Articles by News18,Shobhit Gupta

Technology

EC Issues Notice To Prashant Kishor For Being Enrolled As Voter In 2 States

Bihar Polls: The Election Commission on Tuesday served a notice to political strategist-turned politician Prashant Kishor after his name was found in the voter lists of both Bihar and West Bengal ahead of Bihar assembly polls. The Jan Suraaj chief has been asked to submit his response within three days, officials said on Tuesday. According to official records, Kishor is enrolled in West Bengal at 121, Kalighat Road — the address of the Trinamool Congress headquarters in Kolkata’s Bhabanipur constituency, which is Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s seat. “His polling station is listed as St. Helen School on B Ranishankari Lane,” news agency PTI reported, citing an election official. During the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal, Kishor had worked as a political consultant for the TMC. Kishor is registered at his native place, Kargahar assembly segment under Sasaram parliamentary constituency in Rohtas district of Bihar, the poll official said, adding that his polling booth is Madhya Vidyalaya, Konar. The EC’s notice cited Section 17 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, which prohibits an individual from being registered as a voter in more than one constituency. Officials also referred to Section 18, which bars multiple entries within the same constituency. Under the law, a person changing residence must apply for inclusion in the new constituency through Form 8, declaring that their name be deleted from the previous electoral roll. Jan Suraaj Responds To Row Reacting to the controversy, Jan Suraaj Party spokesperson Kumar Saurabh Singh said the matter reflected a lapse on the EC’s part. “The onus is on the Election Commission. It had launched SIR in Bihar with so much of fanfare. So many names were dropped on the ground of deletion. When they can leave room for a lapse in case of a well-known personality like Prashant Kishor, one can imagine the diligence of the EC elsewhere,” he said as quoted by news agency PTI. He, however, evaded a direct reply to a pointed query as to whether Kishor had applied for deletion of his name from the voters’ list in West Bengal, prior to applying for inclusion in the electoral roll of Bihar. “Prashant Kishor is an educated man. He understands his responsibilities well. That he was stationed in West Bengal earlier, as a poll strategist for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, is well known. Let the EC approach us if it thinks that there has been wrongdoing on our part. Our legal team will respond,” he added. Political Parties React The row also drew reactions from political parties across Bihar’s spectrum. JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar questioned why Kishor was registered in West Bengal. “It is amusing that someone hailing from Bihar and having establishments in Delhi chose to be a voter in Bengal. Was it because he hoped to secure a Rajya Sabha seat after helping Mamata Banerjee in 2021?” he alleged. BJP leader Neeraj Kumar termed the alleged dual registration “no minor oversight but a heinous crime.” He accused Kishor of “a vile conspiracy with the TMC to undermine Bihar elections” and demanded a rigorous EC probe. RJD leader Mrityunjay Tiwari, meanwhile, said the controversy exposed the shortcomings of the EC’s voter list revision drive. “This shows the farce of the SIR. Many NDA leaders have been found with multiple voter registrations. Kishor, who we suspect is working covertly for the BJP, now joins the list,” he alleged. The EC has acknowledged that duplication of voter entries is a recurring issue and cited it as one reason for launching the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls throughout the country. The SIR, which started in Bihar, was completed with the publication of updated rolls on September 30, resulting in the removal of about 68.66 lakh entries, including roughly seven lakh cases of voters registered in multiple places. (With inputs from agencies)

Technology

Not Too Far, Not Too Cold: Scientists Spot A 'Super-Earth' That Could Host Life

Astronomers have identified a nearby potential “super-Earth” that could support life. The newly found exoplanet, named GJ 251 c, located less than 20 light-years from Earth, is likely about four times heavier than Earth and rocky in nature. The discovery, led by an international team that included scientists from Penn State University, offers fresh hope in the ongoing search for Earth-like planets that could potentially support life. The discovery was announced in a paper published this week in The Astronomical Journal. The planet orbits a small red dwarf star and resides in its habitable zone, often called the “Goldilocks Zone,” where temperatures could allow liquid water to exist if there is an atmosphere. Due to its mass and proximity to its host star, GJ 251 c falls into the category of a “super-Earth”-a class of exoplanets that are larger than Earth but smaller than gas giants like Neptune. “We look for these types of planets because they are our best chance at finding life elsewhere,” Suvrath Mahadevan, Professor of Astronomy at Penn State and co-author on the study, said. The discovery followed two decades of patient monitoring with a variety of instruments, such as the Habitable-Zone Planet Finder (HPF) constructed at Penn State and the NEID spectrometer at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. Both devices monitor tiny shifts in a star’s light that indicate the presence of orbiting worlds. These instruments detect exoplanets by monitoring the subtle “wobble” in a star’s movement caused by the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet. In GJ 251’s case, astronomers identified a 54-day periodic signal revealing the presence of GJ 251 c beyond a previously known inner planet, GJ 251 b. Located about 18 light-years away in the constellation Gemini, GJ 251 c offers one of the best nearby candidates for future atmosphere studies. Although, present era’s telescopes cannot directly image it, future 30-metre-class telescopes may be able to observe its atmosphere for indications of life, like oxygen or methane. Mahadevan said the planet’s proximity offers an opportunity to eventually observe its light apart from its star. The research team plans to continue monitoring the system as new telescopes become operational. Scientists believe GJ 251 c offers one of the best nearby chances to uncover evidence of life beyond our Solar System.