Election process of Indian President

 Presidential Election 2017 is going to be the next big thing in Indian politics. The countdown for India’s top post has begun as President Pranab Mukherjee’s term is ending on July 25. With speculations going around the Bjp's president candidate Mr. Ramnath kovind ,presidential election is all set to take place in India on 17 July 2017, and counting will be done on 20 July 2017, five days before the incumbent President's term expires.

Who elects the president?

Article 54 of the Indian Constitution lays the guidelines about voters in a Presidential election. All MPs and MLAs Form the electoral college for election of president. Nominated members of parliament and legislative assembly can't vote in this election. 

Eligibility to be the President of India

The following are the mandatory requirements for anyone to contest the election for the President of India.

• Must be a citizen of India
• Must have completed 35 years of age
• Must be eligible to be a member of the Lok Sabha.
• Must not hold any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State or under any local government (Exceptions are the offices of President and Vice-President, Governor of any State and Ministers of Union or State)

The one major difference between any normal general election and the Presidential election is the differential value of votes of various electors (voters). In any normal election, the value of the vote of every citizen is the same. His/her vote is counted as one vote. But in the Presidential election, the value of the MP vote is different from the value of a MLA vote. Not just that, the value of a MLA vote from one state differs from the value of the MLA vote of another state. The value of all the votes put together is the value of the voters for the election. Before each such election, the Election Commission notifies the total value of all the votes based on vacancies etc at that point in time.The value of votes of electors (voters) is basically determined on the basis of population of the States. Since population figures are dynamic and keep changing every year, it has been decided through the 84th constitutional amendment , that until the population figures for the first census after 2026 are published (in other words, 2031 census), the population of the States for the purpose of this calculation will mean the population as per the 1971 census.

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Proportional Representation: Proportional Representation is an electoral system designed to represent in a legislative body each political group or party in proportion to its actual voting strength in the electorate. To understand how it works please understand the methods to count & use Value of an M.L.A. Vote & Value of an M.P. Vote.

Value of an M.L.A. Vote:

The value of an M.L.A. Vote = [(Total population of state or U.T.)] / [(Total number of elected members of the Legislative Assembly) * 1000]

Let us take Uttarakhand state for illustration :

• Name of the State/Union Territory: Uttarakhand
• Number of Legislative Assembly seats (elective): 70
• Population (1971 Census): 4,491,239
• Value of the vote of each MLA: 64 (4491239/70000)
• Total value of votes for the State/Union Territory: 4480 (64 * 70)

So, in approximate terms, total value of votes for a State/Union Territory is proportional to its population according to the 1971 census.

Value of an M.P. Vote

The Value of an M.P. Vote = [(The sum of vote value of elected members of all the legislative assemblies)] / [(The sum of elected members of both the houses of Parliament)]

• The sum of vote value of elected members of all the legislative assemblies (of all the State or Union Territory) = 549474
• The sum of elected members of both the houses of Parliament = Lok Sabha (543) + Rajya Sabha (233) = 776
• The value of each vote of an M.P. = 549474 / 776 = 708 (approx.)
• The total value of votes of the Rajya Sabha = 233 * 708 = 164964
• The total value of votes of the Lok Sabha = 543 * 708 = 384444
• The total value of votes of the Parliament = 776 × 708 = 164964 + 384444 = 549408

So, in approximate terms, the total value of votes of the Parliament is almost equal to the total value of votes of all the legislative assemblies (of all the State or Union Territory).

• Total number of electors of Legislative Assemblies (elected) = 4120
• Total value of votes of Legislative Assemblies = 549,474
• Total number of electors of Parliament (elected) = 776
• Total value of votes of Parliament = 549,408
• Total number of electors = 4896
• Total value of votes of all Electors (i.e. the Electoral College) = 1,098,882

The Election Process

A ballot paper is given to each voter with the names of the contesting candidates, green ballot paper for MPs & Pink ballot paper for MLAs. This election happens through the Single Transferable Vote (STV).  Hence each voter can mark as many preferences, as the number of candidates contesting the election. These preferences for the candidates are to be marked by the voter, by marking the figures 1,2,3, 4, 5 and so on, against the names of the candidates, in the order of preference.

The concept of single transferable vote is same as rajya sabha election. Unlike the general election counting, where an MP or an MLA is elected through ‘first past the post’ system, the winner in Presidential election is declared on the basis of a quote which is obtained by dividing the total number of valid votes by 2, and adding 1 to quotient (total number of valid votes/2+1).

