Science and Tech PDF

A Shankar IAS Academy Initiative
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(PART II - FINAL)
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INDEX
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SL.NO. TITLE
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E-PAPER
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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - CURRENT AFFAIRS
(PART II FINAL)
MEGAMASER
Megamaser is a type of astrophysical maser, which is a naturally occurring source of stimulated spectral
line emission.
Megamasers are distinguished from astrophysical masers by their large isotropic luminosity.
Megamasers have typical luminosities of 103 solar luminosities, which is 100 million times brighter than
masers in the Milky Way, hence the prefix mega.
At the core, they are the cousins of lasers. Just as lasers are devices used to emit a beam of light by controlling
the emission of photons from excited atoms, masers a play on the word laser do the same in the
microwave region.
They can be made in labs or can also be found naturally in galaxies such as the Milky Way.
In late 2016, the Hubble telescope found a Megamaser galaxy that was around 100 million times brighter
than the masers found in galaxies like the Milky Way.
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE
Hubble Space Telescope is a type larger telescope in space. This telescopic project is a joint project made
between NASA and ESA.
It was launched into the lower earth orbit and faced towards the space to take pictures of birth,
development and death of planets, stars and galaxies.
It is capable to capture images in the ultraviolet and infrared ranges. Recently, it was in news, as it had
captured a hidden galaxy along with a super massive black hole in the constellation of Pisces.
Recently, it had captured merging of two galaxies for the first time in the history of space in the constellation
of Hercules.
An image called Hubble Ultra Deep Field shows the farthest galaxies ever seen.
It had played a significant role in the discovery of Dark energy and revealed the details of gamma ray bursts-
powerful explosions of energy that occurs when the massive star collapses.
Hubble space telescope will be getting retired by next few years by 2020.
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JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE
JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE (JWST) is a type of largest telescopic project jointly handling by
NASA, ESA and CSA and they plans to place this telescope in L3 point by 2018.
JWST is called as next generation telescope and it would be the successor of Hubble space Telescope.
JWST is optimized for infrared wavelengths. Thus, it will have longer wavelength coverage and greatly
improved sensitivity to find out the first ever galaxy that was formed in the universe.
ARIES TELESCOPE
ARIES telescope or DEVASTHAL optical Telescope is a joint collaboration made between India, Russia
and Belgian scientists.
The telescope is located at Devasthal hills in Nainital which is considered to be the Asias biggest optical
telescope.
It is used to study the planets, stars, magnetic field, astronomical debris and it has cutting edge technology
which makes it to be operated with remote control from anypart of the world.
AGILE
The term AGILE stands for Astro-rivelatore Gamma Imamagini LEggero are an X-ray and Gamma ray
astronomical satellite of the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
Its prime objective is to observe gamma-ray sources in the universe.
IRIS
The term IRIS refers to Interference Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) is a NASA solar observation
satellite.
The mission was to investigate the physical conditions of the solar limb, particularly the chromospheres of the
sun.
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HISAKI
The term HISAKI also been known as SPRINT-A is a Japanese Ultraviolet Astronomy Satellite operated by
JAXA.
HISAKI has an extreme ultraviolet spectrometer which is used to study the composition of the atmosphere
and the behaviour of the magnetosphere of the planets of the solar system.
KEPLER
Kepler space observatory was launched by NASA to discover earth-size planets orbiting other stars. It is
designed to survey a portion of the Milky Way to discover Earth-size Exoplanets in or near habitable zones.
Habitable zones are the range of orbits around a star within which a planetary surface can support liquid
water at a given atmospheric pressure. The habitable zone is also called as the Goldilocks zone.
WISE
WISE stands for Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer its NASAs infrared wavelength astronomical space
telescope. It is otherwise called as NEOWISE.
It had discovered thousands of minor planets, asteroids, comets and numerous star clusters that could pose
serious threat to earth in the future. Its observations also supported the discovery of the first dwarf and earth
like Trojan asteroid.
Its recent discovery is associated with the near-earth asteroid known as JO25, which will be twice more
reflective than the moon.
IAO
IAO stands for Indian Astronomical Observatory, located at Leh in India. It is considered to be one of the
worlds highest optical, infrared and gamma ray telescopic observatories.
It has two active telescopes such as a remote controlled Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) and High
Altitude Gamma Ray Telescope (HAGAR).
MACE
MACE stands for the Major Atmospheric Cerenkov Experiment Telescope, which is the worlds largest
telescope at the highest altitude being established at Hanle, in India.
It is the second largest gamma ray telescope in the world next to High Energy Stereoscopic System
(HESS) telescope in Namibia.
It is remotely operated and runs on solar power, which helps the astrophysicists to understand the particle
acceleration nature and fundamental physics concepts.
TESS
The term TESS stands for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which is NASAs space telescope for its
explorers program, designed to search for Exoplanet by using the Transit method.
It is planned to launch by the end of 2017 with primary objective to survey the brightest stars near the earth
for transiting exoplanet.
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DRAGONFLY 44
Recently astronomers have found a massive galaxy other terms called as Ghost Galaxy named as
Dragonfly 44 about the size of Milky Way with high dark matter composition in the coma constellation
with the help of Keck observatory.
The twin Keck observatory located at Maunakea is the worlds largest and most scientifically productive
optical and infrared telescope.
Recently Chandra X-ray Observatory, GMRT, Keck observatory and Japans Subaru observatory
had discovered a collision of giant galaxy cluster with a supermassive black hole.
PSLV- C35
It is the first mission of PSLV to place the eight different satellites in two different orbits.
PSLV-C35 had launched the SCATSAT-1 for weather related studies in the Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO)
It had placed PRATHAM satellite to estimate the total electron count over India and France in the polar
orbit.
It also placed PISAT a Nano satellite for remote sensing of IIT-B and PES university in the polar orbit
It also placed Algerias ALSAT-1B and Earth observation satellite, ALSAT-2B, a remote sensing satellite,
ALSAT-1N a technology demonstrator, Canadas NLS-19 technology demonstrating microsatellite and U.S.A
Pathfinder-1 of commercial high resolution imaging micro satellite in the same polar orbit.
Thus PSLV-C35 is the first multi-orbital launch in which it had placed SCATSAT-1 and its seven co-passengers
in two different orbits such as Sun Synchronous and Polar orbit respectively. It is called as most
complex, long duration and Two-in-one mission of ISRO.
TIANGONG-2
Tiangong-2 is the second experimental space lab of chinas ambitious space programme which aims to build
a manned space station by 2022 carried by Shenzhou-11 spacecraft with two onboard astronauts.
Tiangong-2 (Heavenly palace) orbiting the earth had successfully launched a micro satellite named as
Banxing-2 which is nicknamed as Selfie Stick, which aims to take photographs of Tiangong-2.
During the mission the two astronauts will conduct aerospace medical experiments, space science
experiments, space cultivation, ultrasound tests and in-orbit maintenance with human participation.
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INSAT-3DR
INSAT-3DR is an advanced weather satellite that was successfully launched by GSLV-F05 into the
Geostationary Transfer Orbit.
INSAT-3DR (2211 Kg) is the second heaviest satellite placed in orbit by an indigenous cryogenic engine
propelled by GSLV next to GSAT-9 (2230 Kg) heaviest so far.
The launch was carried out as a non-text book launch with maiden operational flight mode concept.
The advanced meteorological satellite has been configured with thermal imaging system and an
atmospheric sounder to give vertical profile of temperature, humidity and density of ozone layer over
Indian landmass in a 3D form.
Imaging will be done in the middle infrared band to provide night time pictures of low clouds and fog.
Imaging in two thermal infrared bands gives accurate sea surface temperature (SST), snow cover, cloud
motion winds etc.
It carries a Data Relay Transponder which will provide the datas for Automatic Weather Stations,
Automatic Rain Gauges and agro meteorological stations.
It has Search and Rescue transponder which is a slim safety and survival device that is used in
conjugation with other safety and survival marine devices to enhance rescue operations.
ELECTRIC PROPULSION SYSTEM
Electric Propulsion system (EPS) is an electrically powered spacecraft propulsion system that uses
electrical energy to change the velocity of a spacecraft.
Electric thrusters have high exhaust speed and due to limited electric power the thrust is much weaker but it
can provide a small thrust for long time.
Thus, EPS can achieve high speeds over long periods and thus can work better than chemical rockets for some
deep space missions.
GSAT-9 satellite was the first onboard Indian satellite to have such a kind of EPS system where it had used
Xenon based EPS system.
By 2020, ISRO expects that half of all new satellites of the world will use EPS.
MINING SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM
Mining Surveillance System (MSS) is a satellite based monitoring system that aims to check illegal
mining activity through remote sensing technology by using CARTOSAT & USGS.
Its worlds first such a kind of surveillance system developed using space technology by Indian Bureau of
Mines (IBM) in co-ordination with BISAG.
KESSLER SYNDROME
A graveyard orbit, also called a junk orbit or disposal orbit, is a super-synchronous orbit that lies
significantly above the synchronous orbit, where spacecraft are intentionally placed at the end of their
operational life.
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Kessler syndrome is a scenario in which the density of non functioning satellites in low Earth orbit is high
enough to establish collisions between the other functioning satellites in the same orbit which could cause a
cascade and each collision generates certain quantity of space debris which increases the likelihood of further
collisions.
Satellites placed in the Graveyard orbits remains to be non- functional so that they wont establish any
communications with the ground stations.
TTCP
TTCP stands for Telemetry and Telecommand Processor which is used in integrated spacecraft testing of
LEO, GTO and Interplanetary spacecraft.
TTCP was indigenously developed by ISRO as a part of Make in India campaign.
ROSETTA MISSION
Rosetta mission or Philae probe mission was a European Space Agency mission which was sent to
explore a comet named 67p/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko and recently ESA had bid farewell to Rosetta.
The Rosetta spacecraft underwent multiple flybys near the earth and Jupiter, where it took advantage of what
is called as Gravitational Kick, to gain velocity from its close encounters with Earth and Jupiter and
move on to its comet.
GAGAN
GAGAN is a Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) implemented by ISRO with AAI which
provides Satellite-based Navigation services with accuracy and integrity required for civil aviation applications
and to provide better Air Traffic Management over Indian Airspace.
GAGAN Signal-In-Space (SIS) is provided with the help of GSAT-18, GSAT-10 and GSAT-15 satellites.
GAGANs foot print covers from Africa to Australia.
GAGAN is the first SBAS system in the world to serve the equatorial regional and India has become the third
country in the world to have such precision approach capabilities.
GAGAN provides signals for aviation along with the conditions of unmanned level crossings in the country.
LADEE MISSION
The term stands for Lunar Atmospheric Dust Environmental Explorer.
It was a lunar robotic mission of NASA that will orbit the moon to gather detailed information about the lunar
atmosphere, conditions near the surface and environmental influences on lunar dust.
PHOENIX MISSION
It is the mission of NASA to carry out a historical analysis of water in the Martian arctic and to search for the
evidence of a habitable zone in Mars.
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SOLAR PROBE PLUS MISSION
It is the first robotic mission of NASA to carry out a historical analysis in the suns atmosphere where it aims
to provide the answer for the several centuries mysterious question regarding the less hot nature of the
photosphere layer of the sun when compared to corona.
COLD ATOM LAB
Cold Atom Lab (CAL) is an experimental instrument developed by NASAs JPL for launch into the ISS, where
it studies the hyper-cold atoms under extreme low temperature in a microgravity environment.
Under this cryogenic condition atoms will form a state known as Bose-Einstein Condensate. In this state the
condensates are in Superfluid state with zero viscosity. This allows the atoms to move without friction.
After the study CAL could reshape the basic understanding of matter and the fundamental nature of gravity.
DAWN MISSION
It was the mission of NASA to characterize the conditions & process that shaped our solar system.
Initially it orbited around the protoplanet named as Vesta and now it is in the new orbit around the dwarf
planet Ceres.
Vesta and Ceres were the two most massive bodies in the main asteroid belt.
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CYGNSS
The term CYGNSS stands for Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System which is the project of NASA
where it uses eight small satellites designed to aid weather forecasters in understanding and predicting
hurricane intensity.
CYGNSS will join with GPS constellation to measure ocean surface winds in and near the eye of the storm
throughout the life cycle of hurricanes.
This will be the first time that a satellite peer through heavy tropical rainfall into the middle of hurricanes
and predict the intensity of hurricanes before and during landfall.
QUASARS
The term Quasars stands for Quasi-Stellar Radio Source, which is considered to be farthest object in our
known universe. They were extremely bright masses of energy and light.
Even though, they were brightest we cannot see the quasars through a telescope because they were far away
but we can signalize the radio waves, X-rays and light waves emitted by it.
It is believed that quasars to have super massive black holes surrounded by an accretion disk.
An accretion disk is a flat, disk-like structure of gas that rapidly spirals around a larger object, like a black
hole, new star or white dwarf.
Quasars gradually attract this gas and sometimes other stars or even small galaxies with their super strong
gravity.
When a galaxy, star or gas is absorbed into a quasar in such a way, the result is a massive collision of matter
that causes a gigantic explosive output of radiation energy and light.
This great burst of energy results in a flare, which is a distinct characteristic feature of quasars.
EINSTEIN RING
Einsteins ring is a kind of rare celestial phenomenon but recently team of astronomers had viewed such a
kind of thing in Canary Island in Chile and thus name it as The canarias Einstein Ring.
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The Canarias Einstein Ring is one of the most symmetrical discovered until now because it is almost circular
in nature. It shows that two galaxies were perfectly aligned with a separation of about only 0.2 arc seconds.
Einsteins ring is a kind of distorted image that occurs due to a concept called as Gravitational Lensing.
A far away Galaxy that emit the light can be assumed to act as a Source and the light from the galaxy will
be getting bended due to the phenomenon of distortion by a massive galaxy, which can be termed as the
lens, which lies between the observer and the source.
BROWN DWARF
The term Brown Dwarf refers to intermediate stage between planets and fully fledged stars but they were
significantly more massive than the planets.
It is made up of gas that is around 250 times purer than the Sun, hence it consists of more than 99.9%
hydrogen and Helium.
The mass of brown dwarfs will be too small for full nuclear fusion of hydrogen to helium to take place.
SUNSPOTS
The term Sunspots refers to the darker cooler areas on the surface of the suns photosphere region. It is
caused by the interactions with the suns magnetic field.
They were darker in composition with the other regions of photosphere surrounding them and thus it is also
been called as Darkspots.
GREAT BALLS OF FIRE
They were mysterious, super hot blobs of gas which were detected by Hubble Space Telescope.
These gas balls were observed near a red giant called as V Hydrae which is about 1200 light years away from
the earth.
RESTORE-L PROJECT
NASA is building a robotic spacecraft dubbed as Restore-L Spacecraft to refuel, repair satellites currently
in orbit. The project will be technically assisted by California-based satellite company Space Systems/Loral to
build Restore-L Spacecraft.
Space Systems/Loral will provide NASA with spacecraft bus, critical hardware and services for the Restore-L
mission.
This mission will be launched in 2020 to perform in-orbit satellite servicing in low-Earth orbit.
The robotic spacecraft (Restore-L Spacecraft) will be outfitted with the latest tools and technologies to
repair, refuel or service satellites currently in orbit.
It will help in extending life of existing satellites and reduce operation costs. It can also be used for cleaning
space debris or testing asteroid platforms.
The Restore-L Project is managed within NASAs Satellite Servicing Projects Division located Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
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THE GIANT MAGELLAN TELESCOPE
Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is being built at Chile by USA, Australia, South Korea and Brazil.
The heart of the Giant Magellan Telescope is the segmented primary mirror. So that GMT will outperform
Hubble space telescope by having a resolving power 10 times greater.
GMT will collect more light than any other telescopes and will be the first scope to directly image extrasolar
planets and may be able to see the colour of planets.
It will be get operational by 2020 and once it gets operated, then GMT will help in understanding to tackle
multiple mysteries in the universe.
GAIA
GAIA stands for Global Astrometry Interferometer for Astrophysics.
It is the global space astrometry mission of ESA, where GAIA will make the largest, most precise 3D map of
our galaxy by surveying more than a thousand million stars.
GAIA will provide the basic observational data to tackle an enormous range of important problems in
astronomy over the next decades.
ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVE
Electromagnetic Drive is a reaction less spacecraft drive, which provides thrust to a spacecraft by bouncing
microwaves around in a closed container.
Solar energy provides the electricity to power the microwaves, which means that no propulsion is needed.
Thus no propellants is used, where the required thrust is produced by the amplification of the radiation
pressure of an electromagnetic wave propagated through a resonant waveguide assembly.
SARAS PROJECT
The term SARAS project stands for Shaped Antenna measurement of the background Radio Spectrum,
located at Hanle in Ladakh.
This system consists of an antenna connected with analogue and digital receivers to take the data from sky and
record it for further analysis.
This instrument have started looking for signals from the first stars, pulsars and galaxies that hold answers to
many questions from the Dark Ages Big Bang to the current date.
FAST
The word FAST stands for Five hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), worlds largest
filled single aperture radio telescope located in China and second largest radio telescope after Russsias
RATAN-600, which has sparsely filled aperture.
It is called as Heavenly Eye or Eye of the Heaven since it is capable to receive weaker and more distant
radio signals.
Its primary aim is to promote research towards SETI and along with that it also studies radio light from stars,
galaxies, black holes, supernovae, gravitational waves and other astronomical objects.
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SQUARE KILOMETRE ARRAY (SKA) PROJECT
SKA project is an international effort to build the worlds largest radio telescope, which will eventually have
a square kilometre of collecting area.
The SKA will be built and co-located in the southern hemisphere in South Africa and Australia to view our
own galaxy milky way, where the radio interference is least i.e. Radio Quietness.
It will be a sensitive instrument so that it will be able to detect even very faint radio signals.
India is an active participant in the scientific, technical and administrative activities of the SKA project.
Many Indian Institutions led by National Centre for Radio Astronomy in Pune will be involved in this project.
GRAPES-3
The term GRAPES stands for Gamma Ray Astronomy at PeV EnergieS, is an Indo-Japanese joint experiment
at Ootacamund in Tamil Nadu.
GRAPES-3 is used to detect muons from the cosmic rays showers. Along in detecting the muons it is
also used to study solar storms and space weather at distances upto two times the earths radius, unlike
satellite-based studies.
Grapes-3 is capable to trace the storm even in the last million miles from the L1 point of their journey from
sun to the earth.
Recently it had detected a surge muon intensity correlated with a weakening of the earths magnetic field due
to a solar storm that hit the earth due to a massive Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) that had left the sun.
The detection was carried out with the switch on/off pattern of 217 Scintillatiors mounted in the specified
location at Ootacamund.
ORION SPACECRAFT
NASA plans to carry out first phase of its kind of a broad space exploration mission in the name called as
Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1).
Orion Spacecraft- multi- purpose non-crew vehicle is a part of EM-1 mission that plans to carry out
exploration to deep space and eventually to Mars.
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Originally it was planned to be a manned mission but now the idea got changed by NASA, where now it will be
an unmanned heavy lift Space Launch System (SLS), which will use solar energy.
Orion will spend 25 days in space, including six days in a retrograde orbit around the moon.
The spacecraft will go farther into the space than people have travelled before. It is planned to have the
sequential Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) by 2022 or 2023.
EUROPAS CLIPPER MISSION
TITAN is the largest moon of Saturn and Enceladus smallest moon of Saturn has the hope to hold life as per
Cassini Huygens.
Out of the above two TITAN is proved to have non-silicate granular materials that can hold their electrostatic
charge for several weeks under low-gravity conditions.
It is expected that the presence of some microorganisms over there, which can derive energy by using a
chemical reaction known as Methanogenesis.
Along with the two moons, DIONE and EUROPA also expected to have the presence of water in the form of
subsurface ocean.
Europas Clipper mission is the upcoming mission of NASA that aims to explore Jupiters ocean
harbouring moon Europa which will be launched by 2020.
Its prime objective is to explore the presence of life over Europa and thus its the name Clipper to be
associated with it.
INSIGHT MISSION
The term INSIGHT stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport,
which is a scheduled NASA mission that will take place by 2018.
It aims to investigate the deep interiors of Mars and the findings of INSIGHT will help the astronomers to
understand the evolution of rocky planets including earth.
MAGNETARS
MAGNETARS are extremely dense type of

