Unit II: General Science and Technology · RAS (Rajasthan)

What the official syllabus says

RAS Mains Paper II, Unit II - General Science & Technology
Chemistry in Everyday Life; Atomic Structure; Metal, Non-Metal and Metalloids, Metallurgical Principles and Methods, Important Ores and Alloys; Acid, Base and Salts, Concept of pH and Buffers; Important Drugs (Synthetic and Natural), Antioxidants, Preservatives, Insecticides, Pesticides, Fungicides, Herbicides, Fertilizers, Binders and Sweeteners; Carbon & its Compounds and their Domestic, Industrial Applications; Fuels, Octane Rating; Radioactivity - Concepts and Applications; Green Chemistry and its Applications.
Physics in Everyday Life; Motion, Work, Power and Energy; Gravitation; Light and its Properties; Heat; Static and Current Electricity; Magnetism, Electro-Magnetism, Sound and Electro-Magnetic Waves, Application of Physics in Medical Diagnostics; Nuclear fission and Fusion; Radiation Safety.
The Cell; Plant Parts - their Functions and Uses; Plant Nutrition & Growth Regulators with special reference to Agriculture and Horticulture; Sexual and Asexual Reproduction in Plants. Basics of Human Physiology - Digestion, Respiration, Circulation, Excretion, Reproduction and Nervous System. Food and Nutrition; Immunity; Diseases; Public Health Initiatives; Beneficial & Harmful Microbes; Fermentation Technology; Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering - Basic Concepts and their Applications; Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (ELSI) of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Recent Advances - Vaccines, CRISPR, mRNA Technology, Artificial Organs.
Basic Computer Science; Networking; Analog and Digital Telecommunication; Frequency Spectrum; Mobile Telephony, Recent Developments in Information and Communication Technology - Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning; Big Data; Cloud and Edge computing; Internet of things; Blockchain and Digital Currency; Virtual and Augmented Reality; OTT Platforms & social media.
Contribution of Indian Scientists in Science & Technology; Major Indian Scientific Institutions; Scientific and Technological Advancements - Robotics, Nanotechnology, Quantum Computing, etc.; Development of Science & Technology in India and Rajasthan; Government Policies related to Science and Technology; Digital India Initiatives; Cyber Security and Data Privacy.
Space and Defence Technology - Indian Space Programme; Satellites and their Applications; Various Launch Vehicles; Remote Sensing; Defence Research and Indigenous Technologies; Indian Missile Programme; Drone Technology; Chemical and Biological Weapons.

Topics in detail

Chemistry in everyday life

Atomic structure: protons, neutrons, electrons; atomic number and mass number; isotopes, isobars; Bohr's model; electronic configuration and valency.
Metals, non-metals and metalloids: physical and chemical properties; reactivity series; metalloids such as silicon, germanium and arsenic.
Metallurgy: concentration of ore, roasting and calcination, reduction (smelting), refining (electrolytic refining); corrosion and its prevention (galvanisation).
Important ores: haematite and magnetite (iron), bauxite (aluminium), chalcopyrite (copper), galena (lead), sphalerite or zinc blende (zinc), cinnabar (mercury), cassiterite (tin).
Alloys: steel and stainless steel, brass (copper and zinc), bronze (copper and tin), solder, duralumin; why alloys are used.
Acids, bases and salts: properties, indicators, neutralisation; everyday salts (common salt, baking soda, washing soda, bleaching powder, plaster of Paris).
pH: the 0 to 14 scale; pH of blood, soil and rain; acid rain; buffers and why blood needs them.
Drugs: synthetic and natural; analgesics, antipyretics, antibiotics, antacids, antihistamines, antiseptics and disinfectants; natural drugs such as quinine and artemisinin.
Food chemicals: antioxidants, preservatives (salt, sugar, vinegar, sodium benzoate) and artificial sweeteners (saccharin, aspartame, sucralose).
Agrochemicals: insecticides, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides; their environmental and health effects; fertilisers (nitrogenous, phosphatic, potassic; NPK; biofertilisers).
Binders: cement, lime, gypsum and polymer binders and their uses.
Carbon and its compounds: allotropes (diamond, graphite, fullerenes, graphene, carbon nanotubes); hydrocarbons; polymers and plastics; soaps and detergents; domestic and industrial uses.
Fuels: calorific value; solid, liquid and gaseous fuels; LPG, CNG, biofuels and hydrogen; octane rating (resistance to knocking in petrol engines) and cetane number for diesel.
Radioactivity: alpha, beta and gamma radiation; half-life; uses in medicine (cobalt-60, iodine-131), carbon dating (carbon-14), agriculture and industry.
Green chemistry: preventing waste, safer solvents, renewable feedstocks, energy efficiency; applications such as biodegradable plastics.

