With over one billion people, India is the world’s largest democracy and has a rich history of electoral processes. Over the years, India’s electoral process has evolved from the era of paper ballots to the introduction of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). However, as we move into the digital age, it is crucial to explore new possibilities of eVoting for streamlining and enhancing the electoral process. The concept of “One Nation, One Election” has gained prominence in recent years, aiming to synchronize all elections nationwide. In this blog, we will explore the evolution of Indian elections, the advantages of eVoting, and how it can play a pivotal role in making “One Nation, One Election” a reality.
Indian elections have come a long way from the era of paper ballots, which were time-consuming and prone to errors and malpractices. The adoption of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) brought about a significant leap in the accuracy and efficiency of the voting process. However, these machines have faced scrutiny regarding security concerns and limited accessibility for certain groups, including the elderly and differently-abled individuals.
The emergence of eVoting presents a new chapter in India’s electoral history. Leveraging secure digital platforms, eVoting has the potential to address some of the limitations faced by EVMs, offering convenience and accessibility to a broader demographic.
Accessibility and Convenience: eVoting allows citizens to cast their votes from the comfort of their homes using a computer or smartphone. This convenience is especially beneficial for those needing help physically visiting a polling station due to mobility issues, distance, or other constraints. EVMs, on the other hand, still require physical presence at a designated polling location.
Inclusivity: eVoting systems can be designed to be more inclusive, catering to individuals with disabilities or those who face language barriers. Features like the candidate’s picture on the ballot page, screen readers, multiple language options, and accessibility tools can ensure that a wider range of citizens can participate in the electoral process, addressing a limitation of EVMs.
Reduced Infrastructure Costs: EVMs demand significant resources for production, maintenance, and storage. eVoting systems, once implemented, can potentially mitigate these infrastructure costs by eliminating the need for physical machines, transportation, and storage facilities for EVMs.
Reduced Wait Times: In areas with a high population density, long queues and wait times at polling stations are common during elections. eVoting eliminates the need for physical lines, reducing voter frustration and ensuring a more efficient process.
Improved Accuracy: eVoting systems can incorporate error-checking mechanisms, reducing the likelihood of casting invalid votes. They can guide voters through the process, ensuring that all required fields are completed correctly, which can help minimize errors and improve the overall accuracy of the vote.
Quicker Results: eVoting can expedite the election results. While EVMs have improved the counting speed compared to paper ballots, eVoting can provide near-instantaneous results, enabling faster decision-making and reducing uncertainty.
Security Features: eVoting platforms can incorporate advanced security features, including encryption, multi-factor authentication, and biometric authentication, making it more challenging for malicious actors to tamper with or compromise the voting process. While EVMs are secure, eVoting systems can continuously update and adapt security measures to counter evolving threats.
Voter turnout: Biggest advantage of online voting systems apart from cost, time and effort saving is the voter turnout. Online voting significantly increases voter turnout as it enables voters to vote anytime from anywhere within seconds.
“One Nation, One Election” is a concept that proposes holding all elections in India, including those for the Lok Sabha (Parliament) and state legislative assemblies, simultaneously. It aims to streamline the electoral process by synchronising these elections at the national and state levels. Let’s delve into the possible advantages of eVoting in realising the vision of One Nation, One Election.
Limitations of EVM machines – availability and flexibility: The biggest limitation of the current EVM system when it comes to One Nation One Election is that EVM machines do not have digital screens but mechanical screens. EVM’s are designed to handle only one election at a time. However, a digital screen provides the flexibility of displaying different ballot pages of different elections to the voter based on need. Secondly, in online voting the government need not invest in voting machines which as voters are supposed to use their own mobile / computer for voting. This completely eliminates both the limitations of EVM machines – availability and flexibility.
Manpower requirement for election management and security: In online voting, the voter can vote from anywhere including the comfort of their homes. They need not travel to a booth, stand in a queue and vote. This eliminates the need for a booth. When booths are eliminated it eliminates the need for an army of election management staff and security personnel.
Streamlining the Process: Synchronising national and state elections is a massive logistical undertaking. eVoting simplifies this process by providing a uniform voting method nationwide. This eliminates the need for separate arrangements and procedures for different elections, making the transition to “One Nation, One Election” more feasible.
Cost-Efficiency: Running multiple elections at different levels places a significant financial burden on the government. eVoting can substantially reduce these costs by eliminating the need for booths and EVM machines. Combined cost of holding online elections for all three elections (National, State and local) would be less than one-fourth of the cost of one election with booth-based voting. This cost-saving approach allows for increased funding allocation to critical areas such as education, healthcare, and infrastructure development.
Stability and Effective Governance: Frequent elections can disrupt the functioning of both state and central governments, leading to policy instability. If the Prime Minister is wasting time in campaigning for different state elections when he should be focusing on his job as the Prime Minister, it is not in the interest of the nation. Implementing One Nation, One Election through eVoting ensures a stable governance environment. Elected representatives can focus on development and policy implementation rather than diverting their attention to preparing for or participating in election campaigns.
Reduced Model Code of Conduct Duration: The reduction in the Model Code of Conduct’s duration essentially means that the government has more time and freedom to focus on its governance responsibilities without being bogged down by election-related constraints. Consequently, this can result in improved policy implementation and faster progress in development initiatives.
Enhanced Voter Engagement and Awareness: Conducting one election can boost voter engagement and awareness. With a single online electoral event through eVoting, voters can concentrate on making well-informed decisions for both state and national representatives. This leads to a more engaged electorate and potentially higher voter turnout.
In the ever-evolving landscape of Indian democracy, eVoting is a promising solution that can help achieve the vision of “One Nation, One Election.” The Right2Vote online platform can significantly contribute to this by offering a secure, efficient, and accessible means for citizens to cast their votes. With its user-friendly interface, robust security measures, and the ability to engage a broader spectrum of the population, Right2Vote can streamline the electoral process, reduce costs, and encourage higher voter participation, ultimately fostering the harmonization of election schedules across the nation.
Trade unions or employee associations are associations of employees of a particular trade. These are organizations with a democratically elected management committee that represents all employees in negotiations with employers and help employees as well as employers to maintain a balanced relationship between them. The unions have gained ground due to the rapid industrial development. The workers around the world have come together to create employee associations in their respective organizations that would give them a proper ground to fight for better wages and working conditions.
