Science & Technology Current Affairs MCQs

Notes:
The Telecom Centres of Excellence (TCoE) recently signed agreements with key partners to launch the Samriddh Gram Phygital Services Pilot Project. The project aims to transform rural India by combining physical and digital (phygital) services. It integrates on-ground service delivery with strong digital infrastructure to empower rural citizens. The initiative uses BharatNet connectivity to ensure smooth and sustainable access to essential services. Three villages have been selected for the pilot — Ari and Umri in Madhya Pradesh, Narakoduru in Andhra Pradesh, and Chaurawala in Uttar Pradesh. Each village will have a Samriddhi Kendra serving as an integrated digital service hub.

Notes:
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has invited Expressions of Interest (EoI) from organisations and manufacturers to develop monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against Nipah viral disease. Nipah virus is a zoonotic pathogen from the Paramyxoviridae family. In India and Bangladesh, the Bangladesh clade (NiV-B) is dominant, known for high virulence and human-to-human transmission. The fatality rate ranges between 40% and 75%, depending on treatment and outbreak control. Fruit bats (flying foxes) are the natural reservoirs, spreading the virus to humans and animals like pigs, goats, and cats.

Notes:
Eli Lilly’s weight-loss drug Mounjaro became India’s top-selling drug by value in October 2025. It overtook GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) Augmentin, a widely used antibiotic. Mounjaro earned ₹1 billion ($11.38 million) in October, while Augmentin made ₹800 million. By volume, Augmentin sold 5,784 units, whereas Mounjaro sold only 85 units due to its high price. Mounjaro helps control blood sugar and slow digestion and belongs to the GLP-1 receptor agonist class used for obesity and diabetes. It was launched in India in March 2025 and has earned ₹3.33 billion till October. Mounjaro’s consumption was 10 times higher than rival Wegovy by Novo Nordisk, launched in June 2025. Eli Lilly sold 262,000 units, while Novo Nordisk sold 26,000 units in October.

Notes:
Scientists from ARIES (Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences), IIA (Indian Institute of Astrophysics) and global collaborators have recreated more than 100 years of the Sun’s polar magnetic history. They used archival data and old solar images from the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory (KoSO) to complete this long-term reconstruction. Kodaikanal Solar Observatory (KoSO) is one of India’s oldest and globally recognised solar observatories with over 120 years of uninterrupted solar observation. It is located in the Palani Hills of Tamil Nadu and operates as a field station of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru.

Notes:
A 3.5-billion-year-old crater on Mars is named after Indian geologist M. S. Krishnan. The naming was approved by the International Astronomical Union. The International Astronomical Union was founded in 1919. It promotes astronomy research, education, and global cooperation. It standardizes astronomical constants and naming of celestial bodies. It alone has the authority to name planets, craters, and space features. It holds a General Assembly every three years. Its headquarters is in Paris.

Notes:
Russia successfully launched a new set of undisclosed military satellites. The launch vehicle used was the Angara-1.2 light rocket. It was conducted from Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Plesetsk is the world’s northernmost spaceport. The exact number and purpose of the satellites were not disclosed. The mission was carried out for the Russian Defence Ministry. It was executed by a combat crew of the Aerospace Forces.

Notes:
ISRO Chairman V Narayanan inaugurated Ananth Technologies’ Ananth Centre of Excellence for Navigation (ACEN) in Thiruvananthapuram. ACEN is India’s first private-sector navigation innovation hub. Ananth Technologies, founded in 1992, contributes to ISRO and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) missions with expertise in precision sensors, airworthiness, and system integration. Navigation is crucial for missiles, aircraft, ships, and satellites; reliance on foreign GPS revealed strategic vulnerabilities. ACEN will handle Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) of navigation systems domestically.

Notes:
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is declared over after 42 days without new cases, confirmed by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) health officials and the World Health Organization (WHO). Ebola, caused by orthoebolaviruses, first discovered in 1976 in DRC near the Ebola River, leads to severe hemorrhagic fever with internal bleeding. It spreads from wild animals like fruit bats and non-human primates, and among humans through direct contact with infected body fluids, not through air.

Notes:
Meta is reportedly in advanced talks with Google to use its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). A Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) is a special chip made to speed up Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tasks. TPUs, developed by Google in 2016, power applications like Google Search, Translate and Photos. They are now widely used in data centres and cloud computing for large AI workloads. TPUs work on tensor computations, which are multi-dimensional data arrays used in deep learning. They offer massive parallel processing, low power use and specialised circuits for AI tasks.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently launched RESPOND Basket 2025. The programme invites research proposals from premier universities and recognised academic and R&D institutions. It focuses on areas relevant to ISRO’s upcoming missions and national priorities. RESPOND Basket 2025 supports projects including the Bharatiya Antariksh Station, Chandrayaan-4, Gaganyaan missions, Venus orbiter, and a human Moon landing. The initiative aims to strengthen collaboration between ISRO and academic institutions and foster research aligned with India’s space ambitions.