Science and Technology

Science and Technology is one of the most important topics in SSC CGL General Awareness. Every year, 2 to 3 questions directly come from this section. Questions focus on ISRO missions, defence technology, nuclear programme, satellites, inventions, digital initiatives and space milestones. This chapter covers all major Indian space missions, defence missiles, nuclear power plants, IT initiatives and important scientific discoveries relevant to competitive exams. Students who memorize the key facts about each mission, its launch date, objective and achievement can score guaranteed marks from this section.

1. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

ISRO is India's national space agency responsible for space research and exploration. It has made India a major space power through numerous successful missions.

1.1 Basic Facts about ISRO

• ISRO stands for Indian Space Research Organisation
• Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka
• Established: August 15, 1969
• Founded by: Dr. Vikram Sarabhai - called the Father of Indian Space Programme
• Current chairman reports to: Department of Space under the Prime Minister's Office
• India's first rocket was launched from Thumba, Kerala in 1963
• The rocket used was a Nike-Apache sounding rocket

1.2 Launch Vehicles of ISRO

• SLV (Satellite Launch Vehicle)
  • India's first launch vehicle
  • SLV-3 successfully launched Rohini satellite on July 18, 1980
  • India became the sixth country to have indigenous launch vehicle capability
• ASLV (Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle)
  • Upgraded version of SLV
  • Had mixed success
• PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle)
  • Most reliable and versatile launch vehicle of ISRO
  • First successful launch: October 15, 1994
  • Used for launching satellites into polar and sun-synchronous orbits
  • Record: PSLV-C37 launched 104 satellites in a single mission on February 15, 2017 - world record at the time
  • Used for Chandrayaan-1 and Mangalyaan missions
• GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle)
  • Used for heavier satellites into geostationary orbit
  • GSLV Mk III (now called LVM3) - India's heaviest rocket
  • Used for Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3 missions
  • GSLV Mk III launched OneWeb satellites commercially

1.3 Chandrayaan Missions (Moon Missions)

• Chandrayaan-1
  • India's first Moon mission
  • Launch date: October 22, 2008
  • Launch vehicle: PSLV-C11
  • Key achievement: Discovered presence of water molecules on the Moon
  • Moon Impact Probe released by Chandrayaan-1 confirmed water ice
• Chandrayaan-2
  • India's second Moon mission
  • Launch date: July 22, 2019
  • Launch vehicle: GSLV Mk III-M1
  • Components: Orbiter, Vikram lander and Pragyan rover
  • The lander Vikram crashed during landing on September 7, 2019
  • The orbiter continues to function and send data
• Chandrayaan-3
  • India's third Moon mission - historic success
  • Launch date: July 14, 2023
  • Landing date: August 23, 2023
  • Landing site: South Pole of the Moon - India became the first country to land near the Moon's South Pole
  • India became the fourth country to land on the Moon (after USA, Russia, China)
  • Components: Propulsion module, Vikram lander and Pragyan rover
  • The rover Pragyan operated on the lunar surface for 14 days

1.4 Mangalyaan - Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)

• Mangalyaan is India's first Mars mission
• Official name: Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)
• Launch date: November 5, 2013
• Launch vehicle: PSLV-C25
• Entered Mars orbit: September 24, 2014
• India became the first country to reach Mars orbit in its first attempt
• India became the fourth space agency to reach Mars (after NASA, Soviet Space Programme, ESA)
• India became the first Asian country to reach Mars orbit
• Cost: approximately Rs. 450 crore - cheapest Mars mission in history at the time
• Communication with Mangalyaan was lost in 2022

1.5 Aditya-L1 - Sun Mission

• Aditya-L1 is India's first dedicated solar mission
• Launch date: September 2, 2023
• Placed at Lagrange Point 1 (L1) between Earth and Sun - about 1.5 million km from Earth
• Objective: Study the Sun's corona, solar winds and solar flares
• India became the first country from the developing world to launch a dedicated solar mission

1.6 Gaganyaan Mission

• Gaganyaan is India's human spaceflight mission
• Objective: Send Indian astronauts (Vyomanauts) to space and bring them back safely
• Target orbit: 400 km above Earth
• Duration: 3 days in space
• Four astronauts selected: Group Captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Pratap and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla
• India will become the fourth country to independently send humans to space (after Russia, USA, China)