Physics in everyday life

Motion: distance and displacement, speed, velocity, acceleration; Newton's laws of motion; momentum and its conservation; friction.
Work, power and energy: kinetic and potential energy; conservation of energy; units (joule, watt, kilowatt-hour).
Gravitation: universal law of gravitation; acceleration due to gravity; weight and mass; escape velocity; orbits of satellites (geostationary and polar).
Light: reflection, refraction, total internal reflection (optical fibres), dispersion, scattering (the blue sky, red sunsets); lenses and mirrors; the human eye and defects of vision.
Heat: temperature scales; conduction, convection and radiation; specific heat and latent heat; thermal expansion.
Static and current electricity: charge, Ohm's law, resistance, series and parallel circuits; household wiring, fuses, MCBs and earthing; AC and DC.
Magnetism and electromagnetism: magnetic field, electromagnets, electromagnetic induction, electric motor, generator and transformer.
Sound: nature of sound waves, speed, echo, SONAR, ultrasound and infrasound, Doppler effect, noise pollution.
Electromagnetic waves: the spectrum from radio waves to gamma rays and the uses of each band.
Physics in medical diagnostics: X-rays, CT scan, MRI, ultrasonography, ECG, endoscopy, PET.
Nuclear fission and fusion: chain reaction, nuclear reactors (fuel, moderator, coolant, control rods); India's three-stage nuclear power programme; fusion in the Sun and the ITER project.
Radiation safety: units (becquerel, gray, sievert); time, distance and shielding; the regulatory role of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.

Biology: plants, the human body and health

The cell: prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells; cell organelles and their functions; plant and animal cells; mitosis and meiosis.
Plant parts (root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit, seed): their functions and uses as food, fibre, medicine and timber.
Plant nutrition: photosynthesis; macro and micronutrients and their deficiency symptoms.
Plant growth regulators in agriculture and horticulture: auxins (rooting of cuttings), gibberellins (seedless fruits, stem elongation), cytokinins, abscisic acid (dormancy) and ethylene (fruit ripening).
Reproduction in plants: sexual (pollination, fertilisation, seed formation) and asexual (cutting, layering, grafting, budding, tissue culture and micropropagation).
Human physiology: digestive, respiratory, circulatory, excretory, reproductive and nervous systems; their organs and functions.
Food and nutrition: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals; deficiency diseases (night blindness, beriberi, scurvy, rickets, anaemia, goitre); malnutrition and food fortification.
Immunity: innate and acquired, active and passive; antigens and antibodies; how vaccines work.
Diseases: communicable (bacterial, viral, protozoan, fungal) and non-communicable (diabetes, hypertension, cancer); their causes and prevention.
Public health initiatives: the National Health Mission, the Universal Immunisation Programme, Ayushman Bharat, disease elimination programmes (tuberculosis, malaria).
Beneficial microbes (curd, bread, antibiotics, biogas, nitrogen fixation, biofertilisers, sewage treatment) and harmful microbes (pathogens, food spoilage).
Fermentation technology: alcohols, organic acids, enzymes and antibiotics from microbes; bioreactors.

Biotechnology, genetic engineering and recent advances

Basic concepts: DNA, genes, recombinant DNA technology, restriction enzymes, vectors, PCR, cloning.
Applications: GM crops, insulin and other therapeutic proteins, DNA fingerprinting, gene therapy, stem cells.
GMOs and ELSI: food safety, biodiversity, farmers' rights, patents, labelling; Bt cotton in India; regulation by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee; the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.
Vaccines: types (live attenuated, inactivated, subunit, viral vector, mRNA); cold chain.
CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing: how it works, uses in medicine and agriculture, ethical limits.
mRNA technology: principle and uses beyond vaccines.
Artificial organs: artificial heart and kidney (dialysis), cochlear implants, bionic limbs, 3D bioprinting.