Neutron stars that can produce magnetic fields
trillions of times stronger than our sun.
Regular neutron stars has a magnetic field of

trillion gauss, while Magnetars hold the magnetic
field in the range of Quadrillion gauss.
Magnetars can cause starquakes or earthquakes

on stars. Thus Magnetars releases blast of
radiation that can be seen clear across the Milky
Way.
Fast Neutron Spectrometer (FNS) is used to

detect the harmful Neutron radiations.
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EVENT HORIZON
EVENT HORIZON are extremely larger telescope located in earth to carry out a wide research about the
Black hole located at the heart of milky way.
VELA SUPER CLUSTER
Vela Super Cluster is one of the biggest super galaxy clusters near the Milky Way.
Its discovery may help astronomers to answer the retardation speed of Milky Way.
LHAASO
LHAASO is a term stands for Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory, which is a kind of largest and
most sensitive cosmic ray facility laboratory of China.
It will be the key frontier project and first such a kind of project for cosmic ray search, which will provide the
answer for the evolution of universe by studying various celestial bodies.
LUCY AND PSYCHE

Recently, NASA selected two low-cost, highly specialized missions to explore very strange asteroids in our Solar
System.
The selected missions are named Lucy and Psyche as a part of its Discovery Program, whose main aim is to
explore our planetary neighborhood using faster, better, cheaper missions.
The main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter holds a lot of mysteries astronomers are keen
to resolve. It is especially instrumental in understanding how planets form because the asteroids are primitive
bodies that could have formed a planet.
The Psyche mission will check out an asteroid in the main belt called 16 Psyche. This rock is one of the ten most
massive in the belt which is predominant with Iron and Nickel.
It is metallic in nature, leading scientists to believe that it could be the core of a once-Mars sized planet that has
since broken up. The Lucy mission will travel even further out to Jupiter to examine six Trojan asteroids.
Trojans are bodies that are present in Lagrange points.
YARKOVSKY EFFECT
The suns heating force on the asteroids as they rotate can cause them to drift widely over time is known as
Yarkovsky effect.
It is also one among the mission objective of OSIRIS-Rex, where it intends to study the Earths Dawn asteroid
named as Bennu.
BILI
BILI stands for Bio-Indicator Lidar Instrument.
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BILI is based upon a sensing technique that the U.S. military currently uses to remotely monitor the air to
detect potentially life-threatening chemicals, toxins, and pathogens has inspired a new instrument that could
sniff for life on Mars and other targets in the solar system.
NASA had applied the technology to create an instrument prototype, proving in testing that the same remote-
sensing technology used to identify bio-hazards in public places also could be effective at detecting organic
bio-signatures on Mars.
BILI is a fluorescence-based lidar, a type of remote-sensing instrument similar to radar in principle and
operation.
Instead of using radio waves, however, lidar instruments use light to detect and ultimately analyze the
composition of particles in the atmosphere.
Although NASA has used fluorescence instruments to detect chemicals in Earths atmosphere as part of its
climate-studies research, the agency so far hasnt employed the technique in planetary studies. NASA has
never used it before for planetary ground level exploration. If the agency develops it, it will be the first of a
kind.
VAMP-AV
VAMP-AV stands for Venus Atmospheric Manoeuvrable Platform Air Vehicle.
It is an aero shell less hypersonic entry vehicle that transitions to a semi-buyout, manoeuvrable, solar powered
air vehicle for flight in Venus atmosphere.
VAMP-AV is the first application of the Lifting Entry Atmospheric Flight (LEAF) family.
VAMP-AV will orbit the Venus for a long duration atleast for an year. The vehicles ultra low ballistic
coefficient, atmospheric entry is performed without the aid of a heavy areo shell, allowing it to hold the
sophisticated instruments that will track the clouds and atmosphere data and send back to the earth.
KALAMSAT
KALAMSAT is the worlds lightest and tinniest satellite so that it can be fit into a cube.
It is the first satellite to be developed via revolutionary 3D printing technique by a student from Tamil
Nadu in India with a sponsorship given by Space Kidz India organisation.
It was manufactured by using unbreakable carbon fibre polymer and weighs 64 grams only.
The satellite got selected by NASA through a competition called as Cubes in Space, which was mutually
sponsored by NASA and organisation, named as I doodle learning.
The primary objective is to take the new performing Aeronautics Technology to the space.
The satellite has onboard computer, eight indigenous integrated sensors to measure Earths rotation,
acceleration and Magnetosphere.
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The satellite will be launched in the sub-orbital flight by using NASAs sounding rocket, where it will operate
for about 12 minutes in a micro-gravity environment of space and thus it will satisfy its primary objective in
space.
THIRTY METER TELESCOPE (TMT) PROJECT
It is considered to be the worlds largest infrared cum optical telescope in the Northern Hemisphere
whose primary mirror is 30m wide which comprises about 492 smaller, hexagonal mirrors out of which 100
will be mounted by India.
It will help in finding the most distant and oldest stars that were born after Big Bang, which will give more
information about the origin of universe.
Initially the project was thought to be set up at Mauna Kea in Hawaii but now there is a change in the location,
which will be most possibly, be at Chile.
India, US, Canada, Japan and China were the partnership countries.
India provides 10% financial sharing along with the mirror coating and polishing work of the telescope.
India will develop the Adaptive optic Technology, control system, sensors, fabrication and actuator
systems.
Once installed, TMT will be the highest altitude among existing Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs).
SOIL MOISTURE ACTIVE PASSIVE PROJECT (SMAP)
It is the project of NASA which is designed to measure the moisture of earth accurately along with the
planets soil moisture level in every three days.
It provides better forecast about crop yields
It creates more accurate weather models.
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It provides assistance in global famine early-warning systems along with predicting floods and drought
conditions.
It also provides information about water, energy and carbon cycles.
GOCE SATELLITE
The term GOCE stands for Gravity field and Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) is the mission of European
Space Agency (ESA).
Moreover it is the first of the European satellites intended to map unprecedented detail about the earths
gravity field.
This information will provide the information about the promising locations where the sub-surface heat can be
exploited to generate electricity (Geothermal Energy).
MULTI APPLICATION SOLAR TELESCOPE
The term MAST stands for Multiple Application Solar Telescope, located at Udaipur in Rajasthan in the
middle of Fatehsagar Lake.
Largest water body surrounding the telescopes decreases the amount of heating of surface layers which in turn
decreases the turbulence in the air mass and thereby improves the image quality and seeing.
The telescope was installed by Ministry of Science and Technology and was funded by Department of Space.
MAST provides 3D images of solar activities such as solar blast and solar flares.
NORTH EASTERN SPACE APPLICATION CENTRE
NE-SAC aims to provide space technology based communication and technology support to the North Eastern
region.
It was a joint initiative of Department of space and North Eastern Council to expedite the usage of remote
sensing technology to discover natural minerals in the North Eastern states and to promote overall growth of
North Eastern states using space science and technology.
Recently NE-SAC had used remote sensing satellite images and Drones images to map disasters in the North-
East.
KUIPER BELT
Kuiper Belt is the region of that lies beyond the orbit of Neptune.
It consists of Comets, Asteroids and smaller icy particles called as Planetesimals.
It is a home to officially recognized dwarf planets such as Pluto, Haumea and Makemake. Out of which Pluto is
the most massive member of Kuiper belt.
NASADEM
Engineers and scientists at JPL are currently working on a complete reprocessing of the original Shuttle Radar
Topographic Mission (SRTM) data in order to produce an improved near-global Digital Elevation Model
(DEM) to be called NASADEM.
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As with SRTM Plus, this work is funded under NASA's "Making Earth System Data Records for Use in
Research Environments" (MEaSUREs) Program.
In brief, the expected improvements include
Fine vertical adjustments within and among individual shuttle data takes via reference to
Precise ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and land satellite) laser profiles.
(2) Void reduction via improved radar interferometric processing.
(3) Use of better fill data in the remaining voids, especially ASTER GDEM3 when available.
(4) Improved quality assessments and adjustments.
This project is scheduled for completion in 2017, but we expect to release interim products in 2016 and early
2017.
Recently, IIT Kharagpur scientists claim that they have found the evidence of lost Chandrabhaga River in
Odisha with the help of Landsat and Terra satellites of U.S.A. and along with those images obtained by
NASAs Space Shuttle Endeavours Radar Topographic Mission.
DARK MATTER
Dark matter is a hypothetical material that an astronomer or scientist cannot observe through ordinary
telescopes.
Although dark matter has not been directly observed, its existence and properties are inferred from its
gravitational effects such as the motions of visible matter.
The name refers to the fact that it does not emit or interact with electromagnetic radiation, such as light,
and is thus invisible to the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
It is considered to be responsible for holding all the normal matter in the universe together. These dark matter
particles have to be quite massive to form the observed structures, about as heavy as the heaviest particles we
know already.
If dark matter particles werent heavy enough they wouldnt clump sufficiently, which is why they are called
WIMPs for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles. It is expected that Dark Matter to be made up of
something other than Baryons, so that they were called as Non-Baryonic matter.
And we know that neutrinos, even though weakly interacting, cant make up dark matter because they are too
light and they wouldnt clump strongly enough to seed galaxy filaments.
70% of the final results of ADMX laboratory of US claims that Axions should be the most important
component of Dark matter but still they need to complete further 30% of works.
Already, the worlds largest dark matter search experiment known as the Large Underground Xenon
(LUX) experiment is carrying out its serious experiments to solve the mystery behind dark matter at South
Dakota but in recent times it faces some troubles.
Along with that ESA and NASA had jointly decided to carry out a space exploration with Euclid probe which
will try to unveil the secret behind dark matter and dark energy by accurately measuring the acceleration of
the universe.
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STRATELLITE COMMUNICATION
Stratellite Communcation is the brainchild of NASAs dream project.
Stratellites are the advancement of modern day satellite communication technologies.
Stratellites are high altitude airships originally meant to hover in the stratosphere, nearly 20 Km above the
surface of the earth.
Unlike a satellite that revolves around the earth and needs receiving antennas positioned at different angles to
receive the transmitted signals when the satellite would be at different positions around the earth, the
stratelllites stationary positioning sounds beneficial as the location of the receiving antennas can be fixed
and would not have to be changed from time to time.
Stratellite communication has a wide range of coverage and ensures an uninterrupted channel due to its
appreciably low distance from the surface of the earth.
MESAS AND BUTTES
NASAs curiosity rover had captured 3600 view of Mesas and Buttes on Mars of the Stimson formation
while crossing a feature called as Naukluft plateau in Mars.
Butte otherwise called as Murray Butte is an isolated hill with steep, flat top side and with often vertical sides.
Mesa is an elevated area that has wider top than its height, while Butte has a top that is narrower than its
height.
The mesas and buttes have a relatively flat foreground, part of geological layer called as Murray formation,
which is formed from the lakebed mud deposits.
UN KALAM GLOBAL SATELLITE
UN Kalam Global Satellite is used for earth observation and disaster risk reduction.
The renaming was done by CANEUS, an organisation involved to develop a common platform for space
technology solutions for natural and anthropogenic disaster management.
LAPAN A2
LAPAN A2 or LAPAN-ORARI is an Indonesian microsatellite based on the LAPAN-Tubsat.
It carries AIS technology to identify the ships in the water region.
It also carries a payload for disaster management by using Amateur Radio communication.
RAMS
RAMS stands for Road Asset Management System for National Highways that is being developed for all
National Highways in the country.
It uses GAGAN and BHUVAN satellite systems to prepare 3600 mapping of road assets.
It will greatly facilitate timely repair of roads, formulation of detailed project reports and other works in an
effective and in a transparent manner.
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SOFIA OBSERVATORY
SOFIA stands for Stratospheric Observatory for

Infrared Astronomy.
It is a joint project of NASA and German Aerospace

Center (DLR) to construct and maintain an airborne
observatory.
SOFIA is the successor to the Kuiper Airborne

Observatory of NASA.
Recently, it had found a new planetary system around the star Epsilon Eridani, on-fifth of the age of the sun
is located just 10.5 light years away in the southern section of the constellation Eradanus, which has been
found to have similar planetary system like our solar system.
EPSILON-2
Epsilon-2 was launched by JAXA, which is a solid fuel rocket.
Its prime objective is to study the radiation belts around the earth.
The satellite will penetrate into the Van Allen Radiation belt, where the earths magnetic field traps huge
numbers of fast-moving electrons and other particles. This often poses serious threat to astronauts and for the
onboard computers.
GAOFEN-3 SATELLITE
GAOFEN-3 is a high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite launched by China.
Moreover Gaofen-3 is the first low orbit remote sensing satellite.
INDIA BECOME ASSOCIATE MEMBER OF CERN
Recently, India had become an associate member of CERN, worlds largest nuclear and particle physics
laboratory, where scientists are probing the fundamental structure of the universe by using the most
sophisticated scientific instruments and advanced computing systems.
CERN is located in Geneva on the French Swiss border. In 2003, India was awarded the observer status of
CERN by that India had made significant contributions to the construction of the Large Hadron Collider
(LHC), ALICE, ISOLDE, n-TOF and in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiments.
Out of the above observatory LHC is most famous which allows physicists to test the predictions of different
theories of particle physics, which also includes to measure the properties of Higgs Boson and search for the
large family of new particles as per the supersymmetric theories.
As an associate member India will have full access to all the experimental data generated at CERN in which
India is participating.
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As an associate member India can participate in all CERN experiments but we have to pay additional charges
for the participation.
India can participate in the maintenance activities by appointing Indian scientists to carry out the operation
and maintenance in the various CERN projects.
Currently, CERN has 22 member states. Besides India, Turkey, Pakistan, Ukraine are the associate
members and Serbia and Cyprus are associate members in the pre-stage to membership.
ARTIFICIAL STAR
Recently, Chinese scientists had created a temporary artificial star three times hotter than the core of the sun.
The project is known as The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak project is a part of
global efforts in figuring out how to create a viable source of energy from nuclear fusion reactors.
GAMMA SCINTIGRAPHY
Gamma Scintigraphy is a diagnostic test in nuclear medicine, where the radioisotopes attached to drugs that
travel to a specific organ or tissue.
BRACHYTHERAPY
Brachytherapy is a kind of internal radionuclide therapy treatment of disease by placing sealed radioactive
sources at near the target area on a temporary or permanent basis.
Brachymetry makes it possible to treat a cancer with a larger dose of radiation than can be given with external
beam radiation therapy.
MUTATION BREEDING
Mutation Breeding or Mutagenesis is another important application of nuclear radiant where seeds are
exposed to radiation for better varieties with desirable traits which are known as mutants.
FIRE STREAKS
The collision of massive atomic nuclei in an

accelerator at very high energy level
generates hundreds or even thousands of
particles that undergoes numerous
interactions is called as Fire streaks.
When two massive atomic nuclei collide at

high energies, Quark-Gluon plasma
behaving like a perfect fluid is formed.
The plasma forms into streaks along the

direction of impact, moving faster and
further away it moves from the collision
axis.
The collision of such atomic nuclei occurs

extremely rapidly at distance of merely
hundreds of femtometres. The recently explained, Krakow fire streak model provides new information on
the expansion of quark-gluon plasma in high energy collisions of massive atomic nuclei.
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GYROTRON
Gyrotron is a vacuum electronic device capable to generate high-power, high frequency(THz) Microwave
source which is used in nuclear fusion reactions.
The high frequency microwaves produced will be used for generating the plasma.
A gyrotrons operation is based on the stimulated cyclotron radiation of electrons oscillating in a strong
magnetic field typically provided by a superconducting magnet.
Gyrotron is also called as fast wave device because the dimensions of its interaction structure are much
larger compared to the wavelength of the radiation.
GEO-NEUTRINOS
Geo-Neutrinos were tiniest subatomic particle which is used to calculate the amount of nuclear fuel
present inside the earth by 2025.
These antineutrino particles are the by products of nuclear reactions within the celestial bodies, nuclear
reactors and from radioactive decay process that happens deep inside the earth.
Earth requires fuel to drive plate tectonics, volcanoes and its magnetic field. Earth taps two sources of energy
to run its engine, one is the primordial energy formed from assembling the planet and nuclear energy
from the heat produced during natural radioactive decay.
Currently Japan and Italy have the detectors to detect Geo-neutrinos while Canada and China is on the
process to establish similar detectors in their country.
THIRD GENERATION NUCLEAR REACTOR
Recently BARC had designed Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) for the utilisation of Thorium.
It has several passive safety systems and runs on coolant flow by natural circulation.
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NON-TOXIC RADIATION SHIELDING MATERIAL
Non-toxic Radiation Shielding Material is widely used for X-ray Protection.
Non-toxic radiation shielding is obtained by using industrial waste like red mud obtained from aluminium
industries and fly ash obtained from Thermal Power Plants.
This technology was developed by CSIR which has been accredited by Atomic Energy Regulatory Board
(AERB) for its application in diagnostic X-Ray rooms.
SUPRAMOLECULE
Scientists had provided an experimental proof for the existence of a chemical bond between tow negatively
charged molecules of bisulphate or HSO4.
This was a great stride as according to the Coulombs law of two molecules with the same charge create a
repellent force that prohibits chemical bonding.
This was the first definitive evidence for a new molecular structure, called as Supramolecule which have
potential applications in the safe storage of nuclear waste and reducing agricultural chemicals that
contaminate water and trigger large biological mortality.
Due to the ion extraction property, the supramolecule could potentially be used to remove sulphate ions
during vitrification, a process which is used to transform nuclear waste into storable solids and to extract
harmful phosphate ions from the environment.
IRRADIATED FUEL
The nuclear fuel when it is taken out of the reactor after it has delivered the power is called as Irradiated
fuel.
Irradiated fuel can have tow paths of fuel cycle such as follows:
Open Fuel Cycle Irradiated fuel is stored for some time to reduce the radioactivity and then dispose it as
a waste.
Closed Fuel Cycle Reprocessing the Irradiated fuel to extract the fissile material plutonium for future
use. India had adopted the closed fuel cycle mode of operation for its power plants.
DISCOVERY OF FOUR NEW CHEMICAL ELEMENTS