Let’s understand this in detail:

For example, if there are three candidates – A, B and, C and 10 valid votes are casted. The winner in this case will require 10/2 + 1 = 6 votes

Case 1: i) A gets 6 votes as 1st preference

i) A gets 6 votes as 1st preference

ii) B gets 3 votes as 1st preference

iii)C gets 1 votes as 1st preference

In this scenario, A will be declared as the winner for clearing the quota.

Case 2: i) A gets 5 votes as 1st preference

ii) B gets 3 votes as 1st preference

iii)C gets 2 votes as 1st preference

In this scenario, candidate C will get eliminated and the second preference of the two voters, who opted for C as their first preferences, would be added to the total first preference votes of the remaining two candidates.

If A clears the quota at this stage, then s/he will become the President. If not, the process would be repeated until one candidate emerges as the clear winner by getting the required quota of votes

Left Right Politics Simplified

We regularly hear people arguing about Left wing or Right wing in politics, or people having 'Leftist','Liberal' or 'Right wing' terms in their Facebook ,twitter profiles.

  So what exactly these words mean ? What is the difference between Left and Right ideologies of the politics? And most importantly how these terms left and right originated ?

 

 In this post we have tried to throw some light on this issue---

pic credits iagreetosee.com

• Basically the left right political spectrum is a system of classifying political positions,ideologies and parties.
• Left and Right wing politics are often represented as opposed.Although a particular individual may take left wing stance on one matter and a right wing stance on another. Sometimes both may overlap and be considered either Left or Right wing depending upon the ideology.
• Historically Right has broadly come to be associated with conservative parties ,while Left with socialist parties.
• Left are those groups challenging the establishment.Right are those groups that was about preserving the traditions.
• Generally, the Left wing is characterized by emphasis on ideas such as freedom, equality, fraternity, rights, progress, reform and internationalism. While the Right wing is characterized by an emphasis on notions such as authority, hierarchy, order ,duty, tradition and 'Nationalism' .
• The right is considered the party sector associated with the interests of the upper or dominant classes.While Left  is assumed , expressive of the lower economic or social classes. Although this division may not be entirely true. 

History of Left & Right term :(Why these terms named left & right)-

     A lot of terms that we use in modern democracies come from the French revolution. In 1789,Louis XVI convened a national assembly.In this assembly supporters of the king sat on one side(right),and those of the revolution on the other(left). Since then Left and Right terms are constantly being used in philosophy and politics.

     In France where the terms originated the left has been called "The party of movement",and the Right "the party of order". The intermediate stance is called centrism and a person with such a position is a moderate or centrist.

Some more facts regarding Left and Right ideologies-

1. The contemporary Left in the United states is usually understood or identified with 'Democratic party', and 'Republican party as right wing.Though it won't be justice to call them strictly left or Right. 
2. The term extreme right wing has also been applied to movements including Fascists, Nazis & radical supremacists.And movement against racism etc are considered left oriented.
3. The term Capitalism is also sometimes associated with Right wing.
4. In Indian context BJP & SHIV SENA are Right leaning and CPI,CPM are Left leaning among the popular parties. All the other parties are a mash up of both Right and Left ideas and policies. 

(We hope this article will clear many doubts regarding Left or Right ideologies of politics, for any query drop a comment) 

Decoding The procedure of Rajya Sabha elections

India is a democratic republic, with representative democracy. The advantage with a representative democracy is that public votes only every few years ,instead of voting each policy one by one. This provides  a certain level of stability and accountability in government.
Elections form the backbone of democracy, where people elect their representatives and decide the composition of government. From parliamentary elections to panchayati polls, India goes through the electoral process at regular intervals at various levels. Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, state legislative assembly elections and president elections are the examples of elections at various levels.

Lok Sabha elections happen every five year, same is true for state elections but Rajya Sabha elections have a different process, Here is described the process of Rajya Sabha elections and some interesting facts related to it...

1. Rajya Sabha is called upper house of parliament while Lok Sabha is lower house of parliament.
2. Rajya Sabha is also known as 'council of states', as its mp's are chosen by MLAs of states. Rajya Sabha is said to representing the interests of states at parliamentary level.
3. The Rajya Sabha is to consist of not more than 250 members, according to our constitution, 238 members representing the states and union territories and 12 members nominated by president. Although these 12 members are not entitled to vote in presidential election. Currently upper house of parliament has 245 members out of which 233 are representatives of states.
4. The representatives of state and of union territories in the Rajya Sabha are elected by the MLA's of that state and the members of electoral college for that union territory.
5. The allocation of seats in Rajya Sabha to each state or union territory(delhi and Puducherry) is set out in the 4th schedule of the constitution of India. This number is roughly in proportion to state population.
   
