Indian Culture Minister expresses hope for Pakistan's participation in SCO forum and criticizes claims over Indus Valley heritage

PhotoSparks, a weekly column from YourStory launched in 2014, presents photographs that celebrate the spirit of creativity and innovation. Across more than 1030 publications, various events have been featured, including an art festival, a comic gallery, a world music festival, a telecommunications exhibition, a grain fair, a climate change exhibition, a wildlife conference, a startup festival, a Diwali coloring, and a jazz festival.

At the 65th National Art Exhibition, organized by Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) in New Delhi, awards were presented to 20 artists. Among the awardees were Sanjay Kumar Sahani, Sanjib Kumar Gogoi, Santa Deb, Siddharth Shajirao Singade, Usharanjan Mandal, and Vijendra Sharma.

Sanjay Kumar Sahani is a contemporary visual artist who focuses on youth as an object of artistic contemplation, exploring themes of their identity, energy, and daily experience.

Sanjib Kumar Gogoi is known for his approach to figurative and abstract painting, characterized by textural effects and styles inspired by antiquity. He holds a Master's degree in Painting from Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata and has over twenty years of creative experience.

Santa Deb is a contemporary sculptor whose practice demonstrates simplicity, balance, and aesthetic qualities of form. Siddharth Shajirao Singade and Usharanjan Mandal experiment with mixed media and alternative artistic materials, while Vijendra Sharma has established himself as a contemporary painter.

Familiarity with such artists helps visitors appreciate diverse cultural traditions, identities, and perspectives. The variety of works in genres such as painting, sculpture, engraving, drawing, and mixed media shows viewers how similar themes can be expressed in multiple ways, which is highlighted in this photo essay.

Contemplating original works of art encourages the audience toward creative thinking and the development of their own imagination. By engaging with topics such as environmental protection and urban life, they connect aesthetics and activism.

The combination of traditional and modern demonstrates that India's artistic heritage is a source of inspiration and motivation. This applies to artists, art lovers, collectors, historians, students, and the general public.

Observing the perfection of professional work stimulates emerging creators in their own artistic journey. While books and digital media are popular sources of art knowledge, art exhibitions provide unique opportunities for direct engagement with art.

Exhibitions allow viewers to experience the actual size, dimensions, and physical impact of artworks, especially large paintings and installations. This prompts them to consider ideas and viewpoints they might not have encountered before.

Furthermore, exhibitions offer the chance to meet artists whose works may not be available in books or online platforms. This contributes to the discovery of new talents and creative approaches for the public.

By viewing pieces up close and from different angles, visitors can study brushstrokes, layers, textures, materials, and techniques. This helps in gaining a deeper understanding of the creation process and appreciating the perseverance and discipline required of artists.

Viewing an exhibition alongside other visitors, artists, curators, and art critics transforms art into a shared cultural experience. The composition, lighting, and environment of the exhibition create an immersive impression that digital images cannot fully replicate.

Art exhibitions offer the audience a direct, interactive, and sensory experience that goes beyond simply viewing images. This leads to a deeper understanding and appreciation of art.

In the case of a pan-Indian art exhibition, viewing original works from different regions promotes a deeper understanding of the country's diverse cultural identities. This extends to regional traditions, religious influences, and artistic heritage.

In conclusion, the 65th National Art Exhibition by LKA represents a national snapshot of contemporary Indian visual art. The exhibited works were selected from 6175 applications by 2495 artists from 27 states and union territories.

Thus, it is significant not only as an exhibition in the capital but also as one of the Academy's main mechanisms for identifying, recognizing, and ensuring national recognition among emerging and established visual artists in India.

Tencent Hunyuan has introduced the Hy Realtime model, a real-time voice model that integrates tool invocation and singing capabilities into everyday conversation. This model is already available in voice calls on the Tencent Yuanbao platform and in Tencent's customer support service. The company announced that Hy Realtime will soon be offered via API on Tencent Cloud. The model was unveiled on November 13th.

According to Tencent's statements, Hy Realtime was developed taking into account the characteristics of human speech. The model is capable of handling features such as mumbling, phrase interruptions, or self-correction during thought. The context of the surrounding conversation is used to reconstruct the true meaning. Furthermore, its capabilities for multi-turn instruction following and context management have been improved, allowing the model to track the user's intent throughout extended dialogues.

The model also possesses the function of invoking external tools. Based on the content of the conversation and the user's intentions, it decides whether a web search is necessary, then manages this search, executes the tool call, and provides a voice response within a single process. Regarding output quality, Tencent asserts that the model surpasses its predecessor in audio quality, pronunciation, prosody, and emotional expression, ensuring more natural tonal variations during the dialogue.

The singing functionality was developed in collaboration with the Tencent Music Entertainment AI team. Users can request compositions by specifying parameters such as artist, album, genre, language, release year, or popularity, and they can combine these conditions and refine their requests in subsequent turns. In an example from Tencent, a user requested an English folk song released between 2010 and 2020, and the model found a suitable option and sang it. Tencent notes that they tuned the vocals to provide expressiveness, natural phrasing, breathing, as well as melody and rhythm.

Tencent reports positive results from internal blind tests conducted by experts in search and answer tasks, as well as from an internal test set for the no-thought mode and several public voice benchmarks. The company characterizes its overall performance on these public tests as leading. It should be noted that these are the company's own evaluations, and the published text does not provide sample sizes or test configurations.

Users can test the model in the latest Yuanbao application by selecting the 'Chuyu' voice in voice calls, or through the Tencent Cloud web demo. Tencent plans further development in the direction of two-way interaction, long-term personalized memory, and coordination between the main conversational agent and background agents.

Reports indicate that musician Anirudh Ravichander intends to take a long break from his professional activities following his marriage to businesswoman Kavya Marn, planning to return to work by January 2027. According to one report, he may resume his activities next year, and among his first projects after the break could be Kamal Haasan's film 'Sandiar'.

According to the publication 'Valai Pechu', Anirudh plans to stay out of work for several months and might return to his endeavors in January 2027. It is anticipated that he will begin the next phase of his work with a teaser for Kamal Haasan's film 'Sandiar', and filming for this movie may start around the same time. Nevertheless, Anirudh has not yet made an official statement regarding taking a break or returning to work.

Anirudh and Kavya Marn were married on November 11 in Greece during a private ceremony. The couple opted for a modest ceremony in the style of 'self-respect' instead of traditional rites. During this ceremony, they exchanged pendants with each other.

Kavya is the daughter of Kalainidhi Marn, Chairman of Sun Group, and is known as the owner of the Sunrisers Hyderabad team during Indian Premier League (IPL) matches.

According to available information, the day before the wedding, on November 10, Anirudh and Kavya exchanged rings. Superstar Rajinikanth attended the wedding and blessed the newlyweds. Furthermore, the couple is preparing to host a grand reception at a luxury hotel on November 21, which is expected to be attended by many major figures from the film industry, including Kamal Haasan, Thalapathy Vijay, Shah Rukh Khan, Allu Arjun, and Ajith Kumar.

Professionally, Anirudh recently worked on the music for Nelson Dilipkumar's film 'Jailer 2', starring Rajinikanth. S.J. Surya, Vidya Balan, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Mithun Chakraborty, and Yogi Babu also participate in this film.

Besides 'Sandiar', Anirudh has numerous other projects planned. His upcoming films include 'Dharman', 'Daredevil', 'Indian 3', 'King' featuring Rajinikanth, 'AA23', and Allu Arjun's 'Arasan'.