Recently IUPAC had added four new elements to the periodic table and completes its 7th row.
Elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 named as Nihovium, Moscovium, Tennessine, Oganesson respectively have
been penciled in on the table.
All of the elements were created in the lab, by smashing lighter atomic nuclei together.
Among the four elements, 113 was discovered by Japan, the first Asian country to discover the element and
element 118 belong to Noble gas group.
Now the discovery of these new elements increases the number of super heavy elements and supports Island of
Stability concept.
All the four new elements had found a new page in the IUPAC Red Book
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FOOD IRRADIATION
The application of ionizing radiation to food is a technology that improves safety and extends the shelf life
of foods by eliminating or reducing the microorganisms is called as food irradiation.
Thus it permits the conservation of fresh agricultural commodities by extending their freshness.
It delays the ripening of fruits and thus it can reduce the post-harvest losses.
It is free from genotoxic health hazards and it is the effective method to remove food borne pathogens.
MADALA BOSON
Scientists had recently predicted the existence of a new fundamental particle named as Madala Boson,
which will help the scientists to solve the mystery of elusive dark matter in the universe.
Higgs Boson in the Standard Model Physics only interacts with known matter; the Madala Boson interacts
with dark matter, which makes about 27% of the universe.
The discovery report was given by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) located at CERN.
NATIONAL SECURITY GURAD
The National Security Guard (NSG) for the first time participated in the Republic Day parade.
The NSG operates under the oversight of the Ministry of Home Affairs and is headed by the Director General
of the Indian Police Service (IPS).
The NSG members are also known as Black Cats because of the black drill cotton coveralls and
helmets/balaclavas they wear. The following were the important duties of NSG.
Bomb Disposal.
Post Blast Investigation
Neutralization of terrorist threats.
Handling hijacking situations in air and on land.
Engaging and neutralizing terrorists in specific situations.
Hostage Rescue.
AKASH MISSILE
AKASH is a kind of Medium Range Surface to Air missile with a range of about 30 km interception capacity.
It has Quick response and full automated features, so that it can be operated in all weather conditions against
any potential threats like aircraft, helicopters, drones and sub-sonic cruise missiles.
It the first missile to use Ramjet engine and Rajendra Radar with multi target air defence capacity.
It was the costliest surface to air missile developed so far in the 20th century.
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On account of 45th anniversary of diplomatic relationship and 10th anniversary of Strategic partnership with
Vietnam. India had decided to offer Akash missile to Vietnam, where already India had offered Brahmos and
Varunastra.
STEALTH TECHNOLOGY
Stealth Technology or Low observable technology is to make an airplane invisible to radar.
Its a matter of fact that it is totally the principle of reflection and absorption that makes an aircraft and ships
to be invisible from the radars eye.
INS Sahyadri one among the seven multi role frigates of Shivalik class developed under Project 17 has the
stealth technology features apart from that Projects 15A of Kolkata class destroyers and Projects 75 of
Scorpene class submarine also possess the stealth technology.
QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT
Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon that occurs when pairs or groups of particles are
generated or interact in ways such that the quantum state of each particle cannot be described independently
of the others, even when the particles are separated by a large distance instead, a quantum state must be
described for the system as a whole.
In simple language quantum entanglement is based upon quantum keys which are basically encryption keys,
which are linked to a particle at quantum level. These quantum keys are decoded at receiver end through
optical decoder so that middle person cannot decode it. There comes the meaning for Hack proof.
Recently, China had developed stealth defeating quantum radar, which uses quantum entanglement photons
to provide better detection capabilities than conventional radar systems.
Earlier China had launched Quantum satellite in the name called as QUESS, which has its ground stations at
China and Austria, since Austria is also partner, which too works based upon the quantum entanglement
concept.
The same technology can be used in future in the field of biomedicine for detecting cancers.
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PINAKA
Pinaka is a multi barrel rocket launcher system developed by ARDE, RCI and DRDL.
Pinaka has three variants such as Pinaka-I whose range is about 40 km followed by Pinaka-II whose range is
about 65 km and finally Pinaka III whose range is expected to be 90 km but it is under development.
Pinaka MK-II, which had been evolved from Pinka MK-I as it is equipped with a navigation, guidance
and control kit and had made Pinaka MK-II as guided Pinaka.
This conversion of Pinaka II has considerably enhanced the range and accuracy and it is mounted on a Tatra
truck which can be fired from Salvo mode.
PROJECT-15
Project -15 of Indian Navy aimed in developing Delhi class guided missile destroyers.
It includes INS Delhi, INS Mysore and INS Mumbai.
Delhi class vessels are the third largest warships to be fully designed and built in India, after the Kolkata class
destroyers (Project-15A) and the Shivalik class frigates (Project-17).
PROJECT-15B
Project -15B of Indian Navy aimed in developing Vishakapatnam class stealth guided missile destroyer.
It includes INS Vishakapatnam, INS Porbandar, INS Mormugao, INS Pardip.
INS Vishakapatnam is the largest missile destroyer which had been commissioned so far, which is capable to
carry eight Brahmos missiles.
INS VIRAAT
INS VIRAAT being the biggest and oldest aircraft carrier in the Indian Navy had got decommisoned and INS
Viraat holds the Guinness book record of being the longest serving warship in the world.
It was built in 1943 during the Second World War and was first commissioned as HMS Hermes into the
British royal Navy, where it was well known as Grand Old Lady.
It was commissioned into Indian Navy in 1987 fondly called as Mother, where it played a major role in
Operation Jupiter in the Sri Lanka peace keeping operation, also participated in the Standoff Operation
Parakram and also played a strategic deployment during Operation Vijay in 1999 to capture Tiger hills
from Pakistan that can never be forgotten.
The ship had also participated in various International joint exercises like Malabar (with US Navy), Varuna
(With French Navy), Naseem-al-Bahr (With Oman Navy) and has been an integral element of annual
Theater Level Operational Exercise (TROPEX) and the last operational deployment was the
participation in International Fleet Review (IFR-2016) at Vishakapatnam.
INS VIKRAMADITYA
INS Vikramaditya known as the Brave as the Sun is a modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier.
At present INS Vikramaditya is the only serving aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy and the second one is
named as INS Vikrant which is under construction.
INS Vikramaditya becomes the first Indian Naval ship with onboard ATM facility.
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SAGAR PARIKRAMA PROJECT
The prime objective of Sagar Parikrama Project is to have a solo-circumnavigation of the globe in a
sailboat. Recently Sagar Parikrama Phase- II was launched.
It inspires the youth of India to develop an understanding of the sea and a sense of adventure and spirit.
To instil in the young officers of the Navy a sense of National pride and achievement through a successful solo-
cicumnavigation voyage.
LEMOA
The term LEMOA stands for Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement is a facilitating agreement that
establishes basic terms conditions and procedures for reciprocal provision of Logistic support, Supplies and
services between the armed forces of India and United States.
Reciprocal logistic support would be used exclusively during authorized port visits, joint exercises, joint
training and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts.
The agreement will significantly enhance the operational capacity of the Indian Armed Forces, including in
their response to humanitarian crises or disaster relief.
SAAW
The term SAAW stands for Smart Anti-Air

Field Weapon, which is a light weight long
range precision guided bomb developed by
DRDO.
It was designed to destroy ground targets

such as runways, bunkers, aircraft hangers
and other reinforced structures.
It weighs about 120 kg and it has deep

penetration capabilities, which carries a high explosive warhead and has a long standoff range of 100 km,
which allows the Indian Air Force to strike targets, such as enemy airfields, at safe distance without putting
pilots and aircraft at risk.
It is also Indias first fully indigenous anti-airfield weapon, being designed and developed wholly by
DRDO.
IAAMS
The term IAAMS stands for Integrated Automatic Aviation Meteorological System.
It is an ambitious project of the Indian Navy to modernize the meteorological infrastructure of the Naval Air
Stations.
It is equipped with the state of the art meteorological sensors, Radar vertical wind profiler, Transmissiometer,
celiometer and Automatic weather observation system.
INS Rajali at Arakkonam was identified for setting up this sophisticated system on a Test Bed site for the
IAAMS, where it will give a major fillip to aviation safety through automation of weather monitoring process.
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TROPEX
The Indian Navys annual Theatre Readiness Operational Exercise (TROPEX) was conducted off the
western seaboard.
TROPEX 17 exercise was aimed at testing combat readiness of the combined fleets of the Indian Navy, and the
assets of the Indian Army, Indian Air Force and Indian Coast Guard.
It seeks to strengthen inter-operability and joint operations in a complex environment. It assumes special
significance in the backdrop of the current security scenario.
TROPEX 17 exercise will be conducted in various phases, both in harbour and at sea encompassing the various
facets of war-fighting and combat operations.
S-400 TRIMUF AIR DEFENCE SYSTEM
Its a kind of most advanced long range air defence missile system developed by Russia, which is
referred as SA-21 Growler by NATO.
It is capable of firing four types of missiles and thus it creates a layered defence for a country and
simultaneously engaging 36 targets.
It is capable to destroy incoming all airborne targets such as UAV, UCAV, airborne early warning aircraft, and
stealth fighters guided munitions even at a range of about 400 km.
S-400 systems will be operated by Indian Air Force and with it India can destroy Pakistani aircrafts even when
they are in their airspace.
India is the second export customer after china to purchase this most advance defence system.
HEAD-UP- DISPLAY (HUD)
Head-Up-Display is also known as HUD, which was developed by CSIR-NAL.
HUD is a transparent display that presents the data without requiring the users to look away from their usual
viewpoints.
Recently CSIR had developed such a HUD is developed for Indian Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas to aid the
pilot in flying the aircraft and critical manoeuvres including weapon training.
MTCR
MTCR is a kind of multilateral export control regime established in 1987.
India became a member of MTCR in June 2016, which makes India to buy high-end missile technology and
also enhance its joint ventures with Russia.
MTCR aims at restricting the proliferation of missiles, rocket systems, UAV, related cutting edge technology as
well as systems intended for the delivery of weapons of mass destruction.
TEJAS
TEJAS is a kind of indigenously developed fourth generation Light Combat Aircraft.
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LCA programme was initiated to replace the ageing MIG-21 aircraft in IAF combat fleet.
TEJAS is the smallest, light weight, single engine, single seat and supersonic multirole, combat aircraft.
TEJAS is the second supersonic fighter developed by HAL after HAL HF-24 Marut.
TEJAS has four variants such as Combat, Striker, Trainer and Naval which is being developed for land
and carrier borne operations.
TEJAS has a configuration optimised primarily for manoeuvrability and agility.
The plane is equipped with quadruples digital fly-by-wire flight control system to ease handling.
It makes the pilot to do more head down activities by without worrying about the aircraft deviating from its
flight path.
45% of the materials used for fabricating TEJAS is made up of Carbon Fibre composites (CFC) which
makes the aircraft much lighter than others.
TEJAS is mounted with inbuilt Multi Mode Radar (MMR) and Radar Warning Receiver (RWR)
which is capable to handle multi weapon simultaneously such as Air to Air missiles, Air to ground missiles,
Anti ship missiles, Laser guided bombs and conventional bombs.
Recently, the first two contemporary LCA, Tejas had joined the Indian Airforce Squadron called as Flying
Daggers.
ICGS ARYAMAN AND ATULYA
ARYAMAN and ATULYA were the Fast Patrol Vessels designed by the Cochin Shipyard Limited for the
Indian Coast Guard.
These two ships can move fast with an economical speed of 13 knots and the special features of the ships
include an IBMS and IMCS.
AKULA CLASS SUBMARINE
AKULA class submarines are considered as one of the most silent SSNs in service and are capable of sailing at
speeds upto 35 knots.
They are armed with conventional land attack missiles.
It was inducted into service as INS Chakra in India, where recently India had signed an agreement with
Russia to lease second Akula-II class nuclear attack submarine.
AMOGHA-1
Amogha-1 is Indias indigenous Anti-Tank Guided Missile developed by Bharat Dynamics Limited.
It has the range capacity of 2.5 to 3 kilometers.
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THAAD
THAAD is a kind of U.S. armys anti ballistic missile system designed to target enemys missiles in their
terminal phase by using a Hit to Kill approach.
THAAD carries no warhead but relies on the kinetic energy of the impact to destroy the incoming missile.
A kinetic energy hit minimizes the risk of conventional warhead ballistic missiles.
DIGITAL VILLAGE
Ministry of Electronics and Information

Technology had implemented a pilot project
named as Digital Village. This project
moves away from traditional approach of e-
governance project and adopts a service
based approach.
Adodara village in Sabarkantha district of

Gujarat had earned the coveted tag of
becoming Indias first digital village.
This village was adopted by ICICI bank

under its Digital Village Project and made
cashless by adopting digital technology.
It intends to provide a platform for

