Dawn of Digital Democracy in India, Says Shree Sule of Altimetrik

Author:  Shree Sule,
Business Development Manager, Altimetrik

Digitization is becoming a way of life. However, digitization is yet to transform one of the most fundamental human democratic rights – ‘voting’.  In a major move, the Election Commission of India has recently announced the development of blockchain system to address the issue of lost votes. However, this technology can be extended to fix several other lacunae in the electoral processes. Right from arresting low voter turnout to missing voters, duplicate entries and bogus voting – digital can make it possible. Shree Sule, Business Development Manager, Altimetrik tells us how it can be done to usher the dawn of digital democracy in India.

According to the Election Commission of India Lok Sabha election data of 2019 there are 900 million registered voters, 1 million polling stations and 2.3 million Electronic Voting Machines. These elections also registered the highest voter turnout since 1951 at 68% as against 66% in 2014. Though a marginal improvement, the turnout pales in comparison to other nations such as Belgium and Sweden that recorded 80% participation in the last elections. Closer home, Bangladesh recorded a voter turnout of 80% whilst Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan registered 70% in their recently concluded elections according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) .

One of the reasons is that many voters nearly 90 % are not in their (home) constituency where they are registered on the Election Day. Most of these are first time voters in the 18-25 age groups who study in colleges. Others in the 23-35 age groups migrate and live in other cities for work. There are also 10 million NRIs that average 18,000 votes in each of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies who are left out of the voting process.

E-voting or internet voting can address these issues transparently, accurately and affordably. Research on e-voting in Estonia established that online voting is the most cost-efficient and non-cumbersome method to account for lost votes than offline voting channels. On the flipside, e-voting can also leave electoral process vulnerable to cyberattacks from foreign intelligence agencies, criminal organizations, internal political parties and hackers. Case in point French government discontinuing e-voting for French citizens living in foreign nations after the French National Cyber Security Agency assessed an "extremely high risk" of cyber-attack.

So, how can e-voting guarantee voter anonymity, participation, data transparency and fool proof security to earn people’s trust? The answer is Cryptography and Hashing that can make every ballot tamper proof and anonymous. Moreover, by distributing data storage instead of keeping it on a centralized database, the system can be made more secure. This secure, immutable and decentralized system is called Blockchain.

Distributed over centralized

In a distributed database every node processes every transaction, so no individual node is crucial to the database. Similarly, nodes connect to each other forming a dense peer-to-peer network. Therefore, many nodes have to fail simultaneously for the entire system to fail which has has a very low probability rate. The blockchain thus ensures that the nodes that went down can always catch up on transactions that were missed out.

The core value of the blockchain is enabling a database that can be shared directly across secure boundaries without requiring a central administrator. This is possible because every transaction in a blockchain system contains its unique proof of validity and authorization instead of requiring a centralized application. Transactions can therefore be verified and processed independently by multiple “nodes”, with the blockchain acting as a consolidating mechanism to ensure those nodes stay in sync. Blockchains therefore replace centralized system requiring resources for upkeep and security with a distributed database that is secured by clever cryptography.

Illustration : Blockchain system enabling e-voting

Streamlining voter registration and NRC with blockchain

Blockchain can automate first-time voter registration. The technology at its core is distributed and can be connected with multiple parties (consortium) storing birth and address records. The system will notify the person is available and that the voter can pick that up from a local e-locker or e-mail the voter ID.This solution can also tackle permanent classification of the person as a bona fide citizen of India or not.

A distributed system working in a consortium can also address the issue of missing names in the electoral rolls due to non-updation of electoral records. If the voter moves to a different constituency, he/ she can upload necessary proof in a set format on the registration site. The document would be validated against the set parameters by the system. If the validation is successful, the voters constituency will be auto-updated. Once the new constituency data is registered on the node it eliminates the possibility of bogus voting - when a person impersonates and casts the vote of a genuine voter when he moves out of his constituency and does not update his details of the new constituency called Absentee ballot.

