Content

1. 2025 Economic Reforms
2. PathGennie – “Fast-Tracks” drug discovery

2025 Economic Reforms

Why in News ?

• The Government rolled out a consolidated package of economic reforms in 2025 focused on:
  • outcome-driven governance
  • simplification of systems
  • inclusive and employment-centric growth
• Reforms spanned taxation, GST, labour, MSMEs, exports, rural employment and ease-of-doing-business.

Relevance

GS-III | Economy, Growth & Inclusive Development

• Growth-oriented reforms — tax rationalisation, GST 2.0, MSME expansion, export promotion
• Formalisation + productivity gains via labour codes & digital compliance
• Rural livelihoods + asset-creation through VB-GRAM (125-day guarantee)
• Fiscal stability — wider tax base, predictable revenues, ease of doing business
• MSME-led employment, startup competitiveness, credit enablement

Big Picture — Reform Philosophy  

• Shift from rule-heavy regulation → outcome-based governance.
• Emphasis on:
  • simplification, predictability, digitalisation, compliance reduction
  • trust-based administration and fiscal stability
  • enabling youth, women, MSMEs, gig workers, rural households

Key Reform Pillars — Facts & Data

1) Direct Tax & New Income Tax Act, 2025

• Income up to ₹12 lakh exempt in new regime
  • Effective exemption ₹12.75 lakh for salaried (incl. standard deduction).
• Comprehensive rewrite of 1961 Act with:
  • textual simplification, removal of obsolete clauses
  • continuity in tax policy & rates
• Unified “Tax Year” replaces AY/PY — reduces ambiguity.
• Digital-first enforcement, faceless administration, unified TDS framework.

Likely Outcomes

• Higher disposable income → consumption multiplier
• Reduced litigation, clarity for taxpayers
• Improved compliance through digital systems

2) Labour Reforms — Four Labour Codes

• 29 laws consolidated into 4 Codes
  (Wages, IR, Social Security, OSH & Working Conditions)
• Coverage extended to:
  • gig & platform workers (~1 crore+ beneficiaries)
  • women workers — improved leave, maternity & safety
• Uniform wage definition, simplification of dispute settlement.

Structural Impact

• Single framework for 50+ crore workers
• Moves labour regulation towards flexibility + protection
• Supports formalisation & workforce security

3) Rural Employment Reforms — VB-GRAM Act, 2025

• Replaces MGNREGA with integrated livelihood framework.
• Guarantee: 125 days paid work/household/year
• Timely wage payment: weekly / ≤15 days
• Asset creation focus — water, climate-resilient works, rural infra, livelihoods
• Decentralised planning via VGPPs + digital convergence (PM Gati Shakti)
• Admin expenditure ceiling raised to 9% to strengthen delivery.

Development Logic

• Aligns rural employment with productive capital formation
• Balances farm labour availability + worker security
• Enhances local planning capacity

4) Ease of Doing Business & MSME Support

• MSME-friendly QCO roll-out (phased, exemptions, legacy stock clearance).
• Credit & liquidity measures:
  • MCGS cover up to ₹100 crore
  • collateral-free loans up to ₹10 lakh
  • working capital: ≥20% of projected turnover (≤₹5 crore limits)
• MSME definition revised:
  • Micro: ₹2.5 cr / ₹10 cr
  • Small: ₹25 cr / ₹100 cr
  • Medium: ₹125 cr / ₹500 cr
• Credit-guarantee limit doubled ₹5 cr → ₹10 cr

Expected Gains

• Scale expansion, formal credit penetration
• Export & startup competitiveness
• Employment generation in manufacturing & services

5) GST 2.0 — Next-Generation GST

• Two-slab regime: 5% & 18%
• Rate rationalisation lowers cost of essentials & services.
• Faster refunds, simpler registration, MSME-friendly compliance.
• Taxpayer base expanded to 1.5 crore+
• Gross GST collections FY 2024-25: ₹22.08 lakh crore

Macroeconomic Effects

• Reduced classification disputes & compliance burden
• Boost to consumption and business confidence
• Improved revenue predictability + fiscal stability

6) Export Promotion Mission (EPM) — ₹25,060 crore (2025-31)

• Unified architecture replacing fragmented schemes.
• Two pillars:
  • Niryat Protsahan — finance, credit enhancement
  • Niryat Disha — compliance, branding, logistics, market access
• Focus on:
  • MSMEs, first-time exporters, non-traditional districts
  • jobs in manufacturing & logistics

Strategic Objective

• Build district-export ecosystems
• Position India for competitive, inclusive export growth toward 2047

7) Other Trade & Process Reforms

• Digital trade stack — National Single Window, ICEGATE, Trade Connect
• D-BRAP 2025 — decentralised approvals & inspections
• GeM & MSME-SAMBANDH — deeper MSME procurement linkages
• ₹58,000 crore disbursed under RoDTEP (till March 2025)

