12 September 2025

• Diplomacy: India announces USD 680 million (approximately ₹5,600 crore) special economic package for Mauritius covering healthcare, infrastructure, maritime security, and education.
• Environment: Great Nicobar Island project approved 14.2 million TEU container terminal, international airport, and hybrid power plant near the Malacca Strait.
• Space: NASA Perseverance rover found potential biosignatures in Sapphire Canyon and Cheyava Falls site near Jezero Crater strongest yet on Mars.
• Circumnavigation: Samudra Pradakshina world's first tri-service all-women circumnavigation expedition launches.
• History: Acharya Vinoba Bhave birth anniversary (11 September 1895) Bhoodan Movement collected 4 million+ acres for landless farmers.

GS area: International Relations

Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam's state visit to India resulted in a special economic package under the India-Mauritius partnership.

• Package value: USD 680 million India's largest single bilateral package to an Indian Ocean island state.
• Healthcare:
  • New Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam National Hospital (SSRNH) the flagship project.
  • First Jan Aushadhi Kendra outside India providing affordable generic medicines to Mauritian citizens.
  • AYUSH Centre of Excellence for traditional medicine.
• Education: Memoranda of Understanding between IIT Madras, Indian Institute of Plantation Management (IIPM) Bengaluru, and the University of Mauritius.
• Infrastructure: Motorway M4 development; Ring Road Phase II; new Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport.
• Maritime security: Joint redevelopment of Port Louis harbour; monitoring of the Chagos Marine Protected Area.
• Chagos angle: The UK's decision to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius (agreed in principle, 2024) remains a strategic backdrop. The Diego Garcia US-UK military base on Chagos is a critical factor.
• Demographic linkage: Approximately 68 per cent of Mauritius's population traces ancestry to India mostly descendants of indentured labourers sent after slavery's abolition in 1835.
• CECPA (2021): India-Mauritius CECPA was India's first trade agreement with an African country.

Static linkage: Indian Ocean strategy, India-Africa relations, diaspora diplomacy.

GS area: Economy, Environment, International Relations

The Government of India approved the phased development of Great Nicobar Island India's southernmost inhabited island.

• Location: Great Nicobar is the largest of the Nicobar Islands, at the southern tip of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. Its southern tip (Indira Point) is approximately 140 km from Banda Aceh, Indonesia extremely close to the Malacca Strait.
• Project components:
  • International Container Transhipment Terminal: 14.2 million TEU capacity (would make it one of Asia's largest).
  • Greenfield international airport.
  • Power plant: 450 MVA gas plus solar hybrid system.
  • Township: 16,610 hectares of planned development.
• Timeline: Three phases from 2025 to 2047.
• Forest diversion: 1.82 per cent of forest land will be diverted.
• Strategic rationale: Great Nicobar's proximity to the Malacca Strait through which approximately 80 per cent of China's oil imports pass gives it massive geostrategic value. A permanent port and airbase there extends India's maritime surveillance and power projection capacity.
• Environmental concerns: The island is biodiversity-rich: leatherback sea turtle nesting site, Shompen tribe (PVTG) habitat, and pristine rainforest. Environment groups have challenged the forest diversion.
• Shompen tribe: One of India's five Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) that follow a policy of limited contact. The project raises serious concerns about their habitat and lifestyle.

Static linkage: Economy (infrastructure, ports), environment, internal security.

GS area: Economy, Environment

India has set 2028 as the deadline for fully indigenous solar manufacturing covering modules, cells, wafers, and ingots in an end-to-end supply chain.

• Current achievement: 100 GW of solar module manufacturing capacity achieved by 2025.
• Gap: India can make modules but still imports solar cells, wafers, and ingots primarily from China.
• PLI Scheme for Solar:
  • Allocation: ₹24,000 crore.
  • Actual investment generated: ₹50,000 crore.
  • Direct employment created: 12,600+ jobs.
• PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana: Rooftop solar scheme. 2 million households benefited; 50 per cent reporting zero electricity bills.
• PM-KUSUM: 1.6 million solar pumps installed or solarised for farmers; 1.3 billion litres of diesel saved annually.
• National Solar Mission target: 280 GW solar capacity by 2030 (revised from 100 GW under NAPCC).
• GST rationalisation: Reduced from 12 to 5 per cent on solar modules.
• China dependency risk: India imported ~80 per cent of solar cells from China as of 2024. Full supply chain independence by 2028 aims to eliminate this.

