Science & Technology Current Affairs MCQs

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The MANI app, which stands for Mobile Aided Note Identifier Application, was launched by the Reserve Bank of India. It helps the visually challenged people to identify the denomination of the currency. The mobile’s camera scans the currency note and identifies the denomination through audio output.

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 Recently, Telengana Government organised an event to declare the year 2020 as the year of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In the event, Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were signed with several technological firms and institutions for development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) research in the state. As per the partnerships, a Centre for Research in Applied Artificial Intelligence (CRiAA) and a Research & Development (R&D) park will be soon set up in Telengana.

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China recently added a significant bullet train to its Fuxing series of bullet trains. The recently added train is capable to ply with a speed up to 350 kilometres per hour. Another great feature of the train is it could run without a driver for operating the train.
The new train would connect the cities of Beijing and Zhangjiakou and is expected to be deployed during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Each seat of the train is furnished with a touch screen and a wireless charging port. The train also features 5G connectivity and removable seats to assist Paralympians.

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The world’s largest solar telescope called The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) has captured its first image of the sun, which has turned out to be the highest-resolution image of the star, till date.
The telescope captured the newly released image of the sun using its Visible Broadband Imager (VBI), which was the only operational instrument in the telescope during the time. The VBI takes extremely high-resolution images of the solar surface and lower atmosphere. The telescope is scheduled to be made fully operational by July 2020, with the remaining instruments being turned on.

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BioAsia is an annual biotech and life sciences forum of the Telangana state government, which is scheduled to be held from February 17 to 19, 2020 at Hyderabad. Switzerland is the partner nation for the event.
Recently, the Genome Valley Excellence Award of BioAsia were announced to Carl H June, a scientist from the University of Pennsylvania, USA and Vasant Narasimham, CEO of multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis

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The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) of the Ministry of Communication has recently launched ‘5G Hackathon’ in association with government and industry stakeholders.
The Hackathon aims to convert new ideas into feasible 5-G products and solutions in the country. All students, start-ups, SMEs, academic institutions and registered companies in India and even NRIs can participate in the event.

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The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) recently collaborated with NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) to launch an artificial intelligence (AI) based module for Indian school students.
The AI-Base Module is to be implemented in nearly 5,000 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) and is expected to reach as many as 2.5 million students. The module with activities and videos on AI concepts is to be introduced from 27 February.

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SuChek is a completely indigenous and affordable glucometer which is suitable for varied climatic conditions. It is validated as per International standards and has been developed with financial assistance from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
An application called ‘mDiabetes’ has been launched for generating awareness about the non-communicable disease, promoting adherence to treatment and instructing healthy habits among the general public.

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Microsoft Bing team has launched a web portal for tracking COVID-19 infections worldwide. The interactive website has been developed to provide up-to-date infection statistics for each country.
It also features an interactive map for number of cases for specific location and related articles from publishers. The portal hosts the data from reliable sources like the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

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Kerala has launched an initiative to use robots for creating awareness on COVID-19 among the public. Two robots have been built by a start-up in Kerala called Asimov Robotics, under the Kerala Start-up Mission, an initiative by the state government to promote start-up firms.
One wears a mask and distributes hand sanitisers, napkins, and masks to people while the other robot responds to queries. They are deployed in Kochi on a pilot basis.