Belle II, Blockchain, and CRISPR-Cas9

1.1 What is the answer to the pairs question?

UPSC gave three terms from the news and a field for each. Only one pair is correct. It is Blockchain technology with digital or cryptocurrency systems.

The Belle II experiment is not about artificial intelligence. It is a particle physics experiment. CRISPR-Cas9 is not particle physics. It is a gene-editing tool.

The table covers only the three pairs in the question. Cards 2 to 4 give the sources for each row.

1.2 How can you spot a mismatch quickly?

Ask one question for each term. What does it work on? The three answers are different.

• Belle II collects data from particle collisions at KEK.
• Blockchain records transactions in a shared digital ledger.
• CRISPR-Cas9 works on DNA.

2.1 What is Belle II?

Belle II is a detector at KEK, the Japanese High-Energy Accelerator Research Organisation. It sits in Tsukuba, Japan. The collaboration calls it a general purpose spectrometer for the next-generation B-factory experiment at KEK.

Its home page lists three aims.

• Precise measurements of weak interaction parameters.
• A study of exotic hadrons.
• A search for new phenomena beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.

2.2 What collides inside it?

Belle II collects data from e+e- collisions produced by the SuperKEKB accelerator. KEK describes SuperKEKB as an upgrade of the KEKB electron-positron collider and the Belle detector.

As of 8 October 2026, the Belle II home page calls SuperKEKB the largest e+e- collider in the world. The sketch below shows the idea.

2.3 What is a B-factory?

The Belle II website explains that KEKB’s beam energies were chosen to mass produce B mesons. That made KEKB a B-factory.

CERN Courier says SuperKEKB delivers asymmetric electron-positron collisions to Belle II. The aim is to produce copious amounts of B and D mesons and tau leptons.

2.4 What do the parts of the detector do?

• PXD and SVD: pixel and strip silicon sensors that measure decay vertex positions of B mesons and other particles.
• CDC: a central drift chamber that measures trajectories and momenta of charged particles.
• ECL: an electromagnetic calorimeter inside a superconducting solenoid coil that provides a 1.5 Tesla magnetic field.
• KLM: an iron flux-return instrumented to detect K0L mesons and to identify muons.

3.1 What is a blockchain?

NIST describes blockchains as tamper evident and tamper resistant digital ledgers. They are implemented in a distributed fashion, without a central repository. They usually run without a central authority such as a bank, company or government.

A user community records transactions in a shared ledger. Under normal operation, no transaction can be changed once published.

Picture a notebook that many people keep identical copies of. This is only an analogy for a shared ledger.

3.2 How are the blocks joined?

A blockchain is a ledger made of blocks. NIST says each block has a header with metadata. It also holds block data, which is a set of transactions. Every header except the first links back to the previous block’s header.

The link uses a hash. NIST says a hash function gives a relatively unique output, called a digest, for an input of nearly any size. Even the smallest change to the input gives a completely different digest.

3.3 Is blockchain the same as cryptocurrency?

No. Blockchain is the ledger technology. NIST says it is the foundation of modern cryptocurrencies. A cryptocurrency is one use of it.

NIST says the blockchain idea was combined with other technologies in 2008 to create modern cryptocurrencies. It names Bitcoin as the first blockchain-based cryptocurrency. It dates the launch of the Bitcoin network to 2009.

The Bitcoin paper describes electronic cash that could be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. NIST adds that blockchain technology may be more broadly applicable than cryptocurrencies.

This is why the exam pair works. Blockchain technology and digital or cryptocurrency systems are linked.

3.4 Who can use a blockchain?

NIST names only these two high-level categories. India’s framework in card 6 supports permissioned platforms.

4.1 What is CRISPR?

NHGRI says CRISPR is short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. It is a technology that research scientists use to selectively modify the DNA of living organisms.

CRISPR was adapted for lab use from naturally occurring genome editing systems found in bacteria.

4.2 Where did the tool come from?

The Nobel Committee tells the story. Emmanuelle Charpentier studied the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes. She found a previously unknown molecule called tracrRNA.

Her work showed that tracrRNA is part of the ancient immune system of bacteria, called CRISPR/Cas. The system disarms viruses by cleaving their DNA.

4.3 How did scientists turn it into a tool?

Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna recreated the bacterial scissors in a test tube. They simplified the molecular parts so they were easier to use. Then they reprogrammed the scissors.

The Nobel press release says the scissors can be controlled to cut any DNA molecule at a predetermined site. It says the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors were discovered in 2012.

4.4 Why is CRISPR-Cas9 not particle physics?

The Nobel Committee says researchers use the scissors to change the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms. NHGRI describes CRISPR as a tool for modifying DNA.

Belle II’s home page says it is designed to study weak interactions and exotic hadrons. It also searches for new phenomena beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. So the exam pair that links CRISPR-Cas9 to particle physics is wrong.

5.1 What came before Belle II?

From 1998 to 2010, KEK operated the KEKB accelerator. It was an e+e- collider, 3 km in circumference. The Belle II website says KEKB reached a world record instantaneous luminosity of 2.11×10^34 cm-2 s-1 at the time.

The Belle experiment was the predecessor of Belle II. It analysed B and anti-B mesons. The collaboration says it confirmed the effect of CP-violation described by Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa. They were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2008.

The Nobel press release adds that as late as 2001, the BaBar and Belle detectors both detected broken symmetries independently of each other.

5.2 Why does CP-violation matter?

The Belle II site says CP-violation is believed to be one of the origins of the observed dominance of matter over antimatter. It adds that the measured level is by far not sufficient to explain the actual asymmetry.

