Election Commission Exploring to Use Blockchain Tech for Remote Voting

To overcome the geographical barrier while casting votes, the Election Commission of India is exploring the potential of using blockchain technology to cast vote remotely.

Hoever, Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra expressed concerns over transparency and voter security with blockchain’s distributed consensus mechanism. He said that various industries have tested blockchain technology but there are divergent views on scalability.

Chandra said, “How can we set up special remote polling stations when suppose a person is in a different place than their voter registration? This is a departure from a conventional polling station… Can we think of a machine which can generate a dynamic ballot paper? …We can look at the distributed consensus mechanism. How transparent is this? Is my vote a secret?”

However, Principal Scientific Adviser to the government, K VijayRaghavan is optimistic about blockchain’s potential in remote voting. According to the Indian Express, he cited research from Northeastern University in the US, saying, "I don’t see major pitfalls in using this system in major locations. I would urge that the EC could try this out as a mock exercise in some locations on a small scale and keep having stress tests to ensure it is durable."

Voting using blockchain is a not new thing in India, but will be unique when it comes to voting within world's largest democracy with 911 million eligible voters (2019 stats). Elemential Labs, which is a Matrix Partners backed startup, has built a blockchain-based e-voting solution for National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE), in September 2018.

To recall, in 2017 it was speculated that Election Commission was intended to use Blockchain technology in Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) to solve tampering of both EVM's software and hardwares.

Later in August 2018, Australian Blockchain organization, MiVote, which calls itself as an international direct democracy NGO, had signed a deal with Democratic Party of India (DPI), a registered political party with Election Commission of India, and with this DPI became the first Blockchain enabled Political Party in Asia.

This Indian Political Party Becomes Asia's First Blockchain Enabled Party

Almost a year back we wrote a piece about how blockchain is also being utilized in electronic voting systems in several countries, with a strong possibility in India as well. Now in what turns out to be a rightful prediction, a political party in India called Democratic Party of India (DPI), a registered political party with Election Commission of India, has signed a deal with MiVote, an international direct democracy NGO, to become the first Blockchain enabled Political Party in Asia.

In a partnership with MiVote, which is nothing less than historical, DPI will adopt global MiVote model wherein it will determine all policy positions through a blockchain-enabled democratic platform that will ask every Indian citizen their preferred direction for their community.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MiVote India powered @democratic_of to contest upcoming elections across #India. https://t.co/vrOD0i6DFY pic.twitter.com/iiw9Ibe99c

— MiVote (@MiVote) August 24, 2018

MiVote, which is a decentralised model of community decision-making that prohibits special interest group influence, corporate money and career politicians, announced its India entry in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, has supposedly received positive responses in India for its “policy framework, governance model and technology platform

Founded in 2011, by Adam Jacoby, MiVote is also in talks with over 20 countries besides India and the US, including Scotland, The Netherlands, Belgium and Malaysia, for adaptation of its blockchain-enabled direct democracy platform to their communities.

About the Democratic Party of India, it was established in 1961 and was registered by the Election Commission of India in the year 1989. The Party was revived in 2018 with a vision towards Socio-Economic empowerment of Citizens starting from the most deprived sections of the society with a stern focus on Inclusive development, and a commitment to ensure that the most marginalised and disconnected members of the community have genuine representation. The DPI already boasts more than 3 million members across India in the first 60 days since its relaunch.

DPI is now the world’s first political party to adopt the global MiVote model.

Blockchain, which is the same technology that underpins Bitcoin, ie being used by MiVote by replacing ‘Bitcoins' with voting tokens. Each transaction is a vote added to a public record, which can then be tallied and audited by anyone who chooses to do so. Thanks to the workings of Blockchain technology, once a vote has been added to the record, it can never be changed or removed - it now exists in perpetuity.

In MiVote blockchain voting solution, if anyone tries to dishonestly modify one or more records it will cause the new information to be rejected by the rest of the network, as their collective understanding of the record will not be the same, thereby providing unprecedented confidences and assurances, which a traditional online voting systems could not.

Founder and Chief Steward of the Global MiVote movement, Adam Jacoby, having spent ten days with the MiVote India team, headed by Joydeep Mondal, and the leadership team of the DPI in Delhi commented, “MiVote is thrilled to have found a group of people so committed to the principles of genuine democracy. The Democratic Party of India will be a wonderful steward of the MiVote model and will provide the people of India with a political choice, unlike anything they have seen before.”