1.7 Other Important ISRO Missions

• Aryabhata - India's first satellite - launched April 19, 1975 by Soviet Union
• APPLE (Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment) - India's first geostationary satellite - 1981
• IRS (Indian Remote Sensing) satellites - for earth observation
• INSAT (Indian National Satellite System) - for communication and meteorology
• IRNSS/NavIC - India's own navigation system - equivalent to GPS - covers India and nearby region
  • NavIC stands for Navigation with Indian Constellation
  • Constellation of 7 satellites
• RISAT - Radar Imaging Satellite - all-weather earth observation
• GSAT satellites - communication satellites
• Cartosat satellites - cartography and mapping satellites
• Astrosat - India's first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory - launched September 28, 2015
• XPoSat - X-ray Polarimeter Satellite - launched January 1, 2024 - studies X-ray sources in the universe

1.8 Space Centres of ISRO

• VSSC (Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre) - Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala - develops launch vehicles
• SDSC SHAR (Satish Dhawan Space Centre) - Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh - launch pad
• ISAC (ISRO Satellite Centre / U.R. Rao Satellite Centre) - Bengaluru - develops satellites
• SAC (Space Applications Centre) - Ahmedabad - develops payloads and applications
• NRSC (National Remote Sensing Centre) - Hyderabad - remote sensing
• ISTRAC (ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network) - Bengaluru - tracks satellites

2. Defence Technology

India has developed a strong defence technology capability through DRDO and other organisations.

2.1 DRDO

• DRDO stands for Defence Research and Development Organisation
• Headquarters: New Delhi
• Established: 1958
• Works under the Ministry of Defence
• India's premier defence research organisation

2.2 Missile Systems

• BrahMos
  • Joint venture between India (DRDO) and Russia (NPO Mashinostroyenia)
  • Named after rivers Brahmaputra (India) and Moskva (Russia)
  • World's fastest supersonic cruise missile in operation
  • Speed: approximately Mach 2.8 to 3.0 (nearly 3 times speed of sound)
  • Can be launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air
  • Range: approximately 290-500 km
• Agni Missiles (Ballistic Missiles)
  • Agni-I: Range 700-800 km - short range
  • Agni-II: Range 2000-3000 km - medium range
  • Agni-III: Range 3500-5000 km - intermediate range
  • Agni-IV: Range 3500-4000 km - intermediate range
  • Agni-V: Range 5000-8000 km - intercontinental range - can reach most of China, Europe
  • Agni-VI: Under development - MIRV (Multiple Independently targetable Re-entry Vehicles) capability
• Prithvi Missiles (Surface-to-Surface)
  • Prithvi-I: Range 150 km - Army version
  • Prithvi-II: Range 250-350 km - Air Force version
  • Prithvi-III: Range 350-600 km - Naval version
  • Dhanush: Naval version of Prithvi
• Other Important Missiles
  • Astra: Air-to-Air beyond visual range missile - first indigenous BVR missile
  • Nag: Anti-tank guided missile - also called the "Nag missile system" or NAMICA
  • Akash: Surface-to-Air missile - medium range - for air defence
  • Trishul: Surface-to-Air short range missile
  • Pinaka: Multi-barrel rocket launcher system
  • K-4: Submarine-launched ballistic missile
  • Shaurya: Hypersonic surface-to-surface missile

2.3 Nuclear Programme

• India's nuclear programme was started by Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha - called the Father of Indian Nuclear Programme
• Pokhran-I (Operation Smiling Buddha)
  • India's first nuclear test
  • Date: May 18, 1974
  • Location: Pokhran, Rajasthan
  • PM at the time: Indira Gandhi
  • India became the sixth country to test nuclear weapons
• Pokhran-II (Operation Shakti)
  • India's second nuclear test (series of 5 tests)
  • Date: May 11-13, 1998
  • Location: Pokhran, Rajasthan
  • PM at the time: Atal Bihari Vajpayee
  • National Technology Day is celebrated on May 11 to commemorate this
• India's Nuclear Doctrine: No First Use (NFU) policy - India will not be the first to use nuclear weapons

2.4 Nuclear Power Plants

India has multiple nuclear power plants generating electricity:

• Tarapur Atomic Power Station - Maharashtra - India's first and oldest nuclear power plant
• Rawatbhata (RAPS) - Rajasthan
• Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) - Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu
• Narora Atomic Power Station - Uttar Pradesh
• Kakrapar Atomic Power Station - Gujarat
• Kaiga Generating Station - Karnataka
• Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant - Tamil Nadu - built with Russian assistance - India's largest nuclear power plant by capacity
• Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojana - Haryana (under construction)

