2024 Indian general election begins on 19 April

General elections are being held in India from 19 April to 1 June 2024 in seven phases, to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha. The votes will be counted and the results will be declared on 4 June 2024.

This is the largest-ever election in history, surpassing the 2019 Indian general election, and lasts 44 days, second only to the 1951-52 Indian general election. The incumbent prime minister Narendra Modi, who completed a second term, is running for a third consecutive term.

Approximately 970 million people out of a population of 1440 million people are eligible to vote. The state legislative assembly elections in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, and Sikkim are to be held simultaneously with the general election, along with the by-elections for 26 seats in 12 legislative assemblies.

India launched its First Satellite Aryabhata in Space in 1975

 

Aryabhata, is the first unmanned Earth satellite built by India. It was named for a prominent Indian astronomer and mathematician of the 5th century CE. The satellite was assembled at Peenya, near Bangalore, but was launched from within the Soviet Union by a Russian-made rocket on April 19, 1975. Aryabhata weighed 794 pounds (360 kg) and was instrumented to explore conditions in Earth’s ionosphere, measure neutrons and gamma rays from the Sun, and perform investigations inX-ray astronomy. The scientific instruments had to be switched off during the fifth day in orbit because of a failure in the satellite’s electrical power system. Useful information, nevertheless, was collected during the five days of operation.

Jim Corbett's Death Anniversary

 

Col. Edward James “Jim” Corbett, who passed away on 19 April 1955, aged 79, was a British hunter turned conservationist, author and naturalist, who in his earlier years was famous for hunting a large number of man-eaters in India. Many times, he was alleged by the government of the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand) for killing the man-eating tigers and leopards. His hunting skills eventually made him a very popular and famed hunter who earned lot of respect in the villages of Kumaon. The local population of the Garhwal and Kumaon regions also considered him to be a saint.

 

 

Charles Darwin's Death Anniversary

 

Charles Darwin, who passed away on 19 April 1882, aged 73, was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. His proposition that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors is now widely accepted, and considered a foundational concept in science. In a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and he was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey.