Electronic voting machines: A boon in Indian elections
Submitted by aurora on Sun, 2009-04-19 07:01
Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) retains all the characteristics of voting by ballot papers, while making polling a lot more expedient. Being fast and absolutely reliable, the EVM saves considerable time, money and manpower. And, of course, helps maintain total voting secrecy without the use of ballot papers. The EVM is 100 per cent tamper proof. And, at the end of the polling, just press a button and there you have the results
The EVMs were devised and designed by Election Commission of India in collaboration with two Public Sector undertakings viz., Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore and Electronic Corporation of India Ltd., Hyderabad. The EVMs are now manufactured by the above two undertakings. EVms was first used in 1982 in the bye-election to Parur Assembly Constituency of Kerala for a limited number of polling stations (50 polling stations). Indian voting machines use a two-piece system with a balloting unit presenting the voter with a button (momentary switch) for each choice connected by a cable to an electronic ballot box.
The innovation of the Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore and Electronic Corporation of India Limited, Hyderabad, binds nearly 741 million voters, who are expected to press its buttons to register their votes across the nation during April-May.The EC said that it had altogether 13,68,430 EVMs and nearly 11 lakh of them would be used during the polls in April and May. The poll-panel officials added that the EVMs were not only proved to be tamper-proof and free of errors, but they are also easy to be carried to even the remotest polling booths
An EVM consists of two units:
* Control Unit
* Balloting Unit
The two units are joined by a five-meter cable. The Control Unit is with the Presiding Officer or a Polling Officer and the Balloting Unit is placed inside the voting compartment. Instead of issuing a ballot paper, the Polling Officer in-charge of the Control Unit will press the Ballot Button. This will enable the voter to cast his vote by pressing the blue button on the Balloting Unit against the candidate and symbol of his choice.The microchip used in EVMs is manufactured in Japan and it is sealed at the time of import. It cannot be opened and any attempt to rewrite the program cannot be done without damaging the chip.A single ballot unit takes in the names of 16 candidates.Inside the control unit, hidden from you, is an extremely sensitive circuitry that takes care of common election errors or malpractices like vote duplication. For instance, if one were to press two or more buttons simultaneously, then no vote would be cast. Even if there was a micro-second difference in the pressing of the switches, the EVM is sensitive enough to trace and identify the twitch that was press first. And thus, by connecting four ballot units the EVM can accommodate a total of 64 candidates in a single election.
If the number of candidates is less than the maximum capacity of the EVM, the extra panels are masked before use.Before the commencement of poll, the Presiding Officer demonstrates to the polling agents present that there are no hidden votes already recorded in the machine by pressing the result button. Then he or she conducts a mock poll by asking the polling agents to record their votes and presses the result button to satisfy them that the result shown is strictly according to the choice recorded by them. Finally the clear button is pressed to clear the result of the mock poll before commencing the actual poll.Each Control Unit has a unique ID Number, which is painted on each unit with a permanent marker. This ID Number will be allowed to be noted by the Polling Agents and will also be recorded in a Register maintained for the purpose by the Returning Officer. The address tag attached to the Control Unit also will indicate this ID Number. This is to avoid replacement of a genuine EVM by another one. As soon as the voter presses the 'blue button' against the candidate and symbol of his choice, a tiny lamp on the left side of the symbol glows red and simultaneously a long beep sound is heard. Thus, there is both audio and visual indications for the voter to be assured that his vote has been recorded. As soon as the last voter has voted, the Polling Officer in-charge of the Control Unit will press the 'Close' Button. Thereafter, the EVM will not accept any vote. Further, after the close of poll, the Balloting Unit is disconnected from the Control Unit and kept separately. Votes can be recorded only through the Balloting Unit. Again the Presiding officer, at the close of the poll, will hand over to each polling agent present an account of votes recorded. At the time of counting of votes, the total will be tallied with this account and if there is any discrepancy, this will be pointed out by the Counting Agents.
