Daily Current Affairs Prelims 09 May 2024

• As voting for the 18th Lok Sabha is underway, over four lakh undertrials held in different prisons across the country have been barred from exercising their franchise due to a sweeping ban under the law.
• Legal experts believe that if certain categories of prisoners can contest elections, undertrials languishing in jails should be given the right to cast their vote.
• Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 says no person can vote in any election if confined in prison whether as a convict or an undertrial.  
• Even convicts serving sentences under two years can contest elections from prison.
• While undertrials are deprived of many rights, the right to vote is largely denied because of the Election Commission of India’s administrative convenience.
• It lacks reasonable classification based on the nature of the crime or duration of the sentence.

Dig Deeper: Read the criteria for disqualification of a Member of Parliament in the Representation of the People Act 1951.

• In 2023, India overtook Japan to become the world’s third-highest producer of solar power, as per a report by international energy analytics agency Ember.
• India generated 113 billion units (BU) of solar power in 2023 compared to Japan’s 110 BU.
• India at 73 gigawatts ranks fifth in the world while Japan is in third place (83 GW) in terms of installed capacity.
• According to According to, NITI Ayog there is a large gap between installed capacity and power produced due to demand and local factors.
• As of May 2024, Solar power while making up 18% of India’s total installed electricity of 442 GW, made up only 6.66% of the actual power produced in India.
• The leading producer of solar power in the world is China, more than the next four countries combined (the United States, Japan, Germany and India).

Dig Deeper: Read about India’s Renewable energy basket and solar power plants in the news.

• NASA’s four-member Artemis crew is scheduled to fly around the moon in 2025 in preparation for the space agency’s mission to land on the moon again.
• To support such missions, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has directed NASA to establish a Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) to standardise time-telling on the moon.
• The LTC will be the standard to measure cislunar operations with the earth’s UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
• The idea for the UTC was formulated in the 1960s. The UTC was designed to accommodate the difference between solar time and atomic time and is kept within 0.9 seconds of solar time to follow the earth’s rotational variations and within an exact number of seconds of the TAI.
• Atomic clocks are known for their extreme accuracy. A weighted average of hundreds of atomic clocks produces the International Atomic Time (TAI).
• Solar time on the other hand is calculated by measuring the earth’s rotation relative to the Sun and is variable in nature.
• Currently, moon missions follow the time of the country that operates the spacecraft, while clocks on the International Space Station run on the UTC.
• There is currently no standardised time for cislunar operations.
• The LTC must possess traceability to the UTC, scalability beyond the earth-Moon system, accuracy for precision navigation and science and resilience to loss of contact with the Earth.

Dig Deeper: Which element is used in an atomic clock and how does it calculate each second?

• Typhoid spreads through contaminated food and water and is caused by Salmonella typhi and other related bacteria.
• Also known as enteric fever, it presents with a high fever, stomach pain, weakness, and other symptoms like nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea or constipation, and a rash.
• Some people, called carriers, may remain symptom-free and shed the bacteria in their stool for several months to years.
• These symptoms mimic those of malaria, dengue, influenza, and typhus, to name a few, each with different treatment modalities. If left untreated, typhoid can be life-threatening.
• In India, clinicians use the Widal test extensively to diagnose typhoid in both public and private sectors.

The Widal test rapidly detects and quantifies antibodies.  It’s a point-of-care test and doesn’t need special skills or infrastructure, however, it has several flaws.

• A single positive Widal test report doesn’t necessarily mean a typhoid infection is present, and a negative report doesn’t confirm the disease’s absence.
• To diagnose an active infection, clinicians must test at least two serum samples taken at least 7-14 days apart which is rarely feasible and time-consuming.
• It causes serious complications, like severe intestinal bleeding or perforation. False negatives can thus delay diagnosis and lead to fatal outcomes.

Dig Deeper: Read about WHO-qualified vaccines against typhoid.

• Nagaland’s State Election Commission notified the schedule of elections to the State’s Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) across three municipal councils and 36 town councils.
• Nagaland has been the only State where 33% of the seats or wards in the ULBs have not been reserved for women as mandated by clause IV of the 74th Amendment to the Constitution of India.
• Due to the opposition from the Naga hohos (traditional apex tribal bodies) who argued that such a quota would violate the special provisions granted by Article 371A of the Constitution to Nagaland.
• The first and only civic body election in Nagaland was held in 2004 without any reservation of seats for women.
• The State Assembly had passed a resolution to exempt Nagaland from Article 243T of the Constitution which is related to the reservation for women. It was revoked in November 2016 led to violence.
• The Nagaland Municipal Act of 2023 did away with the reservation for the chairperson’s post and retained the 33% quota to pave the way for the ULB polls.
• Article 371A insulates the religious and social practices of the Nagas from any Act of Parliament apart from the customary law and procedure and ownership and transfer of land and its resources.

Dig Deeper: Read the detailed provisions of Article 371A and Article 243T