The History of Trade Unions in India:
The industrial workforce in India began in the second half of the Nineteenth century after multiple clothing and textile mills were established in the port cities of Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Bombay Mill-Hands Association, founded by the father of the Indian Trade Union Movement, N.M. Lokhande in 1890 is presumably the first Indian workers association. The first registered and organized Trade Union in India is considered to be the Madras Labour Union in 1918, founded by B.P. Wadia.
Union Election and its Problems:
Every five years, Trade unions hold elections by ballots to fill certain governing positions. Following the respective rules, any member of the union can stand for any respective statutory position, depending on his eligibility. The trade union elections are generally held by booth-based paper ballot and/or postal ballot. In the case of postal ballots, the trade union sends the voting papers inside a pre-paid envelope to the voters in their respective homes together with small statements written by the candidates. The voters send back the papers to an unbiased independent person, appointed by the trade union, who would count the votes accurately.
The major problem faced by the employee association is the amount of corruption that happens around these elections. As the entire process is time-consuming and human-dependent, it’s quite easy to plant the seeds of corruption inside without getting caught or noticed. Apart from that, the paper-ballot voting is extremely expensive, as reams of paper need to be printed and send to the respective voters. It not only costs a lot of money but also takes a lot of time to conclude the entire process. As the entire process is human-dependent, small human errors are inevitable too.
How Technology Can Solve These Problems?
Trade unions hold multiple elections based on the structure and size of the organizations. The process can get really complicated due to the involvement of a large number of people in various groups. Implementing online voting technology can reduce the complexity and help manage the entire process with ease.
Less Time Taking:
Online Voting websites like Right2Vote, don’t require human intervention, and that results in more accurate results and less time-consuming elections. Ballot voting in trade union elections requires a lot of time to print papers, sending of them to the voters, and counting of votes. The fully digitalized online process makes it easy for the voters as well as the employers to conclude the entire process much quicker and more efficiently.
More Private and Secured Voting:
The privacy of a voter can sometimes be compromised in ballot voting, as the entire process is human-dependent. Online voting through smart devices can dismiss the chances of outside influence, making the process more secure and transparent for the voters. This fully automated system assures the voter that the vote details remain only with the voter and guarantees accurate results in the election.
Cost-Effectiveness:
The cost behind postal services and printing lacs of papers are reduced as voters will only need to use a smartphone or a device connected to the internet to cast their votes. The cost behind appointing people who were needed earlier to do certain works can also be reduced. The process excludes the involvement of a third person who used to count votes and it not only cut down the cost but also makes the process smoother.
Maximizing Participation of the Voters:
Online voting apps such as Right2Vote can ensure more involvement, as voters living at a certain distance can always use a smart device to cast their votes. Using an online voting system, a lot of voters who couldn’t cast their votes previously can easily use this technology to cast their respective votes. The process is easier and definitely a better way to cast votes in complete secrecy.
Insolvency and bankruptcy code is nothing but a mechanism of settling failed or bankrupt entities without causing damage to any players of the economy. The code was passed by the parliament as a welcome gesture that overhauls the existing framework dealing with insolvency of corporations, individuals and partnerships. It paves way for the much-needed reforms while focusing on creditor driven insolvency resolution.
Measures were taken by the government of India-
Recognising that reforms in bankruptcy and insolvency regime are critical for improving and improvising the business ambience, the government took up the onus of introducing this bill. The bill was introduced in November 2015, drafted by specially constituted bankruptcy law reforms Committee (BLRC) under the ministry of finance. After being drafted, it was recognised by the joint committee of parliament. Both houses of parliament finally allowed the bill to come into effect on 2016.
Applicability of the code-
The provision of the code shall apply for insolvency along with liquidation, voluntary liquidation and bankruptcy of the following.
🗸Any organisation incorporated under the companies act, 2013 or under any previous laws.
🗸Any limited liability partnership under LLP act 2008
🗸Partnership firms and individuals
The objective of the code-
The objective is very simple. It complies for a sound legal framework of bankruptcy law that is required for achieving transparent targets. It allows for improving and improvising the handling of conflicts between creditors and debtors. What it does is, it provides certainty about the process of negotiation, in such a way to decrease problem amongst common property and decrease the information asymmetry.
It also controls the macroeconomic downturns and makes things simple and approachable. It will help you to consolidate and amend laws relating to reorganisation and insolvency, partnership firms and individuals.
The pivotal characteristics of the code-
Resolution of the insolvency-
The insolvency and bankruptcy code 2016 lay down separate insolvency resolving methodologies for organisations, individuals along with partner organisations. It is possible to initiate the procedure either through the creditors or the debtors.
What the code does is, it lays down a maximum time frame for completion of insolvency resolution. The entire modus operandi needs to be completed within the time frame of one hundred of eighty days. It can later be stressed to ninety days only. It can be done only when the large percentage of creditors permit or agree.
Regulator of insolvency-
The code lays down that the insolvency and bankruptcy board of India shall oversee the proceedings relating to insolvency in the nation. They regulate all organisations that are registered by the board. The insolvency and bankruptcy board shall consist of a ten-member team. It includes a representative of law and finance ministries as well as the RBI.
Insolvency and bankruptcy adjudicator-
The code has introduced a couple of district tribunals for overseeing the approaches for resolving insolvency. These are (1) National company law tribunal for organisations and limited liability partnership. (2) Debt recovery tribunal for overseeing insolvency resolution.
Procedures-
An insolvency plea is given to the authority that adjudicates by operation or financial creditors or the corporate debtor. The plea can be accepted or rejected in a maximum time frame of fourteen days. In any case, if the plea gets acceptance then the tribunal will have to appoint an IRP for drafting a plan of resolution within 180 days. Further, the court would initiate the entire process of resolving corporate insolvency.
During this time frame, the top honchos of the company shall remain suspended, whereas the promoters shall have no further say in the management. The IRP can seek the help of the management of a particular company. In case the CIRP is unable to receive the organisation, then a process of liquation shall be a remaining constraint.
Amendments-
Quite a few individuals are obstructed from providing any plan of resolution in case there are any defaulters. Hence the wilful defaulters, management or promoters of the company in case there is any non-performing outstanding debt.
The smooth functioning of the code-
The smooth functioning of the code depends on the functioning of the latest entities such as insolvency professionals. These entities will have to evolve for the proper functioning of the system. Besides, the NCLT will adjudicate corporate insolvency has not been constituted and the DRT’s are overloaded with pending cases.