The National President of the Democratic Party of India, Captain G.S. Rathee, said on partnership with Mivote, “The association with MiVote will not only empower the vision of the party, rather it will also give a direction towards development and strengthening the democratic behavior of India.”

“The Democratic Party of India is ready to contest the 2019 Parliamentary Elections in all states across India. Party candidates will also contest the upcoming 2018 Assembly elections in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.”

The election symbol for the Democratic Party of India, allotted by the Election Commission of India, is POT.

Source - MiVote, Via - Bitcoin Exchange Guide | Reference - SocialPost.News

[Top Image - ]

Facebook Launches Email-based Hotline for Indian 'Netas' Data Security

To prevent Indian politicians and their political parties from cyber attack, social networking giant Facebook has launched 'Cyber Threat Crisis', under which it will provide e-mail based hotline to India's politicians and political parties in order to secure their data.

Under the hotline, compromised accounts and even the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), which works under union ministry of electronics and IT, can write to indiacyberthreats@fb.com in the event of cyber interference including suspected hacks. In a contrast, it is seen that political parties in India is itself using data of millions of users in India to target potential voters and change their political opinions, exactly like what Cambridge Analytica did in the last presidential election in the US.

Facebook also released a “cyber hygiene guide” for political accounts. These include best practices for politicians and political parties on how to keep Facebook Pages and accounts secure.

"At times, a few sophisticated bad actors will seek to target high-profile political figures and those connected to them to undermine democratic discourse online. This cyber security guide provides best practices for politicians and political parties on how to keep your Facebook pages and Facebook accounts secure. We are also making available to politicians and political parties in India a special Cyber Threats Crisis Email Line for compromised Facebook pages and accounts." says a note attached to the guide.

These efforts are part of Facebook’s broader Indian Election Integrity Initiative.

The announcement comes a day after the company, co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg, submitted its responses to the union government’s questions on user privacy and election integrity, which is Indian government’s second such round of questions to the company.

Through the Indian elections integrity microsite, Facebook will be putting out dynamic updates to what the social network is doing in terms of education, enforcement, and what we are doing with fact-checking partners.

Last month, Facebook partnered with BOOM, a Bengaluru-based fact-checking website, to flag pieces of misinformation on the website. Content reported as fake news is down-ranked on the social network to prevent it from going viral.

Last October, Facebook had announced that it would roll out a feature, where political and issue-based ads would be marked as such, and carry a disclosure on sponsorship. This feature will be extended to India ahead of the 2019 general elections.

“The entire purpose of ads transparency is disclosure. So if you’re running an issue campaign in support of a candidate, and if it’s an issue ad, that ad will have to have a disclosure saying who’s paid for it. There has to be an assignment of interest and that will help you say that well, this surrogate is actually supported by so-and-so,” said Ankhi Das, who is Facebook's public policy director for India and South and Central Asia.

Earlier last year, Election Commission of India partnered with Facebook to launch first nationwide voter registration reminder by showing the 'Register Now' button to people on Facebook in India who are eligible to vote.

Via - Times of India | Top Image - usatoday.com

Facebook Launches Email-based Hotline for Indian 'Netas' Data Security

To prevent Indian politicians and their political parties from cyber attack, social networking giant Facebook has launched 'Cyber Threat Crisis', under which it will provide e-mail based hotline to India's politicians and political parties in order to secure their data.

Under the hotline, compromised accounts and even the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), which works under union ministry of electronics and IT, can write to indiacyberthreats@fb.com in the event of cyber interference including suspected hacks. In a contrast, it is seen that political parties in India is itself using data of millions of users in India to target potential voters and change their political opinions, exactly like what Cambridge Analytica did in the last presidential election in the US.

Facebook also released a “cyber hygiene guide” for political accounts. These include best practices for politicians and political parties on how to keep Facebook Pages and accounts secure.

"At times, a few sophisticated bad actors will seek to target high-profile political figures and those connected to them to undermine democratic discourse online. This cyber security guide provides best practices for politicians and political parties on how to keep your Facebook pages and Facebook accounts secure. We are also making available to politicians and political parties in India a special Cyber Threats Crisis Email Line for compromised Facebook pages and accounts." says a note attached to the guide.

These efforts are part of Facebook’s broader Indian Election Integrity Initiative.

The announcement comes a day after the company, co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg, submitted its responses to the union government’s questions on user privacy and election integrity, which is Indian government’s second such round of questions to the company.

Through the Indian elections integrity microsite, Facebook will be putting out dynamic updates to what the social network is doing in terms of education, enforcement, and what we are doing with fact-checking partners.

