The concept paper with regard to e-voting in India – suggestive policy framework is conceptualized under the Eco Endeavourers Network endeavour initiative – innovation hub and new concepts. It is an endeavour towards greater citizen participation and for their rights and their role in nation building and constitutional affairs. It aims at improving greater security, transparency and to increase the voter turnout, use of limited resources in a resource constraint economy, reduced manpower that are deployed before, during and after the elections are held. Foreseeing increased application of blockchain technology, big data and app based advancement, the paper considers suggestive policy framework of e-voting to oversee the prospects and its suggestive implications for the decision and policy makers. Prospects of having an internet enabled/e-voting can be an efficient alternative to the current EVM voting based elections.

1. E-Voting in India - Suggestive Policy
Framework
Concept Paper
By
Dr. Prachi Ugle Pimpalkhute,
Founder,
Eco Endeavourers Network
Striving for the planet in peril
Our Motto and Our Mission:
Striving for the planet in peril
Our Current Focus:
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)
Our Ongoing Projects:
Sustainability Indicators
Email: ecoendeavourers@gmail.com
prachiugle@gmail.com
About Us:
Eco Endeavourers Network is a thought
leadership platform to create awareness, carry
out research, and disseminate knowledge &
capacity building on Environment, Sustainability,
Climate Change and Energy. We aspire to
promote environmental friendly and sustainable
policies to varied stakeholders.
To begin with we are a team of two, with few
members and volunteers joining in and hope to
strive and leverage the opportunity of developing
thought and knowledge partnerships within and
beyond borders for a united cause of serving the
mother earth and striving to promulgate
environmental stewardship.
Concept paper not to be copied or reproduced in any form

2. Contents
About Eco Endeavourers Network 1
E-Voting in India - Suggestive Policy Framework 2
Abstract 2
What necessitates the Publicatiion 3
Executive Summary 4
Introduction 6
Is E- Voting – An opportunity in challenge for India? 8
Voter turnout and Citizen Participation – A Mandate towards stable governance 9
To Which policy areas the concept of e-voting belongs? 9
E-voting Proposal Framework 10
App Based 10
Blockchain 11
Uniqueness of voting through application of blockchain technology 12
Drawbacks of e-voting 12
Way Forward 14
References 13
Disclaimer 15

3. About Eco Endeavourers Network
At the outset, I take this humble opportunity and with sincere gratitude introduce to you
Eco Endeavourers Network’s pursuit of learning, growing and initiating benchmarking
innovation and thought leadership in the interdisciplinary field of Environmental Science.
Eco Endeavourers Network was started in 2009 with the motto striving for the planet in
peril. It’s a thought leadership platform to create awareness, carry out research,
disseminate knowledge & capacity building on Environment, Sustainability, Climate
Change and Energy, and promote environmental friendly and sustainable policies to
varied stakeholders. A brief listing and notable mentions of events include: I have
contributed by reviewing the GRI Sustainability Standards ie; GRI 303: Water; as it was
open for public review and feedback, conducted thought leadership events and authored
the publications on: 1. Circular economy, 2. Urban green spaces as natural capital assets,
3. Water stress areas and water impacts across supply chain, 4. Why Particulates Matter?
PM10 and PM2.5 in spotlight, 5. Blockchain technology in Sustainability and Energy sector,
6."Mind mapping the attitude of what and how to buy in"? Sustainability Vs Consumers.
Treatise on: UN SDGs Goal 2: End Hunger UN SDG Goal 3: Health and Wellbeing was also
published and SDGs awareness was done. Newsletter focusing: Beyond Boundaries –
Deluge connecting the dots in the cities across the world; Are Trees the viable solution
towards climate proofing of our Cities…? ; Infrastructure: How do we perceive the Blue,
Green and Grey Space? “Unlocking the Blocks”. The subject matter contribution for the
network include Sustainability, Climate Change, Environmental Impact Assessment,
Environmental Education & Training, Renewable Energy, Greenhouse gases
quantification, Remote Sensing & GIS applications, Environmental Management, Clean
Development Mechanism, Corporate Sustainability Reporting, Ecosystem & Forestry
Services—Research & Development, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), PIL and RTI,
Urban Greening, Urban Forestry and Biodiversity.
Having a learning acumen and passion for current affairs and application of sustainability
at all levels and across varied sectors and verticals has motivated me to apply and
develop a think tank proposal towards e-voting. This concept paper is a part of Eco
Endeavourers Network initiative of “Innovation Hub and New Concepts”.
Regards,
Dr. Prachi Ugle Pimpalkhute
Contact Details:
Dr. Prachi Ugle Pimpalkhute
Founder, Eco Endeavourers Network,
ecoendeavourers@gmail.com
prachiugle@gmail.com

