India and Cyprus focuses on Navy to Navy engagement
This engagement will through exchanges between Naval leadership, maritime security and domain awareness, search and rescue coordination, joint training, professional exchanges and port calls by Indian Naval vessels.
About Cyprus: Its an island nation situated in northeastern Mediterranean sea. It’s the 3rd largest island in Mediterranean Sea after Sicily and Sardinia. In 1974 it was divided between Republic of Cyprus and Turkish Republic of Cyprus, the Green Line is the UN buffer zone between these two and passes through the capital Nicosia.
Capital: Nicosia
It shares maritime borders with Turkey, Syria, Lebanon.
Geographical features:
Mountains: Troodos mountains from south to west, also have the highest peak of Cyprus i.e., Mount Olympus and Kyrenia range along the northern coast.
Plains: central region between the regions is fertile agricultural plain known as Mesaoria Plains.
River: Pedieos is the longest river of Cyprus.
The climate of Cyprus is typically Mediterranean type with hot and dry summers and wet winters.
India has operationalized its new resident mission in San Jose, Costa Rica
About Costa Rica:
It is located in Central America. It shares land borders with Nicaragua in north and Panama in south. It has coast in both Caribbean sea in Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean.
Capital: San Jose
It is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire with active volcanoes like Poas and Arenal. There are two mountain ranges Cordillera VolcĂ¡nica and Cordillera de Talamanca, with highest peak is Mount Chirripo.
The major river is San Jaun which makes border with Nicaragua.
The country hosts 5% of tropical biodiversity of world.
PM GatiShakti National Master Plan
It was launched in 2021 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. It is implemented by DPIIT.
Its a GIS based digital platform for the inter-ministerial coordination in the implementation of existing infrastructure schemes.
Budget outlay: ₹100 lakh crore
Objectives:
- To lower the logistics cost from 14% of GDP to 8% of global benchmarks.
- To align the transport infrastructure on a single platform.
- Implementation of projects in a synchronised manner throgh whole of government approach.
6 Core Pillars:
- Comprehensiveness
- Prioritisation
- Optimization
- Synchronization
- Analytical
- Dynamic
Institutional working:
- Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS): Chaired by the Cabinet Secretary.
- Network Planning Group (NPG): Technical body for evaluation of multi-modal project alignment.
India hosted the first, BIMSTEC Home Ministers’ Meeting in New Delhi.
This meeting highlighted the collective commitment to combating terrorism, transnational organized crime, narcotics, radicalization, human trafficking, illicit financial flows, and cyber threats.
About BIMSTEC:
Full Form: Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation
It was established in 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration.
HQ: Dhaka, Bangladesh
Member countries: (7)
5 South Asian countries: Indian, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
2 Southeast Asian countries: Thailand, Mayanmar.
In 2022, BIMSTEC Charter was signed during 5th summit at Colombo in Sri Lanka to provide it a formal legal status.
7 Core Pillars of BIMSTEC:
Security
Connectivity
Trade, Investment and Development
Environment and Climate Change
Agriculture and Food Security
People to People Contact
Science, Tech and Innovation
BIMSTEC Delhi Declaration
It is the outcome of 1st BIMSTEC Home Minister’s Meeting hosted by India in New Delhi, chairperson of the meeting was Home Minister Amit Shah.
The Delhi Declaration was adopted to enhance non traditional security cooperation across the Bay of Bengal region.
Major focus areas:
5 Pillars: Drug control, counter-terrorism & legal cooperation, extradition/repatriation of fugitive criminals, cyber-security, and institutional capacity-building.
Zero Tolerance on Terror: Direct call to combat cross-border terrorism, terror financing aligned with FATF and UNSC 1267 standards, and violent extremism.
Transnational Crimes: Joint mechanisms to curb illicit financial flows, human trafficking, online scams, and narcotics smuggling.
Disaster Management: Operative support for the upcoming BIMSTEC Disaster Management Centre at Jamnagar, Gujarat, reinforcing India as the region’s primary first responder.
Mongolia thanks India for unwavering support for its first-ever oil refinery
It is located in Sainshand, Dornogovi Province, Mongolia.India provided the financial assistance of $1.7 billion through Line of Credit. It is India’s foreign development assistance.
The capacity of the refinery is 1.5 million metric tonnes per annum. It will help in meeting around 70% of the domestic needs of Mongolia.
It is built by 2 Indian Companies, Engineers India Limited and Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Limited.
This development will help India’s access to Mongolia’s uranium, coking coal supply and rate earth minerals.
Note: India and Mongolia Defence cooperation:
- Nomadic Elephant
- Khaan Quest
And India was the 1st non socialist country to recognize Mongolia and started diplomatic relations in 1955.
Living wills: Term in News
It’s a legal document specifies a person’s preference to withhold or withdraw life sustaining medical support if they become terminally ill or into a persistent vegetative state.
It originates from Article 21 of the Constitution of India that is Right to life and personal liberty.
Major Supreme Court rulings:
Gian Kaur v. State of Punjab (1996): Supreme court states that Article 21 includes the right to die with dignity, but excludes suicide.
Common Cause v. Union of India (2018): Supreme court recognized Living Wills and passive euthanasia.
In 2023 Guideline were modified to simplify execution by removing Judicial Magistrate countersignature; attestation by a Notary/Gazetted Officer is sufficient.
Note: Authorizes passive euthanasia by approval from two Medical Boards Primary and Secondary and notification to the local Judicial Magistrate. Active euthanasia that is deliberate termination through lethal substance remains illegal.
INS Samarthak
Indian Navy is set to commission INS Samarthak on 16 October 2026 at the Naval Base Karwar in Karnataka. It is 1st indigenously designed and built Multi Purpose Vessel with over 75% indegenous parts.
It is built by M/s Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) at Kattupalli Shipyard in Chennai under Make in India Scheme and Aatmanirbhar Bharat vision.
Motto of the Ship: Vijayartham Ekanishthata
Key features:
It will play a primary role in maritime surveillance, coastal patrolling etc.
It will serve as a sea going platform for weapon testing, target deployment, and sensors.
The secondary roles include as will serve as auxiliary hospital ship conversion, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), maritime salvage operations, and logistics support to island territories.
