UPSC Prelims Facts – 04 April 2024

UPSC Prelims Facts

A shallowfake video of the US Vice President has gone viral.

  • Shallowfake – Refers to altered media (pictures, videos and voice clips, etc) created with conventional and affordable technologies without the help of AI technology.
  • Also called as – Cheapfake.
  • Deepfakes – Deepfakes are synthesized images, videos, and other media created by the Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Exercise ‘Gagan Shakti’ conducting at Pokhran

  • Exercise Gagan Shakti – Indian Air Force is conducting its biggest exercise called Gagan Shakti

India and EEU bloc officials held talks to formally start negotiation for Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

  • EEU – An ambitious project for economic integration in the former Soviet region.
  • Objective – To create a common market much like the European Union (EU)
  • Established by – Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union
    • Signed in 2014 in Astana (now Nur-Sultan)
  • 5 Members Countries – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia.

Muslims across the world gear up for tarawih after the crescent moon is seen in several Indian cities recently.

  • Tarawih – Voluntary prayer that involves reading long parts of the Quran during the Islamic month of Ramadan.
    • Performed following the evening’s final daily prayer (Isha)
    • Origins of this prayer can be traced back to the last year of the Prophet Mohammed’s life.

Conflict between Israel and Iran taking newer heights.

  • Octopus doctrine – Covert operations targeting the enemy ‘at its head’
    • Termed by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as operations that “Hit the octopus at its head, not just at its tentacles”.
    • Though this doctrine has a special focus on Iran but it also extends to other hostile countries in the regions such as Iraq, Palestine, Syria etc.

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