National Technology Day 2026: Chip Mission & MCQs

National Technology Day is observed annually on 11th May to commemorate India's technological achievements, particularly the 1998 Pokhran-II nuclear tests.

On 11th and 13th May 1998, India conducted five underground nuclear tests at the Pokhran test range in Rajasthan, formally declaring itself a nuclear weapons state.

Developed by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) in Bengaluru, Hansa-3 was successfully test-flown on 11th May 1998.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) conducted the successful final test-firing of the Trishul surface-to-air missile on 11th May 1998.

The Pokhran-II tests were designated ‘Operation Shakti-98', headed jointly by DRDO chief Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and DAE chief Dr. R. Chidambaram.

India's maiden nuclear test was conducted on 18th May 1974 at Pokhran under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, termed a ‘Peaceful Nuclear Explosion' (PNE).

The Government of India approved ₹76,000 crore ($10 billion) under the India Semiconductor Mission to subsidize silicon fabs, display fabs, and ATMP/OSAT assembly units.

Tata Electronics, in partnership with Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC), is setting up India's first commercial wafer fab in Dholera.

The greenfield semiconductor assembly and test facility at Jagiroad in Morigaon district, Assam, marks the first major semiconductor investment in the Northeast.

The IndiaAI Mission builds high-end public AI compute infrastructure to provide startups and researchers with affordable compute access.

Approved with an outlay of ₹6,003 crore, the National Quantum Mission advances foundational and applied quantum research across these four pillars.

Atal Innovation Mission set up ATLs to foster curiosity, creativity, and computational thinking among young students from Class 6 to 12.

Named after the classical 5th-century Indian astronomer, Aryabhata was launched on 19th April 1975 using a Soviet Kosmos-3M launch vehicle from Kapustin Yar.

National Science Day commemorates Sir C.V. Raman's discovery of the Raman Effect on 28th February 1928, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.

Engineers' Day honors Bharat Ratna Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, the visionary engineer and statesman who served as the Diwan of Mysore.

Vyommitra (friend in space) is an AI-enabled half-humanoid designed by ISRO to simulate human biological functions and test life support systems in space.

Located on a barrier island in Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh, Sriharikota is ISRO's primary spaceport for PSLV, GSLV, and LVM3 launches.

Kulasekarapattinam in Thoothukudi district offers direct southward launch corridors over the Indian Ocean, saving fuel for polar SSLV trajectories.

Installed at C-DAC Pune under the National Supercomputing Mission, AIRAWAT and PARAM Siddhi-AI feature among the world's top 500 high-performance computing clusters.

Constituted in 1996, TDB provides financial assistance to industrial firms commercializing indigenous technologies and adapting imported innovations.

LIDAR uses pulsed laser beams to measure variable distances to the Earth, generating high-resolution 3D topography models.

Superposition allows quantum bits (qubits) to represent 0, 1, or any linear combination of both, exponentially increasing computational power.

Albert Einstein famously termed entanglement ‘spooky action at a distance'; it forms the basis of unbreakable Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) communications.

DST, along with the Technology Development Board, coordinates the national celebrations and confers prestigious National Technology Awards.

NavIC consists of seven operational satellites providing positioning services across India and an area extending up to 1,500 km beyond its borders.

NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) maps Earth's topography, glacier movements, and ecosystem disturbances with sub-centimeter precision.

ANRF was established under the ANRF Act, 2023 with an estimated corpus of ₹50,000 crore to bridge the gap between academia, research, and industry.

Silicon's abundance in silica sand, stable oxide formation (SiO2), and favorable thermal properties make it the undisputed foundation of the microelectronics industry.

Maya OS is an Ubuntu-based indigenous operating system featuring ‘Chakravyuh' endpoint anti-malware security developed for armed forces networks.

Viksit Bharat 2047 marks the centenary of Indian independence, with science, digital public infrastructure, and manufacturing as primary pillars.