Election Commission doesn’t share adequate voting-related information with people. That prevents a meaningful analysis of the electoral process. On June 8, this newspaper carried a report (‘Rahul’s attack on EC doesn’t match poll data, officials say bid to “defame”’) contradicting an op-ed on its Ideas Page (‘Match-fixing Maharashtra’, IE, June 7). The report was accompanied […]
AI risks distorting information but also holds untapped potential to improve electoral campaigns and processes. To this end, prebunking must be used by all stakeholders Bihar’s political landscape is gradually heating up in the wake of the upcoming Assembly polls with political parties crafting campaigns to woo voters. The campaigns will soon be dominated by artificial intelligence […]
The Narendra Modi government must offer more details about the proposed caste census and share updates about anti-terror operations — this will put to rest misleading and malicious rumours April 30, 2025, will remain etched in India’s memory as a special day. Since morning, there was palpable excitement about a really big announcement from the […]
Instead of deriding NOTA as a toothless or failed idea, all stakeholders must combine to make it stronger ‘None of the above’ (NOTA) as an option was introduced in the EVMs on the basis of the Supreme Court judgement in the PUCL vs Union of India case of September 27, 2013. The court then stated, […]
Disqualification at the stage of framing of charges, accompanied by other legal safeguards, could be an effective means to curb such criminalisation. EARLIER this week, while hearing a petition seeking a lifetime ban on convicted politicians, the Supreme Court observed that it found no logic in a convicted legislator being barred from contesting elections for […]
Like traditional campaign spending, there is an uneven level-playing field in the online spending space as well Since 2014, digital media platforms have become a ubiquitous part of Indian election campaigns. The use of social media for election campaigning intensified in the 2024 general elections with the rampant use of generative AI for campaign messaging. Today, […]
Given that the chief election commissioner often mentions the guiding principle of the ECI to be ‘disclosure’, it should not be unreasonable to expect the rationale behind this decision to be made public. On January 7, in a press conference lasting over an hour, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced that the polling for […]
In our excessive focus on EVMs we often fail to look at the other components that demand our attention and reform to improve India’s electoral process. There has been a lot of debate in India about manipulation of elections, their results, and, in particular, about Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Ever since over a million EVMs […]
From this maximum city, the nation collects a whopping disproportionate share of direct taxes comprising corporate and personal incomes. Mumbai’s real estate is more precious than gold Maharashtra, at 14%, has the biggest share of the nation’s economic output. Its capital Mumbai is also the commercial and financial capital of the country. From this maximum […]
Poll rule tweak is in keeping with stonewalling by the ECI over the past few years ADDRESSING a press conference on March 13 this year, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar asserted: “Hamare teen hee pillar hain — disclosure, disclosure, disclosure… Disclose everything to the public, to the voter, the voter have (sic) right to […]