13 February 2025

• Manipur: President's Rule imposed under Article 356. Chief Minister Biren Singh had resigned the previous day.
• Income-Tax Bill 2025: Introduced in Parliament. Replaces the Income-Tax Act 1961. New "Tax Year" concept replaces Assessment Year.
• Criminalization of politics: 46 per cent of 2024 Lok Sabha MPs face criminal charges. Supreme Court petitions for lifetime ban on convicted persons.
• India-France: PM Modi's summit with President Macron. Small Modular Reactors, Scorpene submarines and Pinaka interest discussed.

GS area: Polity (emergency provisions)

President Droupadi Murmu imposed President's Rule in Manipur on February 13 under Article 356. The assembly was placed under suspended animation (not dissolved). The constitutional sequence:

• Article 356: The President acts on the Governor's report that the state government cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
• Preceding steps: CM Biren Singh resigned February 12. The Governor's report followed. The Supreme Court had earlier called the situation an "absolute breakdown of law and order."
• Assembly status: Suspended animation keeps the assembly intact; it can be revived if a new government is formed before the six-month mark.
• Parliamentary approval: Required within two months for the first extension and then for subsequent extensions up to a maximum of three years.

Manipur has been under ethnic conflict between the Meitei community and Kuki-Zo tribal groups since May 2023.

Static linkage: Polity (emergency provisions, federalism).

GS area: Economy (taxation), Governance

The Income-Tax Bill 2025 was introduced in Parliament. It proposes to replace the Income-Tax Act 1961 with a simplified statute:

• Tax Year: The Bill introduces the term "Tax Year" to replace "Assessment Year." Under the current system, income earned in a financial year (April to March) is assessed in the following Assessment Year. The new concept assesses and taxes income in the same 12-month period it is earned.
• Simplification: The Bill reduces the number of sections from 823 to approximately 536 and brings tabular formats, formulae and schedules into the main text.
• Tobin Tax mention: The coverage brought this concept into focus. A Tobin Tax is a small levy (0.1 to 0.5 per cent) on foreign exchange transactions proposed by economist James Tobin in 1972 to reduce speculative currency volatility. India does not impose a Tobin Tax but has a Securities Transaction Tax (2004) on equity trades.

Static linkage: Indian economy (taxation).

GS area: Polity (elections, governance)

Updated data from the Association for Democratic Reforms:

• Criminal charges: 46 per cent of the Members of Parliament elected in the 2024 general election face criminal charges.
• Serious offences: 31 per cent are accused of serious crimes including murder and rape.
• Electoral advantage: Candidates with criminal records won 15.4 per cent of their seats; candidates with clean records won 4.4 per cent. The higher winning rate reflects greater fund and muscle power.

The legal framework on disqualification:

• Section 8(3) of the RPA 1951: Bars a person sentenced to two or more years imprisonment from contesting elections for six years after release.
• Section 8(1): Disqualifies persons convicted of heinous offences (corruption, communal offences) even without the minimum sentence threshold.
• Section 11: The Election Commission has discretion to reduce disqualification periods in individual cases.

Supreme Court petitions seeking a lifetime ban on convicted persons have been admitted but not decided.

Static linkage: Elections and governance (Polity).

GS area: International Relations

PM Modi and President Macron met in Paris:

• Nuclear: Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and Advanced Modular Reactors (AMRs) co-development framework signed. Progress on the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant discussed. Jaitapur in Maharashtra is planned to be one of the world's largest nuclear plants using French EPR technology.
• Submarines: Progress on Scorpene submarines with indigenised Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) systems. AIP allows diesel submarines to operate submerged far longer without snorkelling.
• Rockets: France expressed interest in India's Pinaka Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher.
• AI: Dedicated roadmap for safe and secure AI announced. 2026 designated the India-France Year of Innovation.
• Startups: 10 Indian startups admitted to Station F, France's largest startup campus. UPI to expand into France.

Static linkage: International relations (India-France, science and technology).

GS area: Science and Technology (agriculture, livestock)

An Ongole-heritage bull sold in Brazil for a record price brought this breed into focus:

• Origin: Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh (formerly called the Ongole region).
• Record sale: Viatina-19, a bull of Ongole lineage, sold for 4.82 million US dollars (approximately 41 crore rupees) in Brazil at auction in early 2025.
• Characteristics: Large muscular build. Heat-resistant and disease-resistant. Well-suited to tropical and semi-arid climates.
• Historical pedigree: Traces back to ancient Dravidian cattle stock with archaeological evidence connecting it to Indus Valley Civilisation (circa 3000 BC).
• Brazil connection: Brazil imported Ongole bulls in the 19th and 20th centuries to create the Nelore breed, which now dominates Brazilian beef production.

Static linkage: Science and Technology (agriculture, livestock genetics).

GS area: Science and Technology (astronomy)

The ESA's Euclid telescope discovered a near-perfect Einstein Ring in the galaxy NGC 6505:

• What it is: A gravitational lensing phenomenon predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. When a massive galaxy lies between Earth and a more distant galaxy, the massive galaxy's gravity bends the light from the background galaxy into a near-circular ring.
• NGC 6505: Located 590 million light-years from Earth.
• Rarity: Less than 1 per cent of observed galaxies produce Einstein Rings.
• Scientific use: Studying dark matter distribution and testing models of cosmic expansion.

Static linkage: Science and technology (space, physics).

• Dokra metal craft: A lost-wax casting technique over 4,000 years old. Found in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Telangana. Adilabad Dokra from Telangana received a GI tag in 2018.
• Lake Sapanca, Turkey: A freshwater lake in northwestern Turkey facing eutrophication from agricultural runoff and urban expansion. Between the Gulf of Izmit and the Adapazarı Meadow. Catchment area of 251 square kilometres.
• Veer Savarkar and the Marseille escape (1910): Savarkar jumped from the SS Morea at the French port. The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague ruled in Britain's favour in 1911. He was subsequently sentenced to two life imprisonments (50 years total) and sent to the Andaman Cellular Jail, released in 1924.