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According to the Office of the PSA, the I-STEM portal lists more than how many scientific instruments?

  1. A.11,000
  2. B.21,000
  3. C.31,000
  4. D.41,000

Correct answer

C. 31,000

Explanation

The correct answer is 31,000. The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser says I-STEM now lists more than 31,000 scientific instruments across nearly 4,000 institutions, and has over 65,000 registered users. Listing of publicly funded equipment that costs more than ₹20 lakh on the portal further strengthens shared access to research infrastructure.

The other numbers are distractors. For exams, keep the three scale figures together: 31,000-plus instruments, about 4,000 institutions and 65,000-plus users. Also keep the meeting figures separate from the portal figures: the first State Governments Nodal Officers Meeting on 21 September 2026 had officers from 23 States and 4 UTs. The purpose of the portal is to improve utilisation of existing equipment and reduce duplication of investment across the research system.

Read the full article: Office of PSA Holds First State Nodal Officers Meeting on I-STEM

Practice Questions

Q2.Science & TechnologyMedium

The I-STEM portal was conceived and is supported by which office?

  1. A.NITI Aayog
  2. B.Department of Science & Technology
  3. C.Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser
  4. D.Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
Show answer
Correct answer: C. Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser

The PSA's Office conceived and supports I-STEM, and it was this office that convened the first State Governments Nodal Officers Meeting for the portal on 21 September 2026.

Q3.Science & TechnologyMedium

Data from which space mission enabled the discovery that UBC 63 is a double cluster system?

  1. A.Hubble Space Telescope of NASA
  2. B.Gaia mission of the European Space Agency
  3. C.AstroSat of ISRO
  4. D.James Webb Space Telescope
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Gaia mission of the European Space Agency

The researchers used Gaia measurements, which give exceptionally precise positions and motions for stars right across the Milky Way, and it was these data that revealed two populations of starkly different ages inside what had been taken for one cluster.

Q4.Science & TechnologyMedium

What are the approximate ages of UBC 63A and UBC 63B?

  1. A.21 million years and 562 million years
  2. B.562 million years and 21 million years
  3. C.100 million years and 400 million years
  4. D.6 million years and 26 million years
Show answer
Correct answer: A. 21 million years and 562 million years

UBC 63A is the young cluster of the pair at roughly twenty-one million years, while UBC 63B is much older at about five hundred sixty-two million years.

Q5.Science & TechnologyEasy

What did a team led by Indian astronomers find about the galactic open cluster UBC 63?

  1. A.It is the nearest open cluster to the Sun
  2. B.It is actually two distinct clusters that passed close to each other
  3. C.It hosts the first planet found outside the Milky Way
  4. D.It is merging with the Andromeda galaxy
Show answer
Correct answer: B. It is actually two distinct clusters that passed close to each other

The group, which lies about 4892 light years away and had been treated in the limited earlier literature as a single cluster, was found to hold two separate stellar populations, now named UBC 63A and UBC 63B. Their brightness and colours formed two sequences in the colour magnitude diagram, and…