In News:

The Next Generation Offshore Patrol Vessel (NGOPV) ‘Shruti’ was launched at Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata, marking another step towards strengthening India’s indigenous naval shipbuilding capabilities.

About Shruti

• Shruti is an indigenously designed NGOPV intended to augment the Indian Navy’s existing Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs)/Next-generation OPVs. NGOPVs are being constructed concurrently by GRSE, Kolkata, and Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL).
• The vessel is named ‘Shruti’, referring to the four Vedas, reflecting India’s maritime tradition and cultural heritage. Its crest depicts the Ursa Major constellation and a red-and-white lighthouse.

Capabilities

• NGOPVs are larger and more capable than conventional OPVs, with a displacement of around 3,000 tonnes, a maximum speed of 23 knots, and an endurance of approximately 8,500 nautical miles at 14 knots.
• The vessels are designed for multi-domain maritime operations, including:
  • Maritime surveillance
  • Search and rescue
  • Protection of offshore assets
  • Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR)
  • Anti-piracy operations

In News:

Renowned Indian theoretical physicist Prof. Deepak Dhar has been awarded the prestigious 2026 Dirac Medal by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP). He shares the honour with Bernard Derrida, Marc Mézard and Haim Sompolinsky for pioneering contributions to statistical mechanics and complex physical systems.

About Dirac Medal

Established in 1985, the ICTP Dirac Medal is named after British physicist Paul A. M. Dirac and recognises outstanding contributions to theoretical physics. It is awarded by ICTP in Trieste, Italy, an institution founded in 1964 by Nobel laureate Abdus Salam.

A distinctive feature is its Nobel Exclusion Rule: the medal is not awarded to scientists who are current Nobel, Fields or Wolf Prize laureates. The award reflects ICTP’s broader objective of promoting excellence in theoretical physics, particularly across the Global South.

Dhar is the second Indian scientist to receive the Dirac Medal, after Ashoke Sen, who received it in 2012.

Prof. Deepak Dhar’s Contribution

Dhar is best known for his foundational work on the Abelian Sandpile Model, a mathematical framework for understanding self-organised criticality. The model demonstrates how simple local interactions can produce complex systems that naturally evolve towards critical states.

His work established the Abelian property, showing that despite different sequences of cascading events or “avalanches”, the system ultimately reaches a predictable final state. Such theoretical approaches have broader applications in understanding earthquakes, forest fires, neural networks, traffic congestion and financial-market fluctuations.

Dhar has also received the Padma Bhushan (2023) and Boltzmann Medal (2022), the latter being a major international distinction in statistical physics.

In News:

Bengaluru-based Astrobase Space Technologies has unveiled EVEREST, India’s first privately built 800 kN Full-Flow Staged Combustion (FFSC) LOX-Methane rocket engine, marking a significant step in the growth of India’s private space sector.

About EVEREST Engine

• EVEREST is designed to deliver 800 kN thrust, a specific impulse of about 340 seconds and a 50–110% throttle range.
• It is being developed for reusable medium-lift launch vehicles, with the company’s proposed architecture targeting around 3 tonnes to 500-km Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and return-to-launch-site recovery.
• The engine uses Full-Flow Staged Combustion (FFSC) technology, in which both the fuel and oxidiser pass through separate pre-burners before entering the main combustion chamber. The resulting gases drive the turbopumps and are subsequently fed into the chamber, enabling efficient propellant utilisation and high performance.
• The use of LOX-methane also offers relatively clean combustion and is suitable for reusable systems.

Development & Government Support

• Development began in 2024, with engine subsystems already undergoing testing. Full-scale hot-fire testing at Astrobase’s facility in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, is a key 2026 milestone, followed by stage-level testing and vehicle integration. The company plans to manufacture and test around 20 engines before its first orbital flight, targeted for 2028.
• Astrobase is supported through IN-SPACe’s Technology Adoption Fund, which promotes private-sector development of advanced space technologies.

In News:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has invited the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to participate in its Moon Base programme, aimed at establishing a permanent human outpost near the lunar South Pole. The invitation was extended during the 9th India-US Civil Space Joint Working Group (CSJWG) meeting held at ISRO headquarters, Bengaluru.