4. E-Voting in India - Suggestive Policy Framework
Abstract
The concept paper with regard to e-voting in India – suggestive policy framework is
conceptualized under the Eco Endeavourers Network endeavour initiative – innovation
hub and new concepts. It is an endeavour towards greater citizen participation and for
their rights and their role in nation building and constitutional affairs. It aims at
improving greater security, transparency and to increase the voter turnout, use of
limited resources in a resource constraint economy, reduced manpower that are
deployed before, during and after the elections are held. Foreseeing increased
application of blockchain technology, big data and app based advancement, the paper
considers suggestive policy framework of e-voting to oversee the prospects and its
suggestive implications for the decision and policy makers. Prospects of having an
internet enabled/e-voting can be an efficient alternative to the current EVM voting
based elections.

5. What necessitates the Publication
The concept paper is proactively authored and submitted after rigorous thinking, review
and studying the possible challenges and potentials for moving towards e-voting from the
current EVM based voting. India is making rapid strides in science and technology,
innovation and as an emerging economy, what necessitates in framing this paper is its
connection with sustainability. E-voting shall increase voter turnout, safe cost, time and
resources. For sustainable development goal # 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions, a
framework in this direction shall showcase India’s endeavour towards strong and able
institutions, e-governance and ethics.

6. Executive Summary
The concept paper is a suggestive framework for EVM to be replaced by e-voting. It also
explores the challenges and opportunities of e-voting rightly placed for efficient decision
making by the authority of concern. The challenges would be with regards to political,
social inferences, legal restrictions, technological and security issues. However with
technological advancement in the form of blockchain, big data and app based platform,
the opportunities looks more tangible and implementation may minimize the security
issues and other threats. The reforms in electoral law spearheaded with this trial of e-
voting which later can be implemented on real time scale for the future electoral polls.
Internet voting shall strengthen citizen participation, increase voter turnouts, increase
convenience to the voters as they can cast their vote from their respective places (for
example home, office, hospital etc..), it shall allow senior citizen citizens and persons with
disability who find it difficult to come to booth, vote with ease, also in unforeseen
weather conditions, rains we can vote, it shall reduce the cost or expenditure incurred in
conducting elections, lesser shall allow citizens to develop synergy and engage with the
representatives for the common good of all. With fraud and bogus voting during voting,
misuse of government machinery, booth capturing, corruption, and pay for vote, riots,
caste and religion based fights, a plethora of confusion and mistrust develops among the
voters, which in turn is threat to the democratic process and our nation’s transparency,
ethics and able governance ethos. In such a scenario, e-voting suggestive policy
framework proposal shall be a new frontier to embark upon under the category of
innovation hub and new concepts initiative endeavour of Eco Endeavourers Network.
Voting is a fundamental right and duty of every citizen. This concept of e-voting should be
considered after due discussion and consensus, with transparency being a greater good
will for initiating the proposal. If the Loksabha and state legislative elections are
conducted at same time (simultaneous elections) as being draft by the law commission of
India (draft vide dated 17th April, 2018. No.6 (3)322/2018-LC (LS)), then as with regard
to increased resource efficiency, step towards more from less, lesser resource use, e-
voting shall be landmark endeavour in the democratic process and setup of India.
With the advancement of app based platform in smartphones (GSM, 4G) android, apple
enabled voting will become easier as more and more people can vote due increased use of
smartphones available in remote village as well. The major challenge with e-voting is
non-availability of computers, laptops in remote places, and since not everyone is in the
same page of having smart phone, there can be a social issue with this concept of voting.
However wherever mobile based voting becomes a challenge or unavailable, internet
based voting can be made available at village panchayats, other government offices,
counters at post offices be setup for maximizing the voter turn overs.
With empirical logic and base, the application of block chain and big data analytics for
initiating the trial of e-voting concept framework shall be shown in a step wise approach
towards suggestive policy for implementation moving ahead, if right iterations with
greater transparency and upright security issues taken care of, a e- enabled voting shall

