Daily Quiz #22 UPSC Prelims Marathon – July 25, 2019

Explanation: DRDO was formed in 1958 from the amalgamation of the then already functioning Technical Development Establishment (TDEs) of the Indian Army and the Directorate of Technical Development & Production (DTDP) with the Defense Science Organization (DSO). DRDO was then a small organization with 10 establishments or laboratories. Over the years, it has grown multi-directionally in terms of the variety of subject disciplines, number of laboratories, achievements and stature.
Today, DRDO is a network of more than 50 laboratories which are deeply engaged in developing defense technologies covering various disciplines, like aeronautics, armaments, electronics, combat vehicles, engineering systems, instrumentation, missiles, advanced computing and simulation, special materials, naval systems, life sciences, training, information systems and agriculture. Presently, the Organization is backed by over 5000 scientists and about 25,000 other scientific, technical and supporting personnel. Several major projects for the development of missiles, armaments, light combat aircrafts, radars, electronic warfare systems etc are on hand and significant achievements have already been made in several such technologies.

Explanation: ESSO-INCOIS was established as an autonomous body in 1999 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and is a unit of the Earth System Science Organization (ESSO). ESSO- INCOIS is mandated to provide the best possible ocean information and advisory services to society, industry, government agencies and the scientific community through sustained ocean observations and constant improvements through systematic and focussed research.
•Provides round-the-clock monitoring and warning services for the coastal population on tsunamis, storm surges, high waves, etc. through the in-house Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC). The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO designated ITEWC as a Regional Tsunami Service Provider (RTSP) to provide tsunami warnings to countries on the Indian Ocean Rim.
•Provides daily advisories to fisher folk to help them easily locate areas of abundant fish in the ocean while saving on both fuel and time used to search for the same. These advisories called Potential Fishing Zone Advisories are issued in Hindi, English and 8 vernacular languages. Currently more than one lakh fisher folk successfully use these advisories obtained through SMS, Village Information Centres, local radio, local TV, Electronic Display Boards at fish landing centres, NGO websites, the ESSO-INCOIS website etc.
•Short term (3-7 days) Ocean State Forecasts (waves, currents, sea surface temperature, etc.) are issued daily to fisher folk, the shipping industry, the oil and natural gas industry, the Navy, the Coast Guard, etc. These forecasts inform users about the expected sea conditions during the next few days and help them to plan their activities at sea.
•Deploys and maintains a suite of Ocean Observing Systems in the Indian Ocean to collect data on various oceanic parameters to understand the processes in the ocean and to predict their changes.

Explanation: The rare earth elements (REE) are a collection of 17 elements namely scandium, yttrium and lanthanides (15 elements in the periodic table with atomic numbers 57 to 71 namely; lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb) and lutetium (Lu). Rare earth elements (REE) are characterised by high density, high melting point, high conductivity and high thermal conductance. A number of rare earth minerals contain thorium and uranium in variable amounts, but they do not constitute essential components in the composition of the minerals. The principal sources of rare earth elements are bastnaesite (a fluorocarbonate which occurs in carbonatites and related igneous rocks), xenotime (yttrium phosphate) commonly found in mineral sand deposits, loparite which occurs in alkaline igneous rocks and monazite (a phosphate). The rare earths occur in many other minerals and are recoverable as by-products from phosphate rock and from spent uranium leaching. In India, monazite is the principal source of rare earths and thorium.

Explanation: The National Biotechnology Development Strategy -2015-2020 was unveiled by the Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences. The Strategy aims to establish India as a world-class bio-manufacturing hub. It intends to launch a major mission, backed with significant investments, for the creation of new biotech products, creates a strong infrastructure for R&D and commercialization, and empowers India’s human resources scientifically and technologically. The Key elements of the Strategy are:
•Building a Skilled Workforce and Leadership
•Revitalizing the knowledge environment at par with the growing bio-economy
•Enhance Research opportunities in basic, disciplinary and inter-disciplinary sciences
•Encourage use-inspired discovery research
•Focus on biotechnology tools for inclusive development
•Nurturing innovation, translational capacity and entrepreneurship
•Ensuring a transparent, efficient and globally best Regulatory system and communication strategy
•Biotechnology cooperation- Fostering global and national alliances
•Strengthen Institutional Capacity with redesigned governance models
•Create a matrix of measurement of processes as well as outcome

Explanation: AstroSat is the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission aimed at studying celestial sources in X-ray, optical and UV spectral bands simultaneously. The payloads cover the energy bands of Ultraviolet (Near and Far), limited optical and X-ray regime (0.3 keV to 100keV). One of the unique features of AstroSat mission is that it enables the simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of various astronomical objects with a single satellite.
AstroSat with a lift-off mass of 1515 kg was launched on September 28, 2015 into a 650 km orbit inclined at an angle of 6 deg to the equator by PSLV-C30 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The minimum useful life of the AstroSat mission is expected to be 5 years.
After injection into Orbit, the two solar panels of AstroSat were automatically deployed in quick succession. The spacecraft control centre at Mission Operations Complex (MOX) of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bengaluru manages the satellite during its entire mission life.