On the day of the voting, as the voter data is available on different nodes, the voter can walk into any polling booth to vote.  Through barcode scanning and biometric validation the unique identity of the voter will be established at any polling booth thus avoiding any manual verification. Upon successful validation of the voter the list of candidates for the registered constituency is populated. Once the vote is cast, the digitally encrypted vote (without the voters’ personal details) would be pushed to the nearest constituency node.

Voter’s details would also be updated when the digital vote is recorded in the node to avoid duplicate voting. As different constituency details are registered on separate nodes the data for each node can be tracked, verified and processed independently.   Incase the transaction volume of a node increases dramatically the system can also point to a different node for conducting the particular transaction.

A beginning has been made with the blockchain system being developed to address the issue of lost votes. Question is if there is the political will to go the whole mile to make digital democracy a reality in India.  

Bing’s COVID-19 Tracker Releases New Features Customized to Help Indian Citizens

Highlights

* Integrates Apollo Healthcare bot for self-assessment
* Provides online telemedicine support
* Critical information now available in nine Indian languages

Microsoft has announced new features on the Bing COVID-19 Tracker to help citizens of India stay up to date with the latest on the pandemic. These include the integration of the Apollo Hospitals bot for self-assessment and a hub for telemedicine support from reputed healthcare organizations. The Tracker will also offer content in nine Indian languages to provide people across the country access to critical information related to the pandemic in preferred language.

The Bing COVID-19 Tracker serves as a single, credible hub of news and official government information. It allows users to track novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infections across the globe and in India (www.bing.com/covid/local/india) at a hyperlocal level. Users can get statistics on infection, recoveries and fatalities in their own states and districts. They can also save locations of their near and dear ones to quickly view stats of those areas at one place.

The Tracker provides authentic information on helpline numbers and testing centers as well as guidance and advisories from credible sources, including those from the Government of India, ICMR and WHO.  Moreover, users can stay on top of the latest news - both national and local with embedded stories and live feeds from leading national and regional language media houses.

Today’s updates:

The AI-powered Apollo Hospitals bot enables users to conduct a self-assessment of potential symptoms and risk level for COVID-19. Built on Azure, it has been developed on the basis of guidelines from the WHO and the MoHFW, Government of India. It is available in 4 Indian languages.
The Telemedicine support hub offers options for online consultation with leading healthcare service providers in India like Apollo Hospitals, Practo, 1mg, and Mfine, among others. Credible telemedicine providers can join the hub by applying online here and undergoing an assessment process.
The tracker now supports Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, and Kannada. An icon on the top of the page offers a simple drop-down menu that allows users to access the content in their native languages.
The above features are also available on Bing.com

About Microsoft India:

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Microsoft set up its India operations in 1990. Today, Microsoft entities in India have over 11,000 employees, engaged in sales and marketing, research, development and customer services and support, across 11 Indian cities – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. Microsoft offers its global cloud services from local data centers to accelerate digital transformation across Indian start-ups, businesses, and government organizations.

Emirates Reaffirms Customer Commitment with Ramp Up of Refunds Capability

Emirates has ramped up its capability to process refunds, reaffirming its commitment to customers and travel trade partners impacted by travel disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With nearly half a million refund requests pending to manage, the airline has taken proactive steps to restructure its backend procedures and boost resourcing to accelerate the processing of refunds. Pre-pandemic, Emirates processed an average of 35,000 refund requests in a month. Now it is gearing up to handle 150,000 per month, and aims to clear its current backlog by early August.

Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline said: “It is a difficult time for us, as it is for all airlines. We are dipping into our cash reserves by being proactive in processing refunds, but it is our duty and responsibility. We would like to assure our customers and trade partners that we will honour refunds, and that we are doing our best to speed things up.

“The situation was dynamic in the early weeks of the pandemic, but we have since re-written our COVID-19 waiver policy into a simple, globally-applied approach that puts customers first. We’ve also proactively contacted those of our customers who had submitted earlier requests for refunds or booking changes, to let them know of the new options available to them.

