Why in news?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a three-day visit to Seychelles to attend the island nation's 50th Independence Day celebrations on June 29 as the Guest of Honour.

The visit is an occasion to revisit the deep historical, demographic and strategic ties that bind the two nations, located some 4,000 km apart in the Indian Ocean.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• A Demographic Bond: From Five Indians to 5% of the Population
• Migration and Trade
• Diplomatic Relations
• Cultural Ties
• India as a Development Partner

A Demographic Bond: From Five Indians to 5% of the Population

• The Indian connection with Seychelles is older than the country itself. In 1770, five Indians landed there as plantation workers, alongside seven African slaves and fifteen French colonists — recorded as the islands' first inhabitants.
• Today, Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) make up about 5% of the population.
• The PIO population with Seychellois citizenship is estimated at around 6,000, which is significant in a nation of roughly 120,000 people.
• Most belong to the Gujarati and Tamil communities. Beyond citizens, over 9,000 NRIs hold Gainful Employment Permits, working mainly in construction, as shop assistants and as professionals.

Migration and Trade

• A steady flow of Indians began in the 20th century — mostly from Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and later Gujarat — settling as traders, labourers and construction workers.
• A key historical link was administrative: during British colonial rule, Seychelles was for a time governed from the Bombay Presidency, with regular shipping and goods flowing from India.
• These trade routes encouraged Indian traders — who had reached a saturation point in East Africa — to seek new opportunities in the islands.

Diplomatic Relations

• Diplomatic ties were established in 1976, the year Seychelles gained independence (June 29, 1976).
• At that first Independence Day, a contingent from INS Nilgiri participated — a tradition echoed this year by an Indian Armed Forces contingent and two Indian Navy ships.
• Earlier in 2026, PM Modi described Seychelles as a key part of India's maritime vision — MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions).

Cultural Ties

• Cultural contact has been largely community-driven, sustained by the diaspora.
• In June 2022, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled at the Peace Park in Victoria, standing alongside statues of Nelson Mandela and Sir James Mancham, the founding President of Seychelles.
• India's recognition of the community is reflected in the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, conferred on Justice D. Karunakaran of the Seychelles Supreme Court in 2015 — the second recipient from the country after entrepreneur V. Ramadoss in 2006.

India as a Development Partner

• India has become one of Seychelles' most trusted development partners, working through grants, concessional credit and capacity-building.
• More than 1% of the population has received professional training in India.
• New Delhi has extended Lines of Credit and grants for infrastructure, healthcare, education and public transport.
• In 2026, PM Modi announced a Special Economic Package of $175 million.
• India remains a premier medical tourism destination for Seychellois, with island hospitals tied institutionally to facilities in cities like Chennai.

Strategic Significance: The Indian Ocean Chessboard

• Seychelles is a cornerstone of India's Global South strategy and a critical maritime partner in the Western Indian Ocean. Its location near Africa, the Middle East and Asia makes it strategically vital.
• For India, the partnership serves two purposes: it helps combat seaborne terrorism, piracy and illegal fishing, and it acts as a counterweight to China's expanding influence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
• For context, PM Modi last visited in 2015, and Indira Gandhi (1981) was the first Indian PM to visit. During this trip, Modi will also address the National Assembly of Seychelles and meet members of the Indian community.

Conclusion

The India-Seychelles relationship is a rare blend of the personal and the strategic — built on a diaspora dating back to 1770 and sustained today by development partnership and shared maritime interests.

As the Indian Ocean becomes an arena of intensifying competition, a stable, friendly Seychelles serves as both a partner in securing the seas and a quiet counterbalance to rival influence. PM Modi's presence at the 50th independence celebrations signals continuity in a tie that has matured from migration and trade into a full strategic partnership.

Why in news?

Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed the 10th Apex-Level Meeting of the Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD) at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

At the meeting, organised by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), he released two key documents: the Vision Document on Drug Control (2026-2029) and the NCB Annual Report 2025.

