Daily Quiz #75 UPSC Prelims Marathon – January 30, 2020

Explanation: A separate Department of Biotechnology (DBT) was finally set up in February, 1986 and the NBTB selected Dr S Ramachandran as the first Secretary of the department. The DBT constituted a ten member Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) with heads of various scientific agencies and a seven member Standing Advisory Committee for North America SAC (0) to ensure that the Department kept abreast of global developments in the field of Biotechnology. The mandate of Biotechnology department:
•Promote large scale use of Biotechnology
•Support R&D and manufacturing in Biology
•Responsibility for Autonomous Institutions
•Promote University and Industry Interaction
•Identify and Set up Centres of Excellence for R&D
•Integrated Programme for Human Resource Development
•Serve as Nodal Point for specific International Collaborations
•Establishment of Infrastructure Facilities to support R&D and production
•Evolve Bio Safety Guidelines, manufacture and application of cell based vaccines
•Serve as nodal point for the collection and dissemination of information relating to biotechnology.

ANS: The following 10 guiding principles that shall drive the renewed mission through Strategy of national biotechnology development:
•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
•Commercialization of Technology – Nurturing Innovation, Translational Capacity and Entrepreneurship
•Biotechnology and Society – 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: The National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) was established as an autonomous Research and Development Institution of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (formerly Department of Ocean Development), Government of India on the 25th May 1998. With a mission mandate that is quite challenging, the Centre is designated as the nodal organization for the co-ordination and implementation of the Indian Antarctic Programme, including the maintenance of India’s permanent station in Antarctica. Spread across 147,660 sq. mts sprawling area, set atop a picturesque plateau, NCPOR is located in India’s most seafaring state of Goa. At NCPOR the scientific mandate is multidisciplinary. Operating in a complex matrix, this has as its focal theme, research in those areas of the polar science currently not being undertaken by any other institution in India.

Explanation: The idea of having a global security storage facility in Svalbard, to house duplicates of seed conserved in gene banks all over the world began being discussed in the 1980s. The Seed Vault was opened 26 February 2008 in the presence of the Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, the President of the European Union, José Manuel Barroso, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Jacques Diouf, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Wangari Maathai.

Explanation: Field Research Laboratory (FRL) was established in 1962 at Leh–Ladakh was the brainchild of the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The aim was to make the hostile terrain of the cold, arid desert of Ladakh reasonably green and make fresh food available to the troops deployed in the Ladakh sector. The Institute through its pioneering R&D efforts over the years has brought about perceptible qualitative and quantitative changes in agriculture, animal husbandry and the flora of Ladakh. With time, the vision, mission and mandate of the laboratory have changed. Field Research Laboratory (FRL) has been renamed as Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR) on 27 May 2008. The institute is one of its kinds in the world at an altitude of 3,500 m above MSL, having core competence in cold arid agro-animal technology. The institute has its research stations at Ranbirpura, Ladakh; Partapur, Siachen Sector; Base Laboratory in Chandigarh and the world’s highest terrestrial R&D Centre at Changla, Ladakh.