• The West Bengal Tourism Department has decided to launch an interactive mobile app next month, listing all the good restaurants in Kolkata and other places across the State. 

• The move comes as tourists visit the Department website for locating restaurants.

 

 

 

 

• Pune hosted an international conference on microbiome research — a field of study that is still in its infancy in India.

• The human body carries diverse communities of microorganisms, which are mainly bacterial. These are referred to as “human microbiome”.

• These organisms play a key role in many aspects of host physiology, ranging from metabolism of otherwise complex indigestible carbohydrates and fats to producing essential vitamins, maintaining immune systems and acting as a first line of defense against pathogens.

 

 

 

 

 

• The space agency ISRO will launch its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C43, carrying her modern earth observation satellite HysIS, on Thursday. It will also carry 30 other co-passenger satellites of customers from eight countries. 

• The launch mission would be carried out from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. "ISRO sources have said, the launch window would be in the morning on Thursday and the countdown would start about 24-hours before the launch. 

• This time, the PSLV vehicle will travel in its lightest version called stand-alone configuration, as the total payload weight is less. The 380-kilogram earth observation satellite HysIS has a mission life of five years. 

• It can observe the earth surface in multiple frequencies like visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared. It will be placed in a 636 km polar sun-synchronous orbit. 

• Its co-passengers include a Micro and 29 Nanosatellites that will be injected into a 504 kilometre orbit. 23 of the customer payloads are from the US and one each from Australia, Canada, Columbia, Finland, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Spain. This would be the second launch for the ISRO this month

 

 

 

 

 

• Arsenic accumulation in rice grains is one of the serious agricultural issues in India. To address this, researchers at Lucknow-based CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute have developed transgenic rice by inserting a novel fungal gene, which results in reduced arsenic accumulation in rice grain.

• As large number of people are affected by arsenic toxicity, it is imperative to develop rice with lesser arsenic content and high yield.

 

 

 

 

• InSight, a NASA spacecraft designed to burrow beneath the surface of Mars has landed on the red after a six-month, 482 million-km journey.

• It was NASA’s ninth attempt to land at Mars since the 1976 Viking probes. All but one of the previous U.S. touchdowns was successful. NASA last landed on Mars in 2012 with the Curiosity rover.

 

 

 

 

• South Korea conducted a rocket engine test launch, paving the way for the development of its own space launch vehicle.

• A liquid-fuel engine successfully propelled a single-stage rocket from the Naro Space Center on the country`s southern coast. 

• It is the first such launch in South Korea since 2013 when the country successfully put a small satellite into orbit following failures in 2009 and in 2010

• The KSLV-2 rocket, which will be South Korea`s first space vehicle wholly designed and built by itself, will be used to place satellites into the Earth`s orbit and for other commercial applications.

 

 

 

• The Indian Space Research Organization, ISRO will launch the satellite HysIS on Thursday morning from its spaceport at Sriharikota. .

• Its workhorse rocket PSLV-C43 will lift off with the satellite at 09.58 hours. 30 other micro and nano-satellites of international customers from eight nations will also ride piggyback on it. 

• The countdown for the launch mission is progressing smoothly, as per the schedule. 

• This will be the second launch mission for the ISRO this month.