Together, they set out a time-bound national strategy and map the changing nature of the drug threat facing India.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• The Vision Document on Drug Control (2026-2029)
• NCB Annual Report 2025: The Scale of the Threat

The Vision Document on Drug Control (2026-2029)

• This document is a strategic roadmap targeting demand and supply reduction, as well as rehabilitation.
• The roadmap rests on a simple three-part foundation — "detect, disrupt and destroy."
• Core Shift: Dismantling Entire Networks
  • The core shift in approach is from chasing individual carriers to dismantling entire networks.
  • Enforcement will now target suppliers, financiers, handlers, facilitators and the organised syndicates behind them.
  • A mission-mode campaign aims to identify and dismantle 100 major interstate and transnational drug cartels through intelligence-led investigations and coordinated operations.
• Whole-of-Government Approach
  • The strategy is built around a whole-of-government model.
  • More than 40 Ministries, central agencies, State governments, district administrations, educational institutions, civil society bodies and ordinary citizens are to work under a single national framework.
• Key Specific Commitments
  • Legal reform: The Department of Revenue will amend the NDPS Act and Rules to close loopholes and address regulatory gaps. States have been asked to send suggestions. The amendment also promises a more reformative approach towards drug users and addicts.
  • Speedy justice: The MHA is working to set up exclusive NDPS courts for fast convictions in major cases.
  • Following the money: Financial investigation will be mandatory in major drug cases. There will be greater use of the PITNDPS Act (Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988) to attach illicit assets and strike at the financial base of trafficking networks.
  • Global reach: States have been urged to pursue traffickers hiding abroad through Red Corner Notices with CBI's help.
  • Technology: The plan calls for advanced surveillance, anti-drone systems, AI-enabled profiling and container scanning across land, sea and air routes.
  • Synthetic drugs: Special focus on methamphetamine, mephedrone and emerging synthetic drugs, with tighter precursor controls. Chemical and pharmaceutical industries are to adopt voluntary compliance and flag suspicious transactions.

NCB Annual Report 2025: The Scale of the Threat

• NCB Annual Report 2025 was released during the 10th Apex-Level Meeting of the Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD) in New Delhi.
• The report records an all-time high of over 1.48 lakh cases and seizures of more than 1,200 tonnes of narcotics and psychotropic substances.
• The seizures range from plant-based drugs to synthetic substances, diverted pharmaceuticals and precursor chemicals — a sign of how complex the threat has become.
• A Shifting Global Supply: Myanmar Overtakes Afghanistan
  • The single biggest change is in where India's opium now comes from. Myanmar has overtaken Afghanistan as the leading source of illicit opium.
  • The reason is twofold: the Taliban's 2022 ban cut Afghan poppy cultivation sharply, while Myanmar's cultivation expanded amid conflict and economic collapse.
  • Its Golden Triangle region — largely controlled by ethnic armed groups in Shan State — has become a poly-drug hub, producing both opiates and methamphetamine (Yaba tablets).
• The Eastern Front: The Manipur and Mizoram Corridors
  • The northeastern States of Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland face the sharpest exposure.
  • The Free Movement Regime (FMR) and porous, unfenced stretches along the India-Myanmar border have turned these States from peripheral transit zones into active staging grounds for distribution into the Indian heartland.
  • Two corridors are highlighted:
    • Manipur corridor — through which National Highway 102 passes — is the most direct entry point and the primary land route for both heroin and methamphetamine tablets.
    • Champhai corridor in Mizoram, near Myanmar's Chin State, routes drugs towards Silchar (Assam's Barak Valley) via Aizawl.
  • Crucially, the report links this trade not just to addiction but to arms smuggling and the financing of insurgent and terror groups — making it a direct internal security concern.
• The Western Front: Drones over Punjab
  • On India's western border, the Afghan pipeline has not disappeared despite the Taliban crackdown reducing production by 93% from its peak — an estimated 13,200 tonnes of pre-ban stockpiles continue to feed trafficking routes.
  • The most striking trend here is drone-based smuggling from across the Pakistan border, which has risen five-fold in five years and hits Punjab hardest.
  • The growth in drone incidents shows the rising operational maturity of these networks:
    • 3 (2021) → 35 (2022) → 28 (2023) → 178 (2024) → 305 (2025) — roughly a 100-fold rise in five years.
  • Beyond drones, the South Asian arm of the Afghan trade also enters through the land frontier in Punjab and Rajasthan and via the maritime route along the Gujarat and Maharashtra coasts, using fishing vessels and small craft that slip below standard surveillance.
• Digital Trafficking: Telegram and Encrypted Apps
  • The report flags encrypted messaging apps — Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal — as major trafficking channels, with Telegram emerging as a key platform for drug advertising.
  • Why this is harder to police than the darknet: these apps need no special access and work on any smartphone, lowering the entry barrier.
  • Enforcement is difficult because of jurisdictional hurdles in getting platforms to cooperate, auto-deletion of messages, use of multiple accounts and layered communication, and cryptocurrency payments that protect anonymity.
• Emerging Threats to Watch
  • The report singles out two threats needing urgent attention:
    • Nitazenes — a class of synthetic opioids said to be up to 500 times more potent than heroin.
    • The deepening link between drug trafficking and organised violence across transit economies.
  • India is also exposed to a wider global shift marked by ultra-potent synthetic opioids and record cocaine output.

