Wednesday, February 19, 2020

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN INDIA - 2 - ANSWERS



1. A. Antrix


Antrix Corporation Limited (ACL), Bengaluru is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) wholly owned by the Government of India under the administrative control of the Department of Space. It was incorporated in September 1992 to commercially exploit ISRO's space products, services and technologies. It was awarded 'Miniratna' status by the government in 2008.

As the commercial and marketing arm of ISRO, Antrix is engaged in providing Space products and  services to international customers worldwide. With fully equipped state-of-the-art facilities, Antrix provides end-to-end solution for many of the space products, ranging from supply of hardware and software including simple subsystems to a complex spacecraft, for varied applications covering communications, earth observation and scientific missions; space related services including remote sensing data service, Transponder lease service; Launch services through the operational launch vehicles (PSLV and GSLV); Mission support services; and a host of consultancy and training services.


2. C. Raja Ramanna



Raja Ramanna (born January 28, 1925, Tumkur, Mysore — died September 24, 2004, Mumbai), was an Indian nuclear physicist who played a key role in the development of that country’s nuclear weapons program.

In 1949,  after completing a doctoral degree in physics at King’s College, London, Ramanna joined the Indian nuclear science program at the Atomic Energy Establishment in Trombay where he worked under physicist Homi Jehangir Bhabha, for whom the establishment was later renamed "Bhabha Atomic Research Centre" (BARC). Ramanna served as director of BARC (1972–78 and 1981–83) and oversaw the country’s first nuclear weapons test (1974) code-named as "Smiling Buddha". He also headed India’s Atomic Energy Commission (1984–87) and served as the Secretary for Defense Research (1978–81) and as the Minister of State for Defense (1990) in V.P.Singh's  Govt.




3. B. Wheeler Island


"Abdul Kalam Island", formerly known as Wheeler Island, is an island off the coast of Odisha. The island was originally named after English commandant Lieutenant Hugh Wheeler. On 4 September 2015, the island was renamed to honour the late Indian president, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.


The Odisha government allotted Abdul Kalam Island to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in 1993, following A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's request for land to build a missile testing facility - "The Integrated Test Range" - a missile testing facility composed of two complexes - Launch Complex-IV (LC-IV) located on Abdul Kalam Island (Wheeler Island) and Launch Complex-III (LC-III) located at Chandipur, Balasore, Odisha. Abdul Kalam Island is the missile test facility for most missiles of India:- Akash Missiles, Agni Missiles, Astra Missile, BrahMos, Nirbhay, Prahaar Missile, Prithvi Missiles, Shaurya Missile, Advanced Air Defence (AAD), Prithvi Air Defence etc.

Abdul Kalam Island is located close to the "Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary", the world's largest breeding ground of the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtle.



4. A. Crescograph




Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (Born 30 November 1858 – Mymensingh, Bengal, India (now in Bangladesh) — died November 23, 1937, Giridih, Bihar) was a polymath, physicist, biologist, biophysicist, botanist and archaeologist, and an early writer of science fiction in British India. He pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made significant contributions to plant science and laid the foundations of experimental science in the Indian subcontinent. “Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers” (IEEE), New Jersey, USA named him one of the “Fathers of Radio Science”.


After graduating from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta, Bose went to the University of London, England to study medicine, but could not pursue studies in medicine because of health problems. Instead, he conducted his research with the Nobel Laureate Lord Rayleigh at Cambridge and returned to India. He joined the Presidency College of the University of Calcutta as a Professor of Physics. There, despite racial discrimination and a lack of funding and equipment, Bose carried on his scientific research. He made remarkable progress in his research of remote wireless signaling and was the first to use semiconductor junctions to detect radio signals. However, instead of trying to gain commercial benefit from this invention, Bose made his inventions public in order to allow others to further develop his research.


Bose subsequently made a number of pioneering discoveries in plant physiology. He used his own invention, the “crescograph”, to measure plant response to various stimuli, and thereby scientifically proved parallelism between animal and plant tissues. His books on plants include “Response in the Living and Non-Living” (1902) and “The Nervous Mechanism of Plants” (1926).


In 1896, Bose wrote “Niruddesher Kahini” (The Story of the Missing One), a short story that was later expanded and added to Abyakta collection in 1921 with the new title “Palatak Tuphan” (Runaway Cyclone). It was one of the first works of Bengali science fiction.




In 2004, Bose was ranked number 7 in BBC's poll of the Greatest Bengali of all time. A crater on the moon has been named in his honour.



5. C. VSNL

The first publicly available internet service in India was launched by state-owned "Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited" (VSNL) on 15 August 1995. The initial launch of Internet in 1995 was with dial-up access with speeds of upto 9.6 kbps. By 1996, major newspapers such as the Times of India, the Hindu, the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times had set up websites; Rediff.com was launched; India’s first cyber cafe was launched in Mumbai.

VSNL was completely acquired by the Tata Group and renamed as "Tata Communications" in February, 2008.



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