World Affairs 

As US position on Ukraine-NATO shifts, a recall - and why it matters - Indian Express 

During his recent phone call with Russia’s President, US President rejected as “impractical” the possibility of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the 32-member transatlantic military alliance in which an attack on any member is considered an attack on all.

West’s Broken ‘Promises’ on NATO Expansion

• 1990 Assurance: U.S. Secretary of State James Baker assured Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand eastward. 
• Contradiction: Despite this, NATO expanded by adding former Soviet allies and satellite states.
• 2000 Admission: Former CIA Director Robert Gates stated that Gorbachev and others were "led to believe" NATO would not expand eastward. 

NATO’s Eastward Expansion

• 1999 Expansion: NATO inducted former Warsaw Pact countries—Czechia, Hungary, and Poland—less than a decade after the USSR’s collapse.
• Clinton’s Justification: Expansion aimed at fostering a cooperative and war-free Europe. (San Francisco Speech, 1999)
• 2004 Expansion: Bulgaria, Slovakia, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovenia joined, bringing NATO closer to Russia.
• Further Expansion: Albania and Croatia (2009), Montenegro (2017), and North Macedonia (2020) expanded NATO’s presence in Eastern Europe.

Moscow’s Concerns 

• Security Dilemma: NATO’s expansion reduces Russia’s security, prompting hostile responses.
• NATO’s Collective Defense: Article 5 of the 1949 NATO Charter mandates mutual defense in case of an attack on any member.
• Perceived Western Hegemony: Russia views NATO as a US-led strategy to encroach on its security.
• Monroe Doctrine Parallel: Russia applies a similar geopolitical logic to its neighborhood, akin to the US Monroe Doctrine.
• Opposition Since 1997: President Yeltsin sought assurances from the US against NATO expansion but failed.
• Ukraine as a Red Line: Russia sees Ukraine's NATO membership as a direct security threat and a potential cause for war.

US’ Disruption

• Ukraine’s NATO Aspirations: Initiated by President George W. Bush but faced opposition from France and Germany, leading to an ambiguous Bucharest Summit decision.
• Russian Response: Annexation of Crimea (2014) and invasion of Donbas (2022) following NATO’s continued push for Ukraine’s membership.
• NATO’s 2024 Commitment: Leaders reaffirmed Ukraine’s “irreversible path” to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership.
• Trump’s Potential Impact: Expected to either reshape or weaken NATO, creating divisions within the alliance.
• US Position: Trump’s allies criticized excessive US security commitments to Europe, with Vice President J.D. Vance avoiding direct mention of Ukraine at the Munich Security Conference.

Economy 

Will the new ‘lucid’ Income Tax bill reduce disputes and litigation? - The Hindu

Finance Minister recently introduced the Income Tax Bill, 2025, in Lok Sabha to make India’s direct tax law “concise, lucid, easy to read and understand”. During her Budget presentation in July last year Ms. Sitharaman announced the government’s decision to overhaul the more than six decades old law.

Purpose of the New IT Bill

• Issues with IT Act, 1961: Frequent amendments made it complex, increasing compliance costs and hindering tax administration.
• Key Objectives:
  • Simplify language and remove redundant provisions.
  • Reorganize sections for better navigation.
  • Use tables and formulae for clarity (e.g., consolidating 43 TDS sections into one).
  • No policy changes in direct taxes.

Expected Benefits

• Simplified Interpretation: Clearer language improves compliance and efficiency.
• Reduced Litigation: Less ambiguity minimizes tax disputes and locked-up revenue.

Introduction of 'Tax Year'

• Current change: Change from ‘Financial Year’ and ‘Assessment Year’ to ‘Tax Year’.
• Objective: Reduce taxpayer confusion by standardizing terminology.
• Global Alignment: Follows systems in the UK, Australia, etc.

Changes in Virtual Taxation

• Expansion of Search & Seizure: Now covers digital assets like email servers, social media accounts, cloud storage, etc.
• Regulation of Cryptocurrencies:
  • Crypto classified as Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs).
  • Authorities can block transfers if tax evasion is suspected.
  • Stricter enforcement on undeclared crypto holdings.

Previous Attempts to Revise IT Act

• 2009: Direct Tax Code (DTC) proposed by FM Pranab Mukherjee but not passed.
• 2017: PM Modi called for redrafting IT Act, leading to a task force report in 2019.

Environment 

Parambikulam Reserve adds 15 new species to its biodiversity checklist - The Hindu

A faunal survey by the Forest Department in the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve in Palakkad district of Kerala has added 15 new species to the protected area’s checklist. The survey recorded 206 bird species. The new additions were painted spurfowl, rufus-bellied hawk-eagle, Indian grey hornbill, Anamalai sholakili, Taiga flycatcher, plain prinia, and green leaf warbler.

Parambikulam Tiger Reserve

• Location: Palakkad District, Kerala; between Anamalai and Nelliampathy Hills in the Southern Western Ghats.
• Habitat: Evergreen, moist & dry deciduous forests, and grasslands.
• Key Fauna: Lion-tailed macaque, Malabar giant squirrel, flying squirrel, tarantula.

Endemic & Threatened Species:

• Flora: Coscinium fenestratum, Utleria salicifolia (IUCN red-listed medicinal plants).
• Fauna: Tomopterna parambikulamana (endemic frog), Garra surendranathanii (endemic sucker fish).

