{"id":38721,"date":"2023-12-24T03:36:59","date_gmt":"2023-12-23T22:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=38721"},"modified":"2025-04-23T13:45:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T08:15:52","slug":"drone-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/drone-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone strike hits Mangalore-bound merchant ship off Gujarat coast"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in news?<\/li>\n<li>What is Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR)?<\/li>\n<li>News Summary: Drone strike hits Mangalore-bound merchant ship off Gujarat coast<\/li>\n<li>No one has claimed the responsibility of the attack<\/li>\n<li>Response from India<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in news?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>As per two maritime agencies, a drone strike damaged a merchant ship off India on December 23 but caused no casualties.\n<ul>\n<li>Both agencies said the attack occurred 200 nautical miles southwest of Veraval, Gujarat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Indian Navy\u2019s <u>Information Fusion Centre for Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR)<\/u> is coordinating the communication between the Navy and shipping company.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR)<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>About\n<ul>\n<li>In December 2018, Indian launched the IFC-IOR, at Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) Gurugram.<\/li>\n<li>It was established for <u>regional collaboration on maritime security issues<\/u> such as:\n<ul>\n<li>Maritime terrorism, illegal unregulated and unreported fishing (IUUF), piracy, armed robbery on the high seas, and human and contraband trafficking.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The IFC-IOR aims to engage with partner nations and multi-national maritime constructs.<\/li>\n<li>The idea is to develop comprehensive maritime domain awareness and share information on vessels of interest (i.e., information on white shipping).\n<ul>\n<li>White shipping information refers to exchange of advance information on the identity and movement of commercial non-military merchant vessels.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Significance\n<ul>\n<li>Maritime security is a paramount concern\n<ul>\n<li>More than 75% of the world\u2019s maritime trade and 50% of global oil consumption passes through the IOR.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>IUUF growing into a bigger threat to maritime states than international piracy.\n<ul>\n<li>This is because they deplete stocks and deprive vulnerable regional economies of an important food source.<\/li>\n<li>IUU fishing also tramples sovereign rights, undermines the rule of law, and robs coastal states of a valuable economic resource<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Need for collaborative effort\n<ul>\n<li>The scale, scope and the multi-national nature of maritime activities, make it difficult for countries to address these challenges individually.<\/li>\n<li>Hence, collaborative efforts between maritime nations in the IOR, is essential.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Part of India\u2019s SAGAR (Security and Growth For All in the Region) initiative\n<ul>\n<li>The centre was established as part of the government\u2019s SAGAR framework for maritime co-operation in the Indian Ocean region.<\/li>\n<li>It hosts international liaison officers from partner countries. This includes both:\n<ul>\n<li>India\u2019s immediate neighbours in the Indian Ocean region and<\/li>\n<li>from further afield, including Australia, France, Japan, Singapore, the UK and the US.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>News Summary: Drone strike hits Mangalore-bound merchant ship off Gujarat coast<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The vessel called MV Chem Pluto had <u>crude oil and was going towards Mangalore from a port in Saudi Arabia<\/u>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>No one has claimed the responsibility of the attack<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the strike, which came amid a flurry of drone and missile attacks by Yemen\u2019s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on a vital shipping lane in the Red Sea.\n<ul>\n<li>The Houthi rebels have launched more than 100 drone and missile attacks, targeting 10 merchant vessels involving more than 35 different countries, according to the Pentagon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The attacks on shipping since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7 have prompted major firms to reroute their cargo vessels.\n<ul>\n<li>Now they have been forced to go around the southern tip of Africa, despite the higher fuel costs of much longer voyages.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Response from India<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Indian Navy had dispatched a maritime patrol aircraft which arrived overhead the merchant vessel. Safety of the crew and ship was ascertained.<\/li>\n<li>A warship has also been dispatched to provide any assistance as required.<\/li>\n<li>IFC-IOR is coordinating the communication between the Navy and shipping company.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1)\u00a0What is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)?<\/h3>\n<p>An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2) What is Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC)?<\/h3>\n<p>The Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) is the Indian Navy&#8217;s primary center for coastal monitoring and surveillance. It&#8217;s also the nodal center for the National Command Control Communications and Intelligence Network (NC3I Network).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/drone-strike-hits-ship-off-indias-coast-maritime-agencies\/article67668728.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Drone strike hits Mangalore-bound merchant ship off Gujarat coast: maritime agencies<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiannavy.nic.in\/ifc-ior\/about.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Indian Navy<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-navy-info-hub-could-play-key-role-in-quad-push-to-check-china-overfishing-7930900\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Indian Express<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Dec 2018, Indian launched the IFC-IOR, at Information Management and Analysis Centre, Gurugram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":38722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}