Moon Base Programme

• The programme forms part of the broader Artemis framework, which seeks to return humans to the Moon and establish a sustained human presence as a foundation for future crewed missions to Mars.
• The lunar South Pole is particularly important because permanently or semi-permanently shadowed regions are believed to contain water ice, which could support future human habitation and resource utilisation.
• The proposed programme envisages three broad phases: robotic exploration and technology demonstration through 2029, development of systems and infrastructure during 2029–2032, and eventual assembly of a permanent lunar outpost for habitation and scientific research.

India-US Space Cooperation

The cooperation builds upon the Artemis Accords, established in 2020 as a non-binding framework for peaceful, safe and sustainable civil exploration and use of outer space. India became the 27th signatory in June 2023.

During the CSJWG meeting, India and the US also reviewed cooperation under the US-India TRUST initiative, the successful NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission, and opportunities for further civil and commercial space collaboration. Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to UN COPUOS guidelines on the long-term sustainability of outer-space activities.

In News:

India became the world’s leading ship recycling nation in 2025, with its global market share increasing from 30.1% in 2024 to 35.4% in 2025.

Its ship recycling volume rose from 1.86 million Gross Tonnes (GT) to 2.99 million GT, registering nearly 60% growth. India has thereby achieved the Maritime India Vision (MIV) 2030 objective of becoming the world’s leading ship-recycling nation five years ahead of schedule.

India’s Growing Ship Recycling Sector

Ship recycling is an important component of the maritime lifecycle as it enables end-of-life vessels to be dismantled while recovering steel and other reusable materials. When undertaken under appropriate environmental and safety standards, it contributes to resource security, circular economy and decarbonisation. Recycled steel requires substantially less energy than primary steel production and therefore helps reduce pressure on natural resources and greenhouse-gas emissions. The industry also generates employment and supports ancillary sectors such as transport, steel re-rolling, equipment supply and waste management.

The Alang-Sosiya cluster in Gujarat is the backbone of India’s ship recycling industry, accounting for around 98% of national recycling activity and having an annual capacity of approximately 6 million GT. It produces around 3.50 million metric tonnes of steel annually and is supported by authorised recycling yards, downstream re-rolling mills and waste-management infrastructure. India now plans to nearly double its ship recycling capacity to around 9 million Light Displacement Tons (LDT) through the expansion of the Alang Ship Recycling Yard.

Regulatory and Institutional Framework

India has progressively strengthened the regulation of ship recycling through the Ship Recycling Act, 2019, which provides the principal legal framework and designates the Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) as the National Authority. The Ship Recycling Rules, 2021 prescribe requirements relating to facility authorisation, ship-recycling plans, hazardous-material management, worker safety, training and reporting. The Ship Recycling Regulations, 2026 further strengthen operational, environmental and safety standards across recycling facilities.

Indian yards have also been modernised through engineered recycling plots, impermeable surfaces, drainage systems, mechanised handling equipment, segregated hazardous-waste storage and authorised waste-disposal linkages. More than 1.5 lakh workers have been trained at the Safety Training and Labour Welfare Institute at Alang-Sosiya in occupational safety, hazardous-material handling and emergency response.

Alignment with Global Standards

India has aligned its regulatory framework with the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (HKC), which entered into force on 26 June 2025. Government financial assistance of ?53.5 crore has supported the modernisation of 115 ship recycling facilities to meet Convention requirements. Further, 35 Alang yards have applied for inclusion in the EU list of approved ship-recycling facilities, with inspections underway.

The Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM) is another important component of the framework. It identifies hazardous substances present aboard ships and enables their safe management before recycling, improving traceability, transparency and risk mitigation.

Linking Ship Recycling with Shipbuilding

The Ship-breaking Credit Note Scheme, introduced under the Ship Building Financial Assistance Scheme (SBFA) 2.0, seeks to create a link between ship recycling and domestic shipbuilding. It provides a credit equivalent to 40% of the recycled vessel’s scrap value, which can be used towards the purchase of a new vessel built in India, subject to a ceiling of 5% of the value of the new vessel. This creates a policy linkage between recycling, domestic steel recovery and indigenous shipbuilding.