2.5 Atomic Energy

• DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) - reports directly to the Prime Minister
• BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre) - Mumbai - premier nuclear research centre
• AERB (Atomic Energy Regulatory Board) - regulates nuclear safety
• NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited) - operates nuclear power plants
• NFC (Nuclear Fuel Complex) - Hyderabad - manufactures nuclear fuel

3. Digital India and IT Initiatives

3.1 Digital India Programme

• Digital India was launched by PM Narendra Modi on July 1, 2015
• Objective: Transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy
• Three core components:
  • Digital Infrastructure as Utility to Every Citizen
  • Governance and Services on Demand
  • Digital Empowerment of Citizens

3.2 Important Digital Initiatives

• UPI (Unified Payments Interface)
  • Developed by NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India)
  • Launched in 2016
  • Allows instant bank-to-bank money transfer using mobile phones
• Aadhaar
  • Unique identification system managed by UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India)
  • 12-digit unique identification number
  • World's largest biometric ID system
• CoWIN
  • Platform for COVID-19 vaccine registration and certificate
• DigiLocker
  • Digital document storage platform
  • Part of Digital India initiative
• BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money)
  • Payment app based on UPI
  • Named after Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
• RuPay
  • India's own domestic card payment network
  • Developed by NPCI
• Common Service Centres (CSC)
  • Village-level service delivery points for e-governance

3.3 IT Organizations and Institutions

• NASSCOM - National Association of Software and Service Companies - India's IT industry body
• C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) - Pune - develops indigenous supercomputers
  • PARAM Supercomputers developed by C-DAC
• IIT (Indian Institutes of Technology) - premier engineering institutes - first IIT established at Kharagpur in 1951
• NIC (National Informatics Centre) - provides IT solutions to government

4. Important Inventions and Discoveries

4.1 Indian Inventions and Discoveries

• Zero - concept developed by Aryabhata and Brahmagupta in ancient India
• Decimal system - originated in India
• Chess (Chaturanga) - originated in India around 6th century AD
• Yoga - originated in ancient India
• Wootz Steel (Damascus Steel) - high quality steel originated in India
• Shampoo - originated in India - word comes from Hindi word "Champo"
• Buttons - originated in Indus Valley Civilisation

4.2 Important Scientific Discoveries by Indians

• Raman Effect - C.V. Raman (1928) - scattering of light - Nobel Prize 1930
• Bose-Einstein Statistics - Satyendra Nath Bose - collaborated with Albert Einstein
• Bosons - elementary particles named after Satyendra Nath Bose - Higgs Boson discovered in 2012
• Saha Ionisation Equation - Meghnad Saha - explains stellar spectra
• Ramanujan's mathematical contributions - Srinivasa Ramanujan - number theory, infinite series
• Har Gobind Khorana - cracked genetic code - Nobel Prize in Medicine 1968
• Venkatraman Ramakrishnan - Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009 - ribosome structure

4.3 World Famous Inventions

• Telephone - Alexander Graham Bell (1876)
• Electric Bulb - Thomas Edison (1879)
• Penicillin - Alexander Fleming (1928)
• X-ray - Wilhelm Roentgen (1895)
• Radio - Guglielmo Marconi (1895) - but Jagadish Chandra Bose is credited by many for earlier demonstrations
• Television - John Logie Baird (1926)
• Computer - Charles Babbage - designed Analytical Engine (considered father of computers)
• World Wide Web - Tim Berners-Lee (1989)
• Dynamite - Alfred Nobel (1867)
• Printing Press - Johannes Gutenberg (1440)
• Steam Engine - James Watt (1769)
• Airplane - Wright Brothers (Orville and Wilbur Wright) (1903)
• Vaccination - Edward Jenner (1796) - smallpox vaccine
• DNA Structure - James Watson and Francis Crick (1953) - double helix model

5. Satellites and Space Technology - Key Facts

• India's first satellite: Aryabhata - launched April 19, 1975
• India's first communication satellite: APPLE - 1981
• India's first remote sensing satellite: IRS-1A - 1988
• India's navigation system: NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) - 7 satellites
• Largest earth observation satellite of ISRO: Cartosat-3
• India's first dedicated astronomy satellite: Astrosat - 2015
• PSLV world record: 104 satellites in one launch - February 15, 2017
• First country to land on Moon's South Pole: India (Chandrayaan-3, 2023)
• First country to reach Mars in first attempt: India (Mangalyaan, 2014)

6. Biotechnology and Health Technology

• CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) - New Delhi - India's largest R&D organisation - 37 national laboratories
• ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) - New Delhi - apex body for biomedical research
• DBT (Department of Biotechnology) - promotes biotechnology development
• Covaxin - India's first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine - developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR
• Covishield - COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India - based on Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine
• PARAM supercomputers - India's indigenous supercomputer series - developed by C-DAC
  • PARAM Siddhi-AI - India's first AI supercomputer

