Today in History (Apr 27^th, 1961)

Sierra Leone—which for years had been a British colony and protectorate—achieved independence within the British Commonwealth; Sir Milton Margai served as the first prime minister.

Let’s revise

1) First G7 summit was held in _____

1. France
2. Japan
3. U.K.
4. U.S.A.

Ans. (a)

2) The next G7 meeting will be held in ____

1. Germany
2. France
3. Italy
4. Japan

Ans. (c)

3) The Ukraine Peace Conference to be held in 2024, on June 15-16 in_____

1. Ukraine
2. Russia
3. France
4. Switzerland

Ans. (d)

4) BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting will be held in _____

1. India
2. China
3. Russia
4. South Africa

Ans. (c)

5) The National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) was introduced by which constitution amendment?

1. 99th
2. 102nd
3. 103rd
4. 105th

Ans. (a)

6) Which Article of the Indian constitution says that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to sub serve the common good?

1. 32
2. 39
3. 51
4. 51A

Ans. (b)

7) Who is the incumbent Attorney General of India?

1. Kapil Sibbal
2. K. Balasubhramanyan
3. R. Venkataramani
4. Tushar Mehta

Ans. (c)

8) Which Article of the Indian Constitution says that there is equal pay for equal work for both men and women?

1. 39
2. 40
3. 45
4. 51

Ans. (a)

Summary of Today’s News

SC supported EVMs and ruled out the revival of paper ballots

The Supreme Court on 26th April 2024 upheld the electronic voting machine (EVM) system of polling and refused the plea to revive conventional paper ballots.
The reasons given by the top court-:
• The weakness of the ballot paper system is well known and documented.
• Numerous problems are associated with ballot papers
• The vast size of the Indian electorate of nearly 97 crore,
• The vast number of candidates who contest the elections.
• The vast number of polling booths where voting is held,
• It would be undoing the electoral reforms by directing reintroduction of the ballot papers.
• EVMs offer significant advantages. EVMs were first used in 1982 in the Assembly constituency of Paravur in Kerala in 50 out of 123 booths.
• The court said that “blind distrust” of an institution or a system breeds unwarranted scepticism and impedes progress.
• We acknowledge the right of voters to question the working of EVMs, as these has direct impacts on election results.
• But there is need to exercise care and caution when we raise aspersions on the integrity of the electoral process.
• Repeated and persistent doubts and despair without supporting evidences can have the contrarian impact of creating distrust. This can reduce citizen participation and confidence in elections and these are essential for a healthy and robust democracy.
• The court refused the petitioners’ suggestion that paper slips from Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) units be handed over to electors to take a leisurely look before inserting them into the ballot boxes.
• It further dismissed the plea by the petitioners — the Association for Democratic Reforms and Arun Kumar Agarwal — for cross-verification of all EVMs and VVPATs across the country. Now, only 5% of EVM-VVPAT counts are randomly verified in any constituency.
• While we acknowledge the fundamental right of voters to ensure their vote is accurately recorded and counted, the same cannot be equated with the right to 100% counting of VVPAT slips or a right to physical access to the VVPAT slips.
• The court refused to strike down Rule 49 MA of the Conduct of Election Rules, which exposes a voter to penal proceedings under Section 177 of the Indian Penal Code for submission of false information if his complaint of mismatch between the votes cast and votes counted is not proved.

Key suggestions were given by the Apex Court

• The court suggested that the Election Commission (EC) explore the possibility of devising an “electronic machine” to count the VVPAT paper slips.
• “Manual counting of VVPAT slips is cumbersome at every step. The process cannot be expedited or hurried,” the EC had said in its affidavit.
• The court also suggested that political parties could be identified with unique bar codes, along with their symbols.
• In a separate direction to the EC, the top court ordered that, from May 1, 2024, Symbol Loading Units should be sealed and secured after the process of loading symbols into VVPATs is over.
• The court directed that the ‘burnt’ or uploaded memory of the microcontrollers of 5% of EVMs can be checked and verified by a team of engineers from the EVM manufacturers in case of any suspicion of tampering.
• Such an exercise would be initiated on the basis of a written request from candidates who have come second or third in the vote tally.
• The application for verification should be sent within seven days of the declaration of the election results.
• The District Election Officer concerned, in consultation with the team of engineers, should verify the authenticity of the burnt memory of the microcontrollers of the EVMs.
• The expenses of the verification will be undertaken by the applicant candidates or their representatives.
• They will be refunded in case it is found that the EVMs have been tampered with, the court directed.

SCO Defence Ministers’ Meeting

• It was held in Astana, Kazakhstan
• This meeting endorsed ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’
• At the meeting, the Defence Secretary reiterated India’s commitment towards maintaining peace, stability and security in the SCO region.
• He emphasised the need to adopt a zero-tolerance approach towards terrorism in all its forms for prosperity and development of the SCO Member States.

Study says solar radiation for producing power, reducing in India

• The quantity of solar radiation available to be converted by solar panels to electricity is showing an “alarming decreasing trend” in several locations in India
• It has been reported by scientists at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and published this month in the organisation’s in-house scientific journal Mausam.
• While increased

• aerosol load
• fine particles from carbon emissions,
• fossil fuel burning
• dust and clouding

are the main causative factors.
There is need for installing more efficient solar panels which can help counter this problem.
• Aerosols absorb the sunlight and deflect it away from the ground and they can also precipitate the formation of dense clouds that again block sunlight.
• The efficiency of solar panels is significantly influenced by the amount of sunlight falling on them.