7. save cost and time and shall demonstrate India not just as an emerging economy but also
as a nation aiming and spearheading sustainability at all levels.

8. Introduction
Internet has reached a pinnacle of advancement in the current millennium and is making
rapid strides with new technological innovations and development. A notable mention to
this World Wide Web endeavour in India began with the launch of the Educational
Research Network (ERNET) in 1986 and the first publicly available internet service in
India was launched by state-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) on 14 August
1995. Since its inception, India the IT sector has changed remarkably and applicability of
it to varied sectors and in the form of products and services too has advanced. In India, IT
industry came into being in 1974, when TCS was asked to export programmers for
installing software for the US clients by manufacturer Burroughs (Rahul Chattopadhyay,
2016). During this time agriculture was the main focus of the government and software in
itself was not given the weightage. However in 1984 when Shri. Rajiv Gandhi became the
prime minister, the government policy changed and the New Computer Policy (NCP -
1984) embarked the foundation of development of world class IT sector in India, ready to
march its applications in various sectors.
The last decade and the current progress in IT sector has brought into mainframe
artificial intelligence, big data analytics, cloud based platform, blockchain and many app
based platforms. This was possible due to benchmarking Research & Development and
now a range of startups are getting promoted with focus on technology and innovation.
Big data if up scaled for real time monitoring can revolutionize the way elections are
conducted in India. With this background of IT existence and progress, a major evolution
of internet applications, social media and big data analytics was noticed in the 16th Lok
Sabha, with lot of social media campaign and analytics applications to portray the
capacity and capabilities of the constituent parties and its representatives.
India being a constitutional democracy with a parliamentary system of government holds
free and fair elections which determine the composition of the government, members to
the parliament, state and union territory legislative assemblies. Election Commission of
India is a Constitutional Body created under Article 324 of the Constitution of India. It
was set up on January 26, 1950. The Constitution provided for the Election Commission
to be either a single member or a multi-member body, depending upon the requirements
from time to time. The first Chief Election Commissioner was appointed on March 21,
1950. Since its creation, the Commission was a single member body except for a brief
period from 16th October 1989 to 1st January 1990 when it was converted into a three
member body. Subsequently, since October 1, 1993, the Commission has been a three-
member body, consisting of the Chief Election Commissioner and two Election
Commissioners. Election Commission of India conducts elections to the offices of
President & Vice President of India, both houses of Parliament (Lok Sabha & Rajya
Sabha), State Legislative Assemblies and State Legislative Councils. In 1998 the
Commission took a historic decision to computerize the entire electoral rolls and
electronic photo identity cards and moved ahead with EVM with technology and
innovation advancement in May 2000. The general elections to the first Lok Sabha as well
as state assemblies were held from October 1951 to February 1952, on the basis of
universal adult franchise. No. of seats in Lok Sabha for which elections were held – 489
and currently in Lok Sabha there 543 seats from 29 states and 7 UTs and in Rajya Sabha,
233 states from 29 states and 2 UT's.