availability of services such as
Telemedicine, Tele education, LED
street lighting, WiFi hotspot and skill development at the gram panchayat level.
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QUANTUM COMPUTING
Computers what we use in the current date is capable to process data as bits, which can exist either as a 0 or as
1.
Hard-disk drives store these bits as microscopic patches on magnetic plates, where the information can then
be converted to electrical signals.
Quantum computing, meanwhile, manipulates data at an atomic level, allowing for a whole host of interesting
quantum mechanical effects.
Bits in quantum computing are known as qubits and are particles such as electrons or atoms.
The advantages of qubits are that they are very small and can exist in more states than in just two states.
These states could take the form of the spin of an electron or the configuration of an atom, and because
there are a higher number of states per qubit than an ordinary bit, the number of possible combinations of
states between different qubits increases massively.
Thus quantum computers can solve immense calculations at unfathomable speeds.
GEO SPATIAL TECHNOLOGY
The word geospatial is used to indicate that data that has a geographic component to it.
This means that the records in a dataset have locational information tied to them such as geographic data in
the form of coordinates, address, city, or ZIP code.
These datas can be obtained from an umbrella network which encompasses GIS, GPS, LIDAR, RADAR,
Remote sensing satellites and other modern analytical tools.
Survey of India, The National Survey and Mapping Organization of the country under the Department of
Science & Technology, is the oldest scientific department in the country established in 1767 is responsible for
regulating geospatial technology and its related information which celebrates its 250th year in 2017.
ICANN
The names and numbers that make up the Web are managed by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers or ICANN.
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There are 13 root servers in the world that direct all internet traffic through computers of ICANN.
Currently United States had converted ICANN as a multistakeholder where it wont be no longer under
United States department of commerce.
DIGI DHAN MELA
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had organized Indias first Digi Dhan mela at
Gurugram in Haryana.
The mela is a first of its exercise in the country to promote cashless transactions in the post demonetisation
period.
It educated the people regarding the mobile phone usage and AADHAR payment system.
SECURE SOCKET LAYER
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is standard security technologies for establishing an encrypted links between a
server and a client, typically a web server and a browser or a mail server and a mail client.
PARAM ISHAN
Param Ishan is the fastest and most power super computer in North East, Eastern and Southern region of
India outside Bangalore.
It was jointly developed by IIT-Guwahati and C-DAC. The computing power of Param Ishan is about 250
Teraflops and has three hundred terabyte storage capacities.
It is used in computational chemistry, fluid dynamics, electromagnetism, civil engineering structures, Nano-
block self assembly.
It is also used for weather, climate modelling and seismic data processing since North East India receives
heavy rainfall during monsoon, which leads to flooding and landslides.
In the current date the fastest supercomputer in the world is Sunway Taihulight of China whose
performance rate is about 125 petaflops
India ranked 9th with five of its supercomputers listed in Top 500 supercomputer ranking list.
Indias first supercomputer was PARAM 8000 developed by C-DAC which has 1 Giga Flops rate of
processing speed capacity.
Indias fastest supercomputer according to the top500 list is SAHASRA-T which is a type of SERC-Cray
XC40. Moreover it is Indias first Petaflops supercomputer.
SAKAAR
It is an Augmented Reality app developed by ISRO, which runs on Android devices.
The application consists of 3D models of Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), RISAT, PSLV, GSLV etc.
It also contains videos of INSAT 3D predicting cyclones, orbital launching of MOM etc.
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DIGITAL INDIA PROJECT
Digital India Project aims to prepare India in becoming a knowledge economy and for bringing good
governance.
The programme has been envisaged and being coordinated by the DeiTY in collaboration with various central
and state ministries. It has three key areas such as follows:
Digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen.
Governance and services on demand.
Digital empowerment of citizens.
YETI PROJECT
Yeti Project is used to create an alternative root for the Internet - Splinternet, driven by technical
considerations.
The problem of connecting the next generation of Internet users, which will mostly come from developing
countries.
IPv4 addresses, used by the majority of devices connected to the Internet today, are fast running out. In
contrast, the IPv6 protocol allows for a lot more addresses, but relatively few devices use it. Adding to the
problem, an IPv6 address cannot connect directly with an IPv4 address and vice versa, raising the costs of
interoperability.
To solve this problem, computer scientists are faced with two alternatives: one, create an inefficient method to
first translate IPv6 addresses of devices to IPv4 addresses, which can then connect freely with the root
servers; or two, create an alternative root zone that relies exclusively on IPv6 addresses.
Root zone file is a small data set whose publication is the primary purpose of root name servers.
The Yeti project adopts the latter approach. A pure IPv6 environment will remove the ceiling on the
number of root servers.
DIGILOCKER
Digilocker service was launched by the Government of India to provide a secure dedicated personal
electronic space for storing the documents of resident of Indian citizens.
The space can be utilized for storing personal documents like university certificates, PAN card, Voter ID,
Driving licence and the URI of e-documents issued by various registered issuer departments.
The service is intended to minimize the use of physical documents and to move towards digitization.
Initially the maximum storage space is 10 MB but now it had been raised to 1GB and it is linked to Aadhaar
number of the user along with his mobile number.
It has an associated facility called as e-signature, which provides authentication of the user.
MICRO ATM
Micro ATMs are not your gigantic ATM machines. These are more like the Point of Sale (PoS) units that you
use to swipe your Credit or Debit Card at retail stores with biometric system.
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This Micro-ATM PoS unit will interact with your banks payment system to ensure that you can withdraw and
deposit cash as soon as you swipe the card.
Micro-ATMs use GPRS technology to transmit data. This is the same technology that mobiles use and is
considered to be safe.
FUZZY LOGIC
Fuzzy Logic is a problem solving control system methodology that is used in systems ranging from simple,
small, embedded micro-controllers to large, networked, workstation based data acquisition and control
systems.
The approach of fuzzy logic to computing is based on Degrees of truth rather than the usual true of false
Boolean logic on which the modern computer is based.
Fuzzy logic uses 0 and 1 as extreme cases of truth but also includes various states of truth in between two
things.
Fuzzy logic is used in decision making, identification, pattern recognition, optimization and control functions.
GEOTAGGING
Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification like latitude and longitude to various media
such as a photo or video.
Geotagging can help users find a wide variety of location-specific information from a device. It provides users
the location of the content of a given picture.
Geomapping is a visual representation of the geographical location of geotagged assets layered on top of
map or satellite imagery.
MGNREGA and RKVY scheme is subjected to have the geotagging features.
STEREOLITHOGRAPHY
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3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital
file.
Stereolithography is a form of 3D printing technology used for creating models, prototypes, patterns and
production parts in a layer by layer fashion by using photopolymerisation, a process by which light causes
chains of molecules to link, forming polymers.
A variety of 3D printing techniques were available so far on polymers, metals but rarely on glasses. Recently in
Germany, scientists had mixed nanoparticles of high purity quartz glass and a small quantity of liquid polymer
and allowed the mixture to be cured by stereolithography process.
The 3D printed glass has a wide range of application especially the next generation computers will use
photons mode of communication, in which needs complicated process structures, where 3D printed glasses
can be used.
AQUILA PROJECT
Aquila is a solar powered internet drone of Facebook that is being designed to beam the internet service to
remote areas of the world.
The drone can be operated either as remote controlled or automatic flight mode at a range of about 18 km to
27 km above the stratosphere region so it would not be affected by adverse weather conditions.
Its communication payload uses lasers to transfer data. The lasers will be able to aim its internet beams
accurately enough to hit target base station while in motion.
GRID COMPUTING
Grid Computing facilitates the use of geographically distributed computers as a single, unified computing
resource by sharing tasks over the multiple computers.
GARUDA is the Indias National grid infrastructure of high performance computing systems, connecting 70
academic and research institutions across the country in 17 major cities, with National Knowledge
Network (NKN)
LI-FI
Li-Fi is a wireless technology which transmits high speed data using Visible Light Communication (VLC)
rather than depending upon the conventional radio waves.
In Li-Fi, the data transmission is done by modulating the intensity of the light that is subsequently received by
a photo-sensitive detector. The light signal is then demodulated into electronic form.
Li-Fi had achieved a maximum speed of 1 Gbps which is 100 times faster than the Wi-Fi.
WHITE-FI
White-Fi is a cognitive radio technology developed by Microsoft research which leverages unused spectrum
in frequencies which broadcast television signals to provide connectivity.
It works within the narrow bands of spectrum that lies in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) region of
spectrum that are kept free of high power transmitters so that coverage areas do not overlap and interference.
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In India, 93% of 200-600 MHz band used for television channels to carry data is not utilised. White-Fi will use
this vacant spectrum to provide connectivity to low income households and far flung areas which cannot be
connected by using optic fibre network.
ZOMBIE COMPUTER
Botnet is a group of computers connected to the internet that have been compromised by a hacker by using a
computer virus or Trojan Horse.
An individual computer in the group is known as Zombie computer. The Botnet is under the command of
bot herder or master usually used to perform nefarious activities.
Recently, MeITY had launched a programme named as Cyber Swachhta Kendra for Botnet cleaning and
Malware analysis. Its mission is to create a secure cyber space.
NETWORK SPOOFING
Network Spoofing is a system presents itself to the network as through it were a different system.
The reason for doing this is that systems tend to operate within a group of other trusted systems. It is done to
gain otherwise denied access to secure systems.
BLUEJACKING
Bluejacking is simply sending texts, images, sounds through Bluetooth to another Bluetooth enabled device
and is a harmless way of marketing.
BLUESNARFING
Bluensarfing is the unauthorized access of information from a wireless device through a Bluetooth
connection often between phones, desktops, laptops and personal digital assistant.
Blusnarfing involves in the theft of information from the target device.
GEO-BEACONING
Geo-beaconing is the kind of advertisement terminology, which involves in sending messages via
Bluetooth connection to app users that enter a specified range.
It is perfect for in-store and micro-locations. Thus Beacons rely on one of the simplest and less-costly
Bluetooth technologies for its operation.
All messages are extremely, time and place appropriate and allow customers to be informed about what goes
on in the store and that they might be interested in without even asking for it.
GOOGLE ADSENSE
Google Adsense is a program run by Google that allows publishers in the Google network of content sites to
serve automatic text, images, video advertisements to the users based upon the website content, the users
geographical location and other factors.
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TRANSFORMING INDIA WEBSITE
Transforming India website is a repository for sharing the impact of various governance initiatives with
citizens in real-time.
This website provides information in a user-friendly format enabling citizens to view the content in the form of
infographics, e-books, performance dashboard, videos, daily news corner etc.
This community based platform facilitates two-way communication between the government and citizens. It is
also a social platform on which users can share their opinions about various initiatives of the government and
brings accountability in major national initiatives.
MILLIMETER WAVES
Millimeter Waves (MMW) is electromagnetic waves with the wavelength from 1 to 10 millimeters.
This waves share the features of microwaves and far infrared waves since wavelength ranges between these
two waves.
It is generally used for point-to-point transmission technology of radio spectrum between 30 Ghz and 300
Ghz.
Recently Facebooks connectivity lab had set world record by transmitting 20 Gbps of data to 13.2 km by using
MMW technology.
RFID TAGGING
RFID Tagging is an ID system that uses small radio frequency identification devices for identification and
tracking.
RFID has a tag, chip, memory (read/write device and host system application for data collection, processing)
and antennae for transmission.
There were two types of RFID tags such as Active tag and passive tag.
Recently Jawaharlal Nehru port became the first port in India to handle their containers by using RFID tag
technology.
GOOGLES DEEPMIND
Google Deepmind is an Artificial Intelligence program developed by Googles AI company which has taken
on a range of different tasks and preformed almost as well as a human.
Most of the AI is based upon Neural networks concept that learn how to perform tasks, such as playing
chess, carom, poker through countless rounds of trial and error.
Once if a neural network is trained to play carom, it can only learn another game by overwriting its previous
carom game skills. This concept is called as Catastrophic forgetting.
Deep learning is a part of machine learning which involves in feeding a computer system with lots of data with
or without supervision.
Recently Googles Deepmind had developed a computer program named as AlphaGo to play a Chinese
board game Go.
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It had defeated the human champions of the game and is considered as a major breakthrough in the field of
Artificial Intelligence.
VOLTE
VoLTE stands for Voice over LTE in which the customers can use both voice and data at the same time by
without disconnecting any of the data or voice bands.
It allows a carrier to make a voice call over LTE network. It has three times more voice and data capacity than
3G UMTS and upto six times more than 2G GSM.
The call quality is superior as compared to other networks as more data can be transferred over a 4G network.
It is providing a HD voice call and have much richer experience.
It connects call faster as compared to current networks. VoLTE reduces the battery consumption because it is
not necessary to switch to 3G or 2G network while making calls.
IVRS
IVRS stands for Interactive Voice Response System, is a technology that allows a computer to interact with
humans through the use of voice and DTMF tone input through keypad.
In telecommunications, IVR allows customers to interact with a companys host system via a telephone keypad
or by speech recognition.
DISANET
DISANET is a low cost communication system developed by IIT Madras which is capable to work especially
during the time of disasters.
It allows basic services such as voice, text and video communications to be exchanged within this network of
rescue workers, master operation centre and NDMA.
The DISANET design has four subsystems such as Wi-Fi, satellite link, satellite carrier GSM and LTE which is
a standard for high-speed wireless communication for mobile phones and data terminals.
UMPIRE DECISION REVIEW SYSTEM
Decision Review System (DRS) is a technology based system used in cricket for reviewing controversial
decisions.
The Decision Review System (DRS) system employs a combination of various Off-field technologies such as
Footage from TV cameras placed around the ground.
Hot Spot is an infrared imaging camera system that highlights parts of the bat and body that have been hit by
the ball.
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Eagle Eye or Virtual Eye or Hawkeye, a ball-tracking technology that plots the trajectory of a bowling
delivery. It is usually used to check leg before wicket decisions.
Realtime Snickometer is a waveform of the sound captured by a stump microphone, which is used to
detect small sounds made as the ball hits the bat or pad.
Some new technologies were added in 2016 such as Ultra motion Cameras with better frame rates for
accurate ball tracking.
Ultra edge, a sound based technology for determining the frame of impact and minimising manual
intervention.
Data retrieval system is also been included for further safety conditions.
MINI GRID
As per the definition of Ministry of Renewable Energy (MNRE), Mini Grid is a kind of off-grid power
system with a generation capacity of between 10 KW and 500 KW, which aims to increase the reliability of
electricity supply.
It is a larger system that converts DC power into AC power and it provides safety as per the direction of REC
and CEA standards.
It can spur economic activity in rural areas and accelerates the process of expanding mobile phone
network, petrol pumps, schools and banks across the country and it has a storage facility to meet night
demands from the consumer side.
Besides the number of other solutions like solar lantern, mini grid is the only alternative that provides the
kind of electricity that can be used for business activities.
Power generated by Mini Grid can be transferred to the National Grid with the help of an inverter to convert
DC to AC.
Off-grid renewable sector is much more competitive with conventional power as it avoids investment in
transmission to remote location. Rice husk gasifiers based electricity generation is a classic example.
DIGITAL RADIO
Norway had become the first country in the world to shut down its entire FM radio network by replacing it
with Digital Radio.
Digital Audio Broadcasting works by coding sound into digital signals, breaking them up and then
decoding and assembling them at the destination using digital radio receivers. As a result, there will be
minimal loss of audio quality and sound is reproduced like CD quality.
Though DAB has the potential to provide better sound quality than FM, filling up the DAB bandwidth which
may divide the bit-rate i.e. the rate of data transfer among the broadcasts will result in drop in quality.
By moving towards DAB, the number of stations will gets increased and along the song, the station can
broadcast other digital information like song title, album artist etc.
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Digital signals are easier to tune as users dont need to browse through a frequency range in order to locate
their favourite radio channel. Simply they can pick the channel from their menu.
AKASHVANI MAITREE
Akashvani Maitree is an All India Radios Bangla radio service, which had played a historic role during the
Bangladesh liberation service in 1971 but it was discontinued in 2010.
Recently President of India had re-launched the Akashvani Maitree to strengthen the cultural diplomacy
between India and Bangladesh and to counter the presence of Chinese Radio International (CRI) in the region.
The channel will be broadcasted from a new high power 1000 Kw Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)
transmitter in West Bengal.
It will provide the service to the entire length and breadth of Bangladesh through Medium Wave and will be
also available globally on its website and mobile app for Bengali people.
MAGLEV TRAINS
Maglev Trains is a transportation method that uses magnetic levitation, Propulsion and Guideway to move
the vehicles by without making contact with the ground.
There were three important types of levitation technique based upon the types of magnets employed such as
Electrodynamic levitation which employs Super electromagnet, the second one is Electromagnetic
levitation which uses electromagnet and the last is inductive track levitation which employs permanent
magnet for levitation.
With maglev technology, a vehicle travels along a guide way by using electro or permanent or
superconducting magnets to create both lift and propulsion, thereby reducing friction by a great extent
and allowing very high speeds.
Thus maglev trains can be operated by employing both the repulsive and attractive properties of the
magnets employed.
METALLIC HYDROGEN
Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with zero electrical resistance. In order, to behave
as superconductor the material should have more mobile electrons and these electrons should come together
to form pairs known as Cooper pairs.
Recent discovery of semi metallic Bismuth by the TIFR scientists challenges the BCS theory of
superconductivity.
Recent production of Metallic Hydrogen in the laboratory finds an opportunity to act as superconductors at
room temperature rather than at cryogenic temperature (-273 0C, the most preferable temperature for
superconductivity).
WIEDEMANN-FRANZ LAW
Wiedemann-Franz law states that the good conductors of electricity will also be proportionally a good
conductor of heat. So far all the conductors had obeyed Widemann-Franz law.
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Recently scientists had discovered that electrons in Vanadium dioxide can conduct electricity by without
conducting heat.
This characteristic feature of Vanadium dioxide will make it to find possible applications in Thermoelectrics
and Window coatings.
WITRICITY
The term WITRICITY stands for Wireless Electricity which provides a convenient safe and reliable way to
charge and power number of electrical devices at home, in work place and in the industries.
Such a kind of charging can be established by using Electromagnetic induction, Microwaves and by using
Lasers.
French start-up had developed a new generation of wireless charger called as Energy Square consisting of
metallic stickers that allows to charge multiple devices just by placing them on an ultra thin pad. Energy
square relies on electric conduction principle.
ELECTRONICALLY TRANSMITTED POSTAL BALLOT SYSTEM
Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System is a new kind of initiative taken by ECI to replace the
two way communication that exists in the current postal ballot system.
Under E-Ballot postal system the returning officer can send ballot through a web portal with OTP to the
voters.
The voter needs to download the ballot for voting. The voter after voting will physically return the ballot
though post.
It should be noted that tow-way e-voting has not been recommended by the ECI due to security reasons.
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KSHEER SCANNER TECHNOLOGY
Ksheer scanner is a kind of automated milk scanner developed by CSIR-CEERI.
Ksheer scanner is used to detect the milk adulteration at milk collection points and has been successfully
tested at various dairies of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
Generally the additions of urea, boric acid, slat, detergent, liquid soap, hydrogen peroxide, soda, caustic soda
were added to the milk result in adulteration.
Inline to the Ksheer Scanner, CSIR-CEERI is also involved in developing Ksheer analyser which detects the
fats, solids non-fats, protein, lactose, density and water addition through ultrasonic based technology.
Another thing in development is KSHEER ANALYSER+ which is used for rapid milk analysis and IRFAN
will be based upon Infrared based Fat Analysis.
MOLECULAR ROBOTS
The trio of the scientists designed the worlds smallest machine by scaling them down to the dimensions of a
molecule is called as Molecular robots or molecular machines.
The natural molecular machines include complex bio-molecules like proteins, nucleic acids and carbohydrates
that consume energy in order to perform specific functions.
The practical future applications of molecular machines include smart materials that were capable of changing
the properties based on external signals and called as Molecular Robots, which will be used to deliver the
drugs to the infected cells in case of cancer and to detect the diseased tissue.
Molecular machines can be developed to function artificial muscles to power tiny robots even prosthetic
limbs.
They produce Quasi-mechanical movements in response to specific stimuli such as light and temperature
change.
STEP CELL
Step cell is a kind of more efficient low cost silicon solar cell.
It is made by combining two different layers of sunlight absorbing materials such as Silicon-Gernamium in
the first layer and second layer by using Gallium arsenide phosphide layer in step wise fashion.
PROJECT E-YANTRA
Project e-Yantra is an initiative taken to spread education in embedded systems and Robotics by IIT-
Bombay sponsored by Ministry of Human resources development through NMEICT.
e-Yantra lab setup initiative (eLSI) supports the infrastructure creation at colleges by providing a platform for
training teachers both in theory and applications of robotics, in addition to providing guidance in setting up a
Robotics lab at the college.
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CHATUROBOT
Chaturobot is an intelligent robot with vision sensors, capable of picking up objects in its visual field no
matters how they are oriented.
It was developed by DRDO along with CAIR.
DAKSH
DAKSH is an intelligent DRDO robot which has the capacity to identify and dismantle hidden landmines, by which
it plays a significant role in saving the precious life of soldiers.
QUANTUM DOTS
Quantum Dots are semiconductor nanoscale crystals having unique electrical and optical properties.
They can be made to emit or absorb specific wavelengths of light by controlling their size.
Quantum dots can be used as a display platform in televisions, for enhanced medical imaging as well as in
solar cells.
Recently scientists from IISER had developed solar cells from human hair and this is the first time where a
bio-waste derived electrode has been used as cathode in a quantum dot sensitized solar cell device.
The human hair is first allowed to react with sulphuric acid to achieve precarbonisation and then it is allowed
to achieve carbonisation by reacting with inert gases, thus it achieves a better electrical conductivity.
GREY GOO
Grey goo is a hypothetical end of the world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out of
control self-replicating robots consume all biomass on Earth while building more of themselves, a scenario
that has been called ecophagy which means Eating the environment.
BRABO
Recently, Micro, small and medium enterprise in India had indigenously developed Indias first
conceptualized, designed, manufactured and articulated industrial robot in the name called as BRABO.
LAKSHMI
LAKSHMI is the Indias first on-site humanoid robot and banking robot that was launched by City Union
Bank in Chennai.
It is an artificial intelligence powered robot which can speak English gesture and engage in a life-like manner
in conversation.
It interacts with the customers regarding account balance and interest rates on loans and so on.
It wont provide voice for the sensitive financial information like account details and other sensitive
information rather than that those details will be displayed separately on its screen.
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NANO GENERATOR
Recently, researchers from the Punes IISER had developed a Nanogenerator, which operates with the help of
Piezoelectricity.
This nanogenerator is portable, lightweight, shock-resistant and inexpensive. It can be ideally powered by
harvesting easily available mechanical or vibration energy, making battery or related wiring redundant.
Piezoelectricity, also called the piezoelectric effect, is the ability of certain materials to generate an AC
(alternating current) voltage when subjected to mechanical stress or vibration, or to vibrate when subjected to
an AC voltage, or both. The most common piezoelectric material is quartz. Certain ceramics, Rochelle salts,
and various other solids also exhibit this effect.
BIO PIEZO ELECTRIC NANO GENERATOR
Recently, researchers had developed a flexible Bio Piezoelectric Nanogenerator, which operates with the help
of Fish Scales.
Fish scales is a by product that is usually thrown away contains collagen fibres that posses a piezoelectric
property, which means that an electric charge is generated in them with response to a mechanical stress. It
will be widely used in portable medical electronics.
E-PAPER
E-PAPER is a new kind of portable, reusable storage and display medium that looks like paper but can be
repeatedly written on by electronic mode for several million times.
Information to be displayed is downloaded through a connection to a computer or cell phone or created with
mechanical tools such as an electric pencil.
E-Paper is widely used for many applications such as e-books, e-newspapers, portable signs and foldable
rollable displays.
Gyricon is an e-paper developed by Xerox company and Lucent had developed E-ink which is a kind of Black
and White display while Philips is developing an e-paper with full colour display.
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4K TECHNOLOGY
In the field of Electronics the term 4K refers to a

display resolution of 4096 x 2160 megapixels and
aspect ratio (16:9).
A High Definition TV with 1080p resolution is

composed of two million pixels (1920 x 1080), while a
4K TV (aka Ultra High Definition) has over eight
million pixels (4096 x 2160).
Therefore, 4K has around four times more resolution

