive indigenisation lists naming items that may be bought only from Indian manufacturers, the corporatisation of the Ordnance Factory Board into seven new defence companies, and innovation channels such as iDEX, the Defence Innovation Start-up Challenge and AI in Defence — all pointed at the stated goal of USD 5 billion in defence exports by 2025.

State PCS 2023 Q36 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2023 Q36 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer