Science & Technology Current Affairs MCQs

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The Assam Government recently banned inter-district movement of live pigs to stop the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF), a rising concern in the region. African Swine Fever (ASF) is a highly contagious and deadly viral disease affecting pigs and wild boar, with mortality up to 90–100%. It is not zoonotic, meaning it does not infect humans or other livestock. First found in sub-Saharan Africa, ASF is now present across Europe, Asia and Africa, with India reporting its first cases in 2020 in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

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Telangana’s 1 Bio, India’s first single-use bioprocess design and scale-up facility, was inaugurated at Genome Valley, Hyderabad. It was created to solve the lack of affordable bioprocess scale-up infrastructure despite Telangana’s strong biotech talent. The facility supports start-ups and big companies with end-to-end process development and pilot validation. It was developed by the Government of Telangana, Telangana Lifesciences, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, and Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TGIIC). It has 500-litre bioreactors, advanced processing systems, and analytical labs.

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Researchers at National Centre for Radio Astrophysics – Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA–TIFR), Pune, discovered a new spiral galaxy named Alaknanda. It lies 12 billion light years away and shows a perfect spiral structure. The name comes from the Alaknanda River and the Hindi word for the Milky Way. The galaxy spans 30,000 light years, with two clear spiral arms around a bright central bulge. It forms stars rapidly, producing 60 solar masses per year. It resembles a young Milky Way, formed when our galaxy was only 10% of its current age. The discovery was made using National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

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NASA has lost contact with its MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft, which has been orbiting Mars since 2014. MAVEN stopped communicating after it went behind Mars, and NASA received only silence when it reappeared. The spacecraft was launched in 2013 as the first mission dedicated to studying the Martian upper atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. MAVEN helped show that the Sun stripped Mars of its atmosphere over time and also served as a relay for Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. NASA is currently conducting engineering investigations while its other orbiters, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey, remain operational.

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Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) informed that CSIR–Central Food Technological Research Institute (CSIR–CFTRI), Mysuru worked on four Grant-in-Aid projects on annatto. Annatto is a natural food colour and flavour from seeds of the achiote tree (Bixa orellana), native to tropical Americas. Nearly 70% of natural food colours come from annatto, giving yellow-orange colour to cheese, butter, yogurt, sausages, smoked fish, ice cream, and baked goods. Colour comes from carotenoid pigments; seeds are ground into powder or paste or extracted as dye. It adds mild peppery, nutty and floral flavour; safe in normal amounts but may cause allergies.

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BharatNet is an ambitious Government of India project approved in 2011 to provide broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the country. It aims to offer open and unrestricted broadband access to telecom operators, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Cable TV operators, and content providers to enable services such as e-health, e-education, and e-governance in rural areas. Phase I is complete and Phase II is ongoing and aims to connect 1.5 lakh additional Gram Panchayats. Phase III is ongoing and focuses on future-proofing the network by integrating 5G technology.

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Scientists recently discovered a genetic process that could lead to new treatments for Candida auris (C. auris). Candida auris is a multi-drug-resistant fungal pathogen first identified in Japan in 2009. It can live on skin, inside the body (e.g., gut), or in the environment and cause invasive infections like bloodstream infections, meningitis, bone infections, wound infections, and urinary tract infections. Transmission mainly occurs in healthcare settings through contaminated surfaces or person-to-person contact. The fungus can cause asymptomatic colonization or enter the bloodstream/wounds causing severe infections.

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has lost contact with the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft. MAVEN is a Mars orbiter that studied how the planet’s atmosphere escapes into space for over ten years. It is the first mission dedicated to studying the upper atmosphere of Mars. It is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program to understand Mars and its past habitability. The mission studied how atmospheric loss changed Mars’s climate over time.

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The first Param Rudra supercomputer in Bihar was inaugurated at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Patna. The facility has been established under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) and was launched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). It is the first Param Rudra supercomputer set up in any institute or government office in Bihar. The supercomputer will enable students, faculty, and researchers to perform complex computing across multiple scientific fields.

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The Delhi government, in partnership with IIT Kanpur, is set to implement an Intelligent Grievance Monitoring System (IGMS) to enhance governance transparency and efficiency. IGMS is an AI-powered platform that will integrate Delhi’s key grievance redressal portals into a single unified dashboard, enabling faster resolutions, smarter analysis, and improved public service delivery. Currently, citizens lodge complaints through multiple disconnected platforms, including Public Grievance Management System (PGMS), which can cause delays, duplication, and limited oversight. The new system will integrate these portals using secure APIs, artificial intelligence, and machine learning tools for seamless operation.