I was able to resolve all the 3 points:

Point 1.  I made the quick links related record active
Point 2 & 3.
Added below piece of HTML Code:

<div>
 <i class="fa fa-external-link external-link--icon" ng-if="(item.target == '_blank')" style="position: absolute; right: 0; margin-left: 5px;"></i>
<i class="fa fa-chevron-right catalog-item-icon" ng-if="item.target != '_blank'" style="position: absolute; right: 0; margin-left: 5px;"></i>
</div>