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The proposed India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is to be located in:
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Answer: Option D — Tamil Nadu
Detailed Solution
The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is proposed to be built at Pottipuram, in the Bodi West Hills of the Theni district, Tamil Nadu.
About the INO:
It is a large scientific project jointly supported by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, is the nodal institution.
It is planned as an underground laboratory inside a mountain, with a rock cover of about 1,200 metres above it. The rock shields the experiments from cosmic rays, which would otherwise interfere with the detection of neutrinos.
Its main detector is planned to be a huge magnetised Iron Calorimeter (ICAL), weighing about 50,000 tonnes, to detect atmospheric neutrinos.
Its main goal is to study the properties of neutrinos, especially the "neutrino mass hierarchy" (the order of the masses of the three types of neutrinos).
The Union Cabinet approved the project in 2015.
The project has faced delays because of environmental concerns, including its location near the Mathikettan Shola National Park and a tiger corridor, and opposition from some local groups. Its work has not yet started on the ground.
About neutrinos:
- Neutrinos are tiny, electrically neutral elementary particles with a very small mass.
- They are produced in nuclear reactions in the Sun and stars, in supernovae, in nuclear reactors and when cosmic rays hit the Earth's atmosphere.
- Trillions of neutrinos pass through our bodies every second without interacting.
There are three types ("flavours"): electron, muon and tau neutrinos. They can change from one type to another, a process called "neutrino oscillation". This showed that neutrinos have mass, and it won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2015 (Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald).
India and neutrino research:
In 1965, Indian and foreign scientists working deep in the Kolar Gold Fields mine in Karnataka made one of the first detections of atmospheric neutrinos. The KGF experiments ended when the mines closed.
Other neutrino observatories:
Super-Kamiokande (Japan), IceCube (South Pole) and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (Canada).
Why not the other options?
- ✗Karnataka had the earlier neutrino experiments at the Kolar Gold Fields.
- ✗Kerala borders the proposed site but is not where it is located.
- ✗Uttarakhand has the ARIES observatory at Nainital.
Quick tip
Remember: India-based Neutrino Observatory = Pottipuram, Bodi West Hills, Theni, Tamil Nadu (underground; 50,000-tonne ICAL detector; TIFR nodal); first atmospheric neutrinos detected at Kolar Gold Fields (1965).
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This question tests your understanding of Scientific Research Institutes & Organisations, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers India's scientific research institutes and organisations, such as BARC, ISRO, DRDO, CSIR and its laboratories, ICAR and ICMR, and specialised research centres for crops, animals, oceans and medicine, along with where they are located. Questions usually ask where an institute is located and what it researches. For example, BARC is in Mumbai, the Central Rice Research Institute is in Cuttack, and the National Institute of Oceanography is in Goa. A table of institute, city and field is the best way to revise this topic. Practise the research institutes questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.