So the collaboration says a much deeper understanding is required. That is one reason for the upgrade.

5.3 What did the upgrade change?

SuperKEKB set a goal of raising the instantaneous luminosity by a factor of about 40, to 8.0×10^35 cm-2 s-1. The Belle II site says reaching a higher luminosity usually involves two things. The beam current goes up, and the beam size at the interaction point goes down.

In March 2009 the design changed course. It now uses a large crossing-angle and squeezes the beams to the nanometre scale. The site calls this the nano-beam option.

The data goal is 50 ab-1. The website says this is 50 times more data than the Belle experiment acquired.

5.4 When did Belle II start?

The Belle II website says SuperKEKB began operations in 2016, with the first collisions occurring in 2018. KEK’s project page lists the first electron-positron collisions at SuperKEKB on 26 April 2018.

The table lists events these sources state. It is not the full history of the project.

6.1 What did NITI Aayog test?

NITI Aayog is India’s policy think tank. Its draft discussion paper Blockchain: The India Strategy says it pursued proofs of concept in four areas.

• Track and trace of drugs in the pharmaceutical supply chain.
• Claim verification and approval in fertilizer subsidy payments.
• Verification of university certificates.
• Transfer of land records.

For land records, the paper praises the Union Territory of Chandigarh. Every land parcel there has a unique ID and is mapped for ownership. The paper says this made Chandigarh an ideal candidate for a land-records proof of concept.

6.2 What is the National Blockchain Framework?

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) developed the National Blockchain Framework. A PIB backgrounder says it was initiated in March 2021 with a budget outlay of Rs 64.76 crore. It was officially launched on 4 September 2024.

At the launch, MeitY’s Secretary introduced four tools.

• Vishvasya: a Blockchain-as-a-Service stack. PIB says it is hosted at NIC data centres in Bhubaneswar, Pune and Hyderabad.
• NBFLite: a sandbox platform for startups and academia to prototype applications.
• Praamaanik: a blockchain-enabled way to verify where a mobile app comes from.
• National Blockchain Portal: the fourth item PIB lists at the launch.

PIB says the framework currently supports two permissioned blockchain platforms. Card 3 explains that term.

6.3 Where is it used?

The PIB backgrounder names several chains built on the framework.

• Certificate chain: academic documents of the Central Board of Secondary Education are stored on the blockchain.
• Logistics chain: the Aushada system of Karnataka records the movement of medicines from the manufacturer to hospitals.
• Property chain: during transfers in land records, all stakeholders can see the complete transaction history.

PIB reports that over 34 crore documents had been verified on India’s blockchain-based platform as of 21 October 2025. That is a dated snapshot and it will change.

So the live article’s idea holds. Blockchain’s ledger idea reaches past currency into supply-chain tracking and land records.

7.1 What was CRISPR awarded for?

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 on 7 October 2020. It went to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for the development of a method for genome editing.

The press release says plant researchers have been able to develop crops that withstand mould, pests and drought. It also said clinical trials of new cancer therapies were underway.

7.2 What was the first licensed CRISPR medicine?

On 16 November 2023, the UK regulator MHRA authorised Casgevy. MHRA says it is the first medicine to be licensed that uses CRISPR.

It is for sickle-cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia, in patients aged 12 and over. MHRA says both are genetic conditions caused by errors in the genes for haemoglobin. Red blood cells use haemoglobin to carry oxygen around the body.

8.1 What is the latest record?

As of 8 October 2026, the Belle II home page claims the world record for the highest instantaneous luminosity ever achieved at a particle accelerator. It is 5.319×10^34 cm-2 s-1, achieved on 30 June 2026.

Rows list only figures quoted in the sources, so some years are missing. The 2026 figure is as read on 8 October 2026.

8.2 How much data has Belle II recorded?

The luminosity page was read on 8 October 2026. It gives these totals of integrated luminosity.

• Run 1: 427 fb-1.
• Run 2: 151 fb-1. This total excludes the 2025 and 2026 runs, as the page states.

These are snapshots. The collaboration keeps updating them.

9.1 What did India launch?

On 19 November 2025, Dr Jitendra Singh launched BIRSA 101. PIB calls it India’s first indigenous CRISPR-based gene therapy for sickle cell disease. It is named after Bhagwan Birsa Munda.

CSIR-IGIB, the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, developed it. PIB says CSIR-IGIB and the Serum Institute of India signed a technology transfer agreement for IGIB’s engineered enFnCas9 CRISPR platform.

PIB says the therapy could replace treatments priced at Rs 20 to 25 crore overseas. That was said as a possibility at the launch.

9.2 What is its status?

India Today wrote on 30 April 2026 that BIRSA 101 uses a custom-built tool called enFnCas9. It quoted Dr Souvik Maiti saying the CRISPR system in Casgevy relies on SpCas9.

The same report says the therapy could change the rules of gene therapy in India "if it clears human trials". So read the 2025 launch as a start, not a finished treatment.

10.1 What did UPSC ask?

In the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2018, General Studies Paper I, Question 64 gave three pairs of a term from the news and a field. Candidates had to say which pairs are correctly matched. The terms were the Belle II experiment, Blockchain technology and CRISPR-Cas9.

See UPSC CSP 2018 GS Paper I, Q64. View this question.

10.2 How do you reach the answer step by step?

• Step 1: test each pair alone. Do not let one right pair make the others look right.
• Step 2: place each term in its real field. Belle II is particle physics. Blockchain is a ledger technology behind cryptocurrencies. CRISPR-Cas9 is gene editing.
• Step 3: keep only the pair where the term and the field agree. Only the blockchain pair does.

10.3 Quick Q&A