9. To avoid polarization, booth capturing, ease of voting, Electronic Voting
Machines ("EVM")(Rakesh Ranjan, 2011) are being used in Indian General and State
Elections to implement electronic voting in part from 1999 elections and recently in 2017
state elections held in five states across India, EVMs have replaced paper ballots in local,
state elections as well. Even this extent of advancement, there were claims of EVM
tampering and security issues, EVM with voter verified paper audit (VVPAT) was
introduced in few constituencies as a pilot project in 2014 elections. As per the review
done, many countries still prefer ballot voting; a few among them marching into being
globalized economy prefer electronic voting. As per recent information given by EC
officials they would need around Rs 4,500 crore to buy nearly 12 lakh additional
electronic voting machines (EVMs) and an equal number voter-verifiable paper audit trail
(VVPAT) machines in 2019. This envisages the fact that expenditure incurred on elections
is huge and through technology and innovation advancement, shall negate the cost, which
in turn can be better utilized on several burgeoning issues which has to be resolved. With
regard to cybercrime and fraud which are bound to happen, even with greater encrypted
security protocols, EVM did create issues and it’s here that the Information Technology
Act, 2000 (ITA-2000 or IT Act) came into existence for resolution.
As a part of proposal preparation, literature review was done, which reflected the
number of countries assessing e-voting and getting benefited. Examples of e-voting
include Estonia and Switzerland, Canada where approximately one quarter of the
provincial electorate in 97 municipalities voted online during the Ontario 2014 municipal
election, and some 30 of Nova Scotia's 54 municipalities availed online voting in 2016
(Grofman, etal.2014). Numerous other constituencies and States, including France, India
and Australia offer e- voting to parts of their electorate who are usually the citizens
residing abroad – for a number of specific elections. Elections in India involve a series of
mobilization efforts and resource capacity building. A research paper was published in
IEEE, xplore in 2014 by Himanshu Agarwal and GN Pandey, which was presented in a
conference ICT and Knowledge Engineering (ICT&KE), 2013 11th International
Conference. The paper by Himanshu Agarwal and GN Pandey suggested an online voting
system for Indian election based on Aadhar card. The proposed model has greater
security; the voter high security password is confirmed before the vote is accepted in the
main database of Election Commission of India. As per the proposed system the counting
of the votes will be done automatically, which in turn shall save huge time and enabling
results to be announced within a short period. The first-ever electronic voting system
was introduced in the early eighties by David Shaum, the system used a public key
cryptography, which was used to cast votes and keep voters anonymous. Estonia was the
first in the world to adopt an electronic voting system for its national elections (Madise, etal,
2006). Estonia was the first country where citizens were able to cast their vote using only
the Internet and an electronic national identification card. As per the Madise etal, 2008
study the ID card used in the elections was designed to run on an integrated circuit, a chip
Java chip platform with 2048 bit PIN (http://www.id.ee/public/TBSPEC-EstEID-Chip-
App-v3_5-20140327.pdf). The card then is able to create signatures using SHA1/SHA2 as
per the study. The card is easily usable for authentication, encryption, and signatures. The
voter has to download the voting application, authenticate using the electronic identity
card and name of the candidates will be displayed and the voter can cast the vote.

10. In 2011 Norway used an electronic remote voting system (Norwegian I-Voting System)
for country council elections. Here the voter logins in the system using his /her ID and
PIN, cast a vote, receives a 12-digit receipt number as a confirmation. (Source:
https://www.regjeringen.no/en/aktuelt/Internet-voting-pilot-to-be-
discontinued/id764300/). However due to fear of cyber threat and security issues of
votes going public, in 2014 this mode of voting was discontinued.
Taking this as a background and way forward to increase voter turnout with minimal
resource use and greater transparency and security, this proposal suggestive framework
aims to attempt e-voting concept as a policy initiative for further scope of its application
based on the proposal strength, efficacy and approach. Since the young urban India,
educated workforce, rural people and tech savvy individuals are able to access data in
micro seconds with smart phones and internet services available at ease, thereby
increasing citizen participation, response and interest.
Is E- Voting – An opportunity in challenge for India?
Democracies keeps advancing to meet the demands of changing times and as per the
requirements of their citizens and to render transparency and able governance. The
citizens of India in the current decade has been showing signs of mistrust with the elected
representatives and in institutions, low voter turnout, misuse of government machinery,
increased use of resources, manpower and expenditure. Attitude towards voting also has
changed over the past decade. Trend is citizens have become more aware and
empowered and rightly deciding whom to vote and refraining from caste based voting
and opting for development as the sole motive for voting a particular party. However, still
the people from rural and remote areas are not that aware and empowered and fall prey
to cast based, vote and get paid voting.
The main challenge for India is its elections spending, as per a survey study; India spends
more than $ 5 Billion (Rs. 30,000 crore) for the election of 543 Lok Sabha members every
5 years. Almost amount on similar lines is spent in State elections. Local body elections
again have similar budget. This year alone, Election Commission of India spent Rs. 15,400
crores to procure new EVM machines and VVPAT machines. Every state election
commission procures their own EVM machines for local body elections. This numbers
brings about opportunity amidst challenge of reducing the cost both direct as well as
indirect way.

11. Figure: 1. E-Voting elections opportunity in Challenge
Voter turnout and Citizen Participation – A Mandate towards stable governance
Source: Election Commission of India
To Which policy areas the concept of e-voting belongs?
 Constitutional undertaking
 Right to freedom
 Code of conduct
 Justice
 Security
 Gender equality
 Parliamentary affairs
 Legal affairs

12. E-voting Proposal Framework
Android/GSM
Figure: 1. Framework for App based voting for municipalities, Legislatives elections
E-voting Proposal Framework
Blockchain BasedApp Based
Step: 1 Aadhar card or
voter Id number
Step: 2
Register by filling the
form, provide details and
aadhar number or voter
Id no. Identity of voter
gets verified
Step: 3
Unique number is
generated after login
App Based
Step: 4
On voting day, open the app – login
using the unique number and cast the
vote. An online receipt
No. /confirmation message “vote
successfully registered” gets reflected
1 2

13. Blockchain was first introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto. He proposed a peer-to-peer payment
system that allows cash transactions through the Internet without relying on trust or the
need for a financial institution (S. Nakamoto, 2008). In a rapid changing global world digital
information within micro seconds gets distributed and yes not copied…this is blockchain
technology. A blockchain is a digital distributed ledger that records transactions in real time.
Through blockchain, each group of transaction is hashed together, along with the hash of
the previous block and the entire blockchain with information encrypted gets created.
Blockchain use for digital voting could allow to record both voter’s vote and his/her
identity simultaneously, so physical checking of Id proof is avoided as is with regard to
ballot, EVM voting. The vote registered status/to which candidate the vote is registered
shall be notified once the voter’s logs in through the app. Currently a voter cannot verify
whether his/her vote was truly counted and are expected to believe the voting process and
the polling station code of conduct and the EVM. With blockchain greater transparency and
security can be achieved.
Since blockchain is a tamper proof ledger encryption and cannot be falsified, with major
advantage support of it being decentralized data storage. This advantage allows blockchain
as a very apt prospective tool for voting, which shall be fair, accountable and secure. As
millennials and the technology savvy workforce is marching ahead across global platform,
with rise in open source software applications and tool focusing from bottom of the
pyramid to the top hierarchy, blockchain as digital ledger platform regardless of sector,
size, industries, businesses, cities, rural areas shall provide a platform to resolve multitude
of issues.
As represented in the figure 2: Simplified representation of e-voting via blockchain, the
following is the detailed step wise approach of applying blockchain technology to voting:
Step 1: Login:
The user/voter will login into the voting system and provide the Id details example: Aadhar
card number / PIN / voter Id number / social security number. The system will check and
Figure: 2. Simplified representation of e-voting via blockchain

14. verify the voter credentials and upon matching and verification authorizes the voter to cast
the vote.
Step 2: Interface
Voters then will get on display list of candidates/party representatives in case of municipal
elections and party symbols in case of general /loksabha elections. Interface for casting the
vote, is user friendly and convenient.
Step 3: Encryption
Once the vote is casted, the system generates an input encrypted in the form of “hash”
which contains voter identification number and name. The encrypted output will be
recorded in the block form after each vote is casted.
Step 4: Blockchain:
Once the block is created, each block gets linked to the previous vote casted and forms a
synchronized blockchain.
Uniqueness of voting through application of blockchain technology
Drawbacks of e-voting
1. Falsified Aadhar cards/identity cards may result in fraudency in voting process
2. Misuse and tampering
3. Any preinstalled software that may corrupt the system
4. System crash
Blockchain is
decentralized
Cannot be
corrupted
No failures as such,
except system
crashes
The major step of e-voting
takes place at blockchain
in the form of nodes
Voter’s vote is sent to one of
the nodes and then a sequence
of nodes together adds the vote
to the blockchain, ensuring the
system is decentralized. A node
is available at each region/zone