Not only in India, these machines are creating a wave elsewhere too:
http://newshopper.sulekha.com/topic//sci/news/made-in-india-evms-in-demand-abroad.htm
World Blood Donor Day

Although all reports indicate that the city is running at possibly the lowest levels of stocks for certain blood components, it is not that Sankalp is just complaining about it. Over the 2 month period from June 2010 to July 2010, Sankalp organised multiple blood donation drives with more than 1100 units of blood being collected. A million thanks to all the organisers and donors for standing up to the challenge. Here is a brief note on all the various camps held with different organisations.
With most of the Sankalp volunteers on vacation due to semester end holidays, only a handful of volunteers are involved in various Sankalp activities. Here is a snapshot of what happened in Sankalp over the last few days
The dengue infections have reached their peak in Bangalore. We have scores of patients around the city receiving treatment for the same. A direct impact of this is the increase in workload of the Sankalp Emergency Team.
Normally after a good blood doonation drive we try to sit back for a while believing that the units collected in the drive will be available to the patients. However, this season it is different. On Saturday 17th July, we had more than an hour long session when the phone hardly was put away. We had more than 6 blood requests - all for platelets - and all of them for multiple units of platelets. The city is seeing the worst crunch for platelets. The poor staff at the call centre is reporting nil stocks for platelets for most part of the day and simply forwarding the requests to be handled as emergency. And for the emergency team, the challange of ensuring timely supply of platelets is becoming a bigger challange with each passing day.
The World Blood Donor Day is celebrated on a world-wide scale on 14th June. This time Sankalp has taken the initiative to organize a Blood Donor Week .
The week highlights are inauguration of World Blood Donor Week, Donor Felicitation program organized in M. S. Ramaiah Memorial Hospital and Blood Grouping and Haemoglobin testing in all the Institutes in Ramaiah Campus.

Since it's inception, Sankalp has called itself a blood donation organisation. Those are big words for a bunch of engineers, because blood is a vast area in the medical field. understanding blood becomes highly critical for all volunteers and work in a more meaningful manner. there have been tremendous advancements in science and this has led to various new things.
One fine evening, Few of the volunteers of Sankalp emergency wing received a call. A patient in Gulbarga urgently needed AB- blood. Gulbarga is one of the remotest places in Karnataka with very little blood awareness, and finding a donor there was a tough challenge.
The Year 2009-10 was an eventful year for Sankalp India Foundation. The group of 30 individuals who call themselves Sankalp volunteers were kept very busy with the back to back activities that took place in the last year. We are happy to bring to you the yearbook of 2009-10.
The month of May was a busy one for the Sankalp volunteers. Most efforts went into getting things moving for the anniversary programme. Nevertheless, some things are always important and they have to move on. The clock ticks on, and so do the volunteers of Sankalp in their respective teams. Here is an update of what happened in the month that went by
Sankalp India Foundation is happy to announce it's much awaited "Disaster Relief Partner Program". First of it's kind in the country, this Program lays the roadmap for better disaster response planning.
On the 22nd of May this year, Sankalp India Foundation celebrated being 7 years old. To mark this milestone, a small event was organized at MSRIT. Well wishers, parents of volunteers, members from the blood banking community, friends, and people from organizations with whom we work were all part of the event.
CTC Disha
April was a busy month for the Disha team. The team started work to ensure that the online update mechanism that has been setup to ensure better inputs for other Sankalp team comes on track. The initial few sheets have been added and more is being done to provide regular accurate inputs.

The Brand New Sankalp T-Shirts are on their way. It costs Rs 250, gray in color and is available in Small (S), Medium (M), Large (L), Xtra Large (XL) sizes.
One of the unique characteristics of Sankalp is the fact that all volunteers are not from the medical community. Stumped? Almost all of the 30 volunteers who work on various aspects in the filed of blood are engineers!.
The emergency wing of Sankalp are always on their toes attending to emergency blood requests. Requests for rare blood groups, from places not heard of and more. All these have become a part of their daily routine. Helpling people find the right unit of blood at the right time has been the overall objective, and the team does it efficiently well.
One more blood request was catered! One more life was saved! The volunteers of Sankalp emergency wing had one more story to tell!