“We sincerely hope that our customers and trade partners will choose to book and fly with Emirates again at a later time. For those who have opted to hold their tickets or exchange it for travel vouchers, we look forward to welcoming you on our flights again soon. Announcements will be made whenever we are able to resume services.”

Customers who wish to request travel vouchers or refunds can easily do so via an online form on Emirates’ website, or contact their travel booking agent for assistance.

Emirates offers three options to its customers affected by flight cancellations and travel restrictions:

Simply keep their existing ticket for up to 24 months, and call to reschedule their flight when they are ready to fly. Emirates has extended this option to apply to any ticket booked on or before 30 June 2020, for travel on or before 30 November 2020.
Exchange the unused portion of their tickets for a travel voucher equivalent to the amount paid for their original booking. The travel voucher can be utilised for any Emirates product or service, with no change fees, providing customers more flexibility to reschedule when they are ready to travel again.
Refunds. Customers who have opted to keep their ticket or opted for a travel voucher can still apply for a refund, if they are unable to travel. There will be no refund penalties.

Customers who have booked through travel agents should contact their agent for assistance. The same options will apply.

Disney+ Hotstar Teams Up with Airtel to Offer Airtel Customers High Quality Entertainment

Key Points

* Launches a new INR 401/- recharge for Airtel customers with annual subscription to Disney+ Hotstar VIP. Airtel offers complementary 3 GB data for 28 days with the recharge~
* Subscribers of Disney+ Hotstar VIP can enjoy the latest blockbuster Bollywood movies, best of global Super Hero & animated films in a language of choice, exclusive Hotstar Specials, unlimited LIVE sporting action and more ~

India’s foremost video streaming platform, Disney+ Hotstar is teaming up with India’s largest integrated telco Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) to bring high quality video entertainment to all of India.

This initiative aims to accelerate adoption of the video subscription category in the country, by solving two of the key challenges: evolving digital payment infrastructure and prevalence of cash as a payment option. Airtel has launched a new recharge at INR 401/- with the annual subscription to Disney+ Hotstar VIP. Airtel is also offering complementary 3 GB data for 28 days with the recharge. The new recharge pack is available to all Airtel prepaid mobile customers across Airtel’s network of retail stores as well as Airtel Thanks app and airtel.in.

Airtel customers who buy the pack will now be able to effortlessly watch everything that Disney+ Hotstar VIP has to offer – right from the latest blockbuster Bollywood movies (Angrezi Medium, Tanhaji), the best of global movies & shows dubbed in Hindi, Tamil & Telugu including  superhero movies (Avengers: End Game), latest animation films (The Lion King, Frozen II), Kids favourite characters (Mickey Mouse, Doraemon), exclusive Hotstar Specials (Special Ops, Criminal Justice), unlimited LIVE sports and much more.

Prabh Simran Singh, EVP & Head Subscriptions, Hotstar said, “Our philosophy is to bring World’s best entertainment to every Indian, and we are thrilled to collaborate with Airtel to make Disney+ Hotstar VIP accessible to their users across the country. Disney+ Hotstar VIP is now available to Airtel prepaid users via Airtel retail stores and through the Airtel thanks app. This collaboration will provide users a convenient and easy way to subscribe to our service.”

Says Shashwat Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, Bharti Airtel “On our Airtel Thanks platform, we have been bringing the best of partner services for our customers. We are delighted to add this collaboration with Disney+ Hotstar for our Airtel Thanks users. Partnerships such as these are key to unlocking the massive potential of India’s digital ecosystem and drive OTT adoption even in smaller towns and villages. At Airtel, we will continue to bring to market industry leading innovations that deliver a differentiated experience to our customers.”