Bring about far-reaching reforms-
The code promises to bring about far-reaching reforms with a thrust a creditor drove insolvency resolution. It aims to identify financial failure and maximising the asset value of insolvency firms. The code does have a special provision to address cross border insolvency. It can be done through bilateral agreements and reciprocal arrangements with some other countries.
Conclusion-
The intention of the code is doing away with antiquated existing laws covering aspects of insolvency and bankruptcy. Though the code sets out certain provisions to amend and override the existing laws to avoid litigation the days to come, clear provisions are needed. It explicitly states the existing laws being repealed by the introduction of this legislation. Apart from this, the bill also restricts the selling of defaulter’s property to any such individual right at the time of liquidation.
Disclaimer: The content is written by an external author. Right2Vote does not take responsibility for the accuracy or quality of the content.
For the last 2 years I have been trying to convince people that we need to move to mobile based voting system as it has several benefits including:
Nobody disputes these benefits but still people are not willing to upgrade to mobile voting because they believe “online voting can be hacked – it is not secure”
I totally disagree with this argument due to following two reasons:
Do not agree? Let’s discuss these reasons in detail.
Standard hacking practices in current offline voting system
1. False voting: It’s a common experience that people go to voting booth to realize that somebody has already voted in their place. This happens because in the current system voter authentication happens by looking at the face of the voter and matching it with the photograph in the ID. Booth officials generally accept any government ID card as identity proof. People can impersonate anybody else with help of fake ID cards. This can never happen with Right2Vote’s mobile voting technology due to Aadhaar based authentication. There is no scope of manual errors or cheating. Each voter is authenticated only after checking with Aadhaar central database and fake ID cards are of no use.
2. Duplicate Voting: It’s a common practice that people have their name registered in more than one constituency or more than one booth. At times they have their name registered in the same booth twice also. These fraudulent voters are expert in removing ink mark from their finger and voting again. Many political parties pay these kinds of voters on the basis of number of vote they cast. This can never happen with Right2Vote’s mobile voting technology and Aadhaar based authentication as Aadhaar databank ensures that there are no duplicate records. Any duplicate record would be fished out as person would not be able to fake the bio-metrics.
3. Errors / Manipulation in Counting – Counting of votes specially in paper ballot happens manually and is prone to clerical errors. Several times recounting has provided different results which proves that errors and manipulation are common. This can never happen with Right2Vote’s mobile voting technology as vote counting is 100% automatic and instant. There is no human intervention hence no scope of human error.
4. Vote rejection – Lot of voter’s vote are rejected specially in case of paper ballot and postal ballot due to marking errors, illegible writing, procedural reason etc. In case of postal ballot rejection rate is more than 25%. With Right2Vote’s mobile voting technology all errors are corrected at the time of voting itself, as the voting screen alerts the voter and asks him to correct his mistake. Hence there is ZERO rejection of votes.
5. Booth Capturing – Booth capturing is so common in India that such news goes unnoticed in India. Videos of booth capturing during recent West Bengal local body election is all over the internet. This can never happen with Right2Vote’s mobile voting technology as votes are stored in central server and not at booth level machines. Even if some remote booth is captured by goons they will get access to Tabs which are just screens. They can neither caste new votes without Aadhaar authentication of voter nor manipulate stored votes as stored votes are safe in the central server.
6. Blocking of voters from reaching booth – It’s a common practice that goons in the area do not allow voters to reach the booth and vote. Again, several videos of recent West Bengal elections are available on the internet. This can never happen with Right2Vote’s mobile voting technology as voters can vote from anywhere directly from their mobile. Voters need not go to any booth.
7. Replacement of ballot box – One of the easiest method of hacking an offline election is to replace the ballot box with a different ballot box with fake votes. The fact that these ballot box need to be transported from polling booth to central storage area, need to be kept stored for 3 days before it is transported to counting area, increases the risk. This can never happen with Right2Vote’s mobile voting technology as votes are stored in the central server and result can be announced immediately after poll close.
8. Human manipulation: Every election is managed by humans. Lok Sabha election require 1 crore people to manage the election. Most of these people are not Election Commission employees, they are temporary workers posted on election duty, at times against their wishes. These people have little expertise on election matters and can be coerced, manipulated to compromise the system. And any system is as strong as the weakest link. This can never happen with Right2Vote’s mobile voting technology as the whole system is automatic without any human intervention. No human is required for authentication of voter, registering of vote or counting of votes. All these activities are handled by the system itself.
9. Disenfranchisement: One of the biggest frauds of the current offline voting system is that it denies Right to vote to 1/3 of the eligible population. The world is mobile, and people do not live all their life at one place. People move to other places for jobs, marriage, education and various other reason. The process of getting address on voter ID changed is so tedious, bureaucratic and long that most people give up. Voting percentage among NRIs is 0% and for soldiers its 3%. With Right2Vote’s mobile voting technology nobody is denied his right to vote. All voters can vote from anywhere directly from your mobile.
10. Voter list problems: One of the most common problems voters complain about in the current voting system is that suddenly name of the voter goes missing from the voter list. This can happen due to reasons like clerical errors, reorganization of voter’s constituency, voters name being listed at some other booth, old records etc. With Right2Vote’s mobile voting technology and Aadhaar linked voter list, such problems would never happen. Right2Vote sends real time alerts and reminders to voters and voter need not know the exact booth detail. Aadhaar data bank ensure that citizen name is always listed and updated.
11. Man in the middle attack: In current offline voting system the ballot papers and ballot boxes, before voting and after voting travel across geographies, changes many hands and are stored at different places over the period of election which might be longer than a week. There is always a risk that during any such movement or storage the ballot boxes are compromised. This is very common specifically in case of postal ballot where votes travel in envelop across geographies over days. Certain candidates hack the system at the local post office level to his advantage. Man in the middle attack is not possible in Right2vote’s mobile voting technology as votes are encrypted and stored at central server. The voters reach the central server in less than a second of vote casting and stays encrypted till result is declared at the end of the voting process. The whole transmission, recording and storage of vote is automatic and hence there is no risk of human manipulation.
This is just a small list of kinds of hacking of votes that happen in the current offline voting system. Now let’s discuss how online system have proved to be much more secure and trustworthy.
