Prelims 06-05-2024
Indulekha Painting of Ravi Varma
Why in news?
- Recently, the first true copy of the painting ‘Indulekha’by the legendary artist Raja Ravi Varma was unveiled on the occasion of his 176th birth anniversary at the Kilimanoor Palace.
About the Painting and its History
- The painting ‘Indulekha’ is a masterpiece by Raja Ravi Varma.
- It portrays Indulekha, the protagonist of the first modern novel in Malayalam literature by O. Chandu Menon, published in 1889.
- It is believed that the famous painting ‘Reclining Lady’by Ravi Varma was modelled on Indulekha.
- It depicts Indulekha holding a letter addressing her lover Madhavan (the hero of the novel).
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Raja Ravi Varma (29 April 1848 – 2 October 1906)
· Born: Kilimanoor, Travancore (present-day Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala). · Contributions o His paintings are one of the best examples of the fusion of European academic art with a purely Indian sensibility and iconography. o Varma’s paintings depicted scenes from Hindu epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata, as well as portraits of deities. o He was notable for making affordable lithographs of his paintings available to the public, and increased the involvement of common people with fine arts and defined artistic tastes.
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INS Vikrant
Why in news?
- Recently, INS Vikrantalongwith the INS Vikramaditya showcased ‘twin carrier operations’ and demonstrated an ability that only a handful of nations can boast of.
About the INS Vikrant
- It is India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, commissioned into the Indian Navy in September 2022.
- It has been fully operationalised and integrated into the operational cycle in record time.
Historical Significance
- The name ‘INS Vikrant’ originally belonged to India’s first aircraft carrier which was acquired from the United Kingdom (UK), and played a vital role in the 1971 War with Pakistan before it was decommissioned in 1997.
- The ship was laid down as HMS Hercules for the British Royal Navy during World War II, but construction was put on hold when the war ended.
- India purchased the incomplete carrier in 1957, and construction was completed in 1961.
Role and Capabilities
- The ship is capable of operating an air wing consisting of 30 aircraft comprising MiG-29K fighter jets, Kamov-31, MH-60R multi-role helicopters, in addition to indigenously manufactured Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) and Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) (Navy).
- It offers an incomparable military instrument with its ability to project Air Power over long distances, including offensive, Air Interdiction, Anti-Surface Warfare, defensive Counter-Air, Airborne Anti-Submarine Warfare and Airborne Early Warning.
- With the commissioning, India has joined the elite group of nations (US, Russia, France, the UK and China) having capability to indigenously design and build an Aircraft Carrier.
Phi-3-mini
Why in news?
- Microsoft unveiled the latest version of its ‘lightweight’ AI model –the Phi-3-Mini.
About Phi-3-mini
- It is the smallest AI model developed by Microsoft. It is believed to be the first in a series of three smaller models planned by Microsoft.
- It reportedly outperformed models of the same sizeand the next size up across a variety of benchmarks, in areas like language, reasoning, coding, and maths.
- Essentially, language models are the backbone of AI applications like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.
- These models are trained on existing data to solve common language problems such as text classification, answering questions, text generation, document summarisation, etc.
Comparison with LLMs
- Phi-3-mini is an SLM. Simply, SLMs are more streamlined versions of large language models.
- When compared to LLMs, smaller AI models are also cost-effective to develop and operate, and they perform better on smaller devices like laptops and smartphones.
- SLMs are great for “resource-constrained environments including on-device and offline inference scenarios.”