6. Members of Rajya Sabha are elected (indirectly) or nominated. It is done with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.we common people elect the MLA's of state and these MLAs further vote to elect the Rajya Sabha members.In Single Transferable vote system Each voter ranks his preferences and if the first choice candidate has enough votes already or no chance of being elected, the vote is transferred to the second choice and so on.This system also ensures that only majority party can not get its all members elected. This is further explained in example at the end of this post. 
7. Rajya Sabha member has tenure of six years, every two years, 1/3 rd of total members of Rajya Sabha retire.
8. The minimum necessary votes required for any member to get elected as Rajya Sabha MP, from that particular state are calculated by this formula: -

         [total elected MLA's of state/(total no. of candidates to be elected+1)]+1


To understand the process lets take the example of uttarakhand, it has 3 Rajya Sabha seats. It means that every six years, 3 new Rajya Sabha members need to be elected from this state.
This state has 70 elected MLAs.
According to the formula minimum votes required for any person to become Rajya Sabha member from this state is [70/(3+1)]+1=18.5 ~18
Hence minimum 18 votes are required.
for sake of simplicity lets assume that there are only two parties in the state Congress and BJP. Of 70 seats of state legislative assembly suppose BJP has 50 seats and Congress has 20 seats-

Election process :

Members dont vote for each seat. If that had been the case then only the ruling party representatives will make it through.Rather, they are given a paper with the names of all 6 candidates( 3 of congress and 3 from BJP). They have to give their preferences for each candidate as 1,2,3. If 18 or more members choose a candidate as their first choice, he gets elected. So the opposition with 20 seats can get 1 member elected.The ruling party on the other hand can get only 2 members elected (with 36 MLAs giving 18 votes each to their party candidate). It means that 2 votes of Congress and 14 mla votes of BJP are redundant.  From this example it is evident that if BJP had 4 more MLAs i.e 54 it could have elected all 3 members as 18*3=54.

Usually what happens is that parties
wont field candidates for all
seats.Depending on their proportional
representation in the assembly, they
decide after a meeting and field
candidates. That is, Party BJP will field 2
and Party congress will field 1. All of them will
get elected without any problem.

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Interesting facts about Indian flag : Tricolour (Tiranga)

Indian national flag is symbol of our national pride .Tricolour flag represents dominion of India. The constitution says ''the Indian national flag represents the hopes and aspirations of the people of India''. Indian flag is made of three colours ; namely saffron, white and green. That is why name Tiranga. The philosopher Dr. S Radhakrishnan,who later became vice president and president of India explained the meaning of different colours in Tricolour during adoption of flag

"Bhagwa or the saffron colour denotes renunciation or disinterestedness. Our leaders must be indifferent to material gains and dedicate themselves to their work. The white in the centre is light, the path of truth to guide our conduct. The green shows our relation to (the) soil, our relation to the plant life here, on which all other life depends. The "Ashoka Chakra" in the centre of the white is the wheel of the law of dharma. Truth or satya, dharma or virtue ought to be the controlling principle of those who work under this flag. Again, the wheel denotes motion. There is death in stagnation. There is life in movement. India should no more resist change, it must move and go forward. The wheel represents the dynamism of a peaceful change."

Here we present some interesting facts and general knowledge about our national flag :

• Current flag became the official flag of India on 15th august 1947. The current flag(tricolour) is an adaption of Pingali venkeyya's original design and he is generally credited as designer of flag.
• Usage of flag is governed by the  Flag code of India 2002,and other laws relating to national emblems such as The emblems & names(prevention of improper usage)act,1950; and The prevention of insults to national honour act,1971.
• According to flag code of India ,the Indian flag has a ratio of 2:3(where the length of flag is 1.5 times that of the width).
• The standard flag is made of hand spun cotton or silk or khadi.
• size of Asoka chakra is not specified in the flag code, but it has 24 spokes that are evenly spaced and it has navy blue colour.
• According to flag code of India ,insult to national flag,including gross affronts or indignities to it or violation of flag code are punishable by law with imprisonment up to three years or a fine or both.



standard flag sizes
img source;wikipedia

• The privilege of flying the national flag on vehicles is restricted to :

1. The president
2. The vice president
3. Prime minister
4. Governors and lieutenant governors of states
5. Chief ministers
6. Union ministers
7. MP and MLAs
8. Judges of supreme court and high courts
9. Flag officers of army,navy and air force

• Earlier it was not permitted to use the national flag as a portion of costume or uniform of any description or embroidering or printing it on cushions,handkerchiefs,napkins or any dress material. But amendments in 2005(Prevention of insult to national honour(amendment)act 2005) allows members of public to use national flag on their costumes or uniform in a respectable manner,with a safeguard that it shall not be used or worn below the waist,nor it would be used by way of embroidering or printing in items of daily use such as handkerchiefs,napkins,undergarments etc.
• On 18th feb 2016,the MHRD decreed that the national flag will fly on a minimum 207 feet high mast on the premises of all centre sponsered universities of India.This decision came in the wake of ongoing JNU controversy.

