Birth of a baby named VotesApp ?

 

Congratulations, Dr Shashank Goelji,

[  Chief Electoral Officer / ceo-telangana@eci.gov.in  ]

A major electoral reform of getting 900 million Indian Voters to vote using their Smartphones, will depend upon the successful outcome of your experiment of eVoting on 20 Oct . Although, opposition to use of EVM, has more or less disappeared, we can expect any numbers of  “ domain  experts “ and political parties to cry, FOUL !

I am sure, the technical soundness of your trial is beyond questioning , but I urge you to spare no efforts in “ winning the trust “ of all the stakeholders concerned , by inviting them to participate / observe the entire process, TRANSPARENTLY , thereby winning a CONSENSUS

Wishing you all luck,

With regards,

Hemen Parekh  /  hcp@RecruitGuru.com  /  11 Oct 2021

 

 

Context :

Dry run of India’s first smartphone-based e-voting in Telangana district on Oct 20   /  Indian Express

Extract :

 

The Telangana government on Wednesday announced it was ready to initiate the dry run of the country’s first smartphone-based e-voting system with a dummy election in the Khammam district.

Voters can register themselves on the smartphone-based application between October 8 and 18, and the dummy voting is to be held on October 20. The dry run is open for all citizens of the district.

The technical development was guided by an expert committee comprising Prof Rajat Moona, (moona@iitk.ac.in ). director of IIT Bhilai and technical advisor to ECI, and professors from IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi.

According to Jayesh Ranjan,

( secy_itc@telangana.gov.in /  jayesh_ranjan@hotmail.com )

- principal secretary, (ITE&C department), artificial intelligence and blockchain are two of the most versatile emerging technologies that already empower many of Telangana’s GovTech projects. “We are glad to have supported Telangana State Election Commission in this initiative of building an eVoting solution for our citizens and especially those that may face challenges with physical voting with or without Covid-19 pandemic. The support and confidence of the election commission in such technologies is a testament to India’s growing strength in the field.”

==================================================

  Readers interested in tracing my 9 YEAR old  perseverance , may compare following :

 

Feature	My suggestion : VotesApp   18 August 2013 / 18   Dec   2012	Dry run of India’s first smartphone-based e-voting in Telangana district on Oct 20   /  Indian Express 07 Oct 2021 TSEC eVote’ Android app
Voting Device	Mobile Phone	Mobile Phone
Design	Simple	Minimal
Language	Not suggested	English and Telugu
Help	Not suggested	tutorial videos - helpline number
Tempering Prevention	An Android app which can be downloaded from Google Play / Android Zoom / GetJar and the official web site of Election Commission of India   All All tablet / smart phone manufacturers will be encouraged to pre-load VotesApp	Ø  binds a device ID and phone number to a specific citizen registration process Ø  same device can be used during voting
Monitoring / Controlling	Ø  After login on first screen, user will be asked to select one option from    > Panchayat Election > Municipal Election > State Assembly Election > Lok-Sabha Election   Ø  Upon selection, user will be presented with the list of candidates contesting , from which , he can select only one by ticking a checkbox. There will be also a choice , labeled “ None “   Ø  A long press on a candidate’s name will display details of his declared assets as also his criminal record     Ø  After ticking / selecting a candidate, voter will click on  “ VOTE “ button, whereupon his vote gets registered and VotesApp gets inactivated   Ø  Once a voter registers on Election Commission web site , he cannot go to a polling booth and vote physically	Ø  admin using a web portal Ø  token-based decryption.
Data Storage		entire data will be stored in the state data centres (SDCs)
Voter Authentication	Ø    Using this app , a voter can register at Election Commission web site, where he will enter the same data which he has submitted for his Aadhar card, including Aadhar card number (Unique Identification No) All Ø  All of these details will be verified by Aadhar database     Ø  Obviously , those who have not obtained their Aadhar card , will not be able to use VotesApp . They will need to visit nearest polling booth   Ø  Upon correct verification , Aadhar Database will permanently link the person’s Aadhar number with the mobile number from which  registration is done, and issue a Password   Ø  An under aged person will not be allowed to register   Ø  A person will be able to vote only from that mobile number	three-factor authentication #   Name Matching with Aadhaar, #   Liveness Detection of Individual, and #   Image Matching with EPIC Database (with up to 15~20-year-old records).
secure the de-identified and encrypted votes		Blockchain (Distributed Ledger) technology, so that they are maintained as immutable records

 

 32  E-MAILS ON THIS SUBJECT  DURING PAST 9 YEARS :

 