than 1080p and produces a clearer picture.
4K standard will address the demand for vastly improved resolution in professional devices such as
broadcast and cinema quality cameras, projectors and displays.
The 4K resolution not only quadruples the resolution but also supports the faster frame rates, insane
contrast dynamics, extended colours and variety of viewing distances on different screen sizes.
SCANNING HELIM ION MICROSCOPE
SHIM is an imaging technology based on a scanning helium ion beam.
Similar to other focused ion beam techniques with sub-nanometer resolution.
SHIM has been primarily been used in high-contrast imaging of inorganic materials.
FLOW BATTERY
Flow Battery is a new kind of battery which is designed in such a way to store the energy in the liquid
solutions instead of solid lithium-ion packs.
By storing energy in liquids, these batteries can retain their capacity and discharge rates well.
The development had done by modifying the molecules in the electrolytes Ferrocene and viologen and finally
they had developed stable, water-soluble charged particles that were resistant to degradation.
It is non-corrosive and non-toxic nature, which prevents the smartphones from getting exploded.
SUPRABALLISTIC FLOW
Supraballistic flow refers to the new method by which the rate of Electron movement is much faster than
what it had been expected so far.
This concept was explained by allowing the electrons to pass through a sufficiently narrow, point-like
constriction in a metal, where the flow rate exceeded the fundamental limit called as Landauers Ballistic
Limit.
This represents a great drop in the electrical resistance of the metal and mere a much drop will produce zero
resistance in superconducting metals.
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However, unlike superconductivity, which requires extremely low temperature, this new phenomenon may
take place even at room temperature.
Thus it would be so easy to implement for a wide range of applications in the field of electronics.
E-CIGARETTES
E-Cigarettes is a kind of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) is the new age formula for people
trying to quit smoking.
E-Cigarettes contain only nicotine and not tobacco, and thus E-Cigarettes do not fall within the ambit of
COTPA Act, 2003.
Most of the e-cigarettes consists of three different components such as Cartridge, which holds a liquid
solution containing varying amounts of Nicotene, flavourings and other chemicals, a heating device known
as Vaporizer and a power source usually battery.
When the battery is activated, the supplied energy causes heating effect that altogether with the rapid air flow
of inhalation produce the vaporization of the liquid.
E-cigarettes do not let off tobacco smell and do not produce ash. It is available in two forms such as use and
throws type and reusable type.
Most of the e-commerce websites sell e-cigarettes as therapeutic product which enable people to quit smoking
and thus do not mention health warnings too.
CYBATHLON
The worlds first ever cybathalon championship for disabled athletes has been held at Zurich in Swtitzerland.
The championship is popularly known as Bionic Olympics but differs from paralymppics as it sees
participants compete each other using the latest assistive technologies such as robotic prostheses, brain
computer interfaces and powered exoskeletons.
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ISEER
ISEER is a newly introduced star rating methodology for AC by BEE which takes into account different
climatic zones in India.
It measures energy efficiency of air conditioners based on a weighted average of performance at outside
temperatures between 24 and 43 degree Celsius based on Indian weather data.
ASHALIM PROJECT
ASHALIM is the name given to Israels largest solar power tower station project that takes place in its Negev
desert, which will be getting completed by 2018.
The solar tower constructed in this project would be worlds tallest solar tower of about 250 meters height.
Solar tower project employs solar-thermal method, where thousands of solar mirrors focuses the suns
rays into the tower and convert it into heat to create steam.
The steam generated is used to drive a turbine and thus electricity is generated through a conventional
generator.
Ashalim tower is the most significant single building block in Israels commitment to Co2 reduction and
renewable energy which uses 50,000 mirrors known as heliostats in a shimmering blanket of glass to cover
the desert.
Heliostats are a device that includes a mirror, which turns so as to keep the reflecting sunlight towards a
predetermined target, compensating for the suns apparent motions in the sky.
Currently worlds largest solar power station in a single station set up by Adani group is located at Kamuthi in
coRamanathapuram in Tamil Nadu with a vast 10 Sq.Km.
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CARBON CAPTURE AND UTILISATION TECHNOLOGY
Worlds first such a kind of carbon di oxide recycling technology was developed by two Indian Scientists by
carrying out their work in a chemical plant located at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu.
The chemical plant operates a coal fired boiler to make steam for their purpose. The carbon di oxide emissions
from the boilers chimney are stripped out by a mist of new patented chemical.
A stream of Co2 is fed into the chemical plant as an ingredient to obtain Soda ash or Baking powder.
STABLE SOLAR CELL
Stable Solar Cell is a new kind of inorganic solar cell developed by using the nano crystals of caesium lead
iodide.
This new inorganic perovskite nanocrystal material has high efficiency to convert sunlight into electricity. The
nano crystals of Caesium lead iodide were allowed to absorb visible sunlight till 700 nm at ambient
temperature.
These nano crystals were found to be stable from -196 degree Celsius to about +200 degree Celsius and had
produced voltage 1.23 volts. This perovskite nanocrystal has its wide range of applications in making red
LEDs as well as solar cells.
URJA GANGA PROJECT
Recently, Prime Minister of India had laid the foundation stone of Urja Ganga, the highly ambitious gas
pipeline project in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
The gas pipeline project aims to provide piped cooking (PNG) gas to residents of the eastern region of the
country and CNG gas for the vehicles.
The project is being implemented by state-run gas utility GAIL. The project is considered as a major step
towards collective growth and development of the Eastern region of India.
Seven East India cities Varanasi, Jamshedpur, Patna, Ranchi, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack will be the
major beneficiary of this network development.
It will also help in revival of defunct fertilizer plants in Barauni in Bihar, Gorakhpur in UP, Sindri in
Jharkhand and Durgapur in West Bengal by supplying gas.
SOLAR IMPULSE PROJECT
Solar Impulse Project is a Swiss long range experimental solar powered aircraft project.
The planes ideal flight speed is about 28 mph, though that can double during the day when the suns rays are
strongest.
Solar Impulse-2 sets several records during the Pacific flight, including distance, speed, duration and altitude
for an electric airplane.
MICROPLASTICS
Plastic pollution in the form of small particles (diameter less than 5 mm) termed microplastic has been
observed in many parts of the world ocean.
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They are known to interact with biota on the individual level, e.g. through ingestion, but their population-level
impacts are largely unknown.
One potential mechanism for microplastic-induced alteration of pelagic ecosystems is through the
introduction of hard-substrate habitat to marine and aquatic ecosystems where it is naturally rare. They make
up the bulk of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The major important sources of Microplastics were
cosmetics products, clothing and industrial process.
LANDSAT
Landsat is a programme of NASA that provides the longest continuous space based record of Earths land
vegetation in existence.
Like other satellite missions, Landsat can use the amount of visible and near infrared light reflected by the
green, leafy vegetation of grasses, shrubs and trees to characterise the vegetation.
WIFEX 2016-2017
WIFEX 2016-2017 was carried out by team of scientists under Ministry of Earth Science.
The objectives of the Winter Fog Experiment (WIFEX) are to develop better now-casting (next 6 hours) and
forecasting of winter fog on various time and spatial scales, and help to reduce its adverse impact on aviation,
transportation and economy, and loss of human life due to accidents.
We need a reliable forecasting system for Fog occurrence. The physical and chemical characteristics of fog,
meteorological factors responsible for its genesis, sustenance, intensity and dissipation are poorly understood.
Similarly, meteorological conditions like humidity, wind and synoptic conditions are also not well studied.
WIFEX 2016 2017 provides an improved understanding on above aspects is required to develop reliable
forecasting models and observational techniques for accurate prediction of Fog events.
CORAL
CORAL stands for Coral Reef Airborne Laboratory is a airborne based project of NASA.
It aims to survey reefs at selected locations across the pacific.
The idea is to get a new perspective on coral reefs from this campaign, to study them at a larger scale and then
relate reef condition to the environment.
ISEA
The term ISEA stands for Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica. Recently ISRO had joined the 36 th
scientific mission to Antarctica, organised by NCAOR.
Climate change is the thrust area of 36th ISEA mission. The main objective of this expedition is to install stakes
on ice for Differential Global Positioning Systems measurements around Bharati and Maitri to validate glacier
surface velocity derived from satellite data to estimate thickness of snow over land and sea ice using Ground
Penetrating Radar and also to verify conditions of snow over sea and land ice.
Measurements of Atmospheric Black Carbon, Green house Gases and Solar radiation fluxes on a long term
basis is also a part of ISEA mission.
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AUSC
AUSC stands for Advanced Ultra Super Critical technology.
It is a new kind of technology developed for boilers of a coal handling thermal power plant.
In these new boilers, the coal material will be combusted only at their critical temperature, which makes the
source material to get complete combustion.
Due to complete combustion, the rate of waste generated gets minimized, while along with the boilers the
exhaust side will have catalytic converters, sulphur filters and fly ash removal to improve the eco friendly
nature of the power plants.
NETRA
The term NETRA stands for NTPC Energy Technology Research Alliance, which is one among the arm of
NTPCs research wing.
Recently NTPC had installed Photogrammetric system for solar thermal labs for the first time in the
country which aims to measure 3D spatial coordinates of Point Cloud of solar concentrators and help in
understanding its integrity.
NTPCs NETRA had also installed Indias first, indigenously developed high temperature Drop Tube
Reactor (DTR) system. It is used for combustion characterization of coal/biomass and is used for
designing Advanced Ultra Super Critical Technology and to reduce carbon foot print from the fossil fuel
plants.
NTPCs NETRA had recently installed Indias first largest floating solar PV plant in Kerala, in collaboration
with CIPET, Chennai. It can also be installed on saline water environment too.
PROVE
The term PROVe stands for Polar Remotely Operated Vehicle which gets operationalized at Priyadarshini
Lake in North Antarctica by ESSO-NIOT.
PROVe was indigenously built by NIOT of Ministry of Earth Science which helps the scientist to move away
from the present mathematical models for monsoon forecasting.
It will measure Monsoon prediction in newer methods along with Monsoon patterns, ocean currents, salinity
and temperature and dissolved oxygen content in Antarctica.
Results will help researchers in understanding the biological activities taking place inside the sea.
Recently NIOT had employed similar type of Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) for studying the coral
reefs of Andaman and Nicobar islands, which are facing survival threats due to global warming.
TERRESTRIAL OBSERVATION AND PREDICTING SYSTEM
TOPS is a NASA technology which helps Indian farmers to get information about floods, droughts, climate
change and smooth implementation of crop-insurance.
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TOPS system collects weather related data by using the remote sensing satellites, weather stations, climatic
forecasting and ecosystem models.
SOLAR POWER TREE
Solar Power Tree was developed by CSIR-CMERI, where it generates electricity by trapping maximum solar
energy in a confined space and it effectively functions at three places in West Bengal.
The model with a tree like design is made up of steel branches to hold the photovoltaic panel in a vertical
manner which takes only 4 square feet of land for installing 5 KW solar power tree.
It has a battery back-up of 2 hours on full load which can give light even after sunset. It is facilitated with
water sprinkler at the top for self-cleaning of panels which helps in increasing the efficiency of solar panels.
In future it will be developed in a rotatable model with a motor to adjust itself with the movement of the
sun.
CARBFIX PROJECT
Carbfix Project was carried out by a team of scientists at Hellishendi Power plant (worlds largest
geothermal plant) located in Iceland where they had found a new solution for the disposal of carbon dioxide by
converting it into solid rock.
Carbon dioxide is injected into the volcanic bedrock/ basaltic rock in a high pressurized carbonic acid
form where it rapidly lock permanently.
The injected carbonic acid reacts with the elements present in the rocks such as Ca, Mg and Fe and forms the
minerals that were eco friendly in nature.
CASPOL
CASPOL is a room temperature curable, water based formulation having self-extinguishing properties, good
adhesion and water repellence characteristics.
It is based on ceramic composition dispersed in an aqueous polymeric emulsion containing flame retardant
components.
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FROZEN SMOKE
Recently ISRO scientists have developed the worlds lightest synthetic material called as Silica Aerogel or
Blue air or Frozen smoke.
Its a nano structured material with high specific surface area, high porosity, low density, low dielectric
constant and excellent heat insulation properties.
It has wide area of applications in several fields. The unique Nano-structure is responsible for many of the
unusual acoustic, mechanical, optical and thermal properties.
WAX DEOILING TECHNOLOGY
Wax deoiling Technology at Numaligarh refinery was developed indigenously by CSIR through its
constituent laboratory Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) in association with EIL.
De-oiling is the process of removing oil and low-melting fractions from the slack wax in other terms it can
also be claimed as fractional crystallization of slack or paraffin waxes by their melting point.
Numaligarh is the countrys largest wax producing plant. Besides the production of paraffin and
microcrystalline waxes, it also helps to add new high value wax products which is widely used in medicines,
food packaging, paints, leathers, candles etc.
AQUAPONICS
Aquaponics refers to the combination of aquaculture

and hydroponics technology.
It is a technology in which fish and plants grow together

in one integrated system.
The fish waste provides an organic food source for the

growing plants and the plants provide a natural filter for
the water where the fish lives in.
The third participants are the microorganism and

composting red worms that thrive in the growing
media.
They do the job of converting the ammonia from the fish waste first into nitrites, then into nitrates and the
solids into vermicompost that are food for the plants.
AQUIFER MAPPING
CSIR had launched heliborne transient electromagnetic and surface magnetic technique to map the Aquifers
in the water scarce areas.
Transient Electromagnetics (TEM) is a geophysical exploration technique in which electric and

magnetic fields are induced by transient pulses of electric current and the subsequent decay response
measured.
TEM surveys were commonly used for mineral exploration, groundwater exploration and for environmental
mapping used throughout the world in both onshore and offshore applications.
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Recently, CSIR had carried out such a kind of survey in six different geological locations in Rajasthan, Bihar,
Karnataka, Maharastra and Tamil Nadu.
BIO-DIGESTER TECHNOLOGY
Bio-digester technology has been developed by DRDO. It is used for resolving the problems of un-
decomposed human waste.
The innovation degrades and converts the human waste into usable water and gasses in an eco-friendly
manner.
The generated gas can be utilized for energy/ cooking and water for irrigation purposes.
The process involves the bacteria which feed upon the fecal matter inside the tank, through anaerobic process
which finally degrades the matter and releases methane gas that can be used for cooking, along with the treated
water.
Indias first green rail corridor got operated between Rameswaram Manamadurai in Tamil Nadu,
which is free from human waste discharge.
LHB COACHES
The term LHB stands for Linke Hofmann Busch which is a German technology, in which the coaches were
designed to be antitelescopic in nature.
So that, they dont topple and pile on one another in case of an accident or derailment.
LHB coaches are made of stainless steel, which increases their shock-bearing capacity in case of a mishap.
It also makes them lighter to increase their passenger carrying capacity.
LHB coaches have disc brakes, so that it can have shorter stopping distance and it has smaller wheel base for
negotiating curves.
The coupling system in LHB coaches reduces the relative motion between two coaches and prevents one coach
from mounting the other in case of a mishap.
LHB coaches have higher average speed of 160 Kmph and top speed of 200 Kmph.
Recently, Anil Kakodkar Committee had recommended switching over from ICF coach to LHB coaches,
which would be much safer with superior technology.
INGPHR-02 PROJECT
The term INGPHR stands for Indian National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02 is the worlds most
comprehensive natural gas hydrate field project carried out as a joint venture by India, Japan and US.
Under this project, the scientists were found the natural gas hydrate, an icy form of the fuel in the Bay of
Bengal in the coarse grained sand rich depositional systems of Krishna-Godavari basin.
Natural gas hydrates are naturally occurring, ice-like combination of natural gas and water found in
oceans and Polar Regions. The gas found over here is Methane hydrate, which is more stable at the seafloor
at water depths beneath 500 metres.
Japan had provided Chikyu, a deep water drilling vessel for the INGPHR-02 project.
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BOATY MCBOATFACE
It is a kind of high-tech remotely operated yellow submarine that will begin its first mission through a deep
current that starts in Antarctica and goes through the southern ocean.
The objective of the submarine is to help scientists to understand the impact of global warming over the
oceans.
This robotic submarines mission can last for several months and include travelling thousands of miles under
ice.
PRIORITY POLLUTANTS
Priority pollutants are a subset of Toxic pollutants as defined in the Clean Water Act. There are about 126
pollutants which were assigned as high priority for development of water quality criteria and effluent
limitation guidelines because they are frequently found in wastewater.
Many of the heavy metals, pesticides and other chemicals were listed as priority pollutant. For example
some heavy metals like Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, Lead, Mercury and Zinc were considered as priority
pollutants.
TWINNING NETWORK PROGRAMME
Recently, Ministry of Science and Earth science had launched the Twinning Network program on
chemical ecology at Kohima in Nagaland.
The program is a new collaborative and interdisciplinary programme in Chemical Ecology between
institutions in the North Eastern Region and partners in the country.
INSULATED GATE BIPOLAR TRANSISTOR (IGBT)
IGBT is a device that was enabled to the electronics is the now ubiquitous CFL lamp. It was invented by
Dr.Jayant Baliga, an Indian born American engineer and an aluminus of IIT Madras.
Jayant Baliga is credited with the title Man with the largest negative carbon footprint in the world
for his green technological invention.
A CFL lamp works through a gas discharge. IGBTs are used to generate the gas discharge, which lights up the
bulb. While its other advantage is to allow electronics to fit into the small volume of the base below the gas
tube.
The use of IGBT helped in bringing down the size, as well as the cost of CFL lamps. IGBT was used to create an
adjustable frequency power source by using pulse-width modulation.
Thus by moving from the traditional motor drive to the one based on IGBT is a paradigm shift from the
analogue power control to digital power control with a massive increase in efficiency of the CFL lamps by 75%.
IGBT also finds its applications in automobiles, solar panels, refrigerators, washing machines, CT and MRI
scanners, X-Ray and ultra sound machines, aircraft train and bus systems.
TWELVE CRITICAL MINERALS OF INDIA
Council of Energy Environment and Water (CEEW) identified 12 minerals out of 49 that were
evaluated as Most critical for Indias manufacturing sector by 2030.
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Those minerals were Germanium, limestone, Niobium, Beryllium, chromium, graphite, rare earths, rhenium,
molybdenum, strontium, tantalum and zirconium.
BIOLUMINESCENCE
Bioluminescence is one among the factor included under chemical ecology, where it is the production and
emission of light by a living organism. It is a form of Chemoluminescence.
It is reported widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates which include fungi, algae, bacteria, fireflies etc.
Sometimes the phenomenon creates magnificent illumination of disturbed sea waves in the night. This effect
is called as Milky Sea Effect, it happens due to the presence of a large number of luminescent
dinoflagellates and luminescent bacteria on the water surface.
The principal chemical reaction in bioluminescence involves in the conversion of light emitting protein
luciferin into luciferase in the absence of sunlight by combining with oxygen.
Molecular communication, also called as Quorum Sensing, plays an important role in the regulation of
bioluminescence in many bacterial species.
Dutch electronics giant Philips had developed a novel way of using bioluminescence as house light. The
process uses a kitchen digester as the source of methane generated from decomposition of the organic
house waste. The methane released from the digester is connected to the base of the reservoir of bacteria that
illuminates.
GREEN DIESEL
Green Diesel is derived from renewable feedstock by using biomass to liquid or vegetable oil refining
technologies.
Biodiesel gets differed from Greendiesel in the process of making them.
Biodiesel is processed by using transesterifiaction while green diesel is processed by the traditional
fractional distillation like fossil origin diesel.
Thus the chemical composition of both Biodiesel and green diesel is also getting differed.
Generally Green diesel contains less sulphur content than the Biodiesel.
BIOLEACHING
Bioleaching is the process of using bacteria to dissolve metals instead of chemical solutions.
Bioleaching has been used to dissolve metals such as nickel, copper, zinc, cobalt, gold, lead, arsenic and
others. Bioleaching works by using specific bacteria that can essentially eat the metal content out of ore.
ARSIRON NILOGON
Normally the Arsenic content is too high in majority of the North Eastern districts. So, recently team of Assam
scientists had developed a patent filter named Arsiron Nilogon which aimed to remove Arsenic and Iron
contents from the contaminated water at cheap rate.
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LOHAFEX
Lohafex is an Indo-German open ocean experiment to test the effects of iron fertilization on the ecology and
carbon uptake potential of the Southern ocean encircling Antarctica.
In other terms Lohafex is so called the green technology of ocean fertilization.
The basic premise of the technology is that algal bloom induced by iron fertilization would suck up a lot of
carbon dioxide from the environment and sink, trapping a lot of the green house gas for years.
The results of LOHAFEX showed that the introduction of iron into the oceans by man would have only limited
effect in sucking up carbon dioxide from water.
LIGHT POLLUTION
Light Pollution is an artificial brightening of the night sky caused by man-made lightening sources, which
has a disruptive effect on natural cycles and inhibits the observation of stars and planets.
Glare, Skyglow, clutter and light trespass were the components of light pollution.
RARE EARTH ELEMENTS
Rare Earth Elements is a group of 17 chemical elements in the periodic table. They were not rare but are
plentiful in the earths crust.
The word rare represents for the difficulty that is associated to make them usable. Ex: Yttrium, Lanthanum,
Scandium, Cerium, Lutetium, Neodymium etc.
Monozite sands of Indian beaches contain Rare earth elements which are widely used in Wind turbines,
Hybrid vehicles, fibre optics etc.
China is the largest producer of Rare Earth Element. India is one among the top five nations with the reserves
of rare earth elements.
BIOFERTILIZERS
Bio-fertilizers are the living microorganisms which improves the health and quality of different types of
soils by helping the plants to obtain the necessary nutrients.
Rhizobium, Azatobacter, Azospirillum, Blue-green algae, Azolla, Phosphate solubilising microorganisms were
some of the examples of biofertilizers.
ARTIFICIAL SUN
Recently, German scientists had created largest artificial sun, which is the largest in the world.
The aim of this Synlight experiment is to come up with the optimal setup for concentrating natural sunlight
to power a reaction to produce hydrogen fuel.
The synlight experiment is investigating the possibility that a similar setup could be used to power a reaction
to extract hydrogen from water vapour, which could then be used as a fuel source for aeroplanes and cars.
ATLANT MODEL
ATLANT MODEL is a kind of Rain Enhancement Project developed by Australian Rain Technologies
(ART), a private company in the field of rainfall enhancement technologies.
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It had suggested that cloud ionization can help enhance rain by upto 20% by using negative ions are
generation from a corona discharge wire array.
PROJECT MIDAS
PROJECT MIDAS is a UK based Antarctic research project investigating the effects of a warming climate
on the Larsen ice shelf in West Antarctica.
The project is funded by the National Environment Research council.
ICE BRIDGE MISSION
ICE BRIDGE MISSION is a six year NASA mission, is the largest airborne survey of Earths polar ice ever
flown. It will use airborne instruments to map Arctic and Antarctic areas once in a year. It conducts the survey
in March-May over Greenland and in October-November over Antarctica.
It will yield an unprecedented 3D view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice.
These flights will provide a yearly, multi-instrumental look at the behaviour of the rapidly changing features of
the Greenland and Antarctic ice.
COAL BED METHANE
Coal Bed Methane is a natural gas found in coal seams. It mainly consists of Methane, minor amount of
Nitrogen , carbon dioxide and heavier hydrocarbons like ethane and it is a clean source of energy.
GELATOR
GELATOR is a chemical compound developed by IISCER to get recovery from marine oil spills, where the
material is partly hydrophilic and partly hydrophobic with reusing capacity.
The hydrophilic part helps in self-assembling to form gelator fibres, while the outer hydrophobic part is
responsible for its diffusion into oil layer and the oul tends to get into spongy network made of fibres.
Once the oil inside the fibre network loses fluidity it turns into gel in an eco friendly manner.
E-PASHUHAAT
Recently, Government of India had launched e-Pashuhaat portal under the National mission on
Bovine productivity scheme. It acts as a single online e-trading market platform along with the
availability of germplasm.
It connects the breeders, milk federations, Co-operative society and private agencies with the farmers and
provides the information about the germplasm including semen, embryo and live animals has been
uploaded.
Through this portal the breeder and farmer can sell and purchase breeding stock and the details regarding the
quality of milk and disease free bovine is also obtained.
It reduces the involvement of middlemen by connecting the Farmer to Farmer and Farmer to Institutes.
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BIOTECH- KISAN SCHEME
KISAN stands for Krishi Innovation Science Application Network Scheme.
Its main aim is to understand individual problems of the small holding farmers and provide ready solutions by
connecting farmers, scientists and science institutions across the country.
Under this fellowship will be given to women farmers for training and education in farm practice and
Scientists will link communication tools to soil, water, seed and market.
KENDRAPARA SHEEP
Kendrapara sheep or Kuji Mendha is a sheep found in the entire state of Odisha. Even though the sheep
variety is found in the entire Odisha, the sheep found in the coastal district of Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara
districts of Odisha is reported with a peculiar phenomenon called as multiple births in single delivery.
The average adult sheep weighs 18-20 kg and are dwarf in built with the body covered with coarse hair. They
are well adapted to high ambient temperature, high humidity and heavy rain.
Kendrapara sheep carries FecB mutation gene, which is responsible for multiple babies in same delivery.
This characteristic makes them distinctive from other species sheep species as they are not known for giving
multiple births.
Kendrapara sheep is second sheep breed in India next to Garole sheep found in West Bengal.
Recently NBAGR had provided Rare and Singular species tag to this sheep variety.
DMH-11
The term, DHM-11 stands for Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11 is a genetically modified variety of mustard
developed by Delhi Universitys centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants.
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GEAC, Indias biotechnology regulator had approved the environmental release and cultivation of DMH-11 by
the farmers.
GM mustard of Delhi university scientists contains three genes such as Barnase and Barstar, which is
obtained from a soil bacterium called Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and the third gene Bar is derived
from another non-pathogenic bacterium Streptomyces hygroscopicicus.
In food crops genetic modification is done to introduce a new trait to the plant which does not occur naturally
in the species, thereby it provides resistance against certain pests, diseases or environmental conditions and
improving the nutrient profile of the crop.
In non-food crops genetic modification is done the production of pharmaceutical agents, bio-fuels and other
industrially useful goods as well as for bioremediation.
Bt.cotton is the only genetically modified cash crop under commercial cultivation in India.
HALOPHYTES
The worlds first Genetic Garden of Halophytes was inaugurated at the coastal town of Vedaranyam in Tamil
Nadu.
Halophytes are salt-tolerant or salt-resistant plants. They can thrive and complete their life cycles in
soils or waters containing high salt concentrations. They constitute 2% of terrestrial plant species.
Halophytes were widely used as food for people, fodder for livestock, Biofuels and for ornamental purpose.
FRANKENFIXATION
Frankenfixation refers to the use of genetic modification to fix carbon dioxide into the soil. The term
is derived from popularised by critics of genetically modified foods, Frankenfoods.
Recently, scientists had oversaw an effort to piece together an artificial metabolism from the bits and pieces of
biosynthetic pathways that were once scattered across the three kingdoms of life.
The novel pathway is based upon a new Co2 fixing enzyme that is nearly 20 times faster than the most
prevalent enzyme in nature responsible for capturing Co2 in plants by using sunlight as energy.
Such pathways will be perfect for plants to take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and hold off the looming
crisis of rising global temperatures.
BIO-MARKER
It is a naturally occurring molecule gene or characteristic through which a particular process, disease etc can
be identified.
It is a measurable characteristic in a biological system that can be objectively evaluated as an indicator of a

