IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - Jan 12, 2017

ANSWER: Varanasi

Explanation:

• This institute will be established in a tie-up with Eon Reality.
• The total cost will be around Rs. 130 crore with Eon contributing to 2/3rd of it.
• India will have its first augmented reality education and training institute in Varanasi.
• It will be a virtual manufacturing shop floor.
• It will give students training on virtual versions of equipment which may not be affordable to the institutions.
• The institution will be established by the central government in partnership with Eon Reality, an augmented reality company which is based in the US.
• Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-BHU) in Varanasi will join in the project, along with NSDC and Eon Reality.
• Each trainee will be able to unpack the machine part by part and learn through virtual dissection.
• Like a real machine, it will throw new problems to trainees and, depending on your problem-solving capacity, it will allow you to move further.
• The institutions and the software deployed will be able to create virtual machines of many sectors - from car design to the assembly line of an automobile firm, from textiles to heavy engineering machines.
• It can dissect aeroplane engines and show how 3D designing works.
• It would be like apprentice learning on shop floor

ANSWER: It produces 14 volts on thumb print

Explanation:

• The nanogenerator, which was fabricated by Pune’s Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and the National Chemical Laboratory, produced 14 volts when thumb pressure was applied.
• To demonstrate the potential of the nanogenerator to power small electronic devices, pressure equivalent to thumb pressure was continuously exerted on the nanogenerator for 20 minutes by using a vibration producing motor.
• About 28 micro watt per square cm power and 14 volt that was generated was stored in a capacitor and used for charging a mobile phone.
• Piezoelectric materials, which can generate electrical power locally through stress or flexing, are a great proposition for wearable electronics.
• The researchers electrospun a piezoelectric polymer [P(VDF-TrFE)] directly onto a flexible, conducting carbon cloth. The carbon cloth was produced by the researchers by heating a piece of cotton cloth at 800 degree C for several hours in an inert atmosphere.
• To improve the piezovoltage of the polymer fibres, the researchers coated the fibres with a stronger, inorganic ferroelectric material (BaTiO3) paste.
• The voltage of 14 volt with a current of several microamperes is the highest power output reported for wearable type of nanogenerator using conducting cloth as the electrode

ANSWER: Solar irrigation pumps

Explanation:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Saur Sujala Yojana in Chhattisgarh that would provide solar powered irrigation pumps to farmers at a subsidized price.
• Chhattisgarh would be the first state to implement the scheme.
• Under the scheme, solar powered irrigation pumps of 3HP and 5HP capacity worth Rs 3.5 lakh and Rs 4.5 lakh respectively would be distributed to the farmers by March 31, 2019.
• The beneficiaries would get the pumps at the subsidised price.
• The scheme will be given priority in those areas where electricity connection has not reached yet.

ANSWER: Instrument of NASA

Explanation:

• The Bio-Indicator Lidar Instrument, or 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 analyse the composition of particles in the atmosphere.
• Although NASA has used fluorescence instruments to detect chemicals in Earth’s atmosphere as part of its climate-studies research, the agency so far hasn’t employed the technique in planetary studies.
• It is a sensing technique that the US military currently uses to remotely monitor the air to detect potentially life-threatening chemicals, toxins, and pathogens.
• The beauty of BILI is its ability to detect in real-time small levels of complex organic materials from a distance of several hundred meters
• Therefore, it could autonomously search for bio-signatures in plumes above recurring slopes - areas not easily traversed by a rover carrying a variety of in-situ instruments for detailed chemical and biological analysis.
• This can be used to detect signatures of life on Mars.

ANSWER: Use of genetic modification to fix carbon dioxide into the soil

Explanation:

• Frankenfixation refers to the use of genetic modification to fix carbon dioxide into the soil.
• It derives from term popularised by critics of genetically modified foods, ‘Frankenfoods’.
• The U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute recently 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.
• What they found was a novel pathway based on 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.
• Were such pathways to be perfected, new species of plants, trees or entirely new organisms, could be grown that are specifically designed to take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and hold off the looming crisis of rising global temperatures.