   2021 ( 2 )

 

      #     Booth App : Is that V 1.0 of VotesApp ?..................[ 09 Feb 2021 ]

      #     Lost Votes : Congrats to Best Tech Minds………………….[ 29 Jan 2021 ]

      ================================================   

2020  (  7  )

     #   Vote from “ Workplace” ? How about from “ Any place “ ?...[ 22 Dec 2020 ]

     #   How about “ Sandbox for Mobile Voting “ ?     …………….[27 Nov 2020]

     ( for controlled trial in one constituency  )

#   First Step to VotesApp ?                                                 [24 Jan 2020 ]

     ( Phase wise implementation schedule )

    #   From “ Lost Votes “ to “ Remote Votes “ ?                         [ 12 Feb 2020 ]

    #   Slow and Steady ? Way Democracy Works                         [ 12 Mar 2020 ]

#   Analysis Needed : Paralysis Avoided…………………                 [13 Sept 2020 ]

      ( – my earlier E Mail to Prof Rajat Moona )

      #  408 Km vertical distance OK ? …………………………                [ 01 Nov 2020 ]

          ( see  Ballotted  [  info@ballotted.com ] )

=================================================

2019  ( 3 )

    #  100 % verification of VVPAT ? No problem !                 [ 02 Apr 2019 ]

    #  VVPAT ? How about EVBAT ?                                       [ 28 Mar 2019 ]

   ( leveraging Blockchain Technology )

#  Dark Side of Democracy                                              [ 08 Jan 2019 ]

=================================================

 2018  (  5  )

#  Americans call it “ Voatz “                                [ 13 Aug 2018 ]

   ( Blockchain app https://voatz.com/ )

#  Where is the need ?                                         [ 05 Apr 2018 ]

#  Block Chain for Voting ?                                   [ 11 Mar 2018 ]

#  Thank You, Shri Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay          [ 19 Feb 2018 ]

#  Simultaneous Polling                                         [ 22 Jan 2018 ]

   https://followmyvote.com/

===============================================

  2017  (  3  )

# Poll Reforms : Time for a Consensus                  [ 21 Aug 2017 ]

#  A Blue Print for VotesApp ?                               [ 25  Apr  2017 ]

    - https://www.smartmatic.com/

#  Electoral Reforms Capsule : A Bitter Pill ?           [ 05  Feb  2017 ]

===============================================

 2016  ( 7 )

#  Reforming Elections and Lok Sabha                    [ 20 Dec 2016 ]

#   One Nation, One Vote ?                                   [ 29 Nov 2016 ]

#   Filtering Candidate Information                         [18  Sept  2016 ]

#   One Poll, One Time                                          [ 06 Sept  2016 ]

#   ROMP :  A Panacea ?                                        [ 06  Aug  2016 ]

#   The Greatest Reform ?                                      [ 12  June  2016 ]

#   One day polling is possible                                 [31  Mar  2016 ]

================================================

2015  (  2  )

#  How to save Rs  5,511 crore ?                             [12  Dec  2015 ]

#  Honey, I shrunk the EVM  !                                 [21  Oct  2015 ]

=================================================

2014  (  3   )

#   All seasons are election seasons                          [ 22 May 2014 ]

#  A Software Powerhouse ?                                     [ 24  Apr  2014 ]

   - Eliminate a Million Booths ?

#  Sun never sets                                                    [ 01  Apr 2014 ]

 

RELATED  READINGS :

I am One , I will become Many ……………………………………………..[ 06 Jan 2020 ]

Election Reforms " Summarized……………………………………………..[ 18 Aug 2017 ]

“ Let Aadhar / Voter ID link be voluntary, EC may tell SC “

 Sierra Leone just held the World’s first Block-Chain powered election

https://webrootsdemocracy.org/2017/04/21/online-voting-movements-in-ireland/

Internet Voting in Estonia 

https://toilostvoteschallenge.com/  support@toilostvoteschallenge.com

==================================================

  EC plans to do away with in-person verification for voter registration

( Hindustan Times  /  11 Oct 2021 )

Extract :

Ø  Electors will be allowed to file documents online, which will be then verified by the electoral watchdog. “Five or six core documents will be declared, and if voters agree to share those online, then there will be no need for booth-level worker verification,”

Ø  The Commission is also working on a remote voting system, where people will be allowed to vote from a different state in case they can’t make it in time for the polls. A prototype of the system has already been seen by the Commission, but a final call on its viability will be taken only after consultation with political parties.

 

Schools without Teachers ?

