What is the total outlay of the PM E-DRIVE scheme?

The correct answer is PM E-DRIVE, the PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement scheme of the Ministry of Heavy Industries. GARC, which works under the National Automotive Board, is modernising its laboratories with funds from this scheme, and it has been allotted Rs 221.13 crore for the purpose. The scheme carries an outlay of Rs 10,900 crore and stays operational up to 31 March 2028, with Rs 780 crore of that amount kept aside for testing agencies alone. Option A, FAME India Phase II, is an earlier programme for electric mobility and is not the scheme named here. Option C, PM-KUSUM, deals with solar pumps for farmers and has nothing to do with automotive testing. Option D, the production-linked incentive scheme for advanced chemistry cell batteries, supports manufacturing capacity rather than the upgrading of testing agencies, so it too is wrong.

The correct answer is Oragadam, Chennai. The Global Automotive Research Centre sits at Oragadam on the outskirts of Chennai and works under the National Automotive Board of the Ministry of Heavy Industries. It is an authorised testing agency under Rule 126 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, which permits it to test vehicles and components and to carry out homologation and certification. Its new and upgraded facilities cover electric vehicle and battery testing to the AIS-156 standard, EMI and EMC testing under AIS-004 Part 3 Rev.1, heavy commercial vehicle testing, an improved powertrain laboratory, advanced passive safety testing and ADAS testing. Options A, C and D name places associated with other automotive testing and research establishments in the country, but none of them is the site of GARC, so each is incorrect here.

The correct answer is DBT, ICMR and CDSCO, that is the Department of Biotechnology, the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation. The minister said these three drew up a common framework for judging the safety, quality and effectiveness of nanopharmaceutical products, giving India a regulatory base alongside its research funding. Option B lists bodies that were not named in this context at all. Option C is wrong because BIRAC appeared in the speech as the route through which young biotechnology firms reach grants and partnership programmes, while NITI Aayog was mentioned only because one of its members attended the session. Option D is wrong because no hospital was named among the framers; the third partner with ICMR and CDSCO is the Department of Biotechnology.

The correct answer is Prof. Roger D. Kornberg, a Nobel Laureate from Stanford University in the United States, who chairs the congress and described nanomedicine as a young and quickly changing field whose promise is to deliver the right amount of a medicine to the right place at the right time, improving results while reducing toxicity. Option A is wrong because Prof. T. M. S. Chang of McGill University in Canada holds the separate post of Honorary President. Option B is wrong because Prof. Yogesh Singh attended as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi, the host university, not as Chairperson. Option D is wrong because Prof. Gobardhan Das was present as a Member of NITI Aayog among the distinguished participants at the inaugural session.

The correct answer is 210 projects with Rs 174 crore. The minister gave these numbers while setting out how the government funds nanomedicine, and said the work covers targeted drug delivery, cancer nanomedicine, infectious-disease nanomedicine, nucleic-acid and vaccine delivery, nano-diagnostics and imaging, regenerative medicine, wound healing and nanotoxicology with regulatory science. Options A and C swap the two figures or invent a fresh one, so they turn the count of projects into the money and the money into the count. Option D raises both numbers and matches nothing that was said. Aspirants should also link the funding to BIRAC, whose Biotechnology Ignition Grant, PACE, Small Business Innovation Research Initiative and Biotechnology Industry Partnership Programme help turn such research into enterprise.