The annual subscription to Disney+ Hotstar VIP includes access to the best of Super Hero movies, like The Avengers, Iron Man, Thor: Ragnarok and latest animation movies including Frozen II, The Lion King, Toy Story 4 in Hindi, Tamil & Telugu. Users can also enjoy latest Bollywood movies like Angrezi Medium, Panga and Tanhaji immediately after theatrical release, exclusive Hotstar Specials shows in seven languages like the hugely popular Neeraj Pandey’s Special Ops, Out of Love, Criminal Justice, unlimited LIVE Cricket and sporting action, and STAR serials before TV and much more!

Star India Rolls Out National Campaign for Consumer Safety Across Indian Markets

As the nation is coming together in these unprecedented times, Star India Network which reaches 700 million viewers a month, has launched a special nationwide campaign with consumer safety as its theme -- TV Entertainment Recharge Ka Safe Tareeka.

The campaign promotes the urgent need for safety awareness, to keep families entertained while staying safe at home. Through its unique creative, it urges families to keep problems out of their homes by not stepping out -- not even for their TV bill. It advises viewers to use the online facilities so that they can continue to #StayHomeStaySafe.

“Our campaign focuses on encouraging consumers to stay home and safe, remain entertained and pay TV bills online. We are leveraging the unparalleled reach of our popular GEC, Kids, Movies and Sports channels across multiple languages to spread the message, during these extremely difficult times,” said Gurjeev Singh Kapoor, President and Head – Distribution and International Business, Star India. “I would also like to take this opportunity, on behalf of Star India, to applaud the brave teams of Cable and DTH partners working on-ground, and to salute their efforts that have ensured continued services to viewers,” he added.

Star India has added even more to the entertainment quotient across its network of channels by bringing back on popular demand, classic shows like Mahabharat, new comedy show Maharaj ki Jai Ho, and Hotstar Specials presents Hostages on Star Plus; Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar- Ek Maha-Manav ki Maha-Gatha on Star Bharat; Raja Shivchhatrapati and World TV premier of Baban on Star Pravah. Consumers can watch the original episodes of Super Singer shot exclusively on mobile phone and iconic show Bojhena Shey Bojhena on Star Jalsha; new show Odavum Mudiyathu Oliyavum Mudiyathu and sketch comedy show Lollu Sabha making a comeback on Vijay and Muddulakshmi and Aarathigobba Kirthigobba on Star Suvarna. Maa TV viewers can revisit favourite episodes of Karthika Deepam and Vadhinamma along with new and exciting movie premieres; Asianet viewers can also look forward to an exciting movie line-up.

Star Gold has been entertaining its viewers with a series of latest movie premieres such as the biggest action-thriller, War, the biggest comedy Housefull 4, and many more including Bala, Darbar and Chhapaak.

Star Movies will be airing premiers of kid-friendly movies such as Mary Poppins Returns, Dumbo and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms on Playdate - property with Star Movies, along with popular Marvel movies selection and the best of action blockbusters with ‘Action@9’ property. Viewers can also look forward to some fine English entertainment with latest season of American Idol and best of Koffee with Karan and Masterchef Australia.

With 100 hours of fresh content added to the kids network, the summer bonanza across Disney Channel and Hungama TV includes local and home-grown series like Bapu, a pure and positive story of a wise old leader along with an all-animal story of a joyful circus troupe of friends in Guddu and a soft toy with innovative gadgets in Gadget Guru Ganesha. Kids can also enjoy The Hagemaru Show which narrates the tale of the mischievous Hagemaru in addition to new episodes of Selfie with Bajrangi, Doraemon, Chacha Chaudhary and Miraculous.

Sports fans can enjoy Cricket Connected, where cricket legends engage with fans through video calls every week; Best of IPL, and nostalgic games from Vivo PKL on the Star Sports Network.

Viewers can exercise their brains daily with interactive games and experiments on the show Brain Boosters on National Geographic and also watch the journey that defined India’s fight against the deadly contagion in a new show Lockdown: India’s fight against Coronavirus - shot from home.

