IT, computing & emerging technologies

Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Li-Fi (Light Fidelity) is a form of visible light communication: an LED is switched on and off far faster than the eye can notice, and those flickers carry data through the air to a photodetector. It is wireless like Wi-Fi, but uses the visible-light band instead of radio waves and has reached speeds several times higher.

• ✓ 1. Li-Fi sends data by modulating visible light from LEDs rather than by radio waves; the Telecommunication Engineering Centre describes it as data transfer through LED light.
• ✓ 2. No cable is involved, so it is wireless. TEC's comparison puts Li-Fi at about 1 Gbps against about 150 Mbps for Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n), several times faster, though over a short range of under 10 metres.

Remember · Li-Fi = wireless data over visible light from LEDs (IEEE 802.15.7); faster and more secure than Wi-Fi, but short-range and blocked by walls.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 only

Core Banking Solutions (CBS) is a bank's centralised IT platform: all branches work on one common database, so an account-holder is a customer of the whole bank and can transact at any networked branch, not only the one where the account was opened. It is neither an RBI control device nor a merger procedure.

• ✓ 1. This is what CBS does; the RBI expects banks on CBS to serve their customers uniformly at every branch and not to penalise transactions at 'non-home' branches.
• ✗ 2. CBS is each bank's own operating platform for serving customers; RBI's supervisory powers come from the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, not from branch networking.
• ✗ 3. Rescuing a weak bank by merging it with another is amalgamation (for example, under Section 45 of the Banking Regulation Act); it has nothing to do with CBS.

Remember · Core Banking Solutions: centralised, networked branch operations; the customer belongs to the bank, not the branch, enabling 'anywhere banking', ATMs, internet and mobile banking.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) wireless communication technology

Project Loon, begun at Google X and later an Alphabet company, used large balloons drifting in the stratosphere as floating relay stations to beam internet connectivity to rural, remote and underserved areas. It is therefore a wireless communication technology; the balloons' solar panels only powered the equipment on board.

• ✓ (b) Each balloon carried radio equipment that linked with ground stations and other balloons to deliver internet (including LTE) service to people below.
• ✗ (c) The balloons did carry solar panels, but only to run their own electronics; generating solar power was not the project's purpose.
• ✗ (a) Loon had nothing to do with handling waste; its aim was internet access.
• • Since then Alphabet wound Loon down in 2021; some of its technology lives on in Taara, which uses light beams for connectivity (X, the Moonshot Factory).

Remember · Project Loon: stratospheric balloons as flying cell towers for internet in remote areas (Google X, 2013; shut in 2021).

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Electric plane tested by NASA

Greased Lightning (GL-10) is an experimental battery-powered aircraft developed by NASA's Langley Research Center. It has ten electric motors and can take off vertically like a helicopter and then fly efficiently like an aeroplane.

• ✓ (a) NASA describes GL-10 as a battery-powered plane with 10 engines, eight electric motors on the wings and two on the tail, that takes off like a helicopter and cruises like an aircraft.
• ✗ (b) GL-10 is a NASA project. It is a small remotely piloted aircraft, not a solar-powered two-seater from Japan.
• ✗ (c) GL-10 is an aircraft, not a space observatory.
• ✗ (d) GL-10 is an aircraft, not a rocket, and it has nothing to do with ISRO.

Remember · GL-10 (Greased Lightning): NASA's ten-motor electric VTOL aircraft prototype from Langley Research Center.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer virtual currency with no central authority: any holder of an address can pay any other, and the parties can stay anonymous or pseudonymous. No central bank issues, authorises or tracks it, so statements 2 and 3 are correct and 1 is not.

• ✗ 1. The RBI said in December 2013 that the creation, trading or usage of virtual currencies, including Bitcoins, is not authorised by any central bank or monetary authority, and in 2017 that it had licensed no one to deal in them.
• ✓ 2. Payments in Bitcoins take place peer to peer, without an authorised central agency that regulates them.
• ✓ 3. The RBI notes that counterparties in such peer-to-peer anonymous or pseudonymous systems are not identified, which is why it warned of money-laundering risks.

Remember · Bitcoin: decentralised, peer-to-peer and pseudonymous, with no issuer or regulator. Central banks do not track or authorise it; the RBI cautioned users in 2013 and 2017.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2

Both statements are correct. DigiLocker is a Government of India digital document wallet run under the Digital India programme, and because it is cloud-based, you can reach your documents from the web or a mobile app wherever you are.

• ✓ 1. DigiLocker is a flagship initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under the Digital India programme.
• ✓ 2. It is a secure cloud-based platform for storing, sharing and verifying documents, accessible through the web portal and the mobile app, so no physical copies need to be carried.

Remember · DigiLocker = MeitY's cloud-based document wallet under Digital India; documents can be issued, stored, shared and verified digitally, from anywhere.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error