General Elections 2014 to Lok Sabha Innovations in Use of Technology in General Elections 2014 to Lok Sabha By NIC & CEO Haryana Presentation By: Surjeet Singh, Technical Director

General Elections 2014 to Lok Sabha (Key Statistics about Haryana) Parliamentary Constituencies : 10 Districts: 21 Polling Stations : at 9684 locations. Contesting Candidates: 230 Total Voters : Votes Polled : Poll percentage : 71.86%

ICT implementation- Objectives 1.Enhancing Public Interface. 2.Instantaneous Information Dissemination to General public, Administration and Media. 3.Bringing in enhanced transparency. 4.Real time monitoring of Booth level & counting Centre processes. 5.Centralized database of employees for poll duty.

ICT implementation - Innovations 1.Centralized web enabled Standard software for capturing employees data directly from their offices. 2.Designating Nodal Officers in all Government Offices (State and Central ) for Centralized data entry of poll staff through the centralized web enabled software. 3.Randomization of Polling parties formation and EVMs through a standardized software across Haryana. 4.Development of a unique web portal having e-Dashboards for monitoring polling process on pre-polling day, polling day and on counting day from across the state and dissemination of key information instantaneously on Internet. 5.Use of NIC’s SMS gateways and Internet for easy and quick updation of data on e-Dashboards. 6.Additionally, uploading of expenditure details and affidavits of contesting candidates on web.

Uniqueness of Innovations 1. Use of centralized database of employees from e-salary for polling parties formation. 2. SMS and Internet based voter help lines for polling station details. 3. Direct updation of Poll day e-Dashboard by sector supervisors through SMSes using NIC SMS Gateway. 4. Direct Updation of Counting day e-Dashboard from counting centers. 5. Web based communication plan containing details of all field officials with easy to use search facility. 6. Direct Interaction with all field staff through SMS gateway. Important instructions were also passed on through SMSes to registered mobile numbers of ROs, DEOs, Sector Supervisors and other officials. 7. SMS alerts and awareness messages to voters in Haryana.

Web portal links Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana e-Dashboard

Poll-Day e-Dashboard Implementation process 1. Registration of Mobile numbers of Sector Supervisors. 2. Training on predefined SMS formats for all sector supervisors at district level. 3. Registration of District wise mobile numbers of key officials to send messages in case of emergency. 4. Two rehearsals on live e-Dashboard before poll day. 5. Centralized log of all SMSes sent from various mobile numbers, along with time stamps.

Poll-Day e-Dashboard SMS Details. EVENTS BEFORE POLL DAY (9 th April,2014) ◦ Polling Party Dispatched One SMS per booth ◦ Polling Party Reached One SMS per booth at Polling Station SMS transactions on 09/04/2014: (Graphical representation of progress of all events on e-Dashboard)

Poll-Day e-Dashboard EVENTS ON POLL DAY(10 th April,2014) ◦ MOCK Poll done One SMS per booth ◦ Poll Started One SMS per booth ◦ Voters Turn out Figure (Latest figures from each booth) ◦ Voters in queue at 6 p.m.One SMS per booth ◦ Poll Ended One SMS per booth ◦ Polling party left Polling Station One SMS per booth ◦ EVM deposited at strong Room One SMS per booth ◦ Poll incidence Reporting 1. EVM Technical Problem, 2.Polling Stopped due to Law & order 3.Booth Capturing etc. SMS sent to a customizable group, which consist of: CEO,RO, DEO, ARO, Duty Magistrate and DCP/SP. SMS transactions on poll day: 3,07,595

Poll-Day e-Dashboard (State View)

Poll-Day e-Dashboard (PC View)

Poll-Day e-Dashboard (Booth level Details)

Counting Day e-Dashboard Implementation process. Setting up dedicated infrastructure at counting centers. 1.One Desktop system with broadband connection for each assembly segment. 2.Two data entry operators for each assembly segment. 3.Media rooms at CEO office and RO office for live view of the counting progress. 4.Detailed Training to all Data entry staff, AROs and awareness workshops for counting staff. 5.Trial run of the counting dashboard through a staging Server.

Counting Day e-Dashboard e-Dashboard details. 1. Data entry module 1.Round wise data entry module for data entry staff, hosted on a specific IP address accessible over Internet through a secure authentication mechanism. (IP and URL details were made available to counting staff only) 2. RO module 1.Facility for 0 round data entry. 2.Monitoring of progress in all assembly segments under the RO. 3.Facility for error correction and Finalization of results. 3. CEO Module 1.Facility to monitor state wide counting progress through a progress bar. 2.Facility to monitor assembly wise counting progress for entire state.

Counting Day e-Dashboard Public View Counting progress (%) in all PCs PC wise, Five leading candidates and NOTA (None of the Above) votes. Assembly wise/round wise counting statistics. Drill down to assembly wise/round-wise details and votes polled details for all candidates in every PC. Graphical representation of lead position of parties and party wise vote share. Captcha security code to avoid unwanted traffic and spamming of e-Dashboard.

Counting Day e-Dashboard (Public view)

Counting Day e-Dashboard (CEO Dashboard)

Counting Day e-Dashboard (RO Dashboard)

Counting Day e-Dashboard Deployment Infrastructure: The E-dashboards were hosted at NIC Haryana Data Centre with specially provisioned Hardware. 1.Data Entry server : One high end web server. 2.Public View : Two high end web servers with Load Balancer 3.Database server: High end server for backend database. 4.Internet Bandwidth: One Gbps NICNET Link. Total No of page Hits on e-Dashboard on counting day: 1,16,69,543

Benefits derived from ICT initiatives 1. Quick decision making based on real time statistics available on the E-dashboard. 2. Fast collection of data related to various parameters of election activities. 3. The e-Dashboard for Poll Management facilitated monitoring of different parameters related to poll parties from polling booths & group SMSes in case of poll disruption at any booth. 4. The e-Dashboard for counting facilitated real time dissemination of counting statistics to various stakeholders.

5. Graphical representation of data in the form of bar chart depicting the party positions and a pie chart showing vote share of various political parties in whole state as well as in each PC. The E-dashboards facilitated Greater Visibility of the entire process. 6. Ready availability of data for further transmission to the ECI. 7. Less hassles, as all information was available to the media on e-Dashboards. Benefits derived from ICT initiatives

What Next? Use of centralized web enabled duty assignment software for poll duty assignment to bring in greater transparency. Implementation of poll day and counting day e-Dashboards and other ICT initiatives in the upcoming Haryana assembly elections 2014 with further improvements.

Thank You Team Members: Sh Srikant Walgad, IAS, CEO Haryana Sh. Ghan Shyam Bansal, DDG & SIO, NIC Haryana Sh. Surjeet Singh, Technical Director, NIC Haryana Sh. Pardeep Kaushal, Technical Director, NIC Haryana All DIOs and ADIOs of NIC Haryana