What does the E3 in the BioE3 framework, under which the PLA biodegradable plastic venture was launched, stand for?

The correct answer is Uttar Pradesh. The pilot scale research facility of 100 TPA for Polylactic Acid and co-polymers is to be built inside the integrated manufacturing complex of Balrampur Chini Mills Limited at Kumbhi in Uttar Pradesh, while the launch event itself was held at the Department of Biotechnology in New Delhi. Option B is wrong because Maharashtra, although a large sugar producing state, is not the site named in this announcement. Option C is wrong because Karnataka hosts many biotechnology firms but has no role in this particular facility. Option D is wrong because Bihar is not mentioned in the release at all. Aspirants should link the site Kumbhi with Uttar Pradesh, the company with Balrampur Chini Mills, the grant with BIRAC under the Department of Biotechnology and the material with PLA.

The correct answer is the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, known as BIRAC, which functions under the Department of Biotechnology. Its grant of Rs 75 crore supports the pilot scale research facility of 100 TPA for Polylactic Acid and advanced co-polymers that Balrampur Chini Mills will operate at Kumbhi in Uttar Pradesh. Option A is wrong because NITI Aayog is a policy think tank and does not hand out research grants of this kind. Option B is wrong because the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research runs its own laboratory network and was not named in this launch. Option D is wrong because the Technology Development Board finances commercialisation of indigenous technology through a separate route and has no part in this particular grant. Dr Rajesh Sudhir Gokhale, Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology, is also the Chairman of BIRAC.

The correct answer is TRL-6 to TRL-9. Technology Readiness Level is a scale for how far a technology has travelled from an idea towards routine use, and the stretch named here is the late one: a system already demonstrated in conditions close to the real environment has to be engineered, tested and validated until it is proven in actual service. The Board describes its role in exactly those terms, as support through the critical stages between advanced development and deployment, with commercialisation as the eventual aim. Options A and B describe earlier stages, where the work is closer to laboratory research than to flight hardware, and a candidate who assumes that public funding always goes to early research will be drawn to them. Option D stops short of the top of the scale and so does not match the stated goal of reaching deployment.

The correct answer is Synthetic Aperture Radar and electro-optical imaging, and the name of the technology is itself the clue, since Opto stands for the optical sensor and SAR for the radar. The two are put on one platform because their weaknesses do not overlap: optical imaging gives rich visual detail but is defeated by cloud cover and by darkness, while radar works irrespective of daylight and can image through cloud. Fusing the two data streams therefore yields a fuller and less interrupted view of the ground, which is what makes wide-area surveillance, detection of people and vehicles and classification of targets possible in all weather. Options B, C and D list real remote-sensing techniques, but none of them is the pair named here, and option D also includes sonar, which works in water rather than from orbit.

The correct answer is Rs 247.69 crore. This is the approved cost of the whole project, of which the Technology Development Board is supporting a part from the Research Development and Innovation Fund, the rest being borne by the company. The distinction matters because a public fund of this kind is meant to share the risk of a costly technology programme rather than to pay for it outright, which is also why the support takes the form of optionally convertible debentures. Options A, C and D keep the decimal part and change only the leading digit, so a candidate who has memorised the figure loosely will not be able to separate them. Pair the two numbers in your notes as support and total cost, and the pair becomes easier to recall than either figure on its own.