Last month, Facebook partnered with BOOM, a Bengaluru-based fact-checking website, to flag pieces of misinformation on the website. Content reported as fake news is down-ranked on the social network to prevent it from going viral.

Last October, Facebook had announced that it would roll out a feature, where political and issue-based ads would be marked as such, and carry a disclosure on sponsorship. This feature will be extended to India ahead of the 2019 general elections.

“The entire purpose of ads transparency is disclosure. So if you’re running an issue campaign in support of a candidate, and if it’s an issue ad, that ad will have to have a disclosure saying who’s paid for it. There has to be an assignment of interest and that will help you say that well, this surrogate is actually supported by so-and-so,” said Ankhi Das, who is Facebook's public policy director for India and South and Central Asia.

Earlier last year, Election Commission of India partnered with Facebook to launch first nationwide voter registration reminder by showing the 'Register Now' button to people on Facebook in India who are eligible to vote.

Via - Times of India | Top Image - usatoday.com

Startups Becomes Part of Election Manifestos, BJP Promises Biggest Incubator, VC Fund

Ahead of assembly elections in Karnataka, which is a home state India's startups' capital Bangalore, the startups now becomes part of election manifestos of political parties when Bharatiya Janata Party unveiled its election manifesto on Friday.

According to the manifesto, BJP plans to give entrepreneurship a boost by setting up incubators called ‘K Hubs’ across Karnataka.

BJP promised that, if comes to power, it will develop 6 “K-Hubs” as the biggest incubators and co-working spaces for startups in India at Hubballi, Bengaluru, Raichur, Mysuru, Kalaburagi and Mangaluru.

Listed under initiatives for a better future of the youth of the state, K Hubs -- according to BJP manifesto -- will be the biggest incubators and co-working spaces for startups in India.

Interestingly, K-Hub sounds very similar to Hyderabad's T-Hub, which is currently the largest startup incubator in the country, something Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao also pointed out on Twitter on Friday.

Apart from K-Hub, BJP also plans to launch a Venture Capital Fund. “Launch a Sir M Visvesvaraya Venture Capital Fund to support innovative business ideas and nurture spirit of entrepreneurs among state youth,” states the BJP manifesto.

Related Reading - No Progress in StartUp India Initiative As DIPP Utilized Only 0.4% of Allocated ₹10 Crore for Promotion

Prime Minister Modi-led party also plans to launch a policy to promote and encourage women entrepreneurship in the state and set up a ₹50 crore handloom entrepreneurs fund to help sell handloom products directly on online platforms.

The party also plans to establish 15 “MSME Development Centres” to serve as (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) MSME incubators and provide a platform for them to become technology-based entrepreneurs. However, it is to be noted that just few days back, MSMEs in the state of Madhya Pradesh, where BJP is in power for close to 12 years, have raised complain that they are not treated equally when it comes to availing the single window clearance facility.

Additionally, in order to support the SC community, BJP will designate ₹500 crore under the ‘Dr Bhimarao Ramji Ambedkar entrepreneurship scheme’ to organize entrepreneur development and incubation programs for SC entrepreneurs. Notably, the party is in power in 21 other states of the country.

It is to be noted however that for last 4 years, the Narendra Modi government in centre has struggled to improve the Centre’s track record of procuring goods and services from Dalit and Adivasi entrepreneurs.

According to sources, government departments and central public sector undertakings (PSUs) have procured just 0.37% of their requirement of goods and services from Scheduled caste (SC) and Scheduled tribe (ST) suppliers as at the end of March 2017, against the stipulated annual quota of 4%.

Coming back to the election manifesto, BJP promise to provide free laptops to every student who enrolls in a college. The party however didn't disclose any plan for education policy in state.

Via - The News Minute

[Top Image - Reuters India]

Election Commission of India Partners Facebook To Launch First Nationwide Voter Registration Reminder

With over 180 million people in India on Facebook, the 'Register Now' button is designed to encourage Indian citizens to register themselves with the Election Commission of India. Starting from 1st July till 4th July, the voter registration reminder will be sent to people on Facebook in India who are eligible to vote. The reminder will be in 13 Indian languages - English, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Assamese, Marathi and Oriya.

Dr.Nasim Zaidi, Chief Election Commissioner, Election Commission of India, said “I am pleased to announce that the Election Commission of India is going to launch a ‘Special Drive to enrol left out electors, with a particular focus on first time electors. This is a step towards fulfilment of the motto of ECI that ‘NO VOTER TO BE LEFT BEHIND’.

