1. Innovations in Election Management – a primer for m-governance M.Selvendran DEO & District Collector, Katni, Madhya Pradesh

2. What is mobile governance “...is the use of the mobile phone as a platform for the delivery of citizen services. It may include the delivery of g2g and g2c services.” High mobile penetration in India Mobile phone users:617.53 million Internet users:81 million Exhaustive network coverage of mobile telephony

3. Process map Server hosting software application Mobile phone Telephone network

4. m-governance in election management Communication with personnel involved in election work Collection of information related to conduction of mock poll and polling percentage

5. Communication with personnel involved in election work “one to many” sms technology was used to communicate orders etc to the personnel sms sent from a server to many mobile phones

6. Communication with personnel involved in election work As many as 6000 personnel engaged in election related work BLO’s – Notice of meetings, camps for photography, important instructions etc Polling staff – Communication of details of polling station and time of departure to polling stations

7. Collection of information related to conduction of mock poll and polling percentage “many to one” sms technology was used sms sent to a server from many mobile phones Server processes data Information is displayed on a dynamic webpage

8. Mock Poll ECI requires conduction of mock poll prior to start of polling Collection and transmission of information on conduct of mock poll to ECI prior to start of polling Involves collection of information on mock poll status by booth level personnel and its transmission to ECI through the zonal officers, RO, DEO and CEO of the State. ECI had permitted limited use of mobile phone by the polling officer in the booth.

9. Process of transmitting information SMS template PAMP 60 23 YES 3 PAMP: code for mock poll 60 : Assembly Segment Code 23: Polling Booth Code YES: Status of Mock Poll 3: No of Polling agents present Each data field was separated by a single space

10. Conduction of mock poll Supplementing of missing Information by its collection telephonically - Communication team Transmission of information to State CEO Sms sent by polling officer Server processes the data Information displayed on a dynamic webpage Information to zonal officer of mock poll status Zonal officer visits Problem booths Zonal officer informs of action taken via telephone

14. Polling percentage SMS sent by PO’s at regular intervals of two hours 9.00, 11.00, 1.00, 3.00 and 5.00 pm SMS template PAPP 1 60 23 102 89 PAPP: code for poll percentage 1: Time of reporting (1.00 pm) 60 : Assembly Segment Code 23: Polling Booth Code 102: cumulative no of male votes polled 89: cumulative no of female votes polled Information displayed on a webpage in the form of a grid

15. Compilation of polling percentage information Supplementing of missing Information by its collection telephonically - Communication team Transmission of information to State CEO Sms sent by polling officer Server processes the data Information displayed on a dynamic webpage Information to zonal officer of Poll percentage status Zonal officer visits Problem booths Zonal officer informs of action taken via telephone

18. Efficiency in information collection

19. Accuracy of information

20. Cost Analysis Vendor selected through competitive bidding Total cost incurred was approximately Rs. 15,000 – Cost per sms (sent/received) : Rs 0.70 – Cost per keyword: Rs 5000

21. Difficulties faced Lack of knowledge in using sms feature among polling personnel Reporting via sms was not made mandatory Network congestion and communication shadows

22. Conclusions Workload on the communication team was reduced to a large extent The initiative can be considered to be a successful technology demonstrator

23. Suggestions Can be easily scaled up to the state or national level One of the members of the polling party may be trained and reporting made mandatory Can be converted into a poll day MIS – No. of non-epic voters, missing votes etc casting votes – Trend analysis and corrective measures/ inspections etc can be attempted Information of Polling percentage and mock poll conduction can be made available on the public domain

24. Thank You