In March 2024, who created history as the first woman sniper of the Border Security Force (BSF)?
- (a)Anupma Singh
- (b)Sapna Singh
- (c)Suman Kumari
- (d)Vasudha Gupta
Correct — C, Suman Kumari.
Reported in the first week of March 2024 (first reports 3 March; PTI copy 4 March), Sub-Inspector Suman Kumari became the Border Security Force's first woman sniper, after an eight-week sniper course at the BSF's Central School of Weapons and Tactics (CSWT) in Indore.
She was the only woman in a batch of 57 trainees — 56 men and herself — and finished with an 'instructor grade'.
She had joined the BSF in 2021 and was commanding a platoon on the Punjab frontier, where the threat of cross-border sniper fire moved her to volunteer for the course.
The idea to carry away: tie the milestone to the force, the rank and the place — Sub-Inspector Suman Kumari, BSF, CSWT Indore, March 2024 — so that a similar-sounding name cannot displace it.
- (a)Anupma Singh — The March 2024 reports of the BSF milestone name Sub-Inspector Suman Kumari, not Anupma Singh.
The detail that separates the real answer is the eight-week sniper course at CSWT, Indore, from which she emerged as the only woman in a batch of 57 trainees.
- (b)Sapna Singh — Sapna Singh is not the BSF's first woman sniper; the March 2024 reports of the milestone name Sub-Inspector Suman Kumari.
The sniper the reports describe is a Sub-Inspector from Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh, posted to a BSF unit in Punjab, and that description fits Suman Kumari.
- (d)Vasudha Gupta — Vasudha Gupta is not the name in the March 2024 reports of this milestone.
The stem asks for a sniper of a specific force in a specific month, and the name that meets all three is Suman Kumari.
What marks the real answer is being the only woman in a batch of 57 trainees and finishing with an 'instructor grade' — the two details the reports attach to Suman Kumari.
The Border Security Force is one of India's Central Armed Police Forces and works under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
It was raised on 1 December 1965 after that year's war with Pakistan to guard the Indo-Pakistan border in peacetime; today it guards India's land borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh.
A sniper course trains a soldier in precision long-range marksmanship, concealment and observation.
The BSF runs it at its Central School of Weapons and Tactics (CSWT), Indore, and grades trainees at the end; the reports describe Suman Kumari's result as an 'instructor grade'.
This is a current-affairs recall item: a named individual, a force, a month and a 'first'.
It belongs with the wider entry of women into combat specialisations in the Central Armed Police Forces; a woman qualifying as a BSF sniper was reported nationally in March 2024.
The same reports carry a cluster of checkable details — her rank, home district, year of joining, posting, training venue, batch size and grade — and a question can be set on any one of them.
- Sub-Inspector Suman Kumari became the BSF's first woman sniper; the milestone was reported in the first week of March 2024 (first reports 3 March; PTI copy 4 March).
- She completed an eight-week sniper course at the BSF's Central School of Weapons and Tactics (CSWT), Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
- She was the only woman in a batch of 57 trainees — 56 men and herself — and finished with an 'instructor grade'.
- She is from Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh, joined the BSF in 2021 and was commanding a platoon in Punjab before the course.
- The BSF was raised on 1 December 1965 and functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- The BSF guards India's land borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh; its motto is 'Duty Unto Death'.
- K. F. Rustamji was the BSF's first Director General.
Details from the March 2024 reports; the name is the one the stem asks for.
- The stem fixes the force (BSF), the role (sniper) and the month (March 2024); a 'first woman' from another force or another year, however well known, does not satisfy all three.
- The reports of this milestone name Sub-Inspector Suman Kumari; choosing between the four names by how service-like one of them sounds, rather than by what the reports record, is the hazard here.
- Once the question shifts from the name to the venue, placing the course at the BSF Academy, Tekanpur, instead of CSWT, Indore, is the hazard.
This question is a straight name-recall built on a dated milestone: the force, the role and the month are fixed, and the four options are similar-sounding names.
The stem gives you nothing to reason from, so it turns entirely on whether the fact was stored with its anchors.
Of the cited questions, GEO_GS_2020_Q114 is built the same way for a different service — four names, one 'first woman' milestone in the Indian Air Force. MPPSC_2018_PRE_PaperI_Q38 stays on the BSF's standing mandate, the borders it guards, rather than on a person.
The reports around this milestone carry several other checkable details, so the same fact could also be put as the training venue, her home state, or statements about her batch and grade.
Holding the whole cluster costs little more than holding the name.
MPPSC_2018_PRE_PaperI_Q382018Same force, different layer. The MPPSC item asks which two countries' borders the BSF guards (Pakistan and Bangladesh); the UKPSC item asks for a named 2024 personnel milestone inside that force. The BSF's mandate is the settled background, and the sniper's name is the current-affairs layer on top of it.
GEO_GS_2020_Q1142020Same recall pattern, different service and role. That item asks who became the first woman officer of the Indian Air Force appointed Flight Commander of a flying unit (Shaliza Dhami); this one asks for the BSF's first woman sniper. Both are 'first woman in a uniformed force' name-recalls set among similar-sounding names, so the same habit answers them — store the name with its force, role and year. The force, the milestone and the year differ, and one is an appointment while the other is a course result.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Sub-Inspector Suman Kumari, the BSF's first woman sniper, completed her sniper course at which training institution?
- (a)BSF Academy, Tekanpur
- (b)Central School of Weapons and Tactics, Indore
- (c)ITBP Academy, Mussoorie
- (d)NSG Training Centre, Manesar
Answerb — Reports of the March 2024 milestone place her eight-week course at the BSF's Central School of Weapons and Tactics, Indore.The BSF Academy at Tekanpur is the force's main academy but is not where this course was held; the ITBP Academy at Mussoorie and the NSG centre at Manesar belong to other forces.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Border Security Force, in which Suman Kumari serves, was raised in which year?
- (a)1962
- (b)1965
- (c)1968
- (d)1971
Answerb — The BSF was raised on 1 December 1965, in the aftermath of that year's India–Pakistan war, to give the international border a dedicated peacetime guard.1962 is the year of the war with China, which led to the raising of the ITBP, not the BSF; 1968 and 1971 are later than the founding.
- practice — not a real PYQ
With reference to Suman Kumari, the BSF's first woman sniper, consider the following statements: 1. She belongs to Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. 2. She was the only woman in a batch of 57 trainees. 3. She earned an 'instructor grade' on the sniper course. Which of the statements given above are correct?
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)2 and 3 only
- (c)1 and 3 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Answerd — All three details come from the reports of the March 2024 milestone: she is from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, was the lone woman in a batch of 57 trainees, and finished with an instructor grade.Each of the other options drops a true statement, so each is wrong.