Computers and information and communication technology

Basic computer science: hardware and software, input and output devices, memory (RAM, ROM, storage), operating systems, the binary system, programming languages.
Networking: LAN, MAN, WAN; the Internet, IP addresses, protocols, routers; Wi-Fi and optical fibre networks.
Analog and digital telecommunication: signals, modulation (AM and FM), digitisation and its advantages.
Frequency spectrum: radio frequency bands, spectrum as a scarce resource, allocation and auction.
Mobile telephony: generations from 1G to 5G; what 5G and future 6G add.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning: supervised and unsupervised learning, deep learning, generative AI; uses in governance, health and agriculture.
Big data, cloud computing (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and edge computing.
Internet of things: sensors and connected devices; smart cities, smart agriculture.
Blockchain and digital currency: distributed ledgers; cryptocurrencies compared with a central bank digital currency such as the RBI's e-rupee.
Virtual and augmented reality and their uses in education, training and tourism.
OTT platforms and social media: opportunities, misinformation, regulation under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and its rules.

Indian science, institutions, policy and cyber security

Contribution of Indian scientists: C.V. Raman, J.C. Bose, S.N. Bose, Meghnad Saha, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Homi J. Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan, Har Gobind Khorana, S. Chandrasekhar, M.S. Swaminathan, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
Major Indian scientific institutions: ISRO, DRDO, BARC, CSIR and its laboratories, ICAR, ICMR, IISc, TIFR and the IITs.
Science institutions in Rajasthan: CSIR-CEERI Pilani, the Central Arid Zone Research Institute (Jodhpur), the Arid Forest Research Institute (Jodhpur), the ICAR National Research Centre on Camel (Bikaner), the Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute (Avikanagar), IIT Jodhpur, and the Mount Abu infrared observatory of the Physical Research Laboratory.
Science and technology in Rajasthan: the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station at Rawatbhata, the nuclear tests at Pokhran (1974 and 1998), solar and wind energy in western Rajasthan, dryland and desert research.
Advancements: robotics, nanotechnology (uses and risks), quantum computing and quantum communication, semiconductors.
Government policies: Science, Technology and Innovation policies; national missions in areas such as quantum technology, artificial intelligence and semiconductors; support for research and start-ups.
Digital India: digital infrastructure (Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, BharatNet), e-governance and Common Service Centres; Rajasthan's e-Mitra service centres and Jan Aadhaar.
Cyber security: malware, ransomware, phishing, identity theft, cyber terrorism; CERT-In; the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Data privacy: the right to privacy as a fundamental right (Justice K.S. Puttaswamy, 2017); the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

Space and defence technology

Indian space programme: INCOSPAR (1962) and ISRO (1969); Aryabhata (1975); Chandrayaan-1, 2 and 3 (the Chandrayaan-3 landing near the lunar south pole in 2023); the Mars Orbiter Mission; Aditya-L1; the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme.
Satellites and their applications: communication (INSAT/GSAT), earth observation (IRS, Cartosat, RISAT), navigation (NavIC), weather; orbits (low earth, sun-synchronous, geostationary).
Launch vehicles: SLV, ASLV, PSLV, GSLV, LVM3 and SSLV; cryogenic engines; reusable launch vehicle technology.
Remote sensing: active and passive sensors, resolution; uses in agriculture, drought and desertification monitoring, mineral exploration, disaster management and urban planning.
Space sector reforms: IN-SPACe, NewSpace India Limited, private launch companies.
Defence research and indigenous technologies: DRDO; the Tejas light combat aircraft, the Arjun tank, indigenous warships and submarines; self-reliance in defence production.
Indian missile programme: the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (Prithvi, Agni, Akash, Trishul, Nag); BrahMos; ballistic and cruise missiles; missile defence.
Drone technology: types and uses (agriculture, surveillance, delivery, disaster response), drone rules, counter-drone systems.
Chemical and biological weapons: types and effects; the Geneva Protocol (1925), the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention (OPCW).

Overlaps

The Prelims Science & Technology section covers the same ground in objective form: see RAS Prelims. Here all 14 questions of the unit are planned as 5-mark, 50-word answers, so each line above should be learnt well enough to define it, give an example and state one use or issue.