About HELINA Missile:

• HELINA (Helicopter-launched NAG) is an indigenous, third-generation "fire-and-forget" anti-tank guided missile (ATGM).
• It is the helicopter-based version of the Nag Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM).
• The Air Force version of the missile is called Dhruvastra, along with an ATGM version, which can be fired by soldiers.
• It has been developed indigenously by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
• Features:
  • Helina missile systems are outfitted with two twin launchers, one on each side, capable of carrying a total of eight missiles.
  • It can cover distances ranging between 500 m and 7,000 m and is guided by an imaging infrared (IIR) seeker with lock-on before launch
    • It means the crew locks on to the target before the launch, and the missile then guides itself to the target without any further control from the helicopter.
  • The missile climbs sharply after the launch and then plunges directly onto the top of the tank.
  • The system is equipped for day and night operations in all weather conditions, capable of neutralising battle tanks equipped with both conventional armour and explosive reactive armour.

About Kiru Hydroelectric Power Project:

• It is a 624 MW run-of-the-river scheme being developed over the Chenab River in Kishtwar District of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
• It is located between the Kirthai II hydroelectric project upstream and the Kwar hydroelectric project downstream.
• The project will include the construction of a concrete gravity dam with a height of 135 m and an underground powerhouse located on the left bank of the river that will comprise four vertical Francis turbines with a capacity of 156 MW each.
• The project is being developed by Chenab Valley Power Projects (CVPP), a joint venture between National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC, 49%), Jammu & Kashmir State Power Development Corporation (JKSPDC, 49%), and Power Trading Corporation (PTC, 2%).
• The project shall provide much-needed power in the northern grid and shall accelerate the process of development of remote areas of J&K.

About Lake Laach:

• Lake Laach, also known as Laacher See, is a volcanic caldera lake located in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
• It is the largest lake in Rhineland-Palatinate.
• It is part of the East Eifel volcanic field within the larger volcanic Eifel region.
• The lake is oval in shape and surrounded by high banks.
• It was formed by a massive volcanic eruption.
• Traces of volcanic activity can still be found in the form of volcanic outgassing, the so-called mofettes, on the eastern shore of the lake.
  • Small bubbles rise up in the water - these so-called mofettes are rising carbon dioxide and illustrate the volcanic history of the lake.
• The lake has no natural outlet but is drained by a tunnel dug before 1170 and rebuilt several times since. 

About Senna Spectabilis:

• It is a versatile, flowering tree belonging to the family Fabaceae native to the tropical Americas.
• Common names: Popcorn Bush Cedar, Archibald’s Cassia, Calceolaria Cassia, Golden Shower, Golden Wonder, Scented Shower, Fetid Cassia.
• It is admired for its vivid yellow blossoms and its capacity to grow in a variety of climates, making it a popular choice as an ornamental tree in gardens and parks worldwide.
• However, this adaptability has led to it becoming invasive in some regions of the world.
• This tree prefers sunny areas and welldrained, loamy soils but is adaptable to various soil types.
• It is classified as Least Concern under the IUCN Red List.
• Challenges: It has a very aggressive growth rate and degrades lands in forest ecosystems, which make it challenging to control its spread.