specific biological, pathological or pharmacological activity.
There were four important types of Biomarkers such as Predictive, Prognostic, Pharmocodynamics and
Efficacy-Response/surrogate type.
Scientists had recently developed a new kind of Bio-ink which could eventually allow the production of
complex tissues for surgical implants through 3D printing technology.
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Bio-Ink has both the natural which is obtained from sea weed and artificial polymer.
Synthetic polymer makes the bio-ink to convert from liquid to solid and synthetic polymer provides structural
support.
GENOME ASIA 100K
Genome Asia 100k is an ambitious plan initiative led by consortium of companies, academics and other
major stakeholders in the field of genetics.
It will sequence 100,000 individuals from 12 South Asian and atleast 7 North and East Asian countries.
It will be completed in phases with the first phase focusing on creating phased reference genomes for all major
Asian ethnic groups to better understand population history and substructure of the region.
The sequencing will combine microbiome, clinical and phenotype information to have deeper analysis of
healthy individuals based on local ancestries.
VEGGIE
NASAs Astronauts onboard in the ISS have

started planting their third on-orbit crop of
red romaine lettuce.
Astronomers use a plant growth system

called as Veggie for their experiment with
a new repetitive harvest technique called as
Cut and Come again.
Veggie is a deployable plant growth unit

capable of producing salad type crops to
provide the crew with a palatable, nutritious and safe source of fresh food and a tool to support relaxation and
recreation.
The veggie provides lighting and nutrient delivery, but utilizes the cabin environment for temperature control
and as a source of carbon dioxide to promote growth.
PUSA ARHAR-16
ICAR-IARI had recently developed an extra early maturing, semi-dwarf, high yielding new plant called as
PUSA ARHAR-16, Pigeon pea variant which aims to solve Indias pulse problem.
PUSA ARHAR-16 allows effective spraying of insecticide for effective control of insects due to compactness
and dwarfness.
This new plant type with synchronous maturity is also suitable for combine harvesting and thus does not
require manual labourers for harvesting and threshing.
HYPERELASTIC BONE
Hyperelastic Bone is a kind of new synthetic material that can be implanted under the skin as a scaffold for
new bone to grow on or it can be used to replace lost bone or altogether.
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CATTLE GENOMICS SCHEME
This scheme was launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology that aims at boosting selective breeding
of the native livestock more accurately to ensure high-yielding, disease resistant, resilient livestock.
It helps to transform livestock breeding and under this scheme Government will undertake an ambitious
project of genome sequencing of 40 registered indigenous cattle breeds of India.
DNA chips will be developed to reduce the cost and time interval of breeding of the native livestock and the
information on variations in DNA sequences between animals to predict the breeding value more accurately.
Livestock contributes significantly to the livelihood of rural poor in our country and has enormous potential to
reduce poverty.
There is a predicted increase in demand for animal food products in India by 2020.
In the wake of climate change challenges, quality breeding of indigenous livestock is essential.
When breeding is selective, the native livestock can transform the lives of small farmers. Genomic selection
will ensure high-yielding, disease-resistant, resilient livestock.
Genome sequencing of indigenous cattle breeds from all registered cattle breeds of India by involving various
stakeholders is to start soon.
Development of high-density DNA chips. This will reduce the cost and time interval of breeding program in
future and productivity of indigenous cattle will be enhanced.
GUARDIAN PROJECT
The term GUaRDIAN stands for Genomics for Understanding Rare Disease India Alliance Network Project
which is funded by CSIR.
It is a large scale collaborative network of clinicians from around India trying to use genomics in clinical
practice for identifying genetic variations in diseases and makes the clinicians to carry out precise diagnosis
for rare genetic disease.
GOURAV
ICAR-CIRB had produced a cloned buffalo calf named as HISAR-GOURAV.
With this achievement CIRB becomes worlds third and Indias second institute to produce cloned buffalo.
This cloned buffalo calf is distinct from the earlier clones produced in India, as this is produced from cells of
ventral side of tail of superior buffalo bull.
The ventral side is least exposed to sunlight and may have less mutation rate, so that it can be a good choice
for isolation of donor cells to produce healthy clones.
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MINION DNA SEQUENCING
The term MINION stands for Miniature ION

sequencing. Its a pocket sized (USB sized) device that
employs a technology known as nanopore DNA
sequencing which sends an ionic current through tiny
pores in natural cell membranes.
As DNA molecules pass through these nanopores one by one,

the change in ion flow are recorded and used to decode the
DNA sequence.
Individual DNA molecules partially block the nanopres and

change the current in a way is unique to that particular DNA
sequence.
At the same time, fluid containing DNA sample passes through the device. This sequencing run can take as
little as 10 minutes by using computer software Mini KNOW that runs parallel to which MINIION is
connected via USB port.
Nanopore sequencing has its ability to rapidly sequence any and all genetic material in a sample, even
from organisms that have never been encountered before. Most conventional sequencing methods are
confined to a target approach where researchers have to know what they are looking for and must set up the
sequencing accordingly.
Recently, NASA scientist had sequenced DNA in space for the first time ever for the Biomolecule sequencer
investigation by using MinION sequencing device in a microgravity condition.
This portable sequencing technology could eventually help diagnose sick astronauts, to monitor space station
food, water and environment for microbes and identify the extraterrestrial life forms.
In future the nanopore sequencing is used to test for emerging outbreaks of Ebola and Zika without the
need to design a custom diagnostic test.
This MinION developed by Oxford Nanopore technologies is capable to operate both in Earth as well as in
outer space. Similar to those GridION and PromethION devices is employed for larger projects and for
more samples.
HUMAN GENOME PROJECT - WRITE
The previous HGP was a read in that it used chemicals and instruments to decipher the genome for the first
time.
The new HGP project, its proponents say, is to write or build a genetic code (DNA) with sophisticated
bioengineering tools.
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The project envisions on the same scale as the Human Genome Project Read which had sequenced the
human genome in 2003.
The tools, techniques and technologies that are going to be developed through HGP-write will be universally
applicable to all organisms, especially at an earlier stage for organisms with smaller genomes (for example,
viruses), towards building individual genes and genomes efficiently and in an inexpensive manner.
LUCA
The term LUCA stands for Last Universal Common Ancestor. It is used to represent the venerable ancestor,
which was a single-cell bacterium, which had been estimated to have lived some four billion years ago, when
the earth was a mere 560 million years old.
The nature of the earliest ancestor of all living things has long been uncertain because the three great domains
of life seemed to have no common point of origin. Those domains were Bacteria, Achaea bacteria and
Eukaryotes.
Recently, specific genetic portrait of ancestors of all living things has been generated by the scientists who say
that the likeness sheds considerable light on the mystery of how life first emerged on the earth.
The new finding sharpens the debate between those who believe life began in some extreme environment, such
as in deep sea vents or the flanks of volcanoes, and others who favour more normal settings such as the Warm
little pond of Darwins concept.
NAVIN
NAVIN is the dark jute variety popularly grown by the farmers in India and in Bangladesh.
Navin is a cross between a jute variety sourced from Sudan and an indigenous one.
It has been in cultivation in India for more than a decade.
Dark jute varieties were commonly known as TOSSA among the farmers in the country, which accounts for
90 percent of the jute cultivated in the country.
Dark jute produces softer and stronger fibres, but also because farmers use it for crop rotation in paddy fields.
Recently ICAR had sequenced the entire genome of this NAVIN Jute variety to identify its disease
resistance, yield improvement and better fibre quality.
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MESENTRY
MESENTRY is the 79th organ discovered in the human body that exists in the digestive system. Its discovery
had added a page in the Grays Anatomy book.
Organs are classified based upon their structure or function. Human organs were classified into thirteen major
groups a seven regional groups out of which Heart, Brain, Lungs, Kidney and Liver is considered to be vital
organs.
Mesentry is a two feet long in structure and has a beginning and an end and in between that it has a Chinese
fan like structure
Mesentry connects the intestine to the abdomen. Where it is a fold of the peritoneum which attaches the
stomach, small intestine, pancreas, spleen, and liver in the abdomen region.
PNEUMOCOCCAL CONJUGATE VACCINE
Recently Government of India had launched the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) as a part of
Universal Immunization Programme.
PCV is a mix of several bacteria (13 types) of the pneumococci family, which causes pneumonia.
It gives protection against Streptococcus pneumonia, ear infections, sinus and meningitis.
Pneumonia is caused by the inflammation of the airspaces in the lungs whose symptoms include chill fever,
cough, shortness of breath and fatigue.
UIP programme consists of vaccination for ten diseases such as Tuberculosis, Diptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus,
Poliomyelitis, Measles, Hepatitis-B, Diarrhoea (Rotovirus vaccine), Japanese Encephalitis and
Pneumonia.
Recently Government had announced to replace monovalent Measles vaccine by Measles-Rubella vaccine
under UIP.
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FOOD FORTIFICATION
Food Fortification is the process of adding micronutrients (Essential trace elements and vitamins) to food.
WHO estimates that deficiency of key micronutrients such as iron, vitamin A and iodine together affects
a 1/3rd of the worlds population.
A diversified diet that meets all nutritional requirements is difficult to provide so fortification of food is relied
upon by many countries to prevent malnutrition.
Recently the National summit on Fortification of Food was inaugurated in New Delhi by FSSAI to address
interventions in combating micronutrient and malnutrition in the country.
ACRYLAMIDE
It is a natural by product of cooking process. It is found in foods such as Cakes, biscuits, bread, coffee etc
which has high carcinogenic property.
Cooking methods like frying, grilling, baking, roasting results in the production of acrylamide. The darker the
food contains more amount of acrylamide present in it.
In general Acrylamide chemical is used primarily in making polyacrylamide and acrylamide copolymers that
are used in industrial process such as dyes, plastics, paper etc.
SCRUB TYPHUS
SCRUB TYPHUS is an acute illness caused by the bacteria Orintia tsutsugamushi.
It is transmitted by the bite of an infected mite larva present in the scrub vegetation area, whose symptoms is
similar to viral fever. Himachal is the endemic region for scrub vegetation.
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AUTOPHAGY
The word Autophagy originates from Greek words, where auto means Self, and phagein meaning to eat.
Thus Autophagy is a process whereby cells eat themselves.
Autophagy is a fundamental process in cytology, which deals with the break down and recycling of cell
components by the body.
Its a two step process. Firstly, the dead cellular components are enclosed in a fatty membrane to create
another type of vesicle, an autophagosome. Secondly, the autophagosome merges with a lysosome that
breaks up the contents.
Thus, Autophagy can rapidly provide fuel for energy and building blocks for renewal of cellular components.
Thus it is essential for cellular response to starvation and other types of stress.
There were many types of autophagy. While, Macroautophagy is involved in breaking down large cell parts
and Xenophagy helps in breaking down by invading bacteria or viruses.
Disruptions in autophagy have been linked to Parkinsons disease, Type-2 diabetes and other disorders.
Mammalian autophagy gene is found to suppress tumour growth.
MYCOBACTERIUM INDICUS PRANII
Mycobacterium Indicus Pranii (MIP) is a non-pathogenic bacterium. It acts by sprucing up the bodys
immunity in the heat-killed (inactivated) form.
MIP is the worlds first indigenous vaccine, exclusively developed for leprosy.
It has received approval as a leprosy vaccine from the Indian drug regulator, Central Drugs Standard
Control Organisation, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Besides leprosy, it is also being tried against bladder cancer, warts, lung cancer and TB.
First phase of MIP vaccination was introduced at Gujarat and in Bihar, while the second phase was
launched in Erode in Tamil Nadu, one among the hot spots for leprosy in the country.
Vaccination involves in injecting small amount of Sham which means dead i.e., usually heat-killed or highly
disabled pathogen and allows the body to generate the antibodies specific against the injected pathogen.
NATIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR MALARIA ELIMINATION 2016-2030
The framework has been developed with a vision to eliminate malaria from the country.
Key strategic approaches defined by NFME classify States/UTs into categories depending upon their Annual
Parasite Incidence (API), where API is the number of cases affected by malaria per 1000 population per
annum.
The states in the country will be classified into Category 0: Prevention of reintroduction phase, Category 1:
Elimination phase, Category 2: Pre-elimination phase and Category 3: Intensified control phase for the
elimination program.
Malaria becomes the first disease in our country to get a time bound elimination tag.
Recently, WHO had declared Sri Lanka as Malaria free Nation.
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As per WHO report 78% of Plasmodium vivax malaria cases occurred in Ethiopia, India, Indonesia and
Pakistan.
NATIONAL E-HEALTH AUTHORITY (NEHA)
It is proposed to regulate e-health initiative in India. It will be responsible in developing an integrated