 

 

Dear Shri Dharmendra Pradhanji

( Minister for Education / minister.sm@gov.in  )

 

As recently observed by Hon CJI, it is easy to criticize Government and Supreme Court for anything and everything

Then, once-in-a-while, some persons ( with or without DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE ), would tell the government :

Do this and do that

May be they have no clue as to the COST of implementing their suggestions

You cannot blame them. It is Government’s job to “ educate “ them , with facts and figures ( implications )

 

As far as the cost of improvement in EDUCATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE is concerned, you might want to examine the following :

QUESTIONNAIRE  ( 01 May 1984 )

After updating this with the latest data / figures ( and expanding it with some more / relevant topics ), you may want to publish it on the website of your Ministry and invite comments from public / educationists

with regards,

hemen parekh  /  hcp@RecruitGuru.com  /  09 Oct 2021

 

 

Schools without Teachers ?

Not quite, but quite close !

Context :

1 lakh schools in India run with just 1 teacher each: Unesco  Report    /  TNN  /  06 Oct 2021

Extract :

 

Ø  Around 1.1 lakh schools in India are single-teacher entities 

 

Ø  A total of 19% or 11.16 lakh teaching positions in schools lie vacant in the country , 69 % of them in rural areas

 

Ø  7.7% pre-primary,  4.6% primary and 3.3 % upper primary teachers are under-qualified

 

Ø  Women account for 50 % of the teaching work-force in India

 

Ø  State-wise teacher vacancies : UP .. 3.3 lakh / Bihar.. 2.2 lakh / W.Bengal.. 1.1 lakh

 

Ø  MP has the highest no of Single Teacher schools at 21,077

 

Ø  There is a marked Rural – Urban disparity and a need to improve AVAILABILITY and deployment of QUALIFIED teachers in the North-East

 

Ø  Of the teachers qualifications, the UNESCO Report says about 16 % of Pre-Primary, 8 % of Primary , 13 % of Upper Primary , 3 % of Secondary and 1 % of Higher Secondary teachers , are under-qualified in Bihar

 

Ø  While teacher availability has improved, Pupil–Teacher ratios, are adverse in secondary schools

 

 

 
My Take :

 

 

In case, readers are wondering :

 

“  How much progress has our Education System made over past 36 years ? “

 

 

Then they may want to look up following report submitted to :

 

Professor Ashok Chandra/ Educational Advisor (T)/ Ministry of Education / GOI ,

     CHALLENGE OF EDUCATION …………………………..( 04 Nov 1985 )

      ( Authors: Vijay Mahajan–Inder Sethi–Hemen Parekh / all now  Ex – L&T )

 

Details could be found in following chapters :

 

ENROLMENT OF GIRLS (COMPARED WITH BOYS)

ENROLMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

ENROLMENT IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

MIDDLE EDUCATION

ENROLMENT (PRIMARY ) ONLY 76%

EXPENDITURE ON RURAL EDUCATION

DIFFERENTIAL EXPENDITURE ON EDUCATION IN STATES

PLAN OUTLAY FOR ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

OUTLAY ON EDUCATION

TRAINED TEACHERS

PUPIL TEACHER RATIO

EXPENDITURE ON EDUCATION

ATTRACTING “BLACK- MONEY” FOR EDUCATION

PRIVATE DONATIONS FOR EDUCATION

STIPEND FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

EXPENDITURE PER PUPIL/ ANNUM

 

To download full report, click :

https://hcpreports.blogspot.com/2016/01/challenge-of-education.html

 

 

cc:

Smt. Annpurna Devi………{ Minister of State – Edu / mos-mhrd@gov.in }

Sh. Amit Khare ……………{ Secretary – Edu / secy.dhe@nic.in }

Dr Suresh T Salunke………..  {  sss_malaxmi@yahoo.com }

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations, Shri Jyotiraditya Scindiaji,

 

Congratulations, Shri Jyotiraditya Scindiaji,

( Civil Aviation Minister )

( jyotiraditya.scindia@sansad.nic.in / scindia1@gmail.com / officeofscindia@gmail.com )

 

Context :

What if a drone goes rogue? Jyotiraditya Scindia has a solution  /  08  Oct  2021 

Extract :

Drones will soon be enabled with a system that will provide for automatically switching them off in case they deviate from the designated flight path as the government looks to strengthen the security aspects in relation to drone operations.

Emphasising that internal security is a focus area, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday said that in the coming days, drones will be enabled with automatic "on/off" switches.

