On 27th July, 2020 the Prime Minister of India virtually inaugurated three new Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) high-end testing laboratories for COVID-19 at which of the following places?
- (a)New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai
- (b)Kolkata, Noida, Mumbai
- (c)New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai
- (d)Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai
Correct — (b) Kolkata, Noida, Mumbai. On 27 July 2020 PM Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated three ICMR high-throughput COVID-19 testing laboratories: ICMR-NICED at Kolkata, ICMR-NICPR at Noida (Uttar Pradesh) and ICMR-NIRRH at Mumbai. Together they were reported to add roughly 30,000 tests per day, sharply scaling up national testing capacity during the pandemic.
- (a)New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai — Only Kolkata is correct; the other two labs were at Noida and Mumbai, not New Delhi or Chennai.
- (c)New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai — Tempting because Noida adjoins Delhi, but the lab was the ICMR-NICPR at Noida (UP), not New Delhi.
- (d)Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai — Only Mumbai is correct; Chennai and Delhi were not among the three inaugurated sites (Kolkata and Noida were).
As COVID-19 caseloads rose in mid-2020, ICMR set up high-throughput ('high-end') testing labs — automated machines that process thousands of samples a day — to expand testing beyond routine RT-PCR centres. Three such labs were commissioned together on 27 July 2020.
The distractor set clusters around metros; the discriminating detail is Noida (UP) — often mis-remembered as 'Delhi' because the two adjoin. Fixing Noida and Mumbai (i.e., rejecting Delhi and Chennai) isolates option (b).
- Date: 27 July 2020; inaugurated virtually by PM Narendra Modi.
- Three ICMR high-throughput labs: NICED Kolkata, NICPR Noida (UP), NIRRH Mumbai.
- They were reported to add about 30,000 COVID-19 tests per day of combined capacity.
- Part of India's mid-2020 drive to massively scale up testing infrastructure.
Answer (b): the three institutes and their cities — note Noida (UP), not Delhi.
- Reading 'Noida' as 'New Delhi' — they adjoin but are different cities in different states.
- Assuming metros like Chennai/Delhi must be included in any big health launch.
UPPSC current-affairs items pin an exact date plus a set of places; the safe method is to eliminate wrong cities rather than recall all three.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The ICMR high-throughput COVID-19 labs inaugurated in July 2020 were mainly meant to
- (a)manufacture vaccines
- (b)greatly increase daily testing capacity
- (c)produce PPE kits
- (d)train doctors
Answer(b) greatly increase daily testing capacity — automated high-end machines processing thousands of samples a day.
- practice — not a real PYQ
ICMR, which set up these high-end COVID testing labs, is the apex body for biomedical research under which ministry?
- (a)Ministry of Science & Technology
- (b)Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (Dept. of Health Research)
- (c)Ministry of AYUSH
- (d)NITI Aayog
Answer(b) Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, under the Department of Health Research.