7. Important Scientific Organizations of India

• ISRO - Indian Space Research Organisation - Bengaluru - space research
• DRDO - Defence Research and Development Organisation - New Delhi - defence research
• CSIR - Council of Scientific and Industrial Research - New Delhi - scientific research
• DAE - Department of Atomic Energy - Mumbai - atomic energy
• BARC - Bhabha Atomic Research Centre - Mumbai - nuclear research
• ICMR - Indian Council of Medical Research - New Delhi - medical research
• DST - Department of Science and Technology - New Delhi - science policy
• ICAR - Indian Council of Agricultural Research - New Delhi - agricultural research
• IMD - India Meteorological Department - New Delhi - weather forecasting
• GSI - Geological Survey of India - Kolkata - geological mapping
• IARI - Indian Agricultural Research Institute (Pusa Institute) - New Delhi
• NIO - National Institute of Oceanography - Goa - ocean research
• NCL - National Chemical Laboratory - Pune
• TIFR - Tata Institute of Fundamental Research - Mumbai - fundamental research

8. Important One-Liners - Science and Technology

• ISRO established - August 15, 1969 - Bengaluru
• Father of Indian Space Programme - Dr. Vikram Sarabhai
• India's first rocket launch - 1963 - Thumba, Kerala - Nike-Apache
• India's first satellite - Aryabhata - April 19, 1975
• PSLV first successful launch - October 15, 1994
• PSLV-C37 record - 104 satellites in one launch - February 15, 2017
• Chandrayaan-1 launched - October 22, 2008 - PSLV-C11 - discovered water on Moon
• Chandrayaan-2 launched - July 22, 2019 - GSLV Mk III - Vikram lander crashed
• Chandrayaan-3 launched - July 14, 2023 - landed August 23, 2023 - Moon South Pole
• India first country to land on Moon's South Pole - Chandrayaan-3
• India fourth country to land on Moon - after USA, Russia, China
• Mangalyaan launched - November 5, 2013 - PSLV-C25 - reached Mars September 24, 2014
• India first country to reach Mars in first attempt - Mangalyaan
• India first Asian country to reach Mars orbit
• Aditya-L1 launched - September 2, 2023 - solar mission - Lagrange Point 1
• Gaganyaan - India's human spaceflight mission - 400 km orbit - 3 days
• NavIC - India's navigation system - 7 satellites - equivalent to GPS
• Astrosat - India's first astronomy satellite - September 28, 2015
• DRDO established - 1958 - New Delhi - Ministry of Defence
• BrahMos - joint India-Russia supersonic cruise missile - Mach 2.8 to 3.0
• BrahMos named after - Brahmaputra (India) and Moskva (Russia)
• Agni-V range - 5000-8000 km - intercontinental range
• Pokhran-I (Operation Smiling Buddha) - May 18, 1974 - Indira Gandhi PM
• Pokhran-II (Operation Shakti) - May 11-13, 1998 - Atal Bihari Vajpayee PM
• Father of Indian Nuclear Programme - Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha
• India's nuclear doctrine - No First Use (NFU)
• Tarapur - India's first nuclear power plant - Maharashtra
• Kudankulam - India's largest nuclear power plant - Tamil Nadu - Russian assistance
• BARC - Bhabha Atomic Research Centre - Mumbai
• Digital India launched - July 1, 2015 - PM Narendra Modi
• Aadhaar - managed by UIDAI - 12-digit unique ID - world's largest biometric system
• UPI launched - 2016 - NPCI - instant bank transfer
• BHIM app - named after Dr. B.R. Ambedkar - UPI based
• RuPay - India's own card payment network - NPCI
• First IIT - Kharagpur - 1951
• C-DAC - Centre for Development of Advanced Computing - Pune - PARAM supercomputers
• Raman Effect discovered - C.V. Raman - 1928 - Nobel Prize 1930
• Bosons named after - Satyendra Nath Bose
• Covaxin - India's first indigenous COVID vaccine - Bharat Biotech - ICMR collaboration
• Covishield - Serum Institute of India - Oxford-AstraZeneca based
• CSIR - Council of Scientific and Industrial Research - New Delhi - 37 laboratories
• ICMR - Indian Council of Medical Research - New Delhi - apex biomedical research body
• Astrosat - India's first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory - 2015
• XPoSat - X-ray Polarimeter Satellite - January 1, 2024