Source: The Hindu, Live Mint and Indian Express
VOTER VERIFIABLE PAPER AUDIT TRAIL (VVPAT)
Context
- The Supreme Court ordered mandatory verification of printed VVPAT paper slips of 5 randomly selected polling stations.
Essentials
- VVPAT device functions like a printer to be attached to the ballot unit (EVM).
- It allows the voter to verify if their vote has indeed gone to the intended candidate or not.
- When the voter presses the button against the name of the candidate of his choice on the Ballot Unit, the VVPAT unit generates a paper slip, called Ballot Slip.
- This paper slip contains the name, serial number and symbol of the chosen candidate.
- The voter can see this slip through a screened window where it stays for seven seconds, and then it automatically gets cut and falls down into a sealed drop box.
- In this process, the slip will not go into the hands of the voter nor will others be able to see it.
- For the first time Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) with Electronic Voting Machines was used for the Noksen Assembly seat in Tuensang district of Nagaland in September, 2013.
Electronic Voting Machines
- The EVMs have been devised and designed by Election Commission in collaboration with two Public Sector undertakings viz., Bharat Electronics Ltd., Bangalore and Electronic Corporation of India Ltd., Hyderabad. The EVMs are now manufactured by the above two undertakings.
- EVMs were first used in 70-Parur Assembly Constituency of Kerala in the year 1982.
- EVMs run on an ordinary 6 volt alkaline battery manufactured by Bharat Electronics Ltd., Bangalore and Electronic Corporation of India Ltd.,
- Therefore, even in areas with no power connections, EVMs can be used.
- An EVM being used by ECI can record a maximum of 2,000/3840 votes.
What is the maximum number of candidates which EVMs can cater to?
- In case of M2 EVMs (2006-10), EVMs can cater to a maximum of 64 candidates including NOTA.
- There is provision for 16 candidates in a Balloting Unit.
- If the total number of candidates exceeds 16, more balloting units can be attached (one per 16 candidates) up to a maximum of 64 candidates by connecting 4 Balloting Units in series.
- However, in case of M3 EVMs (Post 2013), EVMs can cater to a maximum of 384 candidates including NOTA by connecting 24 Balloting Units.
With ballot boxes counting is done after mixing the ballot papers. Is it possible to adopt this system when EVMs are used?
- Yes, through the use of a device called ‘Totalizer’ which can accommodate upto 14 Control Units at a time to aggregate votes without revealing the candidate-wise count of individual EVM used at a particular polling station.
- However, totalizers are not in use at present as its technical aspects and other related issues are under examination and it is also the subject of a court case
Supreme Court Verdict
- Recently, The Supreme Court ordered mandatory verification of printed VVPATpaper slips of 5 randomly selected polling stations of
- (a) Assembly Constituency in case of election to State Legislative Assembly and
- (b) each Assembly Segment in case of election to the House of the People.
Benefits of EVMs
- The votes recorded until the stage when the EVM went out of order will be safe in the memory of the Control Unit. It is not necessary to start the poll from the beginning.
- By booth-capturing, if one means, taking away or damaging of ballot boxes or ballot papers, this evil cannot be prevented by the use of EVMs as EVMs can also be forcibly taken away or damaged by miscreants.
- But if one looks at booth capturing as a case of miscreants intimidating the polling personnel and stamping the ballot papers on the symbol and escaping in a matter of minutes, this can be prevented by the use of EVMs.
- The EVMs are programmed in such a way that the machines will record only five votes in a minute.
- Further, it will not be possible to record any vote when once the ‘close’ button is pressed and this will frustrate the efforts of the booth-capturers.
- It is also possible to use EVMs for simultaneous elections for Parliament and State Legislative Assembly.
- However, during simultaneous elections 2 separate sets of EVMs are required, one for the Parliamentary Constituency and the other for the Legislative Assembly Constituency.
- Voting by EVMs is simpler compared to the conventional system.
- EVMs work on a 6-volt battery and there is absolutely no chance of any voter getting an electric shock at the time of pressing the `blue button’ or at any time of handling the balloting unit.
Some other Advantages of using EVMs
- Huge savings by way of cost of paper, printing, transportation, storage and distribution.
- Counting is very quick and the result can be declared within 2 to 3 hours as compared to 30-40 hours, on an average, under the conventional system.
- There are no invalid votes under the system of voting under EVMs.
- To this extent, the choice of the electorate will be more correctly reflected when EVMs are used.
- Does the use of EVMs slow down the pace of poll? No, in fact the pace of poll is quickened by the use of EVMs.
- The Control Unit can store the result in its memory for 10 years and even more.
SWINE FLU VS BIRD FLU
Context: Spurt in Swine Flu cases in Vishakhapatnam district.
Essentials
- H5N1is a type of influenza virus that causes a highly infectious, severe respiratory disease in birds called avian influenza (or “bird flu”).
- Human cases of H5N1avian influenza occur occasionally, but it is difficult to transmit the infection from person to person.
- Infected birds pass on H5N1through their saliva, nasal secretions, and faeces.
- H5N8 first appeared in China in 2014.
- The strain came from the H5N1 virus which started its menace in China in 1996.
Swine flu
- The pandemic influenza strain, or swine flu, that spread globally in 2009 was referred to as
- There are three major types of influenza that infect humans, known as influenza A, B and C.
- Influenza A and B can both cause serious infections, and are the cause of what we call the flu.
- Influenza C viruses differ from influenza A and B, and only cause a mild infection, so they don’t appear in vaccines.
- A pandemic influenza strain is one that humans have not been previously exposed to, so people do not have immunity to it.
Hs and Ns
- Surface antigens (foreign proteins) haemagglutinin
(H) and neuraminidase (N) form the viral coat of the H1N1 influenza viruses.
- Viruses attach by their haemagglutinin onto receptors on the surface of cells in order to infect them, like a grappling hook.
- The neuraminidase removes these receptors from infected cells at the right time to allow newly synthesised viruses to escape and spread.
- Among influenza A viruses there are 17 different types of haemagglutinin, from H1 to H17 and nine different types of neuraminidase, from N1 to N9. Each virus has one type of H (such as H1) and one type of N (such as N1).
- Influenza B strains do not circulate in animals, so they cannot cause a pandemic. But, like influenza A viruses, they continually change, so we will never become immune to every strain.
DEFENCE ACQUISITION COUNCIL
Context: The Indian Air Force is awaiting clearance for new parameters from Defence Acquisition Council to but C-295 transport aircrafts.
Essentials
Defence Acquisition Council
- Objective: To ensure expeditious procurement of the approved requirements of the Armed Forces.
- The functions of the DAC include:
- In-principle approval of 15 Year Long-Term Integrated Perspective Plan for Defence Forces;
- Accord of Acceptance of Necessity to acquisition proposals;
- Categorization of the acquisition proposals relating to ‘Buy’, ‘Buy & Make’ and ‘Make’;
- Issues relating to Single vendor clearance;
- Decision regarding ‘offset’ provisions in respect of acquisition proposals above Rs. 300 crores;
- Decisions regarding Transfer of Technology under ‘Buy & Make’ category of acquisition proposals; and
- Field Trial evaluation.
In decreasing order of priority the procurement of defence equipment, under the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP)-2016 are categorised as follows:-
- (a) Buy (Indian – IDDM) – ‘Indian (Designed, Developed and Manufactured)’
- (b) Buy (Indian)
- (c) Buy and Make (Indian)
- (d) Buy and Make (Global)
- (e) Buy (Global)
TOTAL FERTILITY RATE (TFR)
Context: India’s total fertility rate (TFR) is on the decline.
Essentials:
- TFR is defined as the total number of children born or likely to be born to a woman in her lifetime at the prevailing rate of age-specific fertility.
- Population stabilisation is said to be achieved at a TFR of 2.1 because a population just replaces itself at that rate.
- If women in a nation or a region or a group have fewer than 2.1 children each, its population will go down over time, while those whose women have more than that will see their population continue to rise.
- There is a marked difference between urban and rural areas and urban India’s fertility rate reached the replacement level in 2007.
- Although average total fertility (rate) for the whole country is 2.3 births per woman, it is above 3.0 in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
- Bihar has the highest in India of 3.3 children per woman, followed by Uttar Pradeshwith 3.1.
- Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan have replacement levels of 2.1 and above.
- About 24 States and Union Territories in India have achieved the total fertility rate (TFR) of 2.1% (or even below).
- Below replacement level has been noted in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal etc.
UIGHUR MUSLIMS
Context: China is facing growing criticism over its persecution of some Muslim minority groups, huge numbers of whom are allegedly being held in internment camps.
- Who are the Uighurs?
- The Uighurs are mostly Muslims, and number about 11 million in western China’s Xinjiang region.
- They see themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations, and their language is similar to Turkish.
- But in recent decades, there’s been a mass migration of Han Chinese (China’s ethnic majority) to Xinjiang, and the Uighurs feel their culture and livelihoods are under threat.
- Where is Xinjiang?
- It’s in the far west of China, and is the country’s biggest region.
- As an autonomous area, it – in theory at least – has a degree of self-governance away from Beijing.
- Uighur Muslims make up under half the region’s roughly 26 million people.
- What’s happening to people in Xinjiang?
- Human Rights Watch says Uighur people in particular are subject to intense surveillance and are made to give DNA and biometric samples.
- Those with relatives in 26 “sensitive” countries have reportedly been rounded up, and up to a million detained.
- Rights groups say people in camps are made to learn Mandarin Chinese and criticise or renounce their faith.
STRATOLAUNCH
Context: Stratolaunch, designed to carry and deploy satellites in space, made its first flight.
Essentials:
- The mega jet, called Stratolaunch, is the world’s largest aeroplane – with two fuselages.
- It is designed to carry into space, and drop, a rocket that would in turn ignite to deploy satellites.
