Meta announces its new AI assistant, Meta AI, powered by the advanced language model, Llama 3. This AI is being integrated across all major Meta apps and will soon be accessible on Meta's VR headset and smart glasses. FEATURES OF META AI Meta AI is an artificial intelligence laboratory owned by Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly known as Facebook, Inc.). Meta AI develops various forms of artificial intelligence, including augmented and artificial reality technologies. Meta AI is also an academic research laboratory focused on generating knowledge for the AI community. Basically, Meta AI is a free virtual assistant which can be....Read More

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has launched India’s First ‘medical devices calibration facility on wheels. This has been developed by IIT Madras under its ‘Anaivarukkum IITM’ (IITM for all) Initiatives. This mobile facility will ensure pervasive quality healthcare irrespective of geographical locations across the country. This will help to test and maintain medical devices that are used in wide range of hospitals including those in villages at their doorsteps. This initiative boosts the United National Sustainable Development Goal 3, which calls for Health and well-being for all. The infrastructure available in this mobile unit include state-of-the-art equipment to....Read More

India and the US have decided to reactivate the Indian Ocean Observing System (IndOOS), a network of 36 moored buoys in the high seas to collect high-resolution ocean and atmospheric data for weather forecasts. The IndOOS array of buoys fell into neglect and disrepair during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to gaps in observational data considered crucial by weather forecasters, particularly since the links between the Indian Ocean Dipole phenomenon and monsoon were established. The reactivation of IndOOS was discussed last month during a meeting of Earth Sciences Secretary M Ravichandran with Rick Spinrad, Administrator of National Oceanic....Read More

Russia has successfully launched its Angara A5 space rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. According to mission control that launched the rocket, it reached an altitude of more than 25,000 kilometers (15,500 mi) per hour within minutes as it blasted off into space. Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, confirmed that the rocket operated as expected. The Angara rocket is a 54.5 meter (178.81 ft) three-stage rocket. Its weight is about 773 tons, about 24.5 tons of which can be carried into space. ABOUT RUSSIA'S ANGARA PROJECT: Russia launched the Angara project in 1991, shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, with....Read More

Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) has announced the successful deployment in space of its sub-metre resolution optical satellite, TSAT-1A, by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The satellite was placed in space as part of the Bandwagon-1 mission and was launched from Kennedy Space centre, Florida, U.S. ABOUT TSAT-1A: It is an optical sub-metre-resolution Earth observation satellite. It was built by Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) in collaboration with Latin American company Satellogic Inc, following a collaboration agreement between the two companies in late 2023. TSAT-1A was assembled in TASL's Assembly, Integration, and Testing (AIT) plant at its Vemagal facility in It....Read More

The United States and the United Kingdom have signed an agreement to work together on testing advanced artificial intelligence (AI) The agreement follows commitments made at the Bletchley Park AI Security Summit last year. ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI): AI began in the 1950s. Artificial intelligence means intellectual ability developed artificially. Computer system or robotic systems are created through AI. An attempt is made to run it on the basis of the same logic on the basis of which the human brain works. According to John McCarthy, the father of AI, it is the science and engineering of creating intelligent machines,....Read More

For the second time, the launch of AgniKul ‘Agnibaan SOrTeD’ has been postponed. The IIT Madras-based Agnikul Cosmos was to test-fire an Agnibaan rocket with 3D-printed engine, aiming for suborbital flight trajectory control. KEY HIGHLIGHTS: The Agnibaan SOrTeD is a customisable launch vehicle that could be launched in one or two stages. It is powered by AgniKul’s patented Agnilet engine. The rocket, weighing 580 kilograms, aimed to reach an altitude of 20 kilometers above the Earth before descending into the Bay of Bengal, carrying up to 7 kg of payloads. Agnikul Cosmos has been at the forefront of India’s burgeoning....Read More

Tech giants Microsoft and OpenAI have revealed plans to construct an unprecedented artificial intelligence supercomputer known as “Stargate.” This ambitious endeavor, estimated to cost a staggering $100 billion, represents a significant leap forward in AI infrastructure and capabilities. Microsoft is set to spearhead the financing of the project, with OpenAI contributing its expertise in AI research and development. The ambitious Stargate project aims for completion by 2028, marking the culmination of a series of supercomputers envisioned by the collaboration over the next six years. Stargate represents the pinnacle of this collaboration, positioned as the fifth and final phase of a....Read More

The Reserve Bank of India is considering establishing a Digital India Trust Agency (DIGITA) to combat cyber fraud and illegal lending apps. ABOUT DIGITAL INDIA TRUST AGENCY It will be responsible for stopping illegal lending apps from popping up. It will enable the verification of these digital lending apps and will maintain a public register of these verified applications. Any app which will not carry the “verified” tag of DIGITA, will be considered unauthorized. This will create an important and much-needed checkpoint in the fight against online financial fraud.Read More

The 125th anniversary of the iconic Kodaikanal Solar Observatory (KSO) was celebrated on 1 April 2024 by Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), to remember the history of KSO, felicitate its scientists, and honour its legacy was a milestone for astronomy in India. The KSO houses a digital repository of 1.2 lakh digitised solar images and thousands of other images of the Sun recorded every day since the start of the 20th century. ABOUT KODAIKANAL SOLAR OBSERVATORY: It is a solar observatory owned and operated by the Indian Institute of....Read More