Online systems are safe and secure and hence well accepted in similar high risk sensitive areas
Security layers & Value at Risk: One more myth we need to clarify is that one successful hacking does not mean the result of the election can be changed. Its like assuming that one successful hack of online banking system of SBI would bankrupt the bank. All security systems have multiple layers of security. In almost impossible situation of successful breach also the number of vote that can be manipulated can be limited to one. Unlike banking transactions where one single banking transaction can be worth thousands of crores, in voting system one transaction is limited to one vote. Hence value at risk is very low. In each offline election hundreds and thousands of voters’ face one of the above-mentioned hacks. Substantial number of voters don’t get to vote, compared to that one or two vote hacks in impossible scenario should not be a very serious concern.
Conclusion: Right2Vote’s online voting system is much more secure than any offline voting system. If the voting system is online and internet linked it increases the security of the system and does not reduce it. Technology has evolved enough to ensure that online systems are safe and secure. People oppose up-gradation of technology due to fear of change, inertia, lack of understanding of technology or vested interest. Online voting is something that mankind will have to upgrade to sooner or later. The question is not whether it would be accepted or not, the question is how early it would be accepted.
With cryptocurrencies hitting the roof, blockchain is the new fad. These days, I hear this question very often – are you using blockchain? Many of the people who ask us this question generally does not even know the difference between blockchain and bitcoin. Mostly we have heard this question from investors, startup ecosystem people and not from customers yet. But that day is not far off when customers would start asking this question. Hence here is the answer, YES – we do offer blockchain as an option. But our counter question is – Do you really need it? We believe very few clients would really need it and its important on our part to inform them about the pros and cons. This article aims to do just that.
Distributed Ledger
The basic premise of block chain is that it works on the concept of distributed ledger. There is no one person controlling the data and each transaction online is verified / authenticated / recorded by several people (in thousands or lakhs) in the chain. For a transaction to be authenticated 50% of the people in the chain need to authenticate it. This ensures transparency.
To explain it – in offline world it’s like when a voter is voting he shows his vote to 1000 people sitting in that room and each person maintains the record of each vote independently in his own dairy. Once more than 50% of the people have made the same entry, a transaction is approved.
The biggest reason to move to blockchain – transparency
In short, the biggest advantage of block chain is that it can add lot of transparency in the whole election process – which is a super benefit for any election process.
But then do we know what transparency really means and what all we need to sacrifice for this transparency?
Concerns with Blockchain
We would request our customers to ask these questions to themselves before they decide on whether they want blockchain or not:
Let me start with a question.
What is the information that you are sharing with Government of India under Aadhaar which anyway you were not sharing? Biometrics – Fingerprint & Iris scans?
Even when I applied for my passport, providing fingerprint and Iris scan was a must. In countries like Malaysia and Dubai they took my fingerprint and iris scan at immigration and without that they would not let me enter their country. This shows that it was never a private data and nowhere in the world people have objected to sharing this kind of information.
First, we need to understand what is Bio-metric. As per dictionary:
Bio-metric verification is any means by which a person can be uniquely identified by evaluating one or more distinguishing biological traits. Unique identifiers include fingerprints, hand geometry, voice, facial features, earlobe geometry, retina and iris patterns, voice waves, DNA, and signatures.
Facial recognition has been one of the oldest form of biometrics. Since birth we distinguish one person from the other by looking at their face. All government and private bodies collect passport size photograph and provide IDs based on facial biometrics. Most forms have a requirement of affixing passport size photograph. Recently Apple has launched iPhone which uses facial biometrics verification.
All these years we have been providing facial biometrics to government and other bodies without complaining about privacy. In certain communities, they insist females in their family to cover their faces in public places. It can be called Burkha in Islam or Ghoonghat in Hinduism. Recently Germany banned covering face while driving so that cameras on roads can identify the driver. We have been showing our faces, submitting photographs for all kind of documents all the while and never complained about privacy. Then why are we complaining now?
Coming back to Aadhaar. What is Aadhaar? Aadhaar (meaning ‘the basis’ in Hindi) is a 12 digit unique-identity (UID) number issued to all Indian residents based on their biometric and demographic data.
USA also has a Social Security Number (SSN). It is doing exactly what government of India is doing with Aadhaar. As per Wikipedia: In the United States, a Social Security number (SSN) is a nine-digit number issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and temporary (working) residents … Although its primary purpose is to track individuals for Social Security purposes, the Social Security number has become a de facto national identification number for taxation and other purposes.
Why nobody complains about privacy issue with SSN in USA? Just because it collects only facial bio-metrics in form of a photograph and not fingerprint and Iris? SSN started off in 1935 and Aadhaar in 2009. Considering the way technology has improved in these 70 plus years, it would have been foolish to go for manual bio-metrics and not go for mechanized bio-metrics when you are building a UID system from scratch. Specially because internet has been invented in the interim and most of the activities today happen without face to face contact – over the internet.
Why nobody complained about bio-metrics in 2009 when congress started it? The current government did not added bio-metrics in Aadhaar. It was there when Congress government initiated it. Suddenly, what has changed that the same Congress party is now considering it as a privacy risk?
Linking Aadhaar with everything – Bank account, Mobile SIM, tax return, investments etc. is the issue? Yes, the BJP government is now linking everything with Aadhaar. But why is that an issue. In USA, you quote your SSN number for everything. There also it evolved from a social security number to Unique Identity Number. At least, in India it was always supposed to be Unique Identity number.
Anyway, all places where now quoting Aadhaar is mandatory, providing identity document with photograph was anyway mandatory. In India, for a new sim card, opening bank account, filing tax return, making investment etc – always ID proof was required with biometrics in form of photograph. So, when providing identity certificate and biometrics in form photograph and signature earlier was not an issue, why is it an issue now when you have a single Unique identity document in form of Aadhaar? Do you have something to hide? Or the issue is that earlier manual verification was easy to fool and mechanized biometric verification is almost impossible to fool?
This brings us to benefits of Aadhaar and the biggest problem of India – Corruption. All these years we did not had a unique identification system and that made all kind of corruption very easy. We had ghost teachers in government schools, ghost doctors in hospitals, ghost workers in MNGREGA and other government projects, ghost farmers taking farm loan and then farm loan waivers, ghost citizen holding ration cards, ghost households taking subsidized gas connection, ghost students in government schools. The list is endless. It worked for politicians, bureaucrats and everybody connected with them. In 70 years, it completely made the DNA of the country corrupt and major section of population is illegitimately taking advantage of the system. There are fake bank accounts, benami properties, fake education degrees, fake driving licenses… People send fakes to appear in exams, political parties send fakes to vote in their favor. Most government lists including the voter list, ration card list, student list, teacher list have dummy names. We were not even able to identify terrorist who cross the borders and start living among us due to lack of unique identity like Aadhaar.
