UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 39 of 150

Correct — C, Karnataka. The platform the question calls 'Aquarium' is AQVERIUM — note the spelling, which the paper has anglicised — and it was launched in Bengaluru in April 2022 by Karnataka's Minister for Information Technology and Biotechnology, Science and Technology, Dr C. N. Ashwath Narayan. It was billed as India's first digital water data bank: a curated aggregation, built on blockchain, of water-related data drawn from many different institutions and sources, meant to serve as a hub for water innovation and social entrepreneurship. One precision worth carrying, because it is the kind of thing an interview or a mains answer will test: AQVERIUM is a product of AquaKraft Group Ventures, a private company, launched at a state event by a state minister. It is not a Government of India scheme and not a Karnataka government programme, so the accurate phrasing is that it was launched in Karnataka rather than by Karnataka. The state named in the question is nonetheless Karnataka, and the key marks (c).

• (a)Uttar Pradesh — Uttar Pradesh is the default guess on a UPPSC paper, which is exactly why it is planted here. The April 2022 launch of the digital water data bank took place in Bengaluru, not anywhere in Uttar Pradesh, and the platform was developed by a Bengaluru-based venture.
• (b)Tamil Nadu — Tamil Nadu is prominent in water policy — it was an early mover on mandatory rainwater harvesting — which makes it a plausible-sounding answer. But it had no part in this launch; the event and the platform belong to Karnataka.
• (d)Punjab — Punjab is associated in the news with groundwater depletion rather than with water-data platforms, and it was not the venue of this launch. The distractor works only on a candidate reaching for any state with a water problem.

Water governance in India is chronically short not of water data but of usable water data: rainfall, groundwater levels, river flows, water quality and utility supply figures are collected by different agencies, in different formats, at different intervals, and rarely sit in one place. A 'water data bank' is an attempt to solve that aggregation problem — pull the scattered datasets into a single curated repository so that planners, researchers and start-ups can build on them. AQVERIUM was pitched on exactly this logic, using a blockchain ledger for provenance and integrity of the contributed data, and its promoters attached to it a training ambition in water, sanitation, hydro-geological and data sciences and a stated goal of helping make India water-positive by 2030.

This is a pure current-affairs recall question anchored to April 2022, two months before the exam of 12 June 2022, and it rewards a candidate who reads state-level technology and water announcements rather than only central schemes. Two habits help on questions of this shape. First, note where a launch happened, not merely who announced it — 'launched in Bengaluru' pins the state without needing to remember any ministry. Second, be careful about who owns an initiative: a private platform launched by a minister reads in headlines exactly like a government scheme, and the difference matters when the same fact is asked as a statement to be judged true or false. The question's own spelling, 'Aquarium' for AQVERIUM, is a reminder that transliterated brand names in question papers are often imprecise; identify the initiative by its substance and its date.

• AQVERIUM was launched in Bengaluru, Karnataka, in April 2022 and described as India's first digital water data bank.
• It was launched by Karnataka's Minister for IT/BT, Science and Technology, Dr C. N. Ashwath Narayan.
• It was developed by AquaKraft Group Ventures — a private venture, not a central or state government scheme.
• Its design is a blockchain-based curated aggregation of water data drawn from many institutions and sources, positioned as a hub for water innovation and social entrepreneurship.
• Its promoters stated an aim of training over ten lakh young people in water, sanitation, hydro-geological and data sciences, and of contributing to a water-positive India by 2030. These were the goals announced at launch.

• Assuming a state-level launch reported nationally must be a central government scheme — AQVERIUM is a private platform
• Defaulting to Uttar Pradesh on UPPSC current-affairs questions; the paper plants it deliberately
• Matching on the paper's spelling rather than on the initiative: 'Aquarium' here means AQVERIUM

UPPSC sets one-line 'which state launched X, in which month' items from the twelve months before the paper, and water, agriculture and IT initiatives are favourites. UPSC almost never asks a state-branded launch; it asks instead which body produces a particular water dataset or report, so learn the institution behind each number as well as the headline.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  AQVERIUM, launched in Bengaluru in April 2022, is best described as

  • (a)A desalination plant for coastal Karnataka
  • (b)A digital data bank aggregating water-related data from multiple sources
  • (c)A central government scheme for piped water supply to rural households
  • (d)A river-interlinking project in southern India

  Answer(b) A digital data bank aggregating water-related data from multiple sources — a blockchain-based curated repository developed by a private venture, not a government scheme.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following organisations is responsible for the periodic assessment of India's groundwater resources?

  • (a)Central Water Commission
  • (b)Central Ground Water Board
  • (c)National Water Development Agency
  • (d)Central Pollution Control Board

  Answer(b) Central Ground Water Board — the Central Water Commission deals with surface water and major projects, while the Central Pollution Control Board handles pollution monitoring.