Telangana Develops India's First Smartphone-Based E-Voting Solution

Telangana's 'e-Voting' solution was particularly meant to increase voting accessibility for persons with disabilities, senior citizens, and sick people, among others.

Telangana on Wednesday said it has developed the country's first smartphone-based e-voting solution, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic that has rushed the world into all-digital operations.

The solution has been successfully developed and tested while a dry run, in the form of a dummy election, is being conducted in Khammam district, with registration on the application open from October 8-18 and dummy voting taking place on October 20, an official release said. Though the initial scope was limited to a subset of citizens, the dry run is open for all citizens of the district, the release said.

The initiative has been driven by the Telangana State Election Commission (TSEC) with the implementation support of the Emerging Technologies Wing of the state's IT Department, and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), it said.

The technical development has also been guided by an expert committee, comprising Professor Rajat Moona, Director of IIT Bhilai and Technical advisor to Election Commission of India, and professors from IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi, the release said.