RAS Pre 2023, held on 1 October 2023. Question text as printed in RPSC's booklet; answer as per RPSC's final answer key.

Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology is situated at

Q: What is the answer to RAS Pre 2023 Q73?

(1). Correct — option (1), Thiruvananthapuram. The Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) is located in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala. Its profile places the main campus at Jagathy, in the city. The centre grew out of a Kerala institution. It began on 3 July 1990 as the Centre for Development of Education, Science and Technology (C-DEST), a registered charitable society, renamed RGC-DEST in 1991. RGCB's profile dates the Government of Kerala's decision to restructure it into a biotechnology centre to 18 April 1994; its timeline dates the sanction of the name RGCB to 21 March 1997. It then became a national institute. In the Union Budget of 28 February 2006 the Finance Minister announced autonomous National Institute status, and on 2 August 2007 the Union Council of Ministers approved the takeover of RGCB from 1 April 2007. So the centre is situated at Thiruvananthapuram. The idea to remember: RGCB is in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala: a state-founded centre that became a national institute in 2007.

(1)Thiruvananthapuram
(2)Faridabad
(3)Jodhpur
(4)New Delhi

Answer

(1)

Why

Correct — option (1), Thiruvananthapuram.

The Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) is located in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala. Its profile places the main campus at Jagathy, in the city.

The centre grew out of a Kerala institution. It began on 3 July 1990 as the Centre for Development of Education, Science and Technology (C-DEST), a registered charitable society, renamed RGC-DEST in 1991.

RGCB's profile dates the Government of Kerala's decision to restructure it into a biotechnology centre to 18 April 1994; its timeline dates the sanction of the name RGCB to 21 March 1997.

It then became a national institute. In the Union Budget of 28 February 2006 the Finance Minister announced autonomous National Institute status, and on 2 August 2007 the Union Council of Ministers approved the takeover of RGCB from 1 April 2007.

So the centre is situated at Thiruvananthapuram.

The idea to remember: RGCB is in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala: a state-founded centre that became a national institute in 2007.

Why the others are wrong

(2)
Faridabad — Faridabad, in Haryana, is home to a different biotechnology body: the Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB). RCB's website describes it as an Institution of National Importance and a UNESCO Category II Centre.
Faridabad also has the NCR Biotech Science Cluster, where the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute works. RGCB is not there; it is in Kerala.
(3)
Jodhpur — Jodhpur, in Rajasthan, hosts institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, such as the ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) and ICAR-ATARI Zone II.
ICAR lists CAZRI under its Natural Resource Management division, and ATARI under agricultural extension. The Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology is a separate institution in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
(4)
New Delhi — New Delhi hosts the National Institute of Immunology (NII), on Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, which describes itself as an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology.
NII was registered as an autonomous society on 24 June 1981. The biotechnology centre named after Rajiv Gandhi is not in the capital but in Thiruvananthapuram.

Concept

India's biotechnology research runs through institutes spread across many cities, each with its own focus. An institute can be identified by its location, its research focus and the body that runs it.

RGCB's profile says its research programmes are organised around the central theme of Disease Biology, covering human, animal and plant disease.

Its main campus at Jagathy concentrates on cellular and molecular mechanisms of disease. The range it lists includes cancer, heart disease, tuberculosis, viral infections, cholera, neurological disorders, reproductive problems and fungal diseases in plants.

RPSC's 2023 syllabus lists "Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering." under Science & Technology. Research institutions and their locations are the institutional side of that line.

RGCB's history shows how a state institution can become a national one. After it had grown under the Government of Kerala, the Union government announced autonomous National Institute status in February 2006 and took it over from 1 April 2007.

Two earlier milestones are dated in its profile. The foundation stone of the new building was laid on 18 November 1995 by Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao, and on 18 November 2002 President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam dedicated the centre to the nation.

Key facts

The Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology is in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala; its main campus is at Jagathy.
RGCB began on 3 July 1990 as the Centre for Development of Education, Science and Technology (C-DEST), a registered society.
RGCB's profile dates Kerala's decision to restructure the institute as a biotechnology centre to 18 April 1994; the name RGCB was sanctioned on 21 March 1997.
On 2 August 2007 the Union Council of Ministers approved the takeover of RGCB with effect from 1 April 2007.
The National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, was registered on 24 June 1981.

The four cities and a research institution in each

(1) Thiruvananthapuram→Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB)

(2) Faridabad→Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB)

(3) Jodhpur→ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI)

(4) New Delhi→National Institute of Immunology (NII)

Sources: RGCB profile; RCB, NII and ICAR websites.

Study next

Department of Biotechnology and its research institutesNational Institute of Immunology, New DelhiRegional Centre for Biotechnology, FaridabadICAR research institutes in RajasthanRecombinant DNA technology and its tools

Common traps

A centre named after a national leader need not be in the national capital. The Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology is in Thiruvananthapuram, while New Delhi has the National Institute of Immunology.
Faridabad also has a biotechnology centre, the Regional Centre for Biotechnology, so a biotechnology link alone does not identify the city.
RGCB began as a Kerala institution and became a national institute only with the takeover from 1 April 2007; keep the two stages apart.

A question can name a research institution and ask where it is situated, as this one does, or give a city and ask which institution is located there.

A question can also ask when an institute became a national institute, or which government department it works under.

Related PYQs

UnlockIAS will link similar questions from RAS Pre 2021 and 2016 here once those papers are published on this site.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
The Regional Centre for Biotechnology, a UNESCO Category II Centre, is located at:
- (a)Hyderabad
- (b)Faridabad
- (c)Thiruvananthapuram
- (d)Pune
Answer(2) — The Regional Centre for Biotechnology is in Faridabad, Haryana. Option (3), Thiruvananthapuram, is the location of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, a different institute, and options (1) and (4) are not RCB's location.
practice — not a real PYQ
The National Institute of Immunology, an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, is situated at:
- (a)New Delhi
- (b)Thiruvananthapuram
- (c)Faridabad
- (d)Jodhpur
Answer(1) — NII is on Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi. Thiruvananthapuram has the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Faridabad the Regional Centre for Biotechnology, and Jodhpur the ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute, so options (2), (3) and (4) are wrong.

The booklet also prints a fifth choice under this question: “(5) Question not attempted”. Options (1)–(4) above are the four answer options.