Passage 1
With the first phase of voting set to take place very soon, the Supreme Court (SC) last week said that petitions seeking 100% verification of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips would be taken up soon.
In March 2023, the Association for Democratic Reforms had filed a petition before the apex court saying that to ensure free and fair elections, the tally from Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) should be cross-verified with the VVPATs. To make sure that this process is carried out as fast as possible, ADR suggested the use of barcodes on VVPAT slips.
No voter can take the VVPAT slip back home, as it is later used to verify votes cast in five randomly selected polling booths. The idea is that by allowing for a physical verification of the electronically cast vote, both voters and political parties have greater faith in the process — that their vote is being recorded correctly.
Source – https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/why-vvpat-was-broug
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Passage 2
Governments, business leaders and development banks have two years to take action to avert far worse climate change, the U.N.’s climate chief said on April 10, in a speech that warned global warming is slipping down politicians’ agendas.
“We still have a chance to make greenhouse gas emissions tumble, with a new generation of national climate plans. But we need these stronger plans, now,” he said.
Speaking at an event at the Chatham House think-tank in London, he said the Group of 20 leading economic powers — together, responsible for 80% of global emissions — urgently needed to step up.
The main task for this year’s U.N. climate negotiations in Baku, Azerbaijan, is for countries to agree a new target for climate finance to support developing countries struggling to invest in shifting away from fossil fuels and fighting climate change.
Source- https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/un-c
