Option A is correct answer.

• Statement 1 is incorrect. India would become the fourth nation in the world to launch a human spaceflight mission after Russia, China, and the USA

• Statement 2 is correct. The first trial will be unmanned and the second trial will include a female robot named ‘Vyommitra’

• Statement 3 is incorrect. The astronaut suit for the mission is jointly developed by india and russia.

Option A is correct answer.

• Statement 1 is correct. This Waste to Energy Plant, a patented technology called Polycrack. It is world’s first patented heterogeneous catalytic process which converts multiple feed stocks into hydrocarbon liquid fuels, gas, carbon and water.

• Statement 2 is incorrect. The process has high tolerance for moisture so drying of waste is not required.

• Statement 3 is correct. Less area is required in the process

Option B is correct answer.

• Statement 1 is correct. Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s atmosphere — the corona. CMEs travel outward from the Sun at speeds ranging from slower than 250 kilometers per second (km/s) to as fast as near 3000 km/s

• Statement 2 is correct. CMEs can wreak havoc with power grids, telecommunication networks and orbiting satellites and expose astronauts to dangerous doses of radiation

• Statement 3 is incorrect. Sunspots are dark because they are cooler than their surrounding.

Option C is correct answer.

• Astronomers have defined a new class of celestial objects called “ploonets,” which are orphaned moons that have escaped the bonds of their planetary parents.

Option A is correct. The Bandicoot Robot is the world’s first robotic scavenger, developed as a Make in India and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan initiative by National Award-winning startup Genrobotics.

Option A is the correct.

• Statements 2 and 3 are correct. Statement 1 is incorrect.

• Statement 1 is incorrect. The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which commits its Parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets.

• The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international agreement which aims to ensure the safe handling, transport and use of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology that may have adverse effects on biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health.

• Statements 2 and 3 are correct. A carbon credit is a tradable certificate or permit representing the right to emit one tonne of carbon or carbon dioxide equivalent (tC02e). Under carbon credit mechanism, One carbon credit is equal to one ton of carbon dioxide, or in some markets, carbon dioxide equivalent gases. • An organization which produces one tonne less of carbon or carbon dioxide equivalent than the standard level of carbon emission allowed for its outfit or activity, earns a carbon credit.

Option B is the correct Answer.

• Statement 1 is incorrect. Statement 2 is correct.

• Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CH4. It is the simplest alkane, and the principal component of natural gas, about 87% by volume. Hence, statement 1 is incorrect.

• Methane is a relatively potent greenhouse gas. Compared with carbon dioxide, it has a high global warming potential of 72 (calculated over a period of 20 years) or 25 (for a time period of 100 years).

• Methane has a net lifetime of about 10 years; it also affects the degradation of the ozone layer. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• Option A is correct.

• The World Commission on Protected Areas is one of six commissions of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

• IUCN WCPA Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures Specialist Group is promoting conservation beyond protected areas by providing guidance on identifying, recognising, supporting and reporting OECMs.

• Option D is correct.

• Recently, the Aravalli Biodiversity Park was announced as the first Other Effective Area–based Conservation Measures site, OECM site.

• The OECM tag is provided by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN.

• According to IUCN, the OECM sites are not protected but are rich in biodiversity. The Aravalli hills are the first OECM site of India. The proposal to make Aravallis as the OECM was made by the National Biodiversity Authority.

• Aravalli Biodiversity Park has a semi-arid vegetation. It has shrubs, trees and endemic plant species.

• Earlier, the park was a mining site. It was transformed into a city forest through immense efforts of environmentalists, scientists, ecologists along with the local population.

• Aravallis are considered as the green lungs of Delhi. They support leopards, fox, sambhar and jackals. The Aravallis provide 7.07% of oxygen to Delhi.

Option B is the correct Answer.

• Statements 2 and 3 are correct. Statement 1 is incorrect.

• Statement 1 is incorrect. The Eco-Sensitive Zone around protected areas are declared by the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India.

• Statement 2 is correct. Eco-Sensitive Zone means the fragile area that exists within 10 kilometres of protected areas like National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries. The purpose of marking an Eco-Sensitive Zone is to create a kind of shock-absorber around the protected areas.

• Statement 3 is correct. Commercial mining, stone quarrying, crushing units, setting up industries that cause pollution, establishment of hydro-electric projects, commercial use of firewood, solid waste disposal or wastewater disposal and many other activities are prohibited or banned around ESZ.