Science, Technology, Space & Defence: previous-year questions

Answer: (A) It is near the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant on the west coast of Finland

Finland's ONKALO repository (the name means 'cavity' in Finnish) is on Olkiluoto island in Eurajoki municipality on the west coast, beside the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant, and is built by Posiva Oy, a company owned by power producers TVO and Fortum. Spent fuel is sealed in copper and cast-iron canisters, packed in bentonite clay and placed about 400 to 450 m deep in ancient bedrock. It is the world's first deep geological repository for spent nuclear fuel to reach the operating-licence stage: the Finnish regulator STUK cleared its safety case in August 2026 and Posiva aims to begin disposal by the end of 2026. Option B mixes it up with the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Norway), and Suomenlinna (C) is a UNESCO-listed sea fortress off Helsinki.

Answer: (A) AIIMS, New Delhi

AIIMS, New Delhi launched 'Never Alone', an AI-based mental health and wellness programme for students, on World Suicide Prevention Day (10 September 2025). It works through a web and WhatsApp based platform that offers round-the-clock screening and links to counsellors at very low cost, and it was rolled out at the same time at AIIMS Bhubaneswar and IHBAS, Delhi. Other government mental-health initiatives worth remembering are Tele-MANAS (the national tele-counselling helpline 14416, run with NIMHANS) and Manodarpan of the Ministry of Education. DRDO (defence research), IIT Madras and NITI Aayog (policy think tank) had no role in this app.

Answer: (B) Coffee

Liberica excelsa (Coffea liberica var. dewevrei) is a coffee variety, in the news as a climate-resilient alternative to Arabica. It has nothing to do with tea, rice or wheat.

Answer: (B) 14 July, 2023

Chandrayaan-3 was launched from Sriharikota on 14 July 2023 aboard LVM3-M4, and its lander touched down near the lunar south pole on 23 August 2023. The other dates are wrong.

Answer: (D) Epidolex

Epidiolex, a cannabidiol (CBD) oral solution for rare forms of epilepsy, was approved by the US FDA in 2018 as the first medicine derived from the cannabis plant. Malarone is an antimalarial, Effexor an antidepressant, and absinthium is wormwood.

Answer: (A) Sara

Emirates introduced 'Sara', billed as the world's first robotic check-in assistant, at its City Check-In and Travel Store in Dubai's financial district (DIFC) in 2023. Siri is Apple's voice assistant, and Kiwi and Rini are not Emirates products.

Answer: (C) Vyom mitra

Vyommitra is ISRO's half-humanoid female robot meant to fly on uncrewed test flights of the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme. The other names are made-up variations.

Answer: (C) RH 300

ISRO's Rohini RH-300 Mk II is a sounding rocket used for upper-atmosphere studies, launched from Thumba. Agni-IV and BrahMos-II are defence missiles, not sounding rockets, and 'Car to Sat' is not a rocket.

Answer: (B) Odilor habdins

Odilorhabdins are a new class of antibiotics produced by Xenorhabdus bacteria that live in soil nematodes; they act on the ribosome and are effective against drug-resistant bacteria. The other names are made-up variations of this word.

No option is correct as printed — this question is disputed. WBPSC awarded the mark to all candidates: launcher was LVM3 (formerly GSLV Mk III); (C) is the old name and (B) 'LVSM' appears to be a misprint of LVM3, so two options are arguable.

Chandrayaan-3 was launched on 14 July 2023 by LVM3-M4, the rocket formerly called GSLV Mk III. Option (C) gives the old name and (B) looks like a misprint of LVM3, so more than one option could be marked correct, and the Commission awarded the mark to all candidates.

Answer: (B) China

China is the country linked with an "artificial moon". In early 2022 Chinese scientists were reported to have built a research facility at Xuzhou (Jiangsu) that uses powerful magnetic fields to simulate the Moon's low gravity (one-sixth of Earth's) for testing lunar equipment. Earlier, in 2018, Chengdu had announced plans for an "illumination satellite" to light the city at night. China is also known for its "artificial sun", the EAST fusion reactor at Hefei, and for the Chang'e lunar missions (Chang'e-4 made the first landing on the far side in 2019).

