Extended Reality
Recently, XR Creator Hackathon showcased the next generation of Extended Reality innovators.
- Broad term encompassing immersive technologies like Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR).
- Virtual Reality – Immerses users in a fully simulated environment, transporting them into a virtual world.
- Augmented Reality – Enhances the real world by overlaying digital content, enriching a user’s perception without replacing reality.
- Mixed Reality – Seamless integration of real world and rendered graphics, allowing users to directly interact with digital and physical worlds together
Sudan Virus
Recently, the Ugandan Government and the WHO confirmed an outbreak of Sudan virus disease.
- A viral hemorrhagic fever disease, belonging to the same family as Ebola virus disease.
- 1st identified in southern Sudan in 1976.
- Transmission – Person-to-person transmission occurs by direct contact with blood, other bodily fluids, organs, or contaminated surfaces
- As of now, there is no licensed vaccine
Dhimsa Dance
Tribal villagers in AP celebrated the arrival of power supply in the village with a traditional ‘Dhimsa’ dance
- Traditional tribal dance originating from the Odisha
- Popular in the Araku Valley of Andhra Pradesh.
- Performed primarily by the Porja caste women and other tribes such as Bagata, Valmiki, Khond, Gadaba, Kondadora, Mukadora, and Kotia.
- Themes – mythologies, folktales, economic activities, and kinship and marital life.
Tirupparankundram Hill
Madras HC asks govt. to preserve harmony atop religious hill in T.N.
- Location – Tamil Nadu.
- Significant religious site, home to the Thirupparamkunram Murugan Temple, one of the 6 Abodes of Murugan.
- Contains some of the earliest cave temples of the Shaivism tradition
- Also has Jain caves with Tamil Brahmi inscriptions from the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE.
- Houses the Sulthan Sikkandhar Avulia Dargah, a mosque, and several Hindu temples.
Hybrid Warfare
Union Defence Minister underlines the dangers of Hybrid Warfare to India
- Combines conventional and unconventional methods, including military operations, cyber warfare, disinformation campaigns, and economic pressure.
- Characteristics –
- Obscurity – Makes it hard to identify the war threshold.
- Vagueness – Complicates attribution and response as the target country is not able to either detect a hybrid attack or not able to attribute it to a state.