UPSC Prelims Current Affairs for 4 October 2025

Mar Del Plata Canyon Latest News

A groundbreaking expedition to Argentina's Mar del Plata Canyon uncovered over 40 potential new deep-sea species, including glass squids and pink lobsters.

About Mar Del Plata Canyon

• It is located at the continental margin off the coast of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.
• It lies about 250-300 km offshore from the city of Mar del Plata.
• It is one of Argentina’s largest submarine canyons.
• The area is characterised by fine sand with a mixture of terrigenous material and planktonic foraminifera substrate.
• It is highly productive and influenced by the permanent Argentine Shelf-break Front.
  • This front marks the boundary where subantarctic shelf waters meet the cooler, more saline waters of the Falkland-Malvinas Current, creating a significant thermohaline front.

What are Submarine Canyons?

• A submarine canyon is any of a class of narrow, steep-sided valleys that cut into continental slopes and continental rises of the oceans. 
• Submarine canyons originate either within continental slopes or on a continental shelf. 
• They are rare on continental margins that have extremely steep continental slopes or escarpments. 
• Most submarine canyons extend only about 48 km (30 miles) or less in length, but a few are more than 320 km (200 miles) long.
• They usually are many kilometres in width; for instance, the Grand Bahama Canyon measures 37 km (23 miles) at its widest point.
• Submarine canyons are so called because they resemble canyons made by rivers on land.
• A relatively large number of submarine canyons are located directly offshore of river canyons of adjacent land areas and may have once been connected to extensions of the latter. 
• In most cases, however, the characteristics of the submarine variety and those of the nearby land canyons are quite distinct. 
  • The submarine canyons, for example, tend to have steeper side slopes, much higher gradients, and considerably narrower floors. 
• Like rivers on land, these underwater features act as the primary conduits for sediments (and associated nutrients and organic carbon) transported from the continental shelf to the deep ocean basins.
  • Here the sediment is deposited, forming enormous sediment accumulations, called submarine fans, that resemble river deltas.

Source: TOI

Clean Slate Doctrine under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) Latest News

The Delhi High Court recently confirmed the “clean slate” doctrine under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) by holding that a successful resolution applicant cannot be burdened with the criminal liabilities of a corporate debtor’s past management.

About Clean Slate Doctrine under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 

• The Clean Slate Doctrine is a key legal principle embedded in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“IBC”), which plays a pivotal role in the corporate insolvency process in India.  
• The doctrine suggests that once a company successfully undergoes the insolvency resolution process and is taken over by a new buyer, the new owner should not be held accountable for any of the company’s pre-existing debts, penalties, or liabilities.  
• This principle is designed to give the company a fresh start, essentially, a “clean slate” free from the baggage of its prior financial troubles.  
• The Clean Slate Doctrine has been upheld in several landmark rulings by India’s Supreme Court (SC), reaffirming its crucial role in the IBC framework.
  • In the Essar Steel India case, the SC emphasized that one of the primary objectives of the IBC is to streamline insolvency procedures in India and bring all claims under a unified system.  
    • The SC ruled that once a resolution plan is approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), any and all previous liabilities, including debts and penalties, are extinguished.  
    • This means no party can initiate or continue any legal proceedings related to a claim that is not included in the approved resolution plan.
  • In the Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction case, the SC held that government dues, such as taxes and duties, are extinguished if they are not part of the resolution plan. 
  • In the Surya Exim case, the Gujarat High Court, following the SC rulings, held that any tax demands issued after the NCLT’s approval of a resolution plan should be cancelled, reinforcing the idea that claims not included in the approved plan are no longer valid.

Source: TAXS