Static linkage: Economy (energy), environment, Atmanirbhar Bharat.

GS area: Sports, General Awareness

The Samudra Pradakshina expedition departed India in September 2025 the world's first tri-service all-women solo circumnavigation expedition.

• Vessel: IASV Triveni (50-foot indigenous sailing yacht, Class A ocean sailing).
• Crew: 10 women officers led by Lt Col Anuja Varudkar (Indian Army) and Sqn Ldr Shraddha P Raju (Indian Air Force). Crew from all three services.
• Route: Easterly circumnavigation, approximately 26,000 nautical miles.
• Timeline: September 2025 to May 2026.
• Historical precedents: India's solo sailors: Capt. Dilip Donde (2009-10); Cmde. Abhilash Tomy (2012-13). Navika Sagar Parikrama (2017-18) was the first all-women circumnavigation (Navy only).
• "Tri-service" distinction: Navika Sagar Parikrama was all-Navy. Samudra Pradakshina is the first with officers from Army, Navy, and Air Force together.

Static linkage: Defence, sports, general awareness.

GS area: Modern Indian History

11 September 2025 marked the 130th birth anniversary of Acharya Vinoba Bhave.

• Born: 11 September 1895, Gagode village, Raigad, Maharashtra.
• Named by Gandhi: Gandhi called him the "National Teacher of India" and considered him his foremost disciple.
• Bhoodan Movement (1951): Bhave walked from village to village across India asking landlords to donate land to the landless. He collected over 4 million acres of land though not all was transferable, cultivable, or distributed effectively, the moral and political impact was profound.
• Gramdan Movement (1954): Extension of Bhoodan asked entire villages to donate their land collectively.
• Philosophy: Sarvodaya (welfare of all) a concept derived from Tolstoy and Gandhi's ethics, aiming for a non-violent, decentralised social transformation.
• Scholarship: Translated the Bhagavad Gita into Marathi (Geetai). Wrote commentaries on the Bible (Talks on the Gita) and the Quran.
• Gandhi's assassination response: Bhave was serving a prison sentence when Gandhi was assassinated. He continued Gandhi's legacy through non-violent social action rather than politics.
• Emergency period: Bhave's controversial endorsement of the Emergency (1975-77) as "Anushasan Parva" (discipline era) remains debated.

Static linkage: Modern history (freedom struggle, Gandhi's followers).

GS area: Internal Security, Polity

Border Wing Home Guards (BWHGs) are a paramilitary-auxiliary force operating in border states.

• Legal basis: Home Guards Act, 1962.
• Authority: Ministry of Home Affairs.
• Authorised states: Seven states Meghalaya, Tripura, Assam, West Bengal, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat.
• Currently operational: Only in Rajasthan.
• Strength in Rajasthan: 2,279 active members (2025).
• Duties: Assist BSF in border vigilance, anti-smuggling, intelligence gathering, and area domination in border districts.
• Pay: ₹800-900 per day. 25 per cent of the cost is borne by the Central government.
• Tenure: 3-4 years voluntary enlistment.
• Why Rajasthan only? The India-Pakistan border in Rajasthan (Thar Desert sector) has long stretches where traditional forces alone cannot maintain round-the-clock surveillance. BWHGs, who are local residents with knowledge of terrain, provide cost-effective supplementary coverage.

Static linkage: Internal security, polity (paramilitary).

• NASA Mars biosignatures: Perseverance rover found organic carbon, sulphur, phosphate, iron oxides, and unusual textures (poppy seeds, leopard spots, calcium sulphate veins) at Sapphire Canyon and Cheyava Falls site near Jezero Crater in July 2024 the strongest potential biosignature evidence yet. No confirmation of life.
• Light-based computers: Breakthrough by Tampere University (Finland) and Université Marie et Louis Pasteur (France) achieved 91-93 per cent image recognition accuracy using optical fibres and photons instead of electrons. Potential for ultra-fast, energy-efficient AI processing.