Our ex-prime minister, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, rightly pointed out that only “15p out of a rupee reaches the intended beneficiary”. Aadhaar is the Brabhma Astra (The ultimate weapon) to root out corruption. This unique identity is almost impossible to fool as it is not human dependent. The system verifies and the system authenticates. And this is why, everybody including the politicians, bureaucrats and people connected to them are not liking it. They have been so used to their corrupt income, that now they consider it as their birth right. They do not want Aadhaar to ruin it. And hence they are in all-out battle against Aadhaar. Problem these people have with Aadhaar is not Privacy, its efficiency!
One of the agreement used against Aadhaar is that bio-metrics like fingerprint and Iris can be faked and people can use fake fingerprints and Iris scan to fool the system. Well, nothing is 100% foolproof, but you would agree it is many times better than manual verification of picture on an identity card. 99.99% of corruption would be routed out with Aadhaar. For 0.01% of sophisticated criminals we need additional checks, that does not mean do away with Aadhaar based check.
Another argument we heard on some Whatsapp was – suppose there was an Emergency kind of situation and government will have so much power. What if you have to fight against your own government. First, to fight against your own government you use your Right2Vote and not become a terrorist. Secondly, if democracy is taken away, in today’s world the best way to fight the government is from abroad through media and diplomatic pressure. When you move abroad the jurisdiction of your country government ends and Aadhaar cannot be used to track you. You use social media and other media to get international community to put pressure upon the government to reinstall democracy. Running around with weapons is not the way to fight against your own country government in today’s world.
Also, even without Aadhaar, the facial recognition software’s are very advanced these days and most government use it to track people. You have cameras on roads, all major malls, shopping complexes, residential buildings, government and private installations, hotels, airports, railways stations etc. If the government is looking for you, they would not wait for you to do a Aadhaar based transaction before they catch you. The first thing they use to track you is your mobile phone. Even without Aadhaar linking, Government has data of who owns which sim. There is a mandatory verification process before issue of sim cards, and government bodies regularly use it to track criminals. Most of these data including your geolocation, your last call details, your all call history is provided by telecom companies to government. You should be more worried that a private telecom company and their employees has so much data about you and can use it against you any day and not only in days of Emergency. They know where your daughter is at any particular time, where she goes regularly and what time. Which route she takes, who she interacts with, how much money she has in back account etc.
We should be thinking how we can use Aadhaar to make democracy strong, and this is exactly what we are working on at Right2Vote Infotech private limited. There is lot of wrong practices prevalent in our election system too and that is helping bad candidates coming to power. Aadhaar can help in cleaning the voter list, it can also help eliminate voting based on false identity which is a big problem in Indian elections. Aadhaar’s digital platform can help in online authentication and voting which can help major sections of population who are not able to vote today like – Non Resident Indians (NRIs), Soldiers, Doctors, in country migrants, old & sick people etc. When higher percentage of population exercise their Right2Vote, the democracy becomes strong.
We believe Aadhaar is THE most significant reform undertaken by the country in last 25 years and we should try to maximize benefits by leveraging on this great foundation. Aadhaar on top of internet revolution has given us opportunity to leap ahead of the developed countries. Aadhaar can help us root out our biggest problems – corruption and terrorism. We should not get distracted by privacy bogey created by the vested interest and waste this opportunity.
Foundation of good decision making is availability of sound data. I believe, big reason for low quality political decision making in India is misleading & low-quality data. The whole process of accounting in government is managed by people who have no training in accounting. Also, the leaders – bureaucrats from administrative services and politicians have no understanding of accounting.
As per government figures Rs. 4000 crores* was spent in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. My back of the envelop calculation suggest the number must be more than Rs. 30,000 crores!! I filed a RTI to get the details but did not get any response. With limited information, it is not possible to come up with an exact number, but in the text, that follows, I will convince you that it is many times more than Rs. 4000 crores.
1 Crore people on election duty
In the attached link from Times of India, Mr. Modi not only quotes Rs. 4000 crores number but also mentions that more than 1 crore people are required to manage the 2014 Lok Sabha election. Which means government spends only Rs. 4000 per election worker. ( Rs. 4000 crores / 1 crore people). Is it possible?
Generally, people are deployed in district other than their home district to avoid conflict of interest. The people who work on election are not only paid daily allowance but also all their expenses relating to flight / rail expenses of the personnel to the voting district, their hotel expenses, their food and local transportation expenses is borne by the government. And mind you the election process goes on for more than 60 days. Hence on an average a person would be employed in the process for around a week or so.
10 Lakh booths for 2014 Lok Sabha election
As per government data, around 10 lakh booths were created for 2014 Lok election across the country. Which means per booth cost of only Rs. 40,000 (Rs. 4000 crores / 10 lakh booths). Is it possible?
Each election booth requires: real estate, minimum 5 people to manage it, electricity, telecommunications, security cameras, furniture, marking inks, security personnel, EVM machines, voter list, stationary, food, water, toilet and other services for personnel, power backup, queue management, voter query management, transportation and logistics facilities.
Rs. 3173 crores for new EVMs – VVPAT machines
Recently union cabinet cleared purchase of additional 16 lakh EVM VVPAT machines at the cost of Rs. 3173 crores.
If cost of new EVM machines is Rs. 3173 crores, that leaves only Rs. 827 crores for the rest of election work. And mind you this is just the purchase price. There is substantial spend involved in security, testing, reconfiguration, training, logistics, maintenance of these machines. There might be an argument that these machines have long life, but that is untenable argument in rapid changing technology era. Sudden upgrade to VVPAT machines proves the point.
My Estimate of total Lok Sabha election cost:
1. Expenses relating to 1 crore election workers (Rs. 15,000 per person) – Rs. 15,000 crores
2. Cost of setting up 10 lakh booths (Rs. 1 lakh per booth) – Rs. 10,000 crores
3. Cost of EVM machines (including maintenance) – Rs. 2000 crores
4. Cost of security – Rs. 2000 crores
5. Cost of Logistics – Rs. 1000 crores
6. Cost of communication, advertisement, training – Rs. 1000 crores
7. Cost of Voter list preparation, voter registration – Rs. 1000 crores
8. Postal ballot cost, counting centers etc. – Rs. 500 crores
Total = Rs. 32,500 crores
This Cost estimates excludes the opportunity cost
Please note, the above expenses do not include the opportunity cost of people and resources which is diverted to election management.
