The Election Commission of India (ECI) is looking to commission an analytics-based system that monitors and analