Bypolls held in six States

• Byelections to seven Assembly constituencies in six States, including Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, were held on Thursday with Andheri (East) registering 31.74% polling and Telangana’s Munugode recording a heavy turnout.
• The polls were held in Mokama and Gopalganj constituencies in Bihar, Andheri (East) in Maharashtra, Adampur in Haryana, Munugode in Telangana, Gola Gokarannath in Uttar Pradesh, and Dhamnagar in Odisha. Among the seven seats, the BJP was in power in three seats and the Congress in two, while the Shiv Sena and the RJD held one each. Counting will take place on November 6.

Methods of Election in India:

First Past the Post System

In this method, the elections are held for each constituency fixed by the Election Commission and the candidate who gets the maximum number of votes is declared as a winner.

Merits:

• It is a very simple method of election which is very easy to administer
• It is an inexpensive method
• Considering the fact that still not many citizens are literate in the country, it seems to be a very convenient method for the majority of the people

Demerits:

• Since in India, there are multiple parties and some independent candidates too, who compete for the same seat, it is often the case that a majority of the votes are distributed amongst different parties or candidates and finally the one which gets highest amongst them is declared the winner. This may mean that the winning party or candidate may not have won the votes of the majority
• In this system, there is a huge possibility that the voices of the minority section is left unheard, thus reducing the very essence of a true democracy

Proportional Representation System

It is a method in which the seats in the legislature are given in proportion to the amount of votes.

Merits:

• It works well for a multi-party system such as in India which would give weightage to each party irrespective of their size and the total number of votes won
• The minority voice is not left unheard
• It gives ample space to all the parties new or old, big or small

Demerits:

• Since it provides a government which is not in majority, it results in a coalition government, which implies that there may be chances of a weak coalition
• As stated above regarding the low literacy levels of the majority of the voters in India, this system does not do much justice as it seems like a very complicated system for a simple population

Understanding the complications of the proportional representative system and the very simple nature of the first past the post system, the Law Commission of India recommended the Additional Member System  in 1999. It recommended a mix of both the above systems to reap the benefits of both as well get the best possible mixture for an efficient conduct of the electoral process.

Types of Election in India

• Members of the Parliament in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha – Lok Sabha elections are held after every five years and the state and centre representatives are elected by the people of the country. On the other hand, Rajya Sabha Members are elected by the elected members of state legislative assemblies using a method of proportional representation
• Members of State Legislative Assemblies
• Members of State Legislative Councils
• Members in village panchayats or city corporation councils
• By-election – Such elections are held if a person of a particular constituency dies, resigns, or is disqualified

Gujarat to vote in 2 phases

• The Gujarat Assembly election will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar announced here on Thursday.
• Votes will be counted on December 8. Of the 182 Assembly constituencies in the State, 89 seats spread across 19 districts, including Morbi, will vote in the first phase, where a recent bridge collapse claimed 140 lives.

RISAT2 satellite makes reentry into Earth’s atmosphere

• ISRO’s RISAT2 satellite, launched in 2009, has made an uncontrolled reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
• The space agency on Thursday said the RISAT2 satellite, weighing about 300 kg, made an uncontrolled Reentry in the Indian Ocean near Jakarta on October 30.
• “Weighing only about 300 kg, the satellite has now made an uncontrolled reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere at the predicted impact point in the Indian Ocean near Jakarta on 30th October 2022 00:06 UTC with an uncertainty of ±10 minutes,” the space agency said.
• RISAT2 was launched by the PSLVC12 launch vehicle 13 years ago.
• ISRO said that though the initial designed life of the satellite was four years, due to proper maintenance of orbit and mission planning by the spacecraft operations team in ISRO and by economical usage of fuel, RISAT2 provided very useful payload data for 13 years.
• “Since its injection, RISAT2’ s radar payload services were provided for various space applications.
• On re-entry, there were no fuel left in the satellite and hence there are no contaminations or explosion by fuel is expected. Studies confirmed that the pieces generated due to aerothermal fragmentation would not have survived reentry heating and hence no fragments would have impacted on Earth,” ISRO said.
• month with analysis carried out by VSSC and ISTRAC teams through its inhouse developed analysis software and tracking the object utilising Multi Object Tracking Radar (MOTR) at SDSC, Sriharikota.
• “MOTR tracked RISAT2 regularly and the data were used for further analysis and orbit determination,” ISRO said.
• The orbital data available from USSPACECOM were regularly used to predict the reentry time and impact.

Thousands of schools have shut down in India during 2020-21’

• 20,000 schools shut down across India during 2020-21, while the number of teachers also declined by 1.95% compared to the previous year, according to a new report by the Ministry of Education. Moreover, only 44.85% of schools had computer facilities, while nearly 34% had an internet connection

Citizen Engagement and Communication Programme” was launched in Meghalaya

Urban mobility India (UMI) Conference and Expo 2022 to be held in Kochi from 4th to 6th November 2022

Kerela, Maharashtra, Punjab have topped the 2020-21 Performance Grading Index

New name of Hollongi Greenfield Airport in Itanagar is Donyi Polo Airport

On Chennai-Mysuru route the 3rd Vande Bharat train will be introduced

Source : THE HINDU