With reference to the 7th India – Indonesia Joint Defence Cooperation Committee meeting, which of the following statements is/are correct ? 1. In this meeting Indonesia agreed to enhance collaboration in the areas of defence, industry, maritime security and multilateral cooperation. 2. This meeting was held at Jakarta on May 5, 2024. Select the correct answer from the codes given below :
- (a)Only 2
- (b)Neither 1 nor 2
- (c)Only 1
- (d)Both 1 and 2
Correct — C, Only 1. Statement 1 reports the substance of the meeting accurately: at the 7th session of the India–Indonesia Joint Defence Cooperation Committee the two sides agreed to deepen their engagement across defence industry cooperation, maritime security and cooperation in multilateral forums — the standard agenda of this mechanism, which brings senior defence officials of the two governments together to review the whole bilateral defence relationship. Statement 2 is where the question is decided, and it is false twice over: the meeting was held in **New Delhi**, not Jakarta, and on **3 May 2024**, not 5 May. India hosted, and the session was co-chaired by India's Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane with Indonesia's Secretary General of the Ministry of Defence, Air Marshal (Retd.) Donny Ermawan Taufanto. Since only the first statement survives, the key marks (c). Read the question as of the exam date — 22 December 2024 — when the 7th JDCC was the most recent session of the mechanism.
- (a)Only 2 — Exactly inverted. Statement 2 carries both planted errors — the venue and the date — while statement 1 is the accurate one. This option rewards a candidate who half-remembers a May 2024 India–Indonesia defence headline and assumes, wrongly, that India travelled to Jakarta for it.
- (b)Neither 1 nor 2 — Rejects statement 1, which is correct. Defence industry collaboration, maritime security and coordination in multilateral forums are precisely the heads under which the two sides agreed to expand cooperation, and they are also the standing pillars of the India–Indonesia defence relationship, so there is nothing in statement 1 to doubt.
- (d)Both 1 and 2 — The most tempting option, because statement 1 is genuinely true and a candidate who accepts it tends to wave the second statement through as well. But the venue was New Delhi and the date 3 May 2024, so statement 2 fails on both counts and the pair cannot be accepted together.
The Joint Defence Cooperation Committee is the institutional mechanism through which India and Indonesia review their defence relationship at the level of senior defence officials — the Defence Secretary on the Indian side and the Secretary General of the Ministry of Defence on the Indonesian side. Its agenda is the working substance of the partnership: joint exercises and training, defence industry and technology cooperation, maritime security in the shared Andaman Sea and Malacca Strait approaches, and coordinating positions in multilateral forums. Its seventh session was hosted by India in New Delhi on 3 May 2024.
This is a pure two-statement current-affairs item of the type UPPSC builds its General Studies current-affairs block around: one statement describes the substance of an event in unobjectionable general language, the second carries the specifics — place and date — and one or both of those specifics is falsified. The reasoning short cut is to notice that statement 1 is written the way a joint press statement is written and is almost certainly true, and then to interrogate statement 2 alone. On the geography of the relationship, note why it matters: India and Indonesia are maritime neighbours, separated by barely 90 nautical miles between Indira Point in the Nicobars and Indonesia's Aceh, which is why maritime security dominates the agenda. The two navies run coordinated patrols in the Andaman Sea (IND-INDO CORPAT) and the bilateral exercise Samudra Shakti, and the armies hold the special forces exercise Garuda Shakti. The relationship was raised to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during Prime Minister Modi's visit to Jakarta in May 2018, when the two sides also adopted a shared vision for maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.
- The 7th India–Indonesia Joint Defence Cooperation Committee meeting was held in NEW DELHI on 3 MAY 2024 — the option's 'Jakarta, May 5' is false on both venue and date.
- It was co-chaired by India's Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane and Indonesia's Secretary General of the Ministry of Defence, Air Marshal (Retd.) Donny Ermawan Taufanto.
- The two sides agreed to enhance cooperation in defence industry, maritime security and multilateral forums — the substance reported in statement 1.
- India and Indonesia are close maritime neighbours: about 90 nautical miles separate Indira Point in the Great Nicobar from Indonesia's Aceh province, across the approaches to the Malacca Strait.
- Their standing defence activities include the coordinated naval patrol IND-INDO CORPAT, the bilateral naval exercise Samudra Shakti and the special forces exercise Garuda Shakti; the relationship was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2018.
Only statement 1 survives, so the key is (c) Only 1. The falsifiers sit entirely in statement 2, and there are two of them — the venue and the date.
- Assuming the junior partner hosts, or that a bilateral meeting is held in the other country's capital. Statements about venue must be recalled, not guessed.
- Waving through a two-part second statement after verifying only one part — here both the city and the date are wrong, and either alone is enough to falsify it.
- Confusing the Joint Defence Cooperation Committee, an officials-level review mechanism, with a Defence Ministers' dialogue or a joint military exercise; UPPSC has asked about all three formats.
UPPSC's current-affairs block loves the two-statement bilateral-event item in which the substance statement is true and the venue-or-date statement is falsified; UPSC prefers to test the same events through named exercises and the country pairs behind them. In both cases learn the event's partner, place and month together.
Which of the following statements about 'Exercise Mitra Shakti-2023' are correct? 1. This was a joint military exercise between India and Bangladesh. 2. It commenced in Aundh (Pune). 3. Joint response during counter-terrorism operations was a goal of this operation. 4. Indian Air Force was a part of this exercise. Select the answer using the code given below :
- (a) 1, 2 and 3
- (b) 1, 2 and 4
- (c) 1, 3 and 4
- (d) 2, 3 and 4
Answer(d) 2, 3 and 4
The identical trap built on a different bilateral defence event — the statement naming the partner country and the venue is where the falsification sits, exactly as in statement 2 here. Learning defence engagements by partner, place and month is what defeats both items.
Which of the following statement/s about 'India Ideas Summit, 2020' is/are correct ? 1. It was organised by US – India Business Council virtually on 22nd July, 2020. 2. The theme of the Summit was 'Empowering India'. Select the correct answer from the codes given below. Codes :
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(a) 1 only
The same UPPSC template applied to another India-related event: the statement carrying the organiser and date is true, and the second statement is falsified on a single recallable detail. Note the discipline it demands — verify each statement separately rather than accepting or rejecting the pair together.
- practice — not a real PYQ
'Samudra Shakti' is a bilateral naval exercise conducted by India with which one of the following countries?
- (a)Indonesia
- (b)Vietnam
- (c)Thailand
- (d)Malaysia
Answer(a) Indonesia — Samudra Shakti is the India–Indonesia bilateral naval exercise; the two navies additionally conduct the coordinated patrol IND-INDO CORPAT in the Andaman Sea, while their armies hold the special forces exercise Garuda Shakti.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The narrow stretch of water separating India's Indira Point from Indonesia lies at the approaches to which strategic waterway?
- (a)Sunda Strait
- (b)Malacca Strait
- (c)Palk Strait
- (d)Strait of Hormuz
Answer(b) Malacca Strait — Indira Point, the southernmost point of the Great Nicobar, lies about 90 nautical miles from Indonesia's Aceh, at the western approaches to the Malacca Strait, which is why maritime security dominates the India–Indonesia defence agenda.