In case, there is a deviation from the designated flight path, the drone concerned can be stopped with the switch

 

MY  TAKE  :

Ø  Drone – a – Charya……………………… [  02   Sept   2018  ]

Extract :

Ø         #  Web site of the Drone Regulator will continuously track / monitor the flight

                of each and every drone ( all over India ) on a monitor screen ( similar to

                tracking of Airplanes in an Air Traffic Control ( ATC ) room. Constant

                contact is the key !

     

       Call this :  Drone – A – Charya  [  Drone Traffic Controller - DTC  ]

 

      Controllers ( sitting in DTC ) will have facility to immediately “ Ground /

      Immobilize “ any drone at any time, if security is about to be

  

      compromised or if any drone is flying outside of its “ Geo Fence “

 

     

with regards,

 

hemen parekh  /  hcp@RecruitGuru.com  /  09 Oct 2021

 

Related  Readings :

Ø  A Swarm-O-Drone is born……………….. [ 16 Nov 2017 ]

Ø   Flock Dynamics …………………………………[ 04 Sept 2018 ]

Ø  Drones Need Mid-Air Re-fuelling……… [ 06 Sept 2018 ]

 

Ø       Govt plans to make drones $18-20bn industry by 2030  /  08 Oct 2021

 

 

     Where there is a Will, there are Two Ways........[ 16 June 2021 ]

 

25.7 Lakh Registrations in ONE day ?

 

That is right

In the past 24 hours ( 05 Oct ),  e-Shram  portal managed to register 25.7 lakh “ Unorganized Sector “ worker

On the first day of its launch ( 26 Aug ), it managed to register 2 lakh workers

This kind of “ Database Generation “ on any website ( Govt or Private ), is unprecedented !

What trumps me is :

Neither the Central Govt ( Labour Ministry ), nor any Media ( online or offline ) has bothered to report , what is, nothing less than a MIRACLE !

 

What could have caused this  ?

Could be due to implementation of my following suggestion :

   e-Shram : - also a Deep Database ?      ( 30 Aug 2021 )

“ To create awareness among these visitors, I suggest that :

        #    On the home page itself, introduce a section ( link ) titled : STATISTICS

        #    Without any login requirement, any stray visitor should be able to visit this

              section and be able to VIEW following statistics “

 

    I don’t know exactly when my suggestion got implemented but I reported my finding ( of a link on homepage, titled DASHBOARD ) in :

Ø       Thank You, Shri Bhupender Yadavji…………….. [ 01 Oct 2021 ]

 

 On 01 Oct itself ( one day ), some 21 lakh workers registered !

 

In my e-mail of 01 Oct.,  I made a comparison of ,

 

Ø  “ My suggestion List “   vs

Ø  “ Those that got implemented “

 

I also listed “ Suggestions that remained to be implemented “ , such as :

        #   City-wise registration

         #   Marital Status wise

         #   Social Category-wise ( ? )

         #   Monthly Income wise

         #   Educational Qualification wise

         #   Primary / Secondary Occupation wise

         #   “ How Skill was acquired “ wise

  

This morning while checking up the DASHBOARD on e-Shram site, I was happy to find that , out of the above list, one more suggestion got implemented, viz :

      #  “ Monthly Income wise “ registrations , which show :

Income Slabs of  :

#  Rs 10,000 and below………………. 91.52 %

#  Rs 10,001  to  15,000………………  6.2  %

#  Rs  15,001  to  18,000……………..  1.06 %

#  Rs  18,001  to  21,000…………….. 0.53  %

#  Rs  21,001  and above ………………0.69  %

 

Dear Shri Bhupender Yadavji,

Many thanks for implementing many of my suggestions. I am hoping the rest will follow

With implementation of ALL the suggestions, there is a good chance that e-Shram portal may manage to get all 38 CRORE workers to register within 3 months !

Whereas this ( achievement ) would be very heartening, there is a lurking danger

If these efforts ( on part of the workers to register ) do NOT quickly TRANSLATE into some visible SOCIAL BENEFIT SCHEMES, sharply targeted to different DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILES , then the ensuing frustration would be too great !

e-Shram has , very admirably , succeeded in RAISING the EXPECTATIONS of crores of jobless workers

Therefore , above every other Social Benefit Scheme that you can think of, the one that cuts across all the demographic profiles, is :

GETTING JOBS (in order to live in dignity without begging the Sarkaar Maa-Baap )

I once again urge you to consider :

e-Shram can provide jobs to Unorganized Workers ? ..( 26 Aug 2021 )

with regards,

hemen parekh  /  hcp@RecruitGuru.com  /  07 Oct 2021