        

10 reasons behind enormous success of Baba Ramdev's Patanjali brand

Patanjali ayurved ltd formed in 2006, is one of the fastest growing FMCG(fast moving consumer goods) company of India. In 2015 its total sales grew to 5000 crores. It has over 4000 distributers,10000 stores and 100 megamarts across the country. It offers wide variety of products from oil/shampoo to rice and medicines. It is said to be entering in product market of jeans and other clothing too considering the demand of the time. During an interview Ramdev said ''Patanjali aims to set up 10 mega units, 50 semi mega units and many small scale units to compete with multinationals with the idea of swadeshikaran (indianism)''.It is an FMCG empire that was not in the competition of the big players even a couple of years back. Today, Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali is sweeping away everything in its path. From local stores to Amazon, Patanjali products are everywhere.

No other FMCG has grown so fast in India ,we present you some facts about how Patanjali became a giant in Indian marketplace. Here are the reasons behind overnight success of baba ramdev's Patanjali brand.

1. Strong community building or follower base - This brand has drawn hope from ancient wisdom. From last decade baba Ramdev has put a lot of effort in popularizing the concept of YOGA and AYURVEDA. In this time he has successfully built an extremely loyal community of followers. 'Important point to understand is that for a successful business an strong community is like solid foundation on which you can build a business that would really last for ages.( all the aspiring entrepreneurs take note).
2. Low pricing of Patanjali products - Instead of selling to retail trade through distributors, Patanjali group have their own branded outlets across the country. thus they can save a reasonable margin in distribution which translates into 20 to 25 % cost advantage and gives company to leverage to price its products 15-30 % cheaper than other brans in competition.
3. Feel of nature and wellness - Patanjali is wisely using ancient brand value of natural ayurvedic herbs in selling their products, branding them as herbal and claiming them to be better than rival's products. Patanjali is first brand which was turning idea of using natural products into a cult. Consumers in India like contemporary things, that spring from their cultural identity. The concept of ayush and Ayurveda has this appeal. Besides the consumer awareness about impact of harmful products, in what they eat or drink, has been growing rapidly( imagine how fast water purifier industry has grown in last decade). At the same time this brand offers products with no harmful products(as they claim during their marketing and advertisement).
4. Single brand strategy - Nestle has 100's of brands in India, Unilever also has many. but in Patanjali every product goes with single brand name-> PATANJALI. In multi brand strategy each brand requires its own marketing and promotional budget, and teams. But cutting it down to one brand makes the process easier. It also reduces your marketing spend, and this reduction can also be utilized to drop the maximum price \s. Besides Single brand strategy also makes consumer recognition of product easier. For example people will simply go to market and ask for soap of Patanjali instead of asking and choosing among various soaps of unilever company.
5. Tagline of swadeshi - They suggests that buying patanjali will contribute to the Indian economy as they are homegrown products,according to them money that we spend in these products stays in India and eventually comes back to us only. Idea of swadeshi which Baba Ramdev would promote from time to time in media and every time during his yoga campaign.
6. Promotion and marketing - They are spending a lot on aggressive marketing of the brand also. In tv advertisements you can see that every second or third ad is related to Patanjali brand. baba ramdev is himself seen marketing a lot of his products. As Adi Godrej has said ''Patanjali is riding on Ramdev's image,not products''.
7. Free consultation with medicines - This is also very important, in the market patanjali has three types of retail stores-Arogya Kendra, chikitsalya, and swadeshi Kendra . These stores are given the brand value of Patanjali and in return these stores provide , free consultation by certified medical practitioners . The fact that a trustworthy consultaion is free in an area as important as healthcare provides strong leverage to company itself.
8. Replicating of successful products - Top selling products are picked up from market and similar products are developed based on herbal formulation under Patanjali brand. Mostly they are replica's of successful products of multinational companies. take the example of atta noodles of patanjali which is replica of nestle's Maggie and divya chyawanprash which is replica of DABUR's chyawanprash.
9. Product variety - Patanjali offers products in wide range of FMCG group, which provides consumers a lot of options.
10. And last but not least don't ignore the God man culture of India, people will do whatever they are told to do by some Baba. Imagine some baba saying them to buy some oil/ghee/toothpaste. How tough is that ? 

