Indian Presidential Election

The election, if necessary, to the office of President of India will be held on July 17, 2017.

 

On November 20, 2016, I wrote a post about how the votes are counted in the US Presidential Election. It is very confusing. Popular vote does not mean a thing. It is all electoral college votes.

 

You thought counting votes for the US President is confusing. Get ready. Counting votes in the Indian Presidential Election is equally confusing. Here is how an Indian President is elected.

 

President of India is elected by an electoral college votes. Members of both houses of Indian Parliament, Members of State Legislative Assemblies and the Union Territories of Delhi and Pondicherry are eligible to vote. There are 776 MPs and 4120 MLAs. But the value (weight) of their votes are different for each state. For example:

 

An MP’s vote is weighted at 708 votes.

 

But an MLA’s vote is differently weighted from State to State. An MLA’s vote from Uttar Pradesh is weighted at 208 votes where as an MLA’s vote from Punjab is weighted at 116 votes, Goa 20, Manipur 18, Uttarakhand 64, etc. Jharkand and Tamil Nadu tie for the second place with the weighted value of 176.

 

How do they arrive at this value (weight)?

 

For an MLA: It is the population of a particular state (divided by 1000) and divided by the number of MLAs.

 

For an MP: It is the total value (weight) of all the MLAs divided by the total number of MPs in both houses.

 

An important point to remember here is the number and value of votes are based on India’s population in 1971. Now it is 2017.

 

They have a reason for still clinging on to the 1971 population.

 

Here is a quote from the internet:

 

"The number and value of votes are based on the population in 1971 rather than the current population, as a result of the 42nd Amendment, and extended by the 84th Amendment, with the intention to encourage family planning programs in the states by ensuring that states are not penalized for lowering their population growth."

Bucket of Sambar

Whenever I have mentioned in my prior blog posts about Idli and Sambar, I have always mentioned  “bucket” of sambar.  Even today, in Tamil Nadu marriages, all items on the menu – idli, chutney, sambar, rasam, koottu, curry, payasam, and even buttermilk – are served from the buckets.  So the popular saying of “bucket of sambar”.

 

I have eaten in Indian restaurants all over the world including India.  But none of these restaurants serve sambar in a bucket.  They serve sambar in a bowl or a katori. 

Last week I was having dinner in an Indian restaurant in Greensboro, North Carolina.  I ordered a masal dosa.  When they brought the masal dosa with 2 different chutneys and sambar, there was a pleasant surprise, surprise, surprise.  The sambar was served in a small bucket.  This is the first time anywhere in the world I have seen.  Here is the photo.

 

Poor Kids

A world renowned chef and multi millionaire (from UK), says he gives limited weekly allowance to his kids.  They have to take care of their expenses including their jeans, gym fees, and their own gym trainer fees from among that allowance.

 

Poor kids.

I have already written long time ago about my one-time colleague, Paige P.

Her dad was a billionaire. I don’t know why she came to work in our company. May be the dad wanted her to get experience from a different industry.  I never asked her.

She was a nice girl.  We used to go for lunch all the time.  Once she said she did something wrong when she was a teenager.  Her dad punished her for that.  I asked her what was the punishment.

I was not allowed to drive my BMW for a week.

You poor girl.  What did you do then? Take a taxi or go by bus?

No.  I drove my Mercedes Benz.

Look at these poor kids.  Life is unfair.

PS: Paige anecdote is real. Not an imagination.