As a network Star TV has remained emotionally connected with millions of Indians for more than 25 years, and will continue with its complete support during these difficult times.

Chalet Hotels Makes Its Debut As A Great Place to Work In India

Chalet Hotels Ltd, owner, developer and asset manager of high-end hotels in key metro cities in India makes its debut, by getting certified in the 2020 - 2021 list of Great Places to Work (GPTW) by Great Place to Work® Institute (India). Chalet Hotels Ltd. makes it to the prestigious list among other top Companies basis best practices benchmarked to global standards.

Great Place to Work is the global authority on building, sustaining and recognizing High-Trust, High-Performance Culture at workplaces. Chalet Hotels has earned this recognition among several thousands of entries across various sectors like entertainment, media, technology, financial services and more, which were subject to a rigorous screening and selection procedure including Culture Audits and validated employee feedback. The GPTW survey assesses employee experience across five dimensions – credibility, fairness, pride, respect, and camaraderie. The survey is designed to help define the relationship employees have with management, with other employees and the personal connection to their jobs.

Speaking about this, Mr. Sanjay Sethi, MD & CEO, Chalet Hotels Ltd. said, “As one of the country’s largest hotel asset management companies we are honored to make an entry into the prestigious list of Great Place To Work. In a people intensive industry like ours, creating an environment with positive employee experience is a key strategic priority for businesses and we are glad this has echoed in the employee feedback too. We have evolved into a company where people inspire and challenge each other to be their best, and recognitions like GPTW strengthen our resolve to do better and focus on creating a benchmark in the industry.”

With the rising number of millennial and Generation Z employees, Chalet Hotels Ltd. empowers its people through integrated policies and robust learning and development programs. The company has always been one of the pioneers in responsible corporate practices. In 2019, the company also introduced ‘The Pride Side’ policy, which fortifies a non-discriminative and transparent environment at the work place. Some of the other path leading practices for employees at Chalet Hotels Ltd. include the Anchal policy which encompasses initiatives and practices to support expectant mothers to achieve work-life balance and to help them conquer challenges. For the new fathers, we introduced a 5 days paternity leave taking into consideration the increased work and personal responsibilities and the inevitable need to make time for the family, to be there for them. A rendezvous with the CEO is a monthly initiative which gives our employees, across all levels, a direct platform to showcase their ideas and concerns or just a discussion with the top management. Every phase in life demands an upgraded version of oneself. Based on this thought, Leadership Execution Accelerated Program (LEAP), a one year intensive leadership development programme, specially designed to upgrade their professional skills and apply the knowledge gained to function efficiently on a day to day basis.

About Great Place to Work at Institute:

Great Place to Work® is the global authority on building, sustaining and recognizing High-Trust, High-Performance CultureTM at workplaces. Great Place to Work® Institute has conducted pioneering research on the characteristics of great workplaces for over 30 years. It believes all organizations can become great workplaces, and the mission is to help them succeed. Great Place to Work® Institute partners more than 10,000 organizations every year around the world to help create and sustain a High-Trust, HighPerformance Culture™.

About Chalet Hotels Limited:

Chalet Hotels Limited (CHL) is an owner, developer and asset manager of high-end hotels in key metro cities in India. Our hotel platform comprises six operating hotels, including a hotel with a co-located serviced residence, located in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune. CHL’s hotels are branded with globally recognized hospitality brands and are in the luxury-upper upscale and upscale hotel segments. The hotel platform emphasizes strategic locations, efficient design and development, appropriate positioning in hotel segments together with branding and operational tie-ups with leading hospitality companies. CHL uses its experience to actively manage the hotel assets to drive performance.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Commissions a Unique ‘Dealer Operations Restart Guideline’

As we find new ways to navigate the impact of COVID 19 on lives and businesses, Toyota Kirloskar Motor today, curated a unique ‘Dealer Operations Restart Guideline’ to educate and empower its dealer partners about the importance and adherence to good safety & hygiene practices, so as to secure all stakeholders from health hazards. Safety is one of Toyota’s key priorities and it resonates in the ways the company has been undertaking to safeguard its employees and other stakeholders. Keeping this in mind and soon after introducing a comprehensive ‘Restart Manual’ as a guide for industries to follow post the lockdown withdrawal, TKM has now introduced a detailed guideline to kick start its dealer operations.