Answer: (B) the Mars

NASA's Perseverance rover (Mars 2020 mission), launched on 30 July 2020, landed in Jezero Crater on Mars on 18 February 2021 to look for signs of ancient microbial life and to cache rock samples; it carried the Ingenuity helicopter, the first aircraft to make a powered flight on another planet. Earlier NASA Mars rovers: Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity. Other arrivals at Mars in 2021 were the UAE's Hope orbiter and China's Tianwen-1 with the Zhurong rover; India's Mangalyaan (MOM) entered Mars orbit in 2014.

Answer: (B) Bharati

Bharati, commissioned on 18 March 2012 at the Larsemann Hills in East Antarctica, is India's third Antarctic research station. Dakshin Gangotri (1983-84) was the first; it got buried in ice and is now only a supply base. Maitri (1989), in the Schirmacher Oasis, is the second and still operates alongside Bharati. 'Priyadarshini' is the name of the freshwater lake near Maitri. India's Arctic station is Himadri (2008, Svalbard, Norway); the nodal agency is NCPOR, Goa.

Answer: (A) Cuttack

The Central Rice Research Institute was established at Cuttack, Odisha, in 1946 in the aftermath of the Bengal Famine of 1943; it works under ICAR and is now called the National Rice Research Institute (NRRI). The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is at Los Banos, Philippines. Dhanbad has the Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research and IIT (ISM); Kanpur has the National Sugar Institute and the Indian Institute of Pulses Research; Coimbatore has the Sugarcane Breeding Institute. Others: jute - Barrackpore; potato - Shimla; cotton - Nagpur.

Answer: (C) a digital equivalent of pamphlets and fliers that helped mobilise protesters.

A 'toolkit' is a shared online document (often a Google Doc) that explains an issue and lists actions, hashtags and resources for supporters - the digital-age equivalent of the pamphlets and fliers used to mobilise protesters. The term made headlines in February 2021, when climate activist Greta Thunberg tweeted a toolkit supporting the farmers' protest against the three farm laws, and Delhi Police arrested Bengaluru activist Disha Ravi in the case. It is not an e-commerce platform, a hackers' site or electronic hardware. The three farm laws were repealed in November 2021.

Answer: (A) Nipah

A study by ICMR's National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, published in June 2021, reported Nipah virus antibodies in bats sampled from a cave at Mahabaleshwar in Satara district, Maharashtra - the first evidence of Nipah exposure in bats of that state. Nipah is a zoonotic virus whose natural reservoir is fruit bats (Pteropus); it was first identified in Malaysia in 1998-99, and India's outbreaks occurred at Siliguri (2001), Nadia (2007) and Kozhikode, Kerala (2018 onwards). Ebola and Zika have had no such bat finding in India, and the virus of COVID-19 is SARS-CoV-2.

Answer: (D) Homi Bhabha

Dr. Homi J. Bhabha was the founding chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission, set up in 1948.

Answer: (A) Sriharikota

Answer as of 2020 — this may have changed since.

Cartosat-3, a high-resolution earth-observation satellite, was launched by ISRO from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, in November 2019.

Answer: (B) Mongolia

Mongolia got its first satellite, named 'Mongol Sat-1', in 2017 in partnership with the satellite operator Asia Broadcast Satellite, to provide television and telecom services. Mongolia is a landlocked country between Russia and China; its capital is Ulaanbaatar and its currency the tugrik. Tibet, given as an option, is not a country but an autonomous region of China.

Answer: (A) Bhuvan-GAIL Portal

Answer as of 2016 — this may have changed since.

GAIL launched the 'Bhuvan-GAIL Portal' in November 2015 in collaboration with ISRO, using the Bhuvan geospatial platform to monitor pipeline Right of Use (ROU) land through satellite imagery and space technology.