It’s a hot day in Bangalore. At an Odiya association’s medical camp in a small school, under a shamiana, a small group is listening to a man extol the virtues of the chief guest. When, finally, he cedes the microphone, the chief guest speaks, briefly, succinctly, mentions his past encounters with Odisha, then takes questions. An audience member begins a detailed, loaded query. An official interrupts to say there should be no political questions—mystifying, since the chief guest is a political candidate on the campaign trail—but he answers gamely. After he is whisked away to his car, one of his team SMSes, apologising for not being able to arrange interview time, and invites us to another event that afternoon. There, the candidate is addressing a conference of chartered accountants. He speaks knowledgeably, without notes, about taxation and wins a round of applause. Afterwards, he is mobbed: People ask him questions, ask to take pictures with him. He smiles a greeting. I ask him, “How’s it going?” Nandan Nilekani shrugs, chuckles wryly, and says, “Different game, different rules!”
Derek O’Brien, former advertising professional and originally famous as a television quizmaster, would seem like a natural apostle for technology. No, says the Rajya Sabha MP, and national spokesperson of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party.
And the team is international: “We have an IT team in the US—50-60 percent of videos are edited in the US. Half of the team hasn’t met the other half because we are all volunteers. It surprises me that things still roll!”
(This story appears in the 18 April, 2014 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
Recently, in Union Budget 2016, Finance minister said that NDA government to give constitutional right to Aadhar card, in short it is going to be compulsory, till now it was not compulsory, it was optional, but now it's compulsory.
on Mar 1, 2016A Software Powerhouse ? Yesterday , when I went to polling booth , there was a chaos , with a number of people complaining that their names were missing from the Electoral Rolls ( Voter Lists ) As per news-reports , in Mumbai alone , some 50,000 people returned home without casting their votes - including Deepak Parekh ! Altogether , names of some 15 lakh voters ( out of a total of 98 lakh ) were missing ! Then there are some 300 million people who will simply won't walk down to the nearest polling booths , and wait for 1 hour to cast their votes ( - assuming that some 40 % of the 814 million eligible voters do not exercise their right to vote ) WHY ? Going out to vote is becoming a big hassle COULD IT BE OTHERWISE ? Sure , if Central Government and the Election Commission care to implement my suggestion for developing a mobile App for voting . I called it , VotesApp see .. hemenparekh.in/2013/08/votesapp.html Or , just type in Google , " VotesApp " HOW WILL IT HELP ? > No need for 930,000 polling booths / EVMs / Ink / Papers etc Every voter's own mobile becomes a miniature EVM ! Any registered Voter can vote from anywhere in the World ! > Nor any need to deploy 1,100,000 people to conduct the polls > No need for millions of Police / Military personnel > No need for months of advance preparations, across entire country > Voting can be completed in just ONE day - instead of over 6 weeks - and results can be declared next day ! > Voting could be 95 % or more ! > No worry for booth-capture > No bogus voting ( Bio-metric ID from built-in camera ) > No duplicate voting ( Self-destruct after single usage ) > No worry for any terrorist attacks > Enormous saving of time for Voters > No need to declare a public holiday - costing thousands of crores worth of production > Central Government will save, at least , Rs 2,000 Crores . If business-friendly BJP government comes to power , it would not hesitate to earn Rs 20,000 crores , by enabling 15 million Indian businesses to advertise to 814 million voters , thru this mobile VotesApp - sharply targeting by Gender / Age / Marital Status / City / Street / Education / Income Tax paid / Employed or Jobless ..etc > No need for Central Government to stop taking even routine decisions If a tiny country like Estonia ( population 1.6 million ) can elect its Members of Parliament thru a VotesApp type mobile App , why can't we ? Already 900 million Indians have mobiles - all of which , will soon become Smart Phones And we call our country , a " Software Powerhouse " ! * hemen parekh ( 25 April 2014 / Mumbai )
on Apr 26, 2014