RAS question
Under which programme were the Prithvi, Agni, Trishul, Akash, and Nag missiles originally developed?
Correct answer: (B) Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP).
Prithvi, Agni, Trishul, Akash and Nag were originally developed under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.
Explanation
The Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme is the programme that links all five names in the question. The programme began in 1983 under Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and aimed to develop Prithvi, Agni, Trishul, Akash and Nag. The PIB release supports the same core point: IGMDP was started in 1983 and sanctioned to develop Prithvi, Trishul, Akash, Nag and a Technology Demonstrator Agni missile. That is why option B is the only answer that fits the set as a whole. The other options describe wider industrial policy, command-and-control, or procurement processes; they do not name the indigenous missile-development programme under which this group was originally taken up.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Make in India is a broad industrial initiative launched in 2014, so it cannot be the 1983 missile-development programme behind this set of missiles.
- (C) Strategic Forces Command concerns the management and deployment side of nuclear weapons, not the original research and development programme for these missiles.
- (D) The Defence Procurement Programme deals with procurement procedures, whereas the question asks for the indigenous development programme that produced this missile family.
Concept
This tests India’s defence technology programmes, especially the linkage between IGMDP and India’s early guided-missile systems. It recurs in RAS because science-and-technology questions often ask aspirants to connect institutions, programmes and strategic assets rather than memorise one missile in isolation.