15. Way Forward
 Citizen’s perception survey on whether they would prefer to vote online if a policy
is framed.
 Voting education campaign to increase voter turnout.
 Policy makers, social scientists, legal affairs authority, sustainability leaders,
politicians, civil societies and other requisite stakeholders can work on the
proposal submitted with other detailed intricacies and see if we as Nation can opt
for app based /blockchain voting.
 As with regard to UN Sustainable Development Goals, this concept of e-voting falls
in the purview of:
o Goal #5 - for gender equality as through online mode women in remote
areas and villages and those not allowed to vote due to unforeseen reasons,
can also cast their votes.
o Goal #10: reduced inequalities – online voting shall reduce caste and religion
based voting and voter can vote without any pressure.
o Goal # 16: peace, justice and strong institutions – a policy initiative in this
direction may exhibit India’s strong institutional setup and our quest
towards applying novel technology for strong nation building, justice and
fundamental rights of casting the vote.
 Also, it can set as an example of sustainability as it shall help conserve resources,
travel time and transportation cost. It can be an ideal transparency and
governance policy framework.
References
1. Himanshu Agarwal; G. N. Pandey ICT and Knowledge Engineering (ICT&KE), 2013 11th
International Conference ; 20-22 Nov. 2013; IEEE xplore: 6th March, 2014,INSPEC
Accession Number: 14146621, DOI: 10.1109/ICTKE.2013.6756265
2. Idem, p.161, OSCE/ODIHR, Norway Parliamentary Elections – Election Assessment
Mission, Final Report, 2013, p.7.
3. J. Saglie & S. Segaard, ‘Internet voting and the secret ballot in Norway: principles and
popular understanding’, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 26(2): 155-
169, 2016, p.160.
4. Madise, Ü. Madise and T. Martens, “E-voting in Estonia 2005. The first practice of
country-wide binding Internet voting in the world.”,Electronic voting, 2nd
International Workshop, Bregenz, Austria,(2006) August 2-4.

16. 5. Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation. “Internet Voting Pilot to be
discontinued.”https://www.regjeringen.no/en/aktuelt/Internet-voting-pilot-to-be-
discontinued/id764300/
6. N. Goodman, ‘Internet voting in a local election in Canada’. In B. Grofman, A. H.
Trechsel, & M. N. Franklin (Eds.), The Internet and Democracy in a Global Perspective,
Springer, Berlin, 2014.
7. Potentials and challenges of e-voting in the European Union, 2016, Study by AFCO
Committee, submitted to European Policy Department, Directorate general for internal
policies, constitutional affairs
8. Rahul Chattopadhyay, International Journal of Management and Commerce
Innovations ISSN 2348-7585 (Online) Vol. 3, Issue 2, pp: (790-797), Month: October
2015 - March 2016, Available at: www.researchpublish.com
9. Rakesh Ranjan (15 December 2011). "Delhi HC to decide on EVMs". The Pioneer.
Retrieved 10 January 2012.
10. S. Nakamoto, “A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, (2008). National Institute of
Standards and Technology, “Federal Information Processing Standards Publication”,
(2012).
11. Trueb Baltic, “Estonian Electronic ID – Card Application Specification Prerequisites to
the Smart Card Differentiation to previous Version of EstEID Card Application.”
http://www.id.ee/public/TBSPEC-EstEID-Chip-App-v3_5-20140327.pdf

17. Disclaimer
The opinions stated in this concept paper are my sole responsibility.
The publication and its content in any form cannot be copied, reproduced and
republished in any form thereof for commercial and non-commercial purpose. Those by
means of their work endeavour would like to quote this publication as reference should
acknowledge it and give prior information to the network and its authorized individual
before publishing it.