What is the opportunity cost of lost classes in government school where teaches have been sent on election duty?
What is the opportunity cost of the security personnel who is moved from border and deployed on election duty?
What is the opportunity cost of the school or other government premises which is used for booth?
What is the opportunity cost of IAS and other government officials time who are deployed to election duty?
What is the opportunity cost of declaring holiday on election day? One day GDP of India = Rs. 40,000 crores
What is the opportunity cost of policy paralysis due to ‘Election model code of conduct’ announced by Election commission around elections?
So, who is paying the difference?
The obvious question is why would anybody under report the expense and then who is paying for it? Of course, government (we taxpayers) are only paying for it. The problem is it’s not been accounted properly. For example:
1. The cost of deploying 1 crore people are appearing so low because their regular department is bearing their expenses in form of salary, daily allowance, major portion of their logistics and other expenses.
2. The substantial part of cost of setting up of booth is borne by the government school or other public / private entity that is providing the space. Not only election commission does not pay the rent for the space but makes the organization to bear expenses like electricity, power back up, communication, toilets and other utilities, cleaning and other labour.
3. The cost of EVM machines are shown as a separate one-time capital expenditure and not allocated to elections.
4. Security expenses including deployment of army personnel, planes, equipment is borne by the defense ministry, local police department and other similar departments of government.
5. Cost of running the Election commission, its employees, their logistics and other expenses are funded as regular expenses of Election Commission and not counted in election cost
6. Bureaucrats including IAS officers involved in the election get reimbursement from their home department for expenses like flight tickets, transportation vehicle, hotel stays, communication etc.
7. Large number of government properties including guest houses are used by election officials and expenses are booked as regular expenses of the property and not allocated to election
8. Sitting MPs, MLAs, other party workers with government posts use resources of their own ministry / department and does not book them as election expenses. Lot of Public Sector Units (PSUs) resources are also used. Recent expose by one of the media channel showed that these politicians are paying Rs. 30,000 plus for one-way flight ticket and their individual annual TA, DA bills are in lakhs and crores.
Accounting is not rocket science but it requires technical knowledge
After reading the above, many of you might react – how does it matter how you capture in accounts? The fact is tax payers were supposed to pay for it and tax payers are paying for it.
Would you say the same if Mr. Modi reduces the cost of Bullet train by showing major part of the investment as farm loan waiver?
Accounting provides information which forms the basis of all decision making. Wrong accounting leads to wrong decision making. Accounting Standards and concepts are built over years to ensure proper recording of accounts. People who are not trained in accounting does not understand the difference between capital expenditure and revenue expenditure. Similarly, concept of cost allocation and process of allocation would not be easy for somebody who is not trained in accounting.
Institute of Chartered Accountant of India (body formed by Act of Parliament), notifies accounting standards which all companies in India must follow. Somehow, Government of India and its departments do not strictly enforce these standards.
So, what is the solution? – Mobile Voting
Many people would react, even if cost of Lok Sabha election is Rs. 30,000 crores, we need democracy and we cannot wish away this cost. The fact is – elections can be held at less than 1/10th the cost with the help of mobile voting. With mobile voting people would be able to vote from anywhere directly from their mobile and would not have to waste time and effort to visit a booth. The requirement of setting up 10 lakhs booths can be eliminated completely. Similarly, election can be managed with less than 1000 people compared to more than 1 crore right now. There would be no requirement of EVM machines. The whole election process can be completed in 1 day compared to 2 months currently. Other benefits include no need to declare holiday on election day, no need of months long election code of conduct and biggest of all – higher voter participation leading to better selection of leaders.
We at Right2Vote Infotech P Ltd, specializes in providing mobile voting platform for election and have technology to authenticate voters via Aadhaar over mobile. We can guarantee that the whole election can be held in less than 1/10th the cost.
Free bullet trains every 5 years
Lok Sabha election costs Rs. 30,000 crores. Then we have state elections and local body elections where same 100 crore citizen need to vote. In all we are spending around Rs. 90,000 crores every 5 years on election. This is roughly investment required for bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. There are so many people questioning whether India can afford bullet train. Going by same logic, can we afford booth based elections?
Election is not limited to Government. Every organization including cooperatives, professional associations, corporates, clubs, housing societies and colleges have member election. Just ensure that your organization is not wasting a fortune on booth based voting! Who knows, moving to mobile voting can save you enough to buy you a Mercedes!
– Neeraj Gutgutia (neeraj@Right2vote.in, +91 9920591306)
References:
*Modi in TOI – Election cost of Rs. 4000 crore, 1 crore people for election management: http://www.pressreader.com/india/the-times-of-india-mumbai-edition/20170913/282153586443418
Hindu: Election cost – Rs. 3426 core: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/govt-spent-rs-3426-cr-on-lok-sabha-polls/article6005247.ece
Indian Express: New EVM cost – 3173 crore: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/cabinet-clears-ec-proposal-to-buy-new-paper-trail-machines-sources-4619227/
For the last three years, I have been meeting lot of politicians, political parties, election officers, government representatives, activists, NGOs and one common thing that I have noticed everywhere is that they blame the voter for the low voter turnout. And when I ask them how many times they themselves have voted – they always come up with a ‘genuine’ excuse why they have not voted most of the time!!
Voter does not vote for various reasons. We have tried to make a list of reasons why they do not vote.
1. Voter is not registered as a voter anywhere due to lack of ID proof / bureaucratic and time-consuming processes / denied on flimsy ground / lack of awareness about the registration process
2. Voter is registered in a city other than the city of residence
3. Voter does not have the voter ID card, although he is registered
4. Voter is travelling on the date of voting for family or office reasons
5. Voter is travelling for holidaying
6. Voter is ill and not able to travel to the booth to vote
7. Voter has work in office
8. Voter is a daily laborer and cannot afford to waste time in queue
9. Voting booth is very far from voter’s residence / work place
10. Voter does not want to spend money to travel to booth / the cost of travel to booth is not worth it for the voter
11. Voter does not want to waste time standing in queue
12. Voter does not have the exact details of which booth he is supposed to vote. The ‘purchi’ with his booth details, serial number etc. has not reached him and booth officer cannot locate him in the voter list although he has the voter ID.
13. Voter is a soldier posted at front away from his city of registration
14. Voter is an NRI living abroad
15. Voter is an election worker, on government duty, and posted at a location other than his city of registration by the government to ensure impartiality.