Key Facts about Male Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary:

• It is located at the intersection of the Western and the Eastern Ghats and falls in the Chamarajanagara District of Karnataka.
• It is contiguous to Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve, Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, and the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary.
• It’s the home of the famous Male Mahadeshwara Temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva, known here as Mahadeshwara.
• It is bound by the Kaveri River to the northeast and by the Palar River to the south.
• Flora: The forests are principally of the dry deciduous type, degrading to scrub forest in the fringe areas, and are interspersed with patches of moist deciduous, semi-evergreen, evergreen and shola forests occurring at varying altitudes.
• Fauna:
  • It is home to several animals, including elephants, Indian bison, wild dogs, leopards, foxes, sambars, spotted deer, and many species of birds.
  • It is also a tiger habitat noted for its increasing number of tigers.

About Maharishi Sushruta:

• Sushruta, known as the “father of Indian medicine” and the “father of surgery”, was a pioneering figure in ancient Indian medicine.
• For Sushruta, the concept of shalya tantra (surgical science) was all-encompassing.
• His contributions have influenced the field of surgery, especially cosmetic surgery and medical practices within the global community.
• According to medical scholars, Sushruta lived and practiced medicine from 600 BC to 1000 BC.
• Sushruta was believed to be the disciple of the God of Ayurveda, Lord Dhanvanthri.
• He taught and practiced medicine in the city of Varanasi.
• He is known for his pioneering operations and techniques and for his influential treatise Sushruta-samhita, the main source of knowledge about surgery in ancient India.
  • Though composed over 2500 years ago, it contains detailed instructions on surgery and medicine.
  • The Sushruta Samhita comprises 184 chapters. This extensive work lists more than 300 surgical procedures.
  • It describes over 120 surgical instruments and provides details on various types of wounds, fractures, dislocations, conditions, and their treatments.
  • The Sushruta-samhita also provides details on toxicology, pediatrics, pharmacology, and other branches of the traditional system of Indian medicine known as Ayurveda.
  • Furthermore, the text includes descriptions of over 100 medicinal plants, detailing their taste, usage, and effects.
  • It remains one of the most important contributions to both Ayurveda and the early history of medical science.
• Examples of some of his groundbreaking operations include rhinoplasty (the repairing or remaking of a nose), removal of a dead fetus, and lithotomy (surgical incision into hollow organs such as the urinary bladder to remove stones, or calculi).
• He also developed many unique and practical techniques to dissect the human body and study its structure.
• His systematized approach to surgery, with the use of herbal anaesthetics and postoperative care, laid the foundation for surgical practices.
• Sushruta's emphasis on practical experience, dissection of cadavers, and detailed documentation established standards that continue to underpin surgical education today.
• The influence of his detailing surgical techniques and surgical instruments extended beyond ancient India, spreading to other parts of the world and shaping the development of reconstructive surgery, orthopaedics, ophthalmology, and many more fields.

About Narco-Coordination Centre:

• The Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD) mechanism was established in 2016 for better coordination between states and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• It has been further strengthened through a four-tier system in 2019.
• Purpose: To enhance coordination between the States, the Ministry of Home Affairs and concerned stakeholders in addressing the challenge of the drug menace in a holistic manner.
• It is designed to facilitate better communication, cooperation, and intelligence sharing among law enforcement and drug control agencies.
• Structure of Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD):
  • Apex Level NCORD Committee: It is headed by Union Home Secretary;
  • Executive Level NCORD Committee: It is headed by Special Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs;
  • State Level NCORD Committees: It is headed by Chief Secretaries; and 
  • District Level NCORD Committees: It is headed by District Magistrates.
• Initiatives of Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD):
  • Mission SPANDAN – Partnership with spiritual institutions for awareness have emerged out of NCORD mechanism.
  • MANAS Helpline: A toll-free helpline called MANAS (Madak Padarth Nishedh Asuchna Kendra) with the number 1933 has been launched.

About Banganapalle Mango:

• It is one of most popular mango varieties cultivated in the town of Banganapalle in Andhra Pradesh, India.
• It also known as Beneshan, Baneshan, Benishan, Chappatai and Safeda.
• It is known for its golden-yellow colour, fibreless pulp, rich sweetness and pleasant aroma. The variety enjoys strong demand in international markets and offers significant scope for expanding India’s mango exports.
• It has received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2017.

Key Features Geographical Indication (GI) Tag

• It is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.
• This is typically used for agricultural products, foodstuffs, wine and spirit drinks, handicrafts and industrial products.
• The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 seeks to provide for the registration and better protection of geographical indications relating to goods in India.
• This GI tag is valid for 10 years following which it can be renewed.