With reference to 'LiFi', recently in the news, which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. It uses light as the medium for high-speed data transmission. 2. It is a wireless technology and is several times faster than 'WiFi'. Select the correct answer using the code given below.

The correct answer is B, Himachal Pradesh. Himansh was established in 2016 in the Spiti area of Himachal Pradesh, in the upper reaches of the Chandra basin, so that scientists can measure the mass balance, melt and movement of Himalayan glaciers through the year instead of only on short visits. The Himalayan cryosphere is often called the third pole, which is why this station sits in the same programme as the polar stations.

Option A, Uttarakhand, has many studied glaciers, including Gangotri, but not this station. Option C, Sikkim, and option D, Ladakh, also have glaciers under observation but no station of this name. Do not confuse Himansh in the Himalaya with Himadri in the Arctic; the names differ by two letters and the two stations are at opposite ends of this topic, one in Svalbard since 2008 and the other in Spiti since 2016.

The correct answer is A, the Central Indian Ocean Basin. India was the first country to be granted Pioneer Investor status by the International Seabed Authority, in 1987, and holds an exploration area of seventy-five thousand square kilometres in the Central Indian Ocean Basin for polymetallic nodules, which are lumps on the deep seabed rich in manganese, nickel, cobalt and copper.

Option B, the Bay of Bengal shelf, and option C, the Arabian Sea shelf, lie within India's own maritime zone and are shallow continental shelves where nodules of this kind do not form; they are fishing and hydrocarbon areas instead. Option D, the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific, is the world's richest nodule province and is contracted to several other countries, which makes it the best distractor. India also holds a contract for polymetallic sulphides along the Central and Southwest Indian Ridges.

The correct answer is B, the National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai. This autonomous institute of the Ministry of Earth Sciences designs and builds India's ocean engineering hardware, from desalination plants and moored buoys to deep-sea mining systems, and it is developing Matsya-6000 along with the systems that will support the dives.

Option A, the space agency, contributes expertise on welding and testing of the titanium sphere and on launch-grade materials, which is why it is a plausible wrong answer, but the submersible is not its project. Option C, the polar and ocean research centre in Goa, runs the polar expeditions and the Southern Ocean programme rather than vehicle development. Option D, the ocean information services centre in Hyderabad, issues ocean advisories and runs the tsunami early warning centre. All four bodies appear in this topic, so attach each to its own function.

The correct answer is B, three people to 6,000 metres. Matsya-6000 takes its name from the design depth of six thousand metres and is built to carry a crew of three inside a titanium personnel sphere. It is planned for about twelve hours of normal operation on a dive, with an endurance of roughly ninety-six hours in an emergency so that the crew can survive until rescue.

Option A understates both figures. Option C changes the crew to four, which the sphere is not sized for. Option D takes the depth to eleven thousand metres, which is close to the deepest point of the ocean in the Mariana Trench; only a handful of specialised vehicles in the world are built for that depth and Matsya-6000 is not one of them. The project under which the submersible is being built is called Samudrayaan, and it is the crewed component of the Deep Ocean Mission.

The correct answer is A, Ministry of Earth Sciences. The Cabinet approved the Deep Ocean Mission in June 2021 with this ministry as the implementing agency and an estimated cost of about 4,077 crore rupees spread over five years in phases. The ministry also controls the three institutes that carry out the work: the polar and ocean research centre in Goa, the ocean technology institute at Chennai and the ocean information services centre at Hyderabad.

Option B, the Ministry of Science and Technology, runs the departments of science and technology and of biotechnology, which have their own programmes but not this mission. Option C, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, deals with shipping and port infrastructure, which is part of the blue economy but not of this mission. Option D, the environment ministry, handles forests, wildlife and climate negotiations. The mission's six components are worth listing separately, since matching questions are set on them.