16. Voter is an election worker, of a political party, who has been posted at the central control room or at a booth / location other than his registered place of voting
17. Voter is a student who is studying in a college outside his city of registration
18. Voter is a student who has exams on the day of election or in the next few days
19. Voter is a sportsperson who has a match on the day of voting or is travelling for training
20. Voter is a housewife with young kids. She can neither stand in queue with the kids not leave them alone at home
21. Voter is a pregnant lady
22. Voter is a driver, housemaid or anybody who is employed in similar low paying jobs and who do not get holiday on day of election
23. Voter is a truck driver carrying goods miles away from home
24. Voter is a pilot or air-hostess flying passengers across the globe
25. Voter is a local train driver / bus driver driving voters to the booth
26. Voter is a lawyer or a judge who must be present for the court hearing
27. Voter is a person who is paid by the hour
28. Voter is a scientist working against time to find solution to a deadly disease
29. Voter is a laborer who is working on an infrastructure project which is already delayed
30. Voter is a rocket scientist who is working against deadline to next launch
31. Voter is a call center employee responding to emergency calls relating to women safety, medical emergencies, road accidents, passport issues, Indian Railway helpline
32. Voter is an army men or a police officer given duty to ensure safety of booth other than the booth where he is supposed to vote
33. Voter is an actor / movie crew shooting at an international location
34. Voter is a newly married lady who has moved to a city other than city or registration
35. Voter is a consultant working out of client location
36. Voter is a corporate sector / government sector employee who is working in the city other than city of residence
37. Voter is an auto driver or a taxi driver who earn only when he drives and his interest clock on car / auto loan does not stop even on the election day
38. Voter is a television company / newspaper company employee entrusted with live election coverage
39. Voter is a doctor looking after patients in a hospital with long queue
40. Voter is a doctor working in emergency ward
The list is endless. Of the 40 types of voter above, who you believe is justified to not vote and who you think needs to be blamed for not voting?
It is a widely accepted thought that – voting is a service to the national and responsibility of every citizen and hence each citizen should do the same even if that means some personal sacrifice. I agree that voting is a service to the nation and responsibility of every citizen. But is personal sacrifice necessary?
A soldier who is willing to sacrifice his life for the country – do you think he need to be blamed for not voting? Voting percentage of soldiers in the country is only 2-3%!!! This is despite they are being provided with postal ballot facility. Why are they not voting? They are not responsible people? They do not believe in personal sacrifice? They do not care about the well-being of the country?
During the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the voter turnout percentage was only 66%. Winning party vote share was 32% of 66% i.e. 21%. If the rest 33% had voted, would the result have been different? Do the numbers suggest that we have ‘Real Democracy’ in the country?
A voting system, where winning party get less votes than the number of voters who did not cast their vote, is defective to say the least. We must admit that our voting system is relic of the past. Few years back it was okay to accept a customer to stand in queue for hours to pay electricity bill, for rail ticket, for withdrawing cash from bank, for milk, for water, for ration. In the age of internet, it should be a criminal offence to make people wait in queue. As per news reports more than 70 people died standing in queue during demonetization. But then, voting is a national service, so what if you die in the process of voting.
Right2Vote is a right promised by the Constitution of India. As per the Election Commission directives – Polling booth need to be set up so that no voter should travel more than 2 kms to reach the booth. And I am sure, here booth means booth where the voter can vote and not any booth. Today a voter is not allowed to vote at any booth and is supposed to vote at the specific booth he is registered. This means, Election Commission is not standing by their promise of booth within 2 kms and large section of population is being denied their Right2Vote. This means the provision is just an eyewash. A soldier, an NRI, a migrant and many other segments listed above are all denied their Right2Vote because they are not stationed at their original place of registration.
At Right2Vote Infotech, we have built the world’s first mobile verified voting platform which would assure Right2Vote to the citizens. People would be able to vote anytime and from anywhere directly from their mobile. There would not be any requirement to visit a booth to vote. Voters would be voting directly from their mobile and verification would happen real time using Aadhaar. The whole voting process would take less than a minute. Apart from saying minimum 90% time, cost and effort for the election commission, the system would save minimum 90% time, cost and effort for the voter also. This would lead to substantial increase in voter turnout leading to better election results. All 40 types of voters listed above and beyond, would benefit from this mobile platform and would be able to regain their Right2Vote.
One of the common concern people have against Mobile Voting is hacking. Most of the people do not even understand the meaning of the word, but love to use it as an argument against hacking.
Let’s first understand what hacking means:
“Act of cutting into or gaining unauthorized access, esp. remotely, to a computer system or network’’
Myth 1 – Hacking is possible only in online or networked world
As is clear from the above definition, hacking is act of getting unauthorized access. It need not necessarily means in networked environment. In fact, with wireless mobile technology ‘network’ itself has a totally different meaning. Airwaves can be used to access an equipment which might not have been on the ‘network’. Once small hidden chip somewhere in a machine like EVM can make it part of the network, although user might be living with false assurance that the equipment is not part of any network.
In case of EVMs, paper ballot and postal ballot: The EVMs, ballot paper, ballot box, the postage travels through several hands across several geographies over and over several months. For example, in case of Lok Sabha elections in India, 1 crore plus people are involved, the process goes on for more than 2 months and these machines travel the length and breadth of country. Every person, every day, every geography adds to vulnerability of the system. Here the organization structure with 1 crore people is the vulnerable network. The logistical chain is the vulnerable network.
Supporters of EVMs and paper ballots argue that the impact of one hack might not be big enough. True, only if, it is not done at the equipment manufacturer level itself or at the level of result compilation. However, it should be remembered that impersonation, booth capturing, duplicate voting, postage hacking, counting frauds are common practice in physical voting and somehow, we are so used to it that we do not consider it as hacking or do not see it as a fatal problem. There are many regions in the country where such offline hacks are being done in systematic fashion at large scale and we decide to ignore it by blaming law and order system.
Remote hacking
What people worry about mobile or internet voting is remote hacking. In case of offline equipment’s like EVMs and EVMs with PPVAT also there is a possibility of remote hacking with help of magnetic field, light rays, sound waves, airwaves (Bluetooth, secret chip) etc. Considering these EVMs are built by only one or 2 suppliers and these equipments are still using decade old technologies the vulnerability of these machines is high. Due to lack of sophistication, the risk of remote hacking of current equipment is very low, however, the ease & risk of remote hacking with phantom chip is very high.