The unique ‘Dealer Operations Restart Guideline’ aims at instilling confidence in the existing and prospective customers about the safety and hygiene initiatives introduced at Toyota dealer outlets, across the country. Given the fact that the withdrawal of the lockdown does not in any way mean the pandemic is over and adherence to good safety & hygiene practices is the only key to keeping the virus at bay, the recovery phase will require unprecedented levels of caution.  In this situation, TKM’s ‘Restart Guideline’ comes in as an all-inclusive reference document highlighting the effective measures that can help in setting the foundation for sustainable growth as business operations resumes to near normalcy after the lockdown is over. TKM’s ‘Dealer Operations Restart Guideline’ suggests Toyota Dealerships about the ways in which they can deal with the current situation, simultaneously encouraging them to follow the norms of the local administration in their respective region.

Sharing his thoughts on this unique initiative, Mr. Naveen Soni, Senior Vice President, Sales and Service, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “There is no doubt that besides affecting the health and safety of people across the globe, the COVID-19 outbreak has brought the world economy to a standstill. In uncertain times like these, it is paramount to lead the change and strive to thrive during this period of transformation, ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our stakeholders and simultaneously safeguarding business continuity. In this backdrop, we have come up with this unique ‘Dealer Operations Restart Guideline’ benefitting not just our dealer partners and their staff but also our loyal customers.

In the current environment, it goes without saying that in addition to closely monitoring the situation, it is imperative to introduce SOPs encouraging employees to address customer needs effectively post COVID-19, which will bring inevitable changes along with it. Let us work together as One Team One Goal with greater speed and agility.”

Giving utmost importance to safety, the ‘Dealer Operations Restart Guideline’ charts out directives for TKM’s dealer network shedding light on the safety protocols for the respective facilities and staff along with recommendations for customer interface during sales and after sales services. The manual focuses on three key areas which include:

Facility and Staff: Maintaining hygiene at customer touchpoints and sanitization of the inside and outside of the dealership premises with minimized usage of air conditioners. Additionally, TKM has also taken steps to maintain social distancing at workplace, recommended usage of face masks and sanitizers, regular thermal checking and formation of a COVID Task Force to address

safety concerns and boost morale of the staff. It further educates the dealer staff to address customer queries following the new norms.

Sales: The company’s sales services will also witness a change. Employees are being directed to maintain transparency while communicating with customers and provide video or photo evidence of safety measures followed at the dealership, wherever required. There will be thermal checking and sanitization points set-up at all the entry and exit points, workstations and the premises of the dealerships. Face masks will be made available with all staff, and avoiding exchange of physical documents will be practiced as much as possible. Product demonstration will also see a change as a whole new disinfection process will be implemented before every demo, to assure customer safety. Masks and gloves will be provided during test drives and the company representative will be directed to sit in the rear seat while the customer drives, adhering to the rule of social distancing.

After sales: Certain measures have also been introduced with regard to the pick-up and delivery of vehicles, these include showcasing temperature certificate to customer during pick-up, disinfecting hands before receiving the vehicle keys. The drop-off of the vehicle will only be allowed once the seats and steering is disinfected while invoices will be shared through emails and Toyota Connect app with digital money transactions. As far the production and washing area is concerned, all staff will wear face masks and gloves during their work hours with all commonly used tool kits being disinfected frequently.

As a committed corporate, TKM has been studying and observing the evolving situation in the country and is determined to devise simple and practical solutions to arising problems in hopes to help the country and the industry recover from the inflictions of the COVID 19 pandemic.