As part of this campaign, on 1st July, 2017, Facebook will run a voter registration reminder in multiple Indian languages to all the Facebook users in India. I urge all eligible citizens to enrol and VOTE i.e. Recognize your Right and Perform your Duty. I am sure this initiative will strengthen Election Commission of India’s enrolment campaign and encourage future voters to participate in the Electoral Process and become responsible Citizens of India."

This is the first time Facebook's voter registration reminder has been rolled out across India. Earlier, similar reminders have been rolled out in partnership with Chief Electoral Officers during the State elections of 2016 and 2017.

Ms. Ankhi Das, Public Policy Director for India, South & Central Asia, said "People use Facebook to learn, talk and get involved with issues that matter to them. We want to build products that support this type of civic engagement - on Election Day and every day. We believe that democracies are stronger when more people are engaged - that's why we are encouraging everyone who is eligible to register to vote and connecting them with resources."

By clicking on the “Register Now" button, people will be directed to the National Voters’ Services Portal which will guide them through the registration process.

Please find below the link to view the video message from Dr. Nasim Zaidi, Chief Election Commissioner, Election Commission of Indiaon ECI's partnership with Facebook for the first nationwide voter registration campaign: https://www.facebook.com/FacebookIndia/videos/vb.103274306376166/1928468260771945/?type=2&theater

Election Commission To Use Blockchain Technology in Voting Machines

India is the largest democracy in the world where the government is chosen by the people, of the people and for the people. But off late, with the electronic voting machines (EVMs) scam gaining pace, there have been doubts whether this is really happening or the ones in the power are making a mockery out of the country and its citizens.

Although the EVM hackathon organised by the Election Commission of India (ECI) earlier this month might have proven to be a dud, but it did give the common people an excuse to cough up some attention on what can be considered as the biggest problem in a democracy, provided if it does exist.

There are several studies in public domain today that allege that EVMs hardware and software can be tampered with to practice election malpractices. Although the ECI has maintained that such a thing is not possible in the EVMs that they have been using.

In a response to the aforementioned studies/reports, several tech enthusiasts have suggested using emerging and contemporary technologies in EVMs rather than the one that are being using currently. One of the most commonly suggested technology by tech experts in India that can solve the EVM tampering debates all at once is blockchain. Experts are confident that the blockchain's attributes of transparency, immutability and trust can work wonders for the EVM system and put an end to issues like vote manipulation/tampering in the country's famous democratic process of elections. Furthermore, experts are also positive that conditions now are most favourable for implementation of the technology as an alternative for EVMs in India as the country has improved infrastructure and interest in place. The country has see around 32 blockchain firms being founded in 2016, up from 23 founded before 2016, according to a fintech report by PwC.

For the unversed, a blockchain is basically an anonymous online ledger that makes use of a data structure to make the process of transaction an easier and simpler process. It provides users the ability to manipulate the ledger in a safe way without seeking the support of a third party. While a bank's ledger has connections to a centralised network, a blockchain is anonymous as it helps in protecting the identities of the users. This is what makes the technology of blockchain a safer way to carry out transactions than any other existing processes. Blockchain's algorithm reduces the dependence on people to verify the transactions. This technology, which is currently being used for recording various transactions, has the true potential of completely disrupting the financial system in the near future.

When it comes to blockchain voting, every vote will be considered similar to a transaction and by employing multiple blockchains along with public key encryption, the voting process in the democracy will be protected while protecting the anonymity feature of the voting process. In the Blockchain voting process, the votes can be randomized more than three times in the digital ballot box ensuring the identity of the voters’ is never revealed. Once the polling is closed, a separate blockchain application is built for the votes counting in the digital ballot box. That particular blockchain matches the public bulletin board’s blockchain, thus proving that the online voting system has acted accurately. The Blockchain voting system combines the audit trail of the transactions along with public key encryption which solves the issue of auditability.

Considering some countries like Australia, South Korea have already explored Blockchain voting in some or the way other, India should start experimenting with the technology soon if it wants to leave behind the EVM tampering debate far behind its democratic history.

India's Central Bank, RBI research arm has also developed proof of concepts on blockchain in collaboration with some banks and revealed in its white paper that the results have been encouraging so far. Further, the SBI has also flagged a national blockchain bank consortium initiative earlier this year to build and implement blockchain solutions that can improve efficiency of the banking system and minimise fraud cases.

Election Commission To Use Blockchain Technology in Voting Machines

India is the largest democracy in the world where the government is chosen by the people, of the people and for the people. But off late, with the electronic voting machines (EVMs) scam gaining pace, there have been doubts whether this is really happening or the ones in the power are making a mockery out of the country and its citizens.