In case of mobile voting the concern is that system can be hacked from anywhere. Yes, that concern is valid but at the same time technologies have advanced substantially and enough technology exists to protect systems from online hacking. If that was not true; the stock exchanges, the banking systems, the traffic systems, the Air traffic control, railway systems and such other sensitive infrastructure would have been open to terrorist attacks and mankind would have never relied on them. Hacking in, for example, air traffic system can cost several lives which I suppose is more valuable than few votes. In comparison, in election system, in the worst case scenario, you can always nullify the voting and go for revote.
The points to be kept in mind about hacking is:
one, there are enough technologies to guard against hacking which include use of fire walls, encryptions etc.
Second, in instance of successful hack, there are enough methods to raise alert that system has been hacked leading to re-vote. These methods including duplicate data transfer from different routes, random routing, token counting and cross checking with tokens.
Hence, in case of mobile voting 100% accuracy and 100% hack proofing is possible which is not possible in offline voting systems like EVMs, paper ballot and postal ballot.
Myth 2: Online hacking can be done at a big scale leading to big impact unlike offline hacking
This again is a myth. The trick is to break the hacking space into small rooms with different walls. For example – In case of Lok Sabha elections in India 543 seats would be individually different election and it is not possible for one person to make one hack and appoint his own Prime Minister. At best, he would get one MP.
The art is to further break it down. In our platform, we use individual vote encryption. This means, a hacker with one successful hack can get only one vote. In a 12-hour election period he would have to do thousands of successful hacks to be able to move the needle. Even if he is successful in one or two hack, the duplicate data flow + random routing + cross checking + count checking plus audit trail would ensure that alarms would be raised.
And this is after he is able to penetrate several fire walls, decrypt the encryption, is able to encrypt it again. The system apart from having individual vote encryption also has end to end encryption which include the equipment level encryption, encryption during transmission and storage level encryption. Also the mother storage is offline and hence remote hacking is not possible.
Risk is a factor of time
Also note, the duration of mobile voting is just one day against several months in case of offline voting. This means, the hacker has to do all the hacking is those 12 hours. The limited time substantially reduces the risk of hacking. Unlike stock exchanges, banks, ATC, power systems which are always on, the voting systems are on for only few hours. It would be very difficult for a hacker to understand the system and do substantial hacking in that 12 hours.
Conclusion
Hacking is a risk that can be mitigated with proper preparation and use of technology. Hacking is not an unmanageable risk because of which mobile voting should be rejected. Mankind is too invested in internet now to raise hacking as an argument against voting. If hacking was such a risk, many critical activities which can put human lives at risk of hacking would not have moved to networked world. Mobile voting is an eventuality that is destined to happen. These arguments can delay the timelines but cannot change the destiny.
Today there is huge debate going on in India regarding (Electronic Voting Machines) EVM used in voting. Many politicians lead by Mayawati, Arvind Kejriwal, Akhilesh Yadav, Rahul Gandhi have questioned the EVM and blamed them for the recent poll debacle. And considering they have questioned EVM, they are asking Election Commission (EC) to revert to Paper Ballot. Nobody is stating how paper ballot is better than EVM.
What is alarming is lack of technical discussion around the various technologies. EVM is also a technology which has been in use in India for more than 2 decades. Technologies and world has evolved substantially in last two decades, but somehow everybody is ignoring that.
Hacking – Online & Offline
First, EVMs are not connected via internet in India. Hence online hacking is not possible. The machines are pre-configured with software at the time of manufacture which is very difficult to mess with later. Hence online hacking is impossible with EVMs.
On the other hand the EVMs need to be stored, physically moved across geographies and are stored at various places during the period of elections which may last 2 to 3 months. During this period if people can get access to the machines they can do almost anything with the data stored. Yes, there are seals, locks and human security systems around these EVMs but we all know these security systems can never be foolproof especially when you doubt the government machinery who are managing the election. We should also be aware that Election Commission generally does not have big team at its disposal and manages the elections with help of temporary staff who come from the government machinery. Here we should mention that VVPT (Voter Verified Paper Trail) EVMs are no better than regular EVMs. They actually do not provide any Audit Trail. It just improves the optics, because in this case voter get to see whom he has voted for. However, in offline hacking, these papers can always be replaced.
The same risk is true with Paper ballot. Like EVMs they are also stored and physically transferred across the country and are on the mercy of physical security systems and temporary election management staff. Hence when it comes to hacking, Paper ballot is equally bad in comparison to EVMs.
Advancement in voting technology
Mobile Voting (mVoting) is several generations advanced technology over EVMs (eVoting) and paper ballot. EMV with VVPT, EVM with internet, Internet voting (iVoting) were technologies in between. We need not waste time on them as Mobile Voting (mVoting) is much more advanced them all these technologies.
Mobile Voting (mVoting)
Again, mVoting has many versions across the world. For shake of simplicity we would restrict ourselves to the most advanced version and made for India version as created by Right2Vote Infotech Private Limited which has two major patented advancement over all other form of mVoting – Aadhaar based mVerification and Audit trail (along with secret ballot). Let’s look at the key advantages of mVoting:
Advantages of Mobile Voting
Criticism of Mobile Voting
First, most of the people including parties like BJP, AAP, Congress, BSP, SP or politicians like Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav have not yet given a serious thought to Mobile Voting. To be fair to Mr. Narendra Modi & Gujarat Election Commission, they tried out iVoting in 2010 in Gujarat, but it didn’t worked out as internet penetration was very low then and technology was not made for India. Aadhaar was also not there.
Hacking: People believe just because something is connected to internet it can be hacked. The whole banking system, the stock market etc. works completely on internet today. If internet was so hackable, such critical system would not have been connected to internet. Over and above, Right2Vote platform provides end to end encryption which makes hacking impossible.
Coercion: There are enough ways to avoid coercion and assuming existing system do not have coercion issues is illusion. For detailed discussion refer: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/only-arguement-against-mobile-voting-coercion-neeraj-gutgutia
Conclusion
India needs to move with time and leverage the super work they have done with Aadhaar. Just because advanced countries have not moved to mVoting we should not reject it. Advanced countries do not have system like Aadhaar. Right2Vote Platform is a made for India technology and it’s natural that the biggest democracy in the world should lead by example when it comes to biggest democratic revolution of the world – Mobile Voting. Audit trail technology in Right2Vote’s mVoting platform would ensure that no politician would be able to blame the system for their loss in elections.