ERNET, started in 1986, was set up for which purpose?

The correct answer is B, TIFRAC. The TIFR Automatic Calculator was completed at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai in 1960 and is counted as the first digital computer designed and built in India; Jawaharlal Nehru gave it the name TIFRAC. Option A is wrong because the HEC-2M was brought from Britain and installed at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata in 1955, so it was the first computer to work in India but not one built here. Option C is wrong because PARAM 8000 of 1991 was India's first supercomputer, three decades later. Option D is wrong because the TDC-12, a Trombay Digital Computer, was made by the Electronics Corporation of India Limited after it was set up in 1967. Keep the two firsts apart: first computer in India, HEC-2M; first built in India, TIFRAC.

The correct answer is C, C-DAC. The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing was set up at Pune in 1988 with the specific task of building an indigenous supercomputer after India was refused an American Cray machine, and in 1991 its team completed PARAM 8000, a parallel computer assembled from transputer processors. Option A is wrong because the Indian Space Research Organisation built the SAGA-220 system in 2011, using graphics processors, long after PARAM. Option B is wrong because the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre developed the ANUPAM series of parallel computers, a separate line of work for atomic energy. Option D is wrong because within the Defence Research and Development Organisation it was ANURAG at Hyderabad that built PACE, the Processor for Aerodynamic Computation and Evaluation. C-DAC also built AIRAWAT at Pune for artificial intelligence work, which is its newest well known system.

The correct answer is D, Vijay Bhatkar. Vijay Bhatkar led the team at C-DAC that built PARAM 8000 in 1991 and is therefore described as the architect of India's PARAM series of supercomputers. Option A is wrong because Homi Jehangir Bhabha was the founder of the Indian atomic energy programme and of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, where TIFRAC was built, but he died in 1966, long before the PARAM project. Option B is wrong because Satish Dhawan was a leader of the Indian space programme and chairman of ISRO, remembered in the name of the launch centre at Sriharikota. Option C is wrong because Raj Reddy is an Indian-born computer scientist who worked on artificial intelligence and speech recognition in the United States and was not part of the PARAM project.

The correct answer is B, 1988. C-DAC was established at Pune in 1988 under the Department of Electronics, with a mission to design and build an indigenous supercomputer after the United States declined to supply a Cray machine to India. Option A is wrong because 1976 is the year the National Informatics Centre was set up to build computing for government. Option C is wrong because 1991 is the year the first product of that mission, PARAM 8000, was completed, a common confusion in this question; 1991 is also the year of the Software Technology Parks of India scheme. Option D is wrong because 1998 belongs to other events in Indian science and has no bearing here. The pair to memorise is C-DAC in 1988 and PARAM 8000 in 1991, three years later.

The correct answer is A, the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. The HEC-2M, brought from Britain, was installed at the Indian Statistical Institute in 1955 and is counted as the first computer to work in India; the institute later added a Soviet URAL machine and in 1966 built the ISIJU with Jadavpur University. Option B is wrong because the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research built TIFRAC, completed in 1960, which is the first computer designed and built in India but not the first installed here. Option C is wrong because the Indian Institute of Science, although a major computing centre today and an implementing agency of the National Supercomputing Mission, did not host the first machine. Option D is wrong because the Trombay work came later, through ECIL and the TDC series. The Soviet URAL machine that followed at the same institute is sometimes offered as a distractor here.