Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Science & Technology) – April 23, 2020

Both statements are incorrect.

Statement 1 is incorrect: Antrix is the first commercial arm of ISRO. However recently, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), inaugurated its commercial arm NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), in Bangalore.

Statement 2 is incorrect: It was incorporated for commercially utilizing research and development activities carried out by ISRO with an authorised share capital of Rs 100 crore and initial paid up capital of Rs 10 crore.

ISRO has set up 5 Space Technology Cells (STCs) at Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) – Bombay, Kanpur, Kharagpur & Madras; Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru and Joint Research Programme with Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU, Pune) to carry out research activities in the areas of space technology and applications.

Statement 1 is correct: A blockchain is a specific type of data structure which can be used to transact across nodes or participants. The ownership rights are recorded in cryptographically stored and linked blocks which contain records of ownership of assets among the participants that can remain anonymous.

Statement 2 is incorrect: The blockchain technology generally has key characteristics of decentralization, persistency, anonymity and auditability. With these traits, blockchain can greatly save the cost and improve the efficiency.

When it comes to measuring how powerful supercomputers are, we use a unit of measurement referred to as “floating-point operations per second” or “flops”. The authority when it comes to keeping track of who has the fastest computer is the TOP500 project. Ever since 1993, TOP500 has been using the LINPACK benchmark to measure relative performance among supercomputers to determine who has the fastest computer.

Statement 1 is correct: While gasification has many applications, power generation has received a lot of attention, especially in the United States as part of the Clean Coal Power Initiative. The most well-known design for this purpose is the integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC). Similar to a natural gas combined cycle (NGCC), IGCC uses gas and steam turbines to generate electricity, but in this case the gas is synthesis gas (syngas; a mixture of primarily hydrogen [H2] and carbon monoxide [CO]) produced by the gasifier (see Gasifiers for more information).

Statement 2 is correct: IGCC plants benefit from the advantages of gasification technology, particularly environmental benefits, ease of carbon dioxide (CO2) capture, the ability to use a variety of feed-stocks, and high efficiency relative to other power generation technologies.

Statement 3 is incorrect: Some important challenges to the wide-spread adoption of IGCC technology include cost, availability, and complexity. Cost is widely cited as the greatest barrier to IGCC acceptance. Capital costs for IGCC are high compared with alternative power plant designs, particularly NGCC, and financial viability is often dependent upon subsidies or tax credits. As a relatively new technology relative to PC and NGCC, development and design costs are much higher for IGCC. Availability also impacts operating costs and must be high enough to compete favorably with the conventional alternatives. The complexity of IGCC relative to older, more established plant designs also increases operating costs and can impact availability and the generation of capital for plant development.