History · 14 Aug 2026
In the context of the Global Positioning System (GPS), the policy known as "Selective Availability" - referenced in recent coverage of the 1999 Kargil War's Operation Safed Sagar - refers to which one of the following?
A Netflix dramatisation of Operation Safed Sagar prompted an Indian Express interview with former Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa, who described the navigational challenges IAF pilots faced during the 1999 Kargil air campaign.
UPSC often tests precise definitions behind terms surfacing in current-affairs coverage of defence/technology history - distinguishing "Selective Availability" from "NavIC" and from the datum-mismatch issue probes genuine conceptual clarity rather than memorisation of the news item.
Selective Availability was the US policy (active until May 2000) of deliberately degrading civilian GPS accuracy to ~100m. It compounded - but is distinct from - the separate mismatch between India's Everest Spheroid-based maps and the WGS84 GPS standard, both of which affected IAF operations in the 1999 Kargil War.
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