Although the EVM hackathon organised by the Election Commission of India (ECI) earlier this month might have proven to be a dud, but it did give the common people an excuse to cough up some attention on what can be considered as the biggest problem in a democracy, provided if it does exist.

There are several studies in public domain today that allege that EVMs hardware and software can be tampered with to practice election malpractices. Although the ECI has maintained that such a thing is not possible in the EVMs that they have been using.

In a response to the aforementioned studies/reports, several tech enthusiasts have suggested using emerging and contemporary technologies in EVMs rather than the one that are being using currently. One of the most commonly suggested technology by tech experts in India that can solve the EVM tampering debates all at once is blockchain. Experts are confident that the blockchain's attributes of transparency, immutability and trust can work wonders for the EVM system and put an end to issues like vote manipulation/tampering in the country's famous democratic process of elections. Furthermore, experts are also positive that conditions now are most favourable for implementation of the technology as an alternative for EVMs in India as the country has improved infrastructure and interest in place. The country has see around 32 blockchain firms being founded in 2016, up from 23 founded before 2016, according to a fintech report by PwC.

For the unversed, a blockchain is basically an anonymous online ledger that makes use of a data structure to make the process of transaction an easier and simpler process. It provides users the ability to manipulate the ledger in a safe way without seeking the support of a third party. While a bank's ledger has connections to a centralised network, a blockchain is anonymous as it helps in protecting the identities of the users. This is what makes the technology of blockchain a safer way to carry out transactions than any other existing processes. Blockchain's algorithm reduces the dependence on people to verify the transactions. This technology, which is currently being used for recording various transactions, has the true potential of completely disrupting the financial system in the near future.

When it comes to blockchain voting, every vote will be considered similar to a transaction and by employing multiple blockchains along with public key encryption, the voting process in the democracy will be protected while protecting the anonymity feature of the voting process. In the Blockchain voting process, the votes can be randomized more than three times in the digital ballot box ensuring the identity of the voters’ is never revealed. Once the polling is closed, a separate blockchain application is built for the votes counting in the digital ballot box. That particular blockchain matches the public bulletin board’s blockchain, thus proving that the online voting system has acted accurately. The Blockchain voting system combines the audit trail of the transactions along with public key encryption which solves the issue of auditability.

Considering some countries like Australia, South Korea have already explored Blockchain voting in some or the way other, India should start experimenting with the technology soon if it wants to leave behind the EVM tampering debate far behind its democratic history.

India's Central Bank, RBI research arm has also developed proof of concepts on blockchain in collaboration with some banks and revealed in its white paper that the results have been encouraging so far. Further, the SBI has also flagged a national blockchain bank consortium initiative earlier this year to build and implement blockchain solutions that can improve efficiency of the banking system and minimise fraud cases.

Election Commission of India Partners With Facebook to Register Voters

Voting is important for a democracy. Everyone knows that in theory, but there are very few who practice this in their lives, in India, at least. That's why, in a first-of-its-kind initiative the country's Election Commission has found an innovative way to get the people interested in this most important democratic exercise. They have joined hands with the social networking giant Facebook to spearhead a voter registration drive in five Indian states going to polls in 2017. The main aim here is to encourage the youth to come out and vote.

Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook has entered into a collaboration with the Election Commission of India and the office of Chief electoral officers in the state of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur for the very first time in the country to carry out a voter registration drive, said Uttarakhand's Chief Electoral Officer Radha Raturi.

It seems, since Facebook has a good 155 million users in India, the Election Commission chose the right medium to tap its target audience.

Facebook's 'Register to vote' button is primarily designed to encourage the citizens across the aforementioned five states going to pole next year to understand their dusty and come out exercise their vote. From October 6 to 9, Facebook users in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand who were 18 years of age and above received a reminder in their News Feed to register to vote.

By clicking on Facebook's 'Register Now' button, people were directed to the National Voters' Services Portal which further guided them through the entire voter registration process. "Youth is the future of India and it is very important that they take part in the biggest democratic exercise of elections," said Raturi. She also appealed to people from all walks of life to register themselves as voters through the process.

Not only this, the Office of CEO Uttarakhand has also started with its very own official Facebook page so as to connect with the younger generation and make them understand the importance and power of voting in a democracy. A twitter account with handle @UttarakhandCEO has also been started with the same aim of striking a cord with the younger generation which is more active on social media platforms.