It was only yesterday, that a lady from Davanagere needed blood of the Bombay negative group. Nature acts in strange ways! Remove the Rh and H antigens from O positive blood- the most common group, and you'll have Bombay negative group blood- the rarest blood group possible! The possibility of finding this group donor is one out of twenty five thousand, biologically! Practically, most don't know their blood groups- so finding a donor was no less than locating a pin in a football ground! The volunteers took it up as a fresh new challenge- something they had never faced before!
The early history of British expansion in India was characterised by the co-existence of two approaches towards the existing princely states. The first was a policy of annexation, where the British sought to forcibly absorb the Indian princely states into the provinces which constituted their Empire in India. The second was a policy of indirect rule, where the British assumed suzerainty and paramountcy over princely states, but conceded some degree of sovereignty to them. ..
India, a nation that has undergone complete transformation after it got independence from the British Rule. But somehow the influence from the West never ceased to affect our culture and the growth of the Nation. The three major transforms taken from the entire lot is the way Mobiles, Cars and Malls have brought to the India nationality.
The story before: The positive role that dairying could play in providing income and employment opportunity was clear to policy-makers long time back and a set of measures were put in place to develop and protect the dairy industry. Immediately after India gained independence, the Milk Control Board was set up which controlled the supply and distribution chains.
India and space laws: A millennium perspective
THE LAUNCH of Sputnik 1 by the former Soviet Union in 1957, followed by a similar feat by the U. S., within a few months, heralded the birth of the space age. The development and application of space technology has since made a tremendous global impact in diversified fields including social, economic, cultural and scientific.
India is a country with a diversity of languages. Out of more than one thousand mother tongues, only eighteen languages are included in the eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution. Development of a particular state or region, to a very great extent, depends on the development of its regional language. This was an important reason given at the time of the formation of linguistic states, though many criticized such a linguistic “division” or “re-organization”.
 Past two decades have seen an unprecedented rise in the number of farmer suicides in our country. Across the nation, lacks of farmers have taken their lives in these years. Though this process is on for almost 2 decades, but it is only now that the nation is getting to know the seriousness and the extent of it. We are going through the worst ever farm crisis in the history of our nation.
3rd December 1984 Shortly after midnight poison gas leaked from a factory in Bhopal, India, owned by the Union Carbide Corporation. There was no warning, none of the plant's safety systems were working. In the city people were sleeping. They woke in darkness to the sound of screams with the gases burning their eyes, noses and mouths. They began retching and coughing up froth streaked with blood. Whole neighbourhoods fled in panic, some were trampled, others convulsed and fell dead. People lost control of their bowels and bladders as they ran. Within hours thousands of dead bodies lay in the streets.

It is hard to imagine today that there existed a time in independent India when the then Prime Minister of the country, Sw. Lal Bahadur Shastriji had to appeal to the nation to skip one meal a day. Our nation saw one of the darkest era when we faced acute shortage of food in the 60s. Ships from America brought in bad quality grain as charity to feel us and the Nation battled with the problems of rising prices and hunger.
 The Emergency in India denotes the 21-month period between June 25, 1975 and March 21, 1977 when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon advice by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a State of Emergency in India under Article 352 of the Constitution of India, effectively bestowing on her the power to rule by decree, suspending elections and civil liberties. It is one of the most controversial periods in the history of independent India. During the Emergency, many opposition leaders were jailed, freedom of press was suspended and powers of the judiciary were curtailed
The Ancient Legend
In India there is an ancient legend about a girl, Amrita Devi, who died trying to protect the trees that surrounded her village. The story recounts a time when the local Maharajah's tree cutters arrived to cut the villager's trees for wood for his new fortress. Amrita, with others, jumped in front of the trees and hugged them. In some versions of the tale their dramatic efforts prevented the forest's destruction; in others Amrita dies in her valiant attempt.
The All India Muslim League (AIML) was formed in Dhaka in 1906 by Muslims who were suspicious of the Hindu-majority Indian National Congress. They complained that Muslim members did not have the same rights as Hindu members. A number of different scenarios were proposed at various times. Among the first to make the demand for a separate state was the writer/philosopher Allama Iqbal, who, in his presidential address to the 1930 convention of the Muslim League said that a separate nation for Muslims was essential in an otherwise Hindu-dominated subcontinent.
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