Why in News?

ICAR-CPRI has developed Kufri Jamunia, a purple potato with higher anthocyanins, vitamin C, iron and zinc than regular potatoes, which the Centre is promoting to address hidden hunger. A review says it is too early to call it a proven solution.

Key Points

• Hidden hunger: When people get enough calories but not enough nutrients.
• Nutrients per 100 g (flesh): vitamin C 42.75 mg (against 23.15 mg in regular potatoes), iron 3.22 mg (against 0.57 mg), zinc 2.28 mg (against 0.28 mg), anthocyanins 42.05 mg and about 161 micrograms of carotenoids.
• Colour: The purple skin and flesh come from anthocyanins, antioxidants also found in jamun and blueberries.
• Development: Crossing of MS/8-1148 (high vitamin C) and CP4242 (purple skin and flesh) in 2015. The plant yields 10 to 12 tubers and matures in about 90 days.
• Yield: A mean of 31.96 tonnes per hectare across trial locations, against 36.61 for Kufri Neelkanth. It gives 29.19 tonnes of marketable potatoes against 33.48, so farmers may need about a 15% price premium.
• Disease: Moderately resistant to late blight in the laboratory but susceptible in the field, so fungicide is recommended.

Background

• Biofortification: Breeding crops to contain more nutrients as they grow. Fortification adds nutrients during processing, as with rice and salt.
• Late blight: A potato disease caused by the water mould Phytophthora infestans.
• ICAR-CPRI: The Central Potato Research Institute, in Shimla, which has also released the coloured varieties Kufri Neelkanth and Kufri Manik.

Why in News?

ISRO is set to launch NVS-03, its third second-generation navigation satellite, on 30 October from Sriharikota. It is expected to restore NavIC, which had stopped providing positioning data.

Key Points

• NavIC: Navigation with Indian Constellation, the operational name of the IRNSS, designed as a seven-satellite system covering India and up to 1,500 km around it.
• Services: An open service with accuracy up to 10 metres, and a restricted service for select users such as the military.
• Why it stopped: Atomic clocks failed on early satellites, and replacement launches failed: IRNSS-1H (2017) and NVS-02 (January 2025).
• Record: About 11 satellites launched since 2013 for about ₹2,250 crore, of which six failed.
• Current status: Only three satellites work (IRNSS-1B, IRNSS-1I and NVS-01).
• New generation: Indigenous atomic clocks of 12-year life and a third signal, L1, which improves interoperability with GPS.

About NVS-03

• Series: The third of five second-generation satellites. The NVS-02 failure delayed it.
• Launch: On a GSLV Mk II on 30 October, to a geosynchronous slot.
• Aim: To bring NavIC back to four working satellites, the minimum needed to give a position.
• NVS-02 fault: The drive signal did not reach the pyro valve in the oxidiser line of the engine meant to raise its orbit, and corrective measures have been made.

Background

• Global navigation systems: GPS (US), GLONASS (Russia), Galileo (EU) and BeiDou (China).
• Timeline: IRNSS-1A was launched in 2013, and NVS-01 on 29 May 2023.

Why in News?

T-138, a three-year-old tigress relocated from Bihar to the Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal on 2 October, has crossed the Sankosh river into Raimona National Park in Assam, probably in search of a suitable habitat.

Key Points: Protected Areas and Rivers Mentioned

• Buxa Tiger Reserve: Alipurduar district, West Bengal. Declared a tiger reserve in 1983 under Project Tiger, with an area of about 760 sq km. It had no resident tiger for decades, and T-138 was released to start a phased reintroduction.
• Valmiki Tiger Reserve: Bihar’s only tiger reserve, in West Champaran district, bordering Nepal’s Chitwan National Park. T-138 was relocated from here.
• Raimona National Park: Kokrajhar district, Assam, in the Bodoland Territorial Region. Notified on 5 June 2021 (World Environment Day) as Assam’s sixth national park, with an area of about 422 sq km. It is the westernmost buffer of the Manas Tiger Reserve and is known for the golden langur.
• Manas Tiger Reserve: In Assam, a tiger reserve (1973), UNESCO World Heritage Site and biosphere reserve, of about 2,837 sq km. Raimona is part of the Manas Biosphere Reserve and the Chirang-Ripu Elephant Reserve.
• Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary: In Bhutan. It joins Raimona and Buxa, creating a transboundary conservation landscape of over 2,400 sq km, managed under the Transboundary Manas Conservation Area.
• Jaldapara National Park: In West Bengal, west of Buxa, connected through the Chilapata forest corridor.
• Sankosh river: Flows down from Bhutan and marks the boundary between Assam and West Bengal. It runs along the western edge of Raimona and through Buxa. T-138 crossed it.

Background

• Project Tiger: Launched in 1973. The NTCA is the statutory body that oversees it, under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
• Tiger reintroduction: Moving tigers into areas where they have disappeared, from places with similar terrain, here Bihar to West Bengal.