News in Shorts: 13 February 2025

Sṛjanam Rig

Context: Union Minister for Science & Technology launched India’s first indigenous Automated Biomedical Waste Treatment Plant, named Sṛjanam, at AIIMS, New Delhi.

About Sṛjanam

• Sṛjanam is an automated, eco-friendly biomedical waste treatment rig designed to disinfect pathogenic medical waste without incineration.
• Developed by: CSIR-NIIST (National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology), Thiruvananthapuram.
• Ministry: Under Ministry of Science & Technology.
• Implemented by: AIIMS in collaboration with CSIR.

Working of Sṛjanam Rig

• Uses non-incineration technology to disinfect biomedical waste such as blood, urine, and lab disposables.
• Employs a specialized antimicrobial process to neutralize pathogens.
• Converts treated waste into safe organic material, reducing hazardous emissions and environmental impact.

Tobin Tax

Context: Trump’s administration is reassessing U.S. capital investment policy to address the U.S. trade deficit and alleged currency manipulation, with some economists proposing a Tobin-style tax as a potential solution.

About Tobin Tax

• It is a small tax on international currency transactions to enhance currency stability.
• Proposed by: James Tobin (1972), a Nobel Laureate economist.
• Also known as:
• • Financial Transactions Tax (FTT)
  • Robin Hood tax (informal name)
• Purpose: To reduce excessive speculation and stabilize global financial markets.
• Application: Imposed on spot currency trades to:
  • Penalize short-term currency trading.
  • Stabilize markets by discouraging rapid, speculative trades.
  • Reduce volatility in cross-border financial flows.
• Often described as:  A mechanism to “throw sand in the wheels” of currency flows, slowing volatility.

How Would a Tobin Tax Work?

• Example: Suppose a 0.005% tax is imposed on currency exchange transactions.
  • If a company exchanges $1 million from Indian Rupees to U.S. Dollars, it would pay a $50 tax.
• Impact: Since global currency transactions occur at a massive scale, even a small tax could generate trillions in revenue for the U.S. government.

Einstein Ring

Context: The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid Space Telescope discovered an Einstein ring around the galaxy NGC 6505,  located 590 million light-years from Earth.

About Einstein Ring

• Naming: An Einstein ring is a circular formation of light around a massive celestial body.
  • The first Einstein ring was discovered in 1987, and since then, several more have been discovered.
• Formation: It occurs due to gravitational lensing, a phenomenon where light from a distant object bends under the gravitational pull of a massive object lying between the source and the observer.
  • This effect magnifies, distorts, and sometimes multiplies the background object’s appearance.
  • In this case, the gravitational lens is NGC 6505, which bent and amplified light from a distant unnamed galaxy located 4.42 billion light-years away.
    • A light-year is approximately 9.46 trillion km, the distance light travels in one year.
• Nomenclature: Einstein rings are named after Albert Einstein, whose general theory of relativity predicted that light could bend and brighten around objects across the cosmos.

Significance of Studying Einstein Rings

• Helps Study Dark Matter: Dark matter constitutes 85% of the universe but is invisible as it does not interact with light.
  • Since dark matter affects gravity, gravitational lensing provides indirect evidence of its existence.
• Provides Insights on Distant Galaxies: Many galaxies are too faint or distant to observe directly.
  • Einstein rings act as natural magnifying glasses, making these galaxies visible.
• Helps Understand Universe Expansion: By studying Einstein rings, scientists can analyze the stretching of space between galaxies, contributing to research on cosmic expansion.

Sole lottery distributor not liable to pay service tax: Supreme Court

Context: The Supreme Court in a recent judgement has held that a sole distributor who purchases lottery tickets from a State government for onward sales is not liable to pay service tax.

About The Verdict

• The verdict dismissed the appeals filed by the Union government against a Sikkim High Court decision,
  • It declared the clause (zzzzn) of the Section 65(105) of the Finance Act, 1994 as inserted by the Finance Act, 2010 as unconstitutional.
• Clause (zzzzn) of the Section 65(105) of the Finance Act, 1994: It introduced the activity of “promotion, marketing, organising or in any other manner assisting in organising game of chance, including lottery” as a taxable service.
• Respondents: Future Gaming Solutions and other lottery distributors were the respondents in this case.
• Argument: The respondents argued that lottery was an act of betting and gambling which came under the State List therefore the centre had no jurisdiction to levy tax through a Central law.
• The Verdict:
  • Principal-Principal Relation: A sole purchaser/distributor/promoter when buys lottery tickets from the State government for onward sales acts on its own right as a principal and not as an agent of the State.
  • The relationship between the State and the distributor is not that of a principal-agent, but that of principal-principal.
  • Service Tax: Since there is no service rendered by the lottery distributor to the State, no service tax will be  leviable between the distributor and the State.