health information system in India.
NeHA will take the responsibility for proper standardisation, storage and exchange of electronic health
records of patients as part of the Governments digital India programme. NeHA envisages to support the
following two important things:
Formulation of policies, strategies and implementation plan of blue-print.
Formulation and management of all health informatics standards for India.
STEALTH SUPERBUG
Candida auris is widely considered as an emerging superbug fungus that does not respond to conventional
antifungal drugs, thus is called as Stealth Superbug.
Candidiasis is a fungal infection normally caused by Candida species in the patients whose immune system is
compromised such as AIDS patients, transplants, malignancies and use of Catheters.
Most of the infections are hospital-acquired especially in ICU settings. Team of Scientists at IIS in Bangalore
had developed a diagnostic tool to detect Candida auris using Polymerase Chain Reaction.
HAEMATOPOIETIC STEM CELLS
Haematopoietic stem cells are the stem cells that give rise to all the other blood cells.
Haematopoietic stem cells development takes place in a six week old embryo.
ORAQUICK
Recently, the WHO had approved OraQuick HIV self-testing is based on HIV antibodies present in oral
and blood samples.
The test can detect antibodies developed within three months of getting infected.
It is a screening test, and a positive result should be reconfirmed though a blood-based test.
Despite greater awareness, people with HIV still face stigma and discrimination.
As a result, getting everyone at risk of HIV infection tested has been a challenge.
The OraQuick self-testing makes diagnosis easier and faster, besides ensuring privacy and confidentiality,
thus encouraging more people to get tested.
JD VACCINE
Peratuberculosis or Johnes disease is a contagious, chronic and sometimes fatal infection that primarily
affects the small intestine of ruminants.
This disease commonly affects Sheep, Goat, Cow and Buffalo. Recently, CSIR had developed JD vaccines
for these farm animals, so as to immunize them and to increase the milk and meat production
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CHARGE SYNDROME
It is a disorder that affects many areas of the body which is also called as Choanal Artesia.
It results in retarded growth, genital abnormality and ear abnormality.
CYSVAX
CYSVAX is considered to be the worlds first vaccine against pig tapeworm.
This indigenous vaccine was developed by Indian Immunologicals limited in collaboration with Australian
scientists.
Cysticercosis is a parasitic disease cause by ingesting the eggs of the pork tapeworm, Taenia Solium. It is
a zoonotic parasite, involving pigs as intermediate hosts.
Humans gets infected to Taenia Solium by consuming undercooked pork, vegetables etc.
Cysts that develop in the Central Nervous System cause Neuro-Cysticercosis, one of the predominant reasons
for Epilepsy in humans.
The recombinant porcine Cysticercosis vaccine developed by IIL also has the potential to significantly
reduce the incidence of epilepsy in humans.
DIMPI
DIMPI is insulin like oral substance which contains DMP (Dimethyl Proxy Vadate), which can be used to
tackle both Type-1 and Type-2 diabetes.
The molecule takes off from Vanadium, deployed as anti-diabetic agents in research due to their insulin like
activity.
The researchers had crafted Dimpi in such a way, that it not only displays a powerful insulin like action at a
lower dose but also slashes insulin-resistance and makes the body more responsive to the insulin available.
LATENT TB
Tuberculosis an air borne disease is caused by a bacteria named as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which
affects the lungs.
Latent TB, refers to the people have been infected by TB bacteria but are not yet ill with the disease and thus
they cannot transmit the disease.
BIOSIMILAR DRUGS
Bio-similar product is a biological product that is approved based on a showing that it is highly similar to an
already approved biological product, known as a reference product, and has no clinically meaningful
differences in terms of safety and effectiveness from the reference point.
PLASMA GELSOLIN TOOLKIT
Plasma Gelsolin is an ancient highly conserved human protein that is the fourth most abundant plasma
protein in healthy individuals. It is a key component of the innate immune system.
In healthy individuals its role is to keep inflammation of localized to the site of injury and to boost the bodys
ability to clear pathogens.
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Plasma gelsolin is a multi-functional protein. It improves disease outcomes by scavenging toxic actin which
may be exposed in tissues or in plasma due to injury or infection.
Recently CSIS had come out with a new kit that has been developed to diagnose pre-mature birth and
sepsis related death.
GEOMED
GEOMED stands for Genomics and other omics technologies for enabling medical Decision.
It is a programme developed by CSIR which provides a platform of disease genomics to solve clinical
problems.
GEOMED plays a significant role incase of Genetic disease, though they are individually rare, but cumulatively
it affects a large number of individuals.
The present portfolio includes over 80 genes and sequencing of mitochondrial loci for mitochondrial
disorders.
In a short span of nine months which encompassed the proof-of-concept stage, GEOMED had catered to over
600 patients from across the country.
QUERCETIN
Recently, scientists from IIS- Bangalore found that Quercetin helps to prevent multiplication of cancerous
cells by blocking the process of cell division.
Quercetin belongs to a group of plant pigments known as flavonoids that gives many fruits, flowers and
vegetables their colours.
It is found in Tomatoes, Asparagus, red onion, red and black grapes, apple, apricot, cherry, coriander and
Broccoli.
ZIKA
Zika is a viral (Flavi virus) infection caused by the bite of an infected Aedes Mosquito, which can breed in
pool of water and usually bite during the day time. The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, and Culex
quinquefasciatus mosquito can also known to transmit the virus.
The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, conjunctivitis, muscular pain and
headache.
There are concerns that pregnant women who become infected with Zika virus can transmit the disease to
their unborn babies with potentially serious consequences.
The new born infant suffers from Microcephaly or Gullian barre Syndrome.
Microcephaly is a birth defect where a babys head is shrunken, an under-developed brain and disorders of the
central nervous system.
Recently, Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech had developed Zika vaccine which shows 100% efficiency in animal
trials.
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RIDL Technology which means Release of Insects carrying Dominant Lethal Genes technology involves in
using genetically modified mosquitoes to suppress wild female Aedes aegypti mosquito populations that
transmit dengue, chikungunya and Zika.
GAUCHER DISEASE
It is a kind of rare inherited lysosomal genetic disorder that results in the accumulation of fatty molecules
called cerebrosides in the bodys organs and tissues.
It is caused due to the deficiency of an enzyme named Glucocerebrosidase.
MDR
The term, MDR stands for Multiple Drug Resistance (MDR) or Multiresistance is an antimicrobial resistance
shown by a species of microorganism to multiple antimicrobial drugs.
MDR types that cause most threatening nature is Bacteria, Virus, Fungi and Parasites which causes
threatening to Antibacterial, Antiviral, Antifungal and Antihelmintic drugs respectively.
Recognizing the different degrees of MDR, it can be classified into extensively drug resistant (XDR) and
Pan Drug Resistant (PDR).
Recently, Mcr-1 gene found in E.coli, described previously as Truly pan-drug resistant is now
possessing serious threat to the last mile antibiotic drug, Colistin that the human beings currently has access.
HERD IMMUNITY
Herd Immunity is the resistance to the spread of a contagious disease within a population that results if a
sufficiently high proportion of individuals are immune to the disease, especially through vaccination.
Pertussis, small pox, Measles, Rubella, Diptheria, Polio, Mumps, SARS, Ebola, Influenza is covered under
Herd Immunity. In which Measles and Rubella tops the list.
Auto immune disease is reported due to failure of immune system to discriminate between bodys own and
foreign antigens.
YAWS
Yaws is a chronic bacterial infection that mainly affects the skin but the infection is some cases is reported to
target cartilages and bones.
It is caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum pertenue, which is closely related to
syphilis causing bacteria of same genus.
It spreads by direct contact with the fluid from a lesion of an infected person which mainly affects children
below 15 years of age.
It mainly occurs in overcrowded countries with limited access to basic amenities such as water, sanitation and
health care services.
Recently WHO had declared India to be free from Yaws, Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus.
PRE-TERM BIRTH
Pre-term birth is reported between 28 and 32 weeks of gestational period.
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35% of pre-term birth is accounted to happen in India.
So far the reason for pre-term birth was clueless but now the mystery had been solved, where the Gram
positive Group B Streptococcus (GBS) bacteria which is found mainly in the vaginal region and its number
may shoots up incase of pregnant women.
GBS bacteria produces small balloons called membrane vesicles, which contains toxins that kill both foetal
and maternal cells and destroy the collagen that binds the cells together.
Thus it leads to premature rupture of amniotic membrane and it leads to preterm birth.
NEONATAL SUPERBUGS
Superbugs refers to a group of microorganisms that shows resistance against anti drugs.
Three superbugs such as, Klebsiella, Acinetobacter and E.Coli were found to create antibiotic
resistance among thousands of Indian babies at the birth facility centres within 72 hours of being born.
Majority of the new born babies report to be affected by Sepsis and Pneumonia.
FIXED DOSE COMBINATIONS
FDC is a cocktail of two or more active drug ingredients in a fixed ratio of doses.
FDCs have advantages when there is an identifiable patient population for whom treatment with a particular
combination of actives in a fixed ratio of doses has been shown to be safe and effective and when all of the
actives contribute to the overall theraupetic effect.
Dosage alteration of one drug is not possible without alteration of the other drug.
FUNCTIONAL MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING
FMRI is a functional Neuro imaging process that uses MRI technology.
It measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow.
This technique relies on the fact that neuronal activation and cerebral blood flow are coupled together.
The primary form of FMRI uses blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD).
Thus this is a type of specialized brain and body scan used to map neural activity in the brain or spinal cord of
humans or other animals.
WORLD ANTI DOPING AGENCY
World Anti Doping Agency plays a significant role in the preparation and publication of the list of
prohibited substances, categorised as steroids, stimulants etc. This international standardisation is a key
component of the code.
WADA can enforce the code only if a country or sporting body is a signatory to the code. As many government
organisations cannot be legally bound by a non-governmental document, an international convention under
UNESCO was adopted in 2005, which came into force in 2007.
The use of prohibited substances by an athlete for medical reasons is possible only through a Therapeutic
Use Exemption (TUE). Ex: usage of Cortisone and Corticosteroids which can increase airflow to the
lungs by opening the airways and also reduce the pain during high intensity of exercise.
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Recently, WADA had constituted a committee under Mc.Laren to investigate the cases related to Doping in
sports. Some of the performance enhancing drugs in common are as follows:
Analgesics: Relieves pain caused by injury.
Stimulants: It makes athletes more alert and delays fatigue.
Peptides and hormones: EPO (Erythropoietin) increases production of red blood cells and human growth
hormone is used to improve muscle mass.
Anabolics : It is commonly called as steroids, it helps athletes to train harder and build muscle.
Diuretics: To remove fluid from the body and to reduce weight along with that it can hide other drugs.
WHO AGREEMENT WITH AYUSH
Recently, Ministry of AYUSH had come forward to sign an agreement with the WHO for promoting traditional
medicinal system in a global scenario.
Regarding to this agreement AYUSH is ready to handover all the official documents related to Ayurveda,
Siddha, Yoga, Panchakarma and Unani to the World Health Organisation.
NIDHI SCHEME
The union Government had recently launched an umbrella program National initiative for developing and
harnessing innovations (NIDHI) for nurturing ideas and innovation into successful start-ups.
The main of this program is to provide technological solutions to the present needs and also for future plans.
ATAL INNOVATION MISSION
AIM is set up under NITI Aayog. It is a kind of innovation promotion platform involving academics,
entrepreneurs and researchers drawing upon National and International experiences to foster a culture of
innovation, R&D in India.
Under this mission two major schemes were rolled out such as:
Atal Tinkering Labs
Atal Incubation Centres
WATER TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE
WTI is a programme of DST, which aims to provide clean and safe drinking water to the rural households by
using nanofiltration process.
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SPARK
SPARK stands for Sustainable Progress through Application of Research and Knowledge is a proposed
initiative to synergise science activity in India.
The goals of SPARK seem to be most closely attuned with NITI Aayog and it might well be effective only
within this parent organisation, taking inputs from various quarters such as industries, the ministries
themselves and NGOs to make proposals, some of which could move forward to become major initiatives.
SPARK is the proposed independent science and technology authority that will have two parallel arms. One
among the arm is Discovery arm that organise the expertise of various organisations across states and
regions to solve a basic research problem.
The second arm is Delivery arm that will closely work with industries and evolve public private
partnership.
VAJRA
VAJRA stands for Visiting Advanced Joint Research is a faculty scheme that was launched by Department of
Science and Technology.
The scheme enables NRIs and overseas scientific community to participate and contribute to research and
development in India which will be implemented by SERB.
VAJRA faculties will undertake research in S&T priority areas of nation wherein the capability and capacity
are needed to be developed and will engage in collaborative research in public funded institutions.
Residency period for the VAJRA faculties will be minimum 1 month and maximum 3 months in a year in
India.
KIRAN
KIRAN stands for Knowledge Involvement in Research Advancement through Nurturing is an umbrella
programme of women specific programmes of DST.
It addresses various issues related with women scientists in our country.
KIRAN is also actively involved in taking proactive measures under CURIE project to develop state of the art
infrastructure in women universities.
SEED
SEED stands for Science for Equity Empowerment and Development has broad objectives of providing
opportunities to motivated scientists and field level workers to take up action oriented and location specific
projects aiming towards socio-economic upliftment.
INDIA TECH VISION 2035
Recently, Technology vision Document 2035 had been unveiled by the Prime minister of India.
The document presents a vision of requirements of Indian citizens in 2035 and how technology should bring
this vision to fruition.
The aim of this Vision 2035 is to ensure the security, enhance prosperity & enhance identity.
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The document has identified twelve sectors for promoting technological developments. Those sectors were
Education, Medical Sciences & Healthcare, Food and Agriculture, Water, Energy, Environment, Habitat,
Transportation, Infrastructure, Information and Communication Technology, Manufacturing, Material
designing.
INDIA INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE FESTIVAL
Recently, National Physical Laboratory (NPL) functioning under CSIR had organized the Second India
International Science Festival (IISF) which was co-organized by Ministry of Science and Technology and Earth
Sciences in association with Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA).
The theme for 2016 is Science for the masses, which aims to promote the S&T developed by Indian labs to
reach the masses and to create scientific temper among the masses.
It had showcased recent developments and contributions of India in science and Technology involving all our
scientific departments.
MANAK
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) had revamped a popular outreach programme, conceived to
hook children early on to science and research, and tweaking it to reflect a thrust on technology and exposing
children to the innovation cycle.
The INSPIRE Awards (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research), as they are now called, will be
rechristened MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspirations and Knowledge) from this year.
According to officials, its a reformulation of the existing programme and reflects a thrust on original
ideas, which aim to use technology to solve problems, rather than merely display a clever idea for an
exhibition.
SATYAM
SATYAM stands for Science and Technology of Yoga and Meditation is a new programme launched by DST to
rejuvenate research on yoga and Meditation.
Its objective is to tap potential for safer, holistic and cost effective treatment of physical and mental health
problems.
NICRA
The term NICRA stands for National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture was launched by ICAR with
the funding from Ministry of Agriculture.
The mega project has three major objectives of strategic research, technology demonstrations and capacity
building.
FAME
The term FAME stands for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric (Hybrid) vehicles in India is a
scheme under National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP).
NEMMP targets to sell 6-7 million hybrid & Electric vehicles by 2020.
It aims to save 9500 million litres of estimated cumulative fuel saving.
It also aims to reduce two million tonnes reduction in pollution and green house gas emissions.
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SLNP
Recently the ministry of power had launched its Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP) in all its urban
local bodies (ULB).
Under this programme, conventional street lights were replaced with LED street lights across the country.
The project was funded by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a Public Energy Services Company
under the administration of the Union Ministry of Power.
Lumens obtained through these LED bulbs are much higher than the conventional incandescent bulbs.
SLNP has been launched under the concept called as Dark Sky Initiative.
According to this concept, if illuminated street light structures are visible from the sky, there is an additional
wastage of light which also pollutes the night sky.
Hence, SLNP has come up with street lights that consume less energy, illuminate only the pathways, reduce
light trespass and have improved colour rendering index. It also reduces the carbon footprints as the
combined Co2 emission reduction is about 230 tonnes per day.
IMPRINT
IMPRINT is a joint initiative taken by the IIT and IIS to develop a roadmap for research to solve major
engineering and technological challenges that occurs in scientific domains.
The word IMPRINT stands for Impacting Research Innovation and Technology.
The main objective of this programme is to identify areas of immediate relevance to society requiring
innovation and promote direct scientific research into the identified areas.
Imprint India focus on ten themes such as health care, Information communication Technology, Advance
materials, Water resources and River systems, Sustainable urban design, Defence, manufacturing,
nanotechnology, environmental science and climate change and energy security. This program doesnt aims
with promoting nuclear and space research.
TKDL
TKDL is a collaborative project made between CSIR, Ministry of AYUSH, which acts as a repository of the
traditional knowledge especially about medicinal plants to protect the ancient and traditional knowledge of
the country from exploitation through Biopiracy and unethical patents by documenting it electronically
and classifying it as per International patent classification systems.
TKDL covers over two lakh formulations which have been taken from Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Yoga
texts.
The TKDL is prepared in five languages such as English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish thus
it is a dynamic database, where formulations will be continuously added and continuously updated.
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Guidelines for examination of applications related to Traditional knowledge and biological subject matter have
been issued by the Indian Patent Office to prevent undue grant of patents.
Formulations on Indian systems of Medicine appears in the form of a text, which comprises the following
components:
Name of the drug
Method of preparation
Origin of the knowledge
Constituents of the drug
Bibliographic details.
TKDL also establishes relationship between traditional knowledge and modern knowledge by providing
modern name to the plants and diseases.
MARRAKESH TREATY
Marrakesh Treaty seeks to facilitate access to published works for visually impaired persons in Braille
format have come into force.
This treaty is also known as Books for blind treaty. It sets norms for the countries ratifying the treaty to
have a domestic copyright exception covering these activities and allowing for the import and export of such
materials. India was the first country to ratify it.
It had led to the launch of Indias largest collection of online accessible books called as Suganya
Pustakalaya
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (or authors right) is a legal term used to describe the bundle of rights that creators have over
their literary and artistic works.
Works covered by copyright range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs,
databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings.
IPR TOOLKIT
The Commerce & Industry Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman launched an IPR Enforcement Software toolkit
for Police.
The toolkit has been jointly prepared by Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM) and Federation
of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
This toolkit will be a ready reckoner for police officials across the country in dealing with IP crimes,
specifically Trade Marks counterfeiting and Copyrights piracy.
In addition to details of offences under various laws, it provides for checklists for registering a complaint and
conducting search and seizures.
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It also lays down general guidelines for search and seizure in case of IP crimes. This toolkit will be provided
to all state police departments across the nation and will assist them in dealing with the cases relating to
Trademarks and Copyrights infringements.
PATENT
Patents are a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or assignee for a limited
period of time i.e. 20 years in India.
Patents can be given for scientific products or the process, so that it can be called as Monopoly rights in the
field of IPR.
BIODATA PATENT
Biodata Patents is a term that is used for patents that are filed without any techno-commercial and legal
evaluation.
It is filed only for the name of sake, so the inventors generally use these kinds of patents as citations in their
bio-data for self promotions.
These patents were generally funded by public funds and regarded as waste of useful resources.
DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT
DMCA is the United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the WIPO.
It criminalizes the production and dissemination of technology, devices or services intended to

circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works.
It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of
copyright itself.
In addition, the DMCA heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the internet.
Recently, Delhi high court issued the first ever judgment on online piracy, where it banned as many as 73
rogue websites that were illegally streaming Pirated videos of cricket matches.
The decision to block entire websites to tackle online piracy is the first step taken in the right direction
against digital piracy.
GENE PATENT
Gene Patents is the exclusive right to a specific sequence of DNA given by a government to the individual,
organization or corporation who claims to have first identified the gene.
Once granted a gene patent, the holder of the patent dictates how the genes can be used, in both commercial
settings such as clinical genetic testing and in non-commercial settings including research for 20 years from
the date of the patent.
Gene patents have often resulted in companies having sole ownership of genetic testing for patented genes.
OBJECTIVES OF NATIONAL IPR POLICY, 2016
Spread awareness about socio, economic, cultural benefits of IPR among citizens.
Evaluate the areas of scientific, artistic strength and develop special programmes.
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Strengthen the legislative framework.
Restructure, upgrade and provide autonomy status to Intellectual property offices.
Commercialization of Intellectual property.
Efficient enforcement and adjudication infrastructure.
Develop human resources by introducing continuous training.
TARGET THE BULLS EYE
Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) is a GSM communication technology that is used to send
text between mobile phones and an application program in the network.
SHERLOC, an instrument that will acquire Raman Spectra from samples of Mars to study about the
Extraterrestrial life on the planet.
Coradia iLint is the worlds only fuel cell passenger train that is used for Mass Rapid Transit System. It is
powered by hydrogen fuel cell, which produces electrical power for the traction.
Project 22220 is the Russian Government project to build nuclear powered icebreaker ships to explore the
Arctic region. Artika, Sibir and Ural are the ships that will participate in this project.
THOR Experiment aims to investigate electrical activity from thunderstorms. Thor experiment will look at
them with a thundercloud imaging system from the vantage point of the International Space Station. Similarly
we have worlds first 3D printed aircraft in the name called as THOR.
Brucellosis is a dreadful zoonotic disease caused by the genus of the bacteria known as Brucella infecting
various species of Brucella cows, buffaloes, sheep and also humans.
Recently Microsoft tem had demonstrated the DNA Data Storage which has the capacity of storing 200 MB
digital Data.
C-25 is the indigenous cryogenic upper stage developed by ISRO for GSLV-MKIII and CE-20 is the new
kind of cryogenic engine developed for GSLV-MKIII, where it is the first cryogenic engine of ISRO to feature
a gas-generator cycle.
DNA Tagging involves in collecting the entire criminals data base based upon the DNA fingerprinting
technology.
The farthest point from land also been known as the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility is nicknamed as Point
Nemo, meaning No-one.
Resourcesat-2A is considered to be the high resolution eye in the sky which was launched in the orbit by
using PSLV C-36.
Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen had announced that they had developed worlds largest aircraft named as
Stratolauch which is capable to launch rockets form the stratosphere.
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Catterpillar Train (C-Train) is a mini elevated train, envisaged to have lightweight cars that run on top of
an suspended below elevated rails supported by steel poles. Haryana has taken the lead role to set up the train
as its pilot project.
Gravimeters is an instrument used for measuring local gravitational field of the earth. It is widely used for
petroleum and mineral prospecting, seismology, geodesy and in metrology.
NASAs first mission to the sun and its outermost atmosphere corona is named as PARKER.
PMGDISHA is expected to be one of the largest digital literacy programmes in the world.
Operation Raahat is an operation of Indian Armed Forces to evacuate Indian citizens and other foreign
nationals from Yeman during 2015 by Saudi Arabia and its allies in Yeman.
Operation Sankat Mochan was an operation of the Indian Air Force in view of 2016 Juba clashes in order
to evacuate Indian citizens and other foreign nationals from South Sudan during the civil war.
Sampriti is the joint military exercise between India and Bangladesh.
Surya Kiran is the joint military exercise between India and Nepal.
Yudh Abyas is a joint military exercise between India and United States.
Indra is a joint military exercise between India and Russia.
Prbal Dostyk is a joint military exercise between India and Kazakhstan.
Konkan is the joint annual maritime exercise between Indian Navy and Royal Navy of Britain.
Ekuverin is the joint military exercise conducted between India and Maldives.
RIMPAC (Rim of Pacific) is the worlds largest international maritime warfare exercise which will be held
biennially during June and July of even numbered years. It has 26 participating countries including India.
Denmark, Germany and Italy were participated for the first time in 2016. India had represented by its naval
ship INS Satpura, indigenously built guided missile stealth frigate.
ICGS SARATHI is the offshore fast patrolling vehicle commissioned by Indian Coast Guard.
Jalrahat Exercise is a mega flood relief training exercise undertook by the Assam Government and the
Armed Forces. It is first of its kind initiative in India to spread awareness amongst various stakeholders about
each others role, tasks and capabilities at the time of flood.
Blue moon refers to the second full moon that occurs in the same calendar month.
TamRas is the low-cost copper based water purification device for rural areas.
Operation Sukoon was an operation launched by the Indian Navy to evacuate Indian, Sri Lankan and
Nepalese as well as Lebanese nationals with Indian spouses from the conflict zone during the Lebanon war.
Indian Armed Forces had also launched a similar effort named as Operation Safe Homecoming to
evacuate Indian nationals from Libya.
Divya Nayan is a standalone text to speech portable reading machine that has been developed for the
visually impaired to help them to read normal texts without any third person involvement.
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Vertical Farming means growing the crops in racks placed vertically in multi-storyed manner. The plant
gets their nutrition either through Hydroponic method or through Aeroponic method.
Al-Nagah-Li is the joint army exercise between India and Oman.
Antikythera Mechanism is an ancient Greek analog computer and orrery used to predict astronomical
positions and eclipses for calendrical and astrological purposes.
Chandra X-ray observatory of NASA had recently discovered a mysterious cosmic explosion.
XPNAV-1 is Chinas satellite to study about the Pulsars.
Manipur The Jewelled Land houses the worlds only floating wildlife park Kaibul Lamjao National
Park. It also has the presence of Yangoupokpi Lokchao Wildlife Sanctuary and in 2016 the recently
notified Khongjaingamba Ching Wildlife Sanctuary, were the only two wildlife sanctuaries in the state.
NEFT system facilitates one-to-one fund transfer. NEFT also transfers funds from one bank to another but
the settlement takes place in batches.
RTGS enables money to move from one bank to another on real time and gross means it is not bunched with
any other transaction.
INS Satavahana, located in Visakhapatnam is the premier submarine training base of the Indian Navy,
which had recently given training to Vietnamese sailors in Comprehensive underwater combat operations.
INS Vishwakarma is a kind of shipwright school located in Vishakapatnam.
INS Kattabomman is the VLF-Transmission facility centre located in Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.
SANA an Indian based company had agreed to resume the work at Tishreen Thermal Power plant in
Syria.
Chintu is a new robot that assists senior citizen on their day to day tasks.
Japan scientists claims that Silicon is the Missing Element in the earths core, beside that it has the
presence of Iron and Nickel.
India is one among the few countries in the world which produce conventional submarines. Its submarine
arm completed 50 years on December 8, 2016 falls on Indian Submarine day. INS Shalki was the first
submarine launched in India which was followed by INS Shankul, which were still in service.
FC-31 Gyrfalcon is the new stealth capability fifth generation fighter jet of China. It is the second fifth
generation jet craft for china followed by J-20.
Recently, team of scientists from Botanical Survey of India (BSI) have found a new species of Zingiber from
the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It will be widely used as a bee repellent and Tranquiliser besides
various medicinal properties.
A new species of Pika, Ochotona Sikimaria that belongs to rabbit and hare family has been identified in the
Himalayan region of Sikkim. Asia is considered to be the hotspot for Pikas.
SIMBEX is a bilateral naval exercise between India and Singapore.
Red Flag is the aerial combat exercise between India and U.S.
89
INS JALASHWA is an amphibious transport dock.
Painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma is known
as Euthanasia. Belgium became the first country in the world to do so.
Black soldier fly larvae or Hermetia illucens, is used for cost effective faecal sludge management
technology.
Phumids or Phumshongs are heterogeneous masses of vegetation, soil and organic matter with varying
degree of decomposition.
Deep Ocean Mission is a planned mission of Ministry of Earth science to explore the deepest region of
the sea, where it estimates the availability of metals such as copper, Nickel, Cobalt besides Manganese and
Iron.
DTTI is a defence co-operation agreement signed between India and U.S. which aims to treat India as a
technology transfer country and U.S. had announced India as a Major Defence Partner.
Internet of Things is commonly called as Machine to Machine communication and thus it gets a new name
called as Industrial Internet.
Autonomous Coring System provides information about the presence of Gas hydrates.
Samba Mahsuri Rice variety developed in collaboration with ICAR is an improved bacterial blight
resistant of Samba Mahsuri rice variety. It is being cultivated in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and
Tamil Nadu.
Muktashree is a rice variety that minimizes the assimilation of Arsenic from the soil which is found in the
Indo-Gangetic plains and this variety has been released to the farmers of West Bengal.
Punjab Agricultural University had claimed in developing countrys first genetically modified varieties of
cotton named as PAU Bt1 and F1861. It imparts resistance against bollworm cotton pest.
O NEER is a solar powered water purifier technology developed by CSIR.
TERAFIL is a low cost burnt red clay porous candle for filtration and treatment of turbid raw water was
developed by CSIR.
Operation Snowex is a multi-year airborne snow campaign of NASA to understand snow as a water
resource.
Kadaknath or Kaali Maansi is a new variety of Chicken with black feathers, black plumage, black bones
and black meat, which is originally found in Madhya Pradesh.
Yugnak is a new short duration cotton variety.
Nanoprobe, is a very tiny robot attached to a sail, which can control the direction of flight and can be
propelled to high speed. NASA will use such a Nanoprobe to make a visit to the earth like heavenly planet
Proxima b.
Recently, CFTRI had developed Anti-Obesity Oil which is enriched with Diaglycerol (DAG) instead of
Conventional Triaglycerol (TAG).
90
Salt fortified with iodine and iron is called as Double-Fortified Salt which has high improved properties
against anaemia.
CSIR- IHBT handled some modern agro techniques and quality improvement works to rejuvenate the G.I.
tag holding Kangra Tea, both the green and black were well noted for their flavour and colour. Recently,
IBHT had also developed Tea Cola an alternative to cola brands.
Topological Insulator is a material with non-trivial topological order that behaves as an insulator in its
interior but whose surface contains conducting states, meaning that electrons can only move along the surface
of the material. It will be widely used in electronics, quantum computers and superconductors.
Akal wood fossil is one among the unique feature of Desert National Park of Rajasthan. It contains
information dated back to 180 million years and are considered as the reminiscent of luxuriant forest that the
area might have supported in the past.
GAIT is a kind of behavioural biometry, which is used in analyzing the CCTV footage.
LudusScope is an easily assembled 3D printed, open sourced smartphone microscopy used for observing
microorganisms.
Dassault Rafale which means Gust of Wind is a French twin engine canard delta wing multirole fighter
aircraft designed to carry out all combat operations such as air defence, interception, ground support, in-depth
strikes, reconnaissance, anti-ship strikes and nuclear deterrence.
Allelopathy is a biological phenomenon in which plants release chemical poisons to destroy neighbouring
plants in their bid for more space and sunlight. The poison released in deadly and they can change the genetic
nature of the victim plants.
Bionic leaf uses the suns energy to split water molecules and hydrogen-eating bacteria to produce isopropyl
alcohol.
Ultraviolet light will be the best explanation for the formation of hydrocarbons in an Orion Nebula.
MESSIER objects refers to a set of 100 astronomical objects catalogued by the French astronomer Charles
Messier.
CNSA and ESA have started collaboration for a project that sends humans to the lunar surface and allows
them to settle there in a Moon Village. This project will be based upon their previous CHANGE mission
and SMART-1 Mission, where they had learnt a lesson from their failure.
Super Balloon Project of NASA over New Zealand aims to detect ultra high energy cosmic particles that
enter into the earths atmosphere and the balloon has the capacity to encircle the earth two to three times per
day.
Jazero crater, Gusev Crater and Edge of Syrtis were the three landing sites chosen for NASAs 2020
MARS rover mission.
Hot Jupiter term refers to giant Exo-planets similar to planet Jupiter but they orbit close to their parent
stars.
Red Dragon is the future project of SPACE-X to land an unpiloted mission to Mars.
91
WOLF1061C is the closest potentially habitable planet found outside our solar system.
North West Africa 7365 is a meteorite discovered in Africa that was thrown from Mars.
Micrometeorite is an extraterrestrial particle that survived the entry through earths atmosphere and
collected on the earths surface. It gets differed from meteorite in being smaller with different interplanetary
dust particles.
ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre/Submillimetre Array) is an astronomical interferometer of radio

telescopes in Chile had provided new insights on how normal spiral galaxies like Milky Way were looked in
their nascent stages.
KAMOV is a small twin engine Russian Utility Helicopter that will replace the ageing Cheetah and
Cheetak choppers of India.
Poseidon 8I is a long range anti-submarine, anti-surface warfare aircraft obtained from US is equipped
with Harpoon missile, lightweight torpedoes and rockets.
Babur-3 is Pakistans recently developed nuclear capable submarine cruise-missile
DF-16 is the medium range ballistic missile of China.
Flexural Gravity Waves is a kind of faster and more elegant process used for ice breaking.
Digishala is a TV channel launched by MeITY to promote cashless transactions and it is a part of

Digidhan campaign.
Eucalyptus oil is having a capacity to act as an alternative jet fuel.
Hematopoietic stem cells give rise to all the types of blood cells. Recently, such a kind of cells was
discovered in Fruit flies.
Non Photochemical Quenching (NPQ) is a process by which plants protects themselves by making
changes within the leaf that dissipate the excess energy as heat.
Caecilian is a new family in animal kingdom which consists of legless amphibians.
Prunus cerasoides, or the wild Himalayan Cherry blooms in autumn, unlike its cousin in Japan and in
Korea, which blooms in Spring. Indias first Cherry blossom festival was celebrated recently in Meghalaya
during November 2016 at Shillongs Wards lake.
Farmers FIRST and ARYA initiatives to revamp agricultural productivity in India were recently proposed by
ICAR as a part of ICAR VISION-2050.
Terahertz Radiation falls in between infrared radiation and microwave radiation in the electromagnetic
spectrum and shares some properties with both of them and a technology is derived to read a closed text
books.
Terahertz transmitter can send digital data over ten times faster than 5G mobile networks.
Stromatolites are tiny layered structures that are the remnants of a community of ancient microbes like
bacteria, which gets trapped between the layers and binded by the sediments.
Tianzhou-1 literally means Heavenly vessel is the Chinas first cargo ship.
92
Bacillus licheniformis is a kind of bacteria which is used to power a tiny engine.
International Geological Congress (IGC) is a non profit scientific and educational organization which
encourage the advancement of fundamental and applied research in the earth sciences world-wide. Currently
they decided to trace radioactive elements from radioactive elements to act as Gold Spike for
Anthropocene epoch, while for Cretaceous Epoch the Gold spike used were Iridium metal. In
Holocene Epoch ice layers were used for calculation.
The offshore deposition of Methane Gas Hydrate is called as Flammable Ice or Fire Ice or
Combustible Ice.
A pellet is a non-spherical projective designed to be fired from an air gun. Air gun pellets differs from the
bullets because of the pressure used for encountering. Pellets are made up of an alloy of Lead and
Antimony.
Urja Mitra is the nationwide helpline launched by union government by which the customers can get
information on power outages from distribution companies.
Vidyut PRAVAH mobile app provides highlights of the power availability in the country on real time basis.
JUNO had reached the farthest point in the Jupiters orbit called as Apojove.
DRDO develops an indigenous Howitzer in the name called as DHANUSH.
Couple Forecast system Version 2 indicates a type of dynamical monsoon model works by simulating the
weather by using supercomputers and extrapolating it over particular timeframes.
Copernicus observation program is the worlds largest earth observation programme of European Space
Agency which observes the earth by using its seven Sentinel satellites.
Gymnothorax indicus, is a kind of Eel fish recently found in Bay of Bengal.
MATSYA MITRA is the program of Jharkhand government to train people to rear fish and thus providing
them gainful employment and income.
Kirameki-2 is Japans first dedicated military communication satellite.
Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFS) are like microscopic sponges which can absorb quite a lot of gas into
their minuscule pores, which is widely used in E-Nose to detect pesticides and nerve gas in very low
concentrations.
Cashmere goat is the first goat variety which had undergone cloning, while Dolly was the first mammal and
sheep which was cloned using the Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT).
Australian Great Barrier Reef rodent otherwise known as Bramble Cay Melomys become the first mammal
species driven to extinction by human-induced climate change.
USHUS-II is indigenously developed sonar which will be mounted in submarines.
ISRO provides its GAGAN and BHUVAN facility to monitor the real time status of the National Highways
under the National Green Highways Mission.
Incineration is the process of burning waste in large furnaces at high temperatures.
93
Pyrolysis is a process of combustion in absence of oxygen, where the material is burnt under controlled
atmosphere of oxygen which is an alternative to incineration.
Government of India had embarked upon an ambitious initiative called as GI cloud, which has been
named as MeghRaj.
Zero Rating plan in the telecommunication enables the mobile wireless customers to access online content
without incurring data usage charges.
QZSS Quazi Zenith Satellite System is the regional satellite system of Japan.
Zeolites are ceramic-like solids with millions of nanoscale sized pores used in petroleum industry to catalyze
oil refinement.
ROSS is the worlds first robotic lawyer.
FORHEUS is the worlds first Tennis tutor developed by Japan.
Dendrimers acts as nanoscale carrier for carrying the drugs and also used in cleaning the environment.
K-4, where the word K stands for Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam is a long range submarine launched nuclear
capable ballistic missile which is capable to be launched from INS Arihant.
HERON is the unmanned UAV developed by Israel which is available in two variants such as armed and
unarmed drones. India operates unarmed Heron for ISR roles.
INS Astradharini is an indigenously build torpedo launch and recovery vessel.
Project Seabird is the largest naval infrastructure project for India, which involves in creation of a naval
base at Karwar on the west coast of India.
Bubble pen lithography is a new method relies on microbubbles to write nanoparticles over any metals to
device tiny machines, biomedical sensors, optical computers, solar panels and other devices.
Panama disease is caused by the fungus Fusarium, which affects Bananas.
Bedaquiline is a drug used for the treatment of Tuberculosis.
Lassa fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic illness that spreads through the urine or faeces of infected
Mastomys rats and also with the direct contact of humans through blood, urine, faeces or other bodily
secretions.
SWAYAM satellite provides point-to-point messaging services to HAM radio connectivity.
Storage Area Network (SAN) is an external storage connected to a server used for storing voluminous
data.
Project Baseline aimed at controlled studies of how plants evolve under the stresses of climate change and
environmental degradation.
MamaOpe is a kind of diagnostic kit used to detect the presence of Peneumonia.
Government had launched QORA a faecal Incontinence Management System (FIMS) to promote
innovative and affordable medical devices was developed under the Ministry of Science and Technology.
NASAs Messenger mission had unveiled the first ever global Digital Elevation Model (DEL).
94
Potassium Iodate & Potassium Bromate found in bread shows serious carcinogenic sign.
Graphene sieve can be preferred for desalination project.
Jarvis- Software Butler is a virtual assistant to help manage household works developed by Facebook CEO
Mr.Zuckerberg. It is not a physical robot but its an application.
Fibroin is a novel material that can be preprogrammed with biological, chemical or optical functions such as
mechanical components that change colour with strain, deliver drugs or to respond to light.
Watson is an IBM supercomputer that combines AI and sophisticated analytical software for optimal
performance as a question answering machine.
Recently, scientists had found that the presence of MPCG, a toxic chemical that may result in low blood
glucose level in Litchi fruit.
Alloxan is prepared from barbituric acid and it is a part of chemicals associated with refined flour. It includes
Chlorinedioxide, Nitrogendioxide, Chlorine, calcium peroxide, Azodicarbonaide & Benzoyl peroxide all of
which contributes to fulffiness & texture of refined flour.
Scientists of CSIR-NIO in Visakhapatnam have found three new canyons close to Kovvada in Srikakulam
district. These three canyon forms a major system in the depths of the Bay of Bengal.
Time crystals are an entirely new kind of matter that can never reach equilibrium. Its a new form of matter
that appears to move even at its energy less ground state.
Boron is the next wonder material of this century which has the nanomaterial characteristics.
PfSPZ is a kind of promising drug administered against malaria while GAP3KO is a kind of GM vaccine for
Malaria.
Supersolids are highly engineered materials that exist in ultracold vacuum with new properties which have
never existed on earth.
LCRD technology involves in using Laser beams to provide high speed internet connectivity between the
spacecraft and the earth.
Water Wave Laser is used to study microscopic cells and to test different drugs for therapy.
METHOD-2 is a South-Korean built manned robot that walks like a human but makes the ground shake
under its weight.
XMU-MP-1 molecule is capable to regenerate the body tissues.
Q-Collar, is the technology that facilitates the bodys own physiology to create a bubble wrap effect for the
brain which will be useful for soldiers, industrial workers and athletes.
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A Shankar IAS Academy Initiative

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - CURRENT AFFAIRS

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE

Its prime objective is to observe gamma-ray sources in the universe.

ELECTRIC PROPULSION SYSTEM

MINING SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM

TTCP was indigenously developed by ISRO as a part of Make in India campaign.

The term stands for Lunar Atmospheric Dust Environmental Explorer.

SOLAR PROBE PLUS MISSION

COLD ATOM LAB

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE

THE GIANT MAGELLAN TELESCOPE

GAIA stands for Global Astrometry Interferometer for Astrophysics.

SQUARE KILOMETRE ARRAY (SKA) PROJECT

EUROPAS CLIPPER MISSION

MAGNETARS are extremely dense type of

Regular neutron stars has a magnetic field of

Magnetars can cause starquakes or earthquakes

Fast Neutron Spectrometer (FNS) is used to

VELA SUPER CLUSTER

LUCY AND PSYCHE

explore our planetary neighborhood using faster, better, cheaper missions.

bodies that could have formed a planet.

massive in the belt which is predominant with Iron and Nickel.

Trojans are bodies that are present in Lagrange points.

BILI stands for Bio-Indicator Lidar Instrument.

VAMP-AV stands for Venus Atmospheric Manoeuvrable Platform Air Vehicle.

THIRTY METER TELESCOPE (TMT) PROJECT

SOIL MOISTURE ACTIVE PASSIVE PROJECT (SMAP)

It provides better forecast about crop yields

It creates more accurate weather models.

It also provides information about water, energy and carbon cycles.

MULTI APPLICATION SOLAR TELESCOPE

NORTH EASTERN SPACE APPLICATION CENTRE

It consists of Comets, Asteroids and smaller icy particles called as Planetesimals.

In brief, the expected improvements include

Precise ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and land satellite) laser profiles.

(2) Void reduction via improved radar interferometric processing.

(4) Improved quality assessments and adjustments.

Stratellite Communcation is the brainchild of NASAs dream project.

Stratellites are the advancement of modern day satellite communication technologies.

MESAS AND BUTTES

UN KALAM GLOBAL SATELLITE

LAPAN A2 or LAPAN-ORARI is an Indonesian microsatellite based on the LAPAN-Tubsat.

It carries AIS technology to identify the ships in the water region.

SOFIA stands for Stratospheric Observatory for

It is a joint project of NASA and German Aerospace

SOFIA is the successor to the Kuiper Airborne

Epsilon-2 was launched by JAXA, which is a solid fuel rocket.

GAOFEN-3 is a high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite launched by China.

Moreover Gaofen-3 is the first low orbit remote sensing satellite.

INDIA BECOME ASSOCIATE MEMBER OF CERN

The collision of massive atomic nuclei in an

When two massive atomic nuclei collide at

The plasma forms into streaks along the

The collision of such atomic nuclei occurs

THIRD GENERATION NUCLEAR REACTOR

NON-TOXIC RADIATION SHIELDING MATERIAL

Non-toxic Radiation Shielding Material is widely used for X-ray Protection.

DISCOVERY OF FOUR NEW CHEMICAL ELEMENTS

NATIONAL SECURITY GURAD