theIASHub | 04 Mar, 2025 | 5
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For the first time in India, the Income Tax Bill, 2025, explicitly treats Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs) as property and capital assets.
o Capital Gains Tax: Any gains from sale, transfer, or exchange of VDAs will be taxed under capital gains provisions, similar to real estate, stocks, and bonds.
o Flat 30% Tax: Income from VDA transfers is taxed at 30%, with no deductions allowed (except for the cost of acquisition).
o Example: Buying Bitcoin at ₹10 lakh and selling at ₹20 lakh incurs a ₹10 lakh profit, taxed at 30%.
The United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) is closing its southern Africa office in Johannesburg following aid cuts by the Trump administration.
o Recognition: Won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020.
o purpose: Maintains international peace and security, promotes sustainable development, and provides humanitarian aid.
o Regulation: Governed by the UN Charter, with key bodies like UNGA, UNSC, ICJ, and specialized agencies.
A research team from China and Japan has reported strong signs that niobium diselenide (NbSe₂) can become a Bose metal.
o These metals conduct electricity with Cooper pairs instead of electrons but fail to establish long-range superconducting coherence.
o This state is called a Bose metal, an anomalous metallic state (AMS).
o Helps in understanding disordered metals, which have irregular atomic structures, impurities, or alloyed formations.
o A 2D NbSe₂ layer under a specific magnetic field was studied, showing Cooper pairs without superconductivity.
o Hall resistance vanished, indicating Cooper pairs as charge carriers.
Farmers are demanding the approval of Bollgard-3, a pest-resistant GM cotton variety developed by Monsanto.
o Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a soil-dwelling bacterium with insecticidal properties.
o Bt genes have been inserted into crops like cotton to provide insect-repellent properties.
o Bollgard-1 was introduced in India in 2002, followed by Bollgard-2 in 2006, which is still in use.
o However, Bollgard-2 is ineffective against whitefly and pink bollworm, which emerged in Punjab in 2015-16 and 2018-19, respectively.
oBollgard-3 is particularly effective against lepidopteran pests like pink bollworm.
o Bollgard-3 is not yet available in India, but Bollgard-2 Roundup Ready Flex (BG-2RRF) is closer to approval.
o BG-2RRF trials were conducted in 2012-13, but its commercial use is still pending regulatory approval.
o BG-2RRF makes cotton more tolerant to herbicides, helping farmers control weeds without harming the crop, leading to better yields.
NASA is set to launch the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) Mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, on March 6, 2025, linked to the solar cycle reaching its maximum phase.
o Every 11 years, the Sun’s magnetic field flips completely, causing the north and south poles to switch places. This periodic change is known as the solar cycle.
o The solar maximum occurs when the Sun’s activity is at its peak, leading to more frequent and intense bursts of radiation and particles.
o The solar minimum follows when solar activity decreases and a new cycle begins.
o Scientists track the solar cycle by counting the number of sunspots, which increase during the solar maximum.
o Giant solar eruptions such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) increase during the solar cycle, affecting satellite communication and power grids on Earth.
o Current solar activity and sunspot numbers suggest the cycle is nearing its maximum.
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has observed above-normal solar activity since May 2022, continuing through 2024o The solar maximum provides the best observation window for solar physicists.
o Missing this window would mean waiting until 2035-2036 for the next peak.
Indian Prime Minister has recently highlighted the repeal of the colonial-era Dramatic Performances Act, 1876, questioning why such an outdated law persisted for 75 years post-independence.
o Restrictions on Public Performances: Allowed authorities to prohibit plays, pantomimes, or dramas deemed scandalous, defamatory, seditious, or obscene.
o Power of Magistrates: Permitted magistrates to search and seize venues where prohibited performances were being held.
o Common Names: Ganges river dolphin, blind dolphin, Ganges susu, Hihu, Bhagirath.
o Restricted to disjunct stretches in India’s Ganga-Brahmaputra-Barak river system, Nepal’s Karnali, Sapta Koshi, Narayani Rivers, and Bangladesh’s Meghna, Karnaphuli, Sangu rivers.
o Recorded in mainstream Ganga River and tributaries like Ghaghra, Kosi, Gandak, Chambal, Rupnarayan, and Yamuna.
o Physical features: Long thin snout, rounded belly, stocky body, large flippers, and a slit-like blowhole.
o Sexual dimorphism: Females larger than males; give birth once every 2-3 years to a single calf.
o Coloration: Calves have chocolate brown skin at birth; adults have grey-brown, smooth skin.
o Freshwater species, essentially blind, using ultrasonic sound waves (echolocation) to hunt.
Prime Minister of India recently asked why a colonial law that “allowed the arrest of people dancing in public places” had continued to exist even 75 years after independence.
o This law was among those enacted by the British to clamp down on the budding Indian nationalist sentiment following the visit of the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, to India from October 1875 to May 1876.
o Under this, “any play, pantomime or other drama performed or about to be performed in a public place” could be banned if the government was of the “opinion” that the play was “of a scandalous or defamatory nature”, was “likely to excite feelings of disaffection to the Government established by law”, or “to deprave and corrupt persons present at the performance”.
o Other laws enacted during this period were the draconian Vernacular Press Act, 1878, and the sedition law of 1870.
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