Strengths & Risks

Strengths

• Coherent reform sequencing (tax → labour → MSME → exports)
• Administrative simplification → lower transaction costs
• Inclusion of gig workers, women, rural households
• Outcome-orientation → assets, productivity, formalisation

Risks

• Labour code rollout dependent on state rules & capacity
• GST two-rate system still needs fitment clarity in edge sectors
• Rural employment redesign must avoid under-funding or delays
• MSME expansion needs market access + productivity upgrading, not just credit

Takeaways 

• Income-tax exemption (new regime): up to ₹12 lakh (₹12.75 lakh salaried)
• GST taxpayer base: 1.5 crore+ | FY25 GST: ₹22.08 lakh crore
• Rural guarantee: 125 days work | admin cap 6% → 9%
• Labour coverage: 50+ crore workers | gig workers ~1 crore+
• EPM outlay: ₹25,060 crore (2025-31)
• MSME thresholds: Micro ₹2.5cr/₹10cr | Small ₹25cr/₹100cr | Medium ₹125cr/₹500cr

PathGennie – “Fast-Tracks” drug discovery

Why in News ?

• Scientists at S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata (DST institute) developed PathGennie, a novel open-source computational framework.
• It accelerates simulation of rare molecular events and enables accurate prediction of drug–protein unbinding pathways without distorting physics.
• Published in Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation—relevant to drug discovery, molecular simulations, AI-integrated chemistry and biotech innovation.

Relevance

GS-III | Science & Technology, Biotechnology & Innovation

• Frontier research in computational chemistry & molecular simulation
• Strengthens Computer-Aided Drug Discovery (CADD) capabilities
• Direction-Guided Adaptive Sampling — rare-event modelling breakthrough
• Reduces cost, time, distortion in drug–protein unbinding predictions

GS-III | Health, Pharma R&D & Indigenous Tech Capacity

• Improves drug design pipelines, residence-time analysis, resistance-pathway mapping
• Supports domestic pharma innovation, precision therapeutics, R&D localisation
• Aligns with Make in India (Pharma) & Deep-Tech missions

Scientific Context — The Problem

• In drug discovery, residence time (how long a drug stays bound) is often more important than binding affinity.
• Unbinding events are rare — occur over milliseconds to seconds.
• Classical Molecular Dynamics (MD) cannot simulate these time-scales even on supercomputers.
• Existing methods force events using:
  • bias forces
  • high temperature
  • artificial steering
• These distort true kinetic pathways → unreliable predictions.

What PathGennie Does ? — Core Idea

• Introduces Direction-Guided Adaptive Sampling.
• Mimics natural selection at the molecular scale.
• Uses many ultrashort unbiased MD trajectories (few femtoseconds).
• Only those trajectories showing progress toward the target state are extended.
• Non-productive trajectories are discarded → “survival-of-the-fittest” simulations.

Result

• Captures true, undistorted transition pathways
• Achieves faster discovery of rare molecular events without biasing forces.

How It Works ? — Mechanism (Step-wise)

• Launch multiple micro-trajectories in molecular configuration space.
• Evaluate movement in chosen Collective Variables (CVs) — descriptors of progress.
• Exploration + Exploitation balance:
  • extend promising paths
  • prune unproductive ones
• Iteratively reconstruct complete transition pathways across high-energy barriers.
• Works even in high-dimensional / machine-learned CV spaces.

Evidence & Demonstrations (Proof-of-Concept)

• Team: Prof. Suman Chakrabarty, Dibyendu Maity, Shaheerah Shahid
• Validated on benchmark systems:
  • Benzene–T4 lysozyme → mapped multiple ligand exit routes
  • Imatinib (Gleevec)–Abl kinase → detected three dissociation pathways
• Recovered experimentally-known mechanisms
  → confirms accuracy without biasing forces.

Why It Matters ?— Impact on Drug Discovery

• Enables accurate residence-time modelling
• Reduces:
  • computational cost
  • simulation time
  • pathway distortion
• Strengthens Computer-Aided Drug Discovery (CADD) pipelines.
• Helps identify:
  • drug escape routes
  • off-pathway binding / resistance pathways
  • molecule stability under physiological motion

Broader Scientific Applications

• Rare-event simulations in:
  • chemical reactions & catalysis
  • phase transitions
  • self-assembly processes
  • biomolecular conformational changes
• Compatible with machine-learning–derived order parameters.
• Open-source → lowers adoption barrier for global research labs.

Strategic & National Significance

• Strengthens India’s computational chemistry & pharma innovation ecosystem.
• Supports:
  • AI-enabled science
  • drug design localization
  • cost-efficient R&D
• Aligns with:
  • Make in India – Pharmaceuticals
  • Deep-tech & research translation missions

Facts & Data 

• Institution: S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata (DST)
• Tool: PathGennie — open-source computational framework
• Domain: Rare-event molecular simulations / CADD
• Key innovation: Direction-Guided Adaptive Sampling
• Output: Unbinding pathways without external bias
• Validated on: T4 lysozyme–benzene, Imatinib–Abl kinase