What is the Aravali safari park project? - The Hindu

The Haryana government’s ambitious 3,858 hectare Aravali safari park project spread across Gurugram and Nuh — which was one of the poll promises of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party last year — is envisaged to be the world’s largest safari park. However, the project has faced stiff opposition ever since it was first mooted.

Aravali Safari Park Project

• Overview: Proposed by Haryana Tourism Department, now under the Forest Department.
• Area: 3,858 hectares (2,574 ha in Gurugram and 1,284 ha in Nuh).
• Components: Animal cages, hotels, restaurants, botanical gardens, aquariums, cable cars, theatres, and an animal hospital.

Opposition to the Project

• Significance: Aravali, oldest fold mountain range, prevents Thar Desert expansion and recharges groundwater.
• Role: Habitat for diverse wildlife and plant species.
• Concerns:
  • Increased tourism, construction, and vehicular traffic could harm aquifers and disturb the fragile ecosystem.
  • Groundwater over-exploited in Gurugram & Nuh; project may worsen water scarcity.
  • Area falls under Forest Conservation Act, 1980; Haryana's forest cover is just 3.6%.

Laws Protecting Aravali

• Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900: Restricts deforestation for non-agricultural use.
• Indian Forest Act: 24,000 ha notified as Protected Forest to offset forest diversion in Nicobar Islands.
• T.N. Godavarman Judgment (1996): Extends legal protection to all forest areas.
• Regional Plan-2021 (NCR): Classifies Aravali as a Natural Conservation Zone, capping construction at 0.5%.

Sci and Tech 

China’s EAST reactor keeps the fire of magnetic fusion burning - The Hindu

Recently, Chinese scientists reported that they were able to maintain a plasma at a temperature of 100 million degrees C for about 1,066 seconds in a nuclear fusion reactor called the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST).

Discovery of Nuclear Fission and Fusion

• 1938: Otto Hahn & Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission.
• 1939: Lise Meitner & Otto Frisch explained the process.
• 1942: First sustainable nuclear fission reactor built.
• Significance of Fusion: Produces cleaner energy than fission but requires extremely high temperatures.

Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST)

• Location: Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, China.
• Operational since: 2006.
• Purpose: Study nuclear fusion by replicating the Sun's energy process.
• Goal: Achieve sustained high-temperature plasma confinement for clean energy.
• Role: Testing platform for materials, superconducting technology, and plasma control for future fusion reactors like ITER.

How did a DDoS attack cripple Kaveri 2.0? - The Hindu

In January, web-based portal Kaveri 2.0, which streamlines property registrations in Karnataka, faced sporadic, crippling server outages. On investigating the outage, the Revenue Department and E-Governance Department concluded that it was not due to “technical glitches” but a “motivated Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack” on Kaveri 2.0, which was launched in 2023 to reform land registration.

DDoS Attack

• About: Overwhelms a server, service, or network with excessive internet traffic.
• Components: Involves multiple compromised systems (botnet) to generate traffic.
• Aim: To disrupt services, causing downtime and potential revenue loss.
• Role: Can serve as a distraction for other cyberattacks like data breaches.

Impact on Kaveri 2.0:

• Performance issues occurred in December 2024 and January 2025.
• Fake accounts and database overload.

Mitigation of DDoS Attacks

• Advanced traffic filtering: To distinguish legitimate from malicious traffic.
• Monitoring tools: To detect unusual traffic patterns and pre-emptive actions.
• Rate limiting, CAPTCHA challenges, and bot detection: To block automated tools.
• Other measures: Regular security audits, robust authentication, and collaboration with cybersecurity agencies.

Other Major DDoS Attacks

• August 2024: Elon Musk-owned X faced a massive DDoS attack before a scheduled event.
• 2015: GitHub attacked by a China-based botnet targeting censorship circumvention tools.

Texas Measles outbreak - The Hindu

Measles is making a return, and Texas is dealing with its its share of outbreaks.

Measles 

• About: A highly contagious airborne disease caused by a virus in the paramyxovirus family.
• Spread: Direct contact and air, infecting the respiratory tract and body.
• Impact: Can lead to severe disease, complications, and death.
• Symptoms: High fever starts 10-14 days after exposure, lasting 4-7 days.
• Early signs: Runny nose, cough, red/watery eyes, and white spots inside the cheeks.
• Rashes: Begin on the face and neck, spreads to hands and feet over three days, lasts 5-6 days.
• Risk Factors: Non-immune individuals (unvaccinated or those who did not develop immunity).

WHO releases 2025 update to the International Classification of Diseases - Indian Express 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released the 2025 edition of the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11) – a tool that standardizes the language used by health professionals worldwide in diagnosing, reporting and monitoring diseases, injuries and causes of death.

International Classification of Diseases (ICD)

• About: A key WHO product for identifying health trends and statistics at national and global levels.
• Significance: Forms the foundation of WHO's efforts to accelerate progress towards health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Uses:
  • Provides critical data on the extent, causes, and consequences of diseases and death globally.
  • Used for health recording and statistics in primary, secondary, and tertiary care, and for cause of death certificates.
• India: Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI) under MHFW - WHO Collaboration Centre for ICD-related activities.