Blog

1) Taiwan’s “porcupine doctrine”: The “porcupine doctrine”, which was proposed in 2008 by US Naval War College research professor William S Murray, is a strategy of asymmetric warfare focused on fortifying a weak state’s defences to exploit the enemy’s weaknesses rather than taking on its strengths. It is about building defences that would ensure thatRead more

1) Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV): It is a 3 stage Launch Vehicle configured with three Solid Propulsion Stages and liquid propulsion based Velocity Trimming Module (VTM) as a terminal stage. All three stages of the SSLV will be solid propulsion stages. The SSLV can carry satellites weighing a maximum 500 kg to low orbit,Read more

1) Mission showcasing Nari Shakti: Five officers of the Indian Navy created history by completing the first all-woman independent maritime reconnaissance and surveillance mission in the Arabian Sea, onboard a Dornier-228 aircraft. This first-of-its-kind military flying mission was, however, unique and is expected to pave the way for women officers in the aviation cadre toRead more

1) Yuan Wang 5: Yuan Wang 5 is a dual-use spy,  research and survey vessel, employed for space and satellite tracking and with specific usage in intercontinental ballistic missile launches. This vessel is in control of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) under its Strategic Support Force(SSF) unit. The SSF focuses on space, cyber, and electronicRead more

1) Tokenism: it is the act of doing something in order to show that a person/company is including people from minority or marginalised groups, but without sincerity and without showing an intent to increase diversity and promote inclusivity. Tokenistic acts can be dangerous and counter-productive for the tokens. One, they do not change prejudices aboutRead more

1) AlphaFold: Recently, DeepMind, a company based in London, announced that it had predicted the three-dimensional structures of more than 200 million proteins using AlphaFold. AlphaFold is an Artificial Intelligence-based protein structure prediction tool. It is based on a computer system called Deep Neural Network. Neural networks use a large amount of input data andRead more

1) Bullion: Bullion refers to physical gold and silver of high purity that is often kept in the form of bars, ingots, or coins. It can sometimes be considered legal tender and is often held as reserves by central banks or held by institutional investors. 2) India International Bullion Exchange (IIBX): Prime Minister has launchedRead more

1) Google Street View: Google Street View is an immersive 360-degree view of a location captured using special cameras mounted on vehicles or on backpacks by data collectors moving around the city streets. The images are then patched together to create a 360-degree view which users can swipe through to get a detailed view ofRead more

1) Total fertility rate: Total fertility rate (TFR) in simple terms refers to the total number of children born or likely to be born to a woman in her lifetime if she were subject to the prevailing rate of age-specific fertility in the population. TFR of about 2.1 children per woman is called Replacement-level fertility.Read more

1) Light mantled albatross: Asia’s first sighting of Light-mantled Albatross (Phoebetria palpebrate), a species native to the Antarctic seas, was recorded in Rameswaram and adjoining islets of the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park The Light-mantled Albatross, with broad pelagic habits, maintains a circumpolar distribution in the Southern Ocean. Listed as a ‘Near Threatened’ speciesRead more