A Japanese Encephalitis Research Centre is to be set up in:

The answer is B) Uttar Pradesh. The Japanese Encephalitis (JE) research centre was proposed for Gorakhpur, the epicentre of JE/AES in eastern UP, which had repeated outbreaks and child deaths, including the 2017 outbreak at BRD Medical College. Check the current status of the project before relying on it for later years.

The core concept is the disease's epidemiology. JE is a flavivirus infection spread by Culex mosquitoes, with pigs and wading birds acting as amplifying hosts. It is endemic in the Gangetic plains and the Northeast, which is why the research and control effort sits in eastern UP, Assam, Bihar and West Bengal.

• Madhya Pradesh: not a recognised JE hotspot; the disease burden there is negligible compared with eastern UP.
• Rajasthan: arid western region with no significant JE transmission pattern.
• Punjab: northwestern state with no major JE endemicity, so no case for a dedicated centre.

Mains angle: this links to the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, the vaccination strategy (SA 14-14-2 vaccine in endemic districts) and the governance lessons of the Gorakhpur tragedy on oxygen supply and public health preparedness.

Trap: candidates pick Madhya Pradesh or Punjab on the basis of general health-infrastructure size. Anchor the question to where the disease is endemic, not to where big institutes are located.