 Patanjali brand is one of the fastest growing giant in the field of FMCG. It has proved that today business is not only about delivering good products but clever marketing strategies are also equally effective.
Anyway with Baba Ramdev, at this point, anything seems possible.


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The incident of 1989 which changed the political scenario in Tamilnadu

On 25 March 1989, Karunanidhi, then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and also the state's finance minister, stood up to read his budget speech, when he was interrupted by the opposition. Congress MLA Kumari Anandan spoke that police was harassing Jayalalithaa, then Leader of Opposition in the assembly, who also joined her in protest, arguing that Karunanidhi was using the police to harass her and was getting her phones tapped. She wanted the house to discuss this issue. 

Even before Karunanidhi could say anything, the assembly was in chaos, and Jayalalithaa screamed "People charged with criminal acts should not be allowed to present the budget”. She declared that Karunanidhi was corrupt. Karunanidhi replied with a retort - expunged from assembly records for being 'unparliamentary' - which made Jayalalithaa very angry. As one of her MLAs rushed towards Karunanidhi’s desk, he lost his balance and fell; DMK legislators dismantled the microphones and threw them at the opposition members, who flung slippers and books in response; one of Jayalalithaa’s MLAs tore the budget papers in half.

The speaker adjourned the House - which should have brought these shameful happenings to a close. It did not. While Jayalalithaa was coming out of the assembly, the then minister for public works, Durai Murugan, among Karunanidhi's favorites even today, obstructed her path, clutching at her sari as she cried for assistance. 

This incident—with its echoes of the shameful disrobing of Draupadi in theMahabharata—was the beginning of the end for Karunanidhi. Jayalalithaa publicly vowed to “never step foot inside the House until conditions are created for a woman to attend the Assembly with dignity”. And rest is history, she became cm of state for five times after that. She will always be remembered as symbol of women empowerment. 

India just unveiled world's largest solar power plant

This sunlight based power plant is arranged at Kamuthi, in the condition of Tamilnadu. This venture has been commissioned by ADANI POWER aggregate.

This is world's biggest sun based power plant (photovoltaic),generating most extreme sun based vitality at a solitary place.Previously this title had a place with TOPAZ sun based homestead in California,which has limit of 550 MW,

It has the producing limit of 648 Mw,which is most astounding for any single sun-powered plant on the planet.

Kamuthi sunlight based power plant was finished on 21 sep 2016 with starting a venture of 4550 crores.

This plant comprises of 25,00,000 sun oriented modules (a sunlight based module is a blend of sun based panels).And 27,000 meters of structures,576 inverters,154 transformers and 7500 km of the link.

Boards involve 1270 sections of land of land,while the entire plant is extended in 2500 sections of land of the area,it should give power to 1.5 lakh homes.

Sunlight based boards of this plant are cleaned once a day by the automated system,which is thusly charged by sun-based power,therefore making it the self-supporting framework.

India beforehand had added up to limit of 8.6 gigawatts of sun-powered energy,now including the limit of Kamuthi power plant our ability has raised to 9.5 Gws.

Beforehand Charanka sun-powered park,Gujarat was the greatest sun-powered vitality creating plant of India it has a limit of 221 megawatts.

Sun-powered vitality has been a prevalent type of renewable energy,all the created nations are attempting to boost their renewable vitality generation. China creates the most noteworthy measure of sun-powered vitality ,China had added up to limit of 43530 megawatts (approx). India is route behind in this field.

Difficulties and open doors for India in the field of sun-powered vitality:

The land is a rare asset in the nation like India.due to high populace thickness. A ton of land range is utilized as a part of building up such sort of sunlight based power plants.

The fund is the field where we have to stress ,there is insufficient state house interest in the field of renewable vitality in India as of now.

The third test is of technology or specialized issues related with sun-powered power.for the case, Indian framework is not as the present day when contrasted with created nations like America,which causes a great deal of force misfortune amid transmission. Lattice incorporation and capacity are different issues.

''On eleventh Jan 2010, then head administrator Manmohan Singh reported the 'Jawaharlal Nehru national sun oriented mission' with an objective of 20 gigawatts sun-powered vitality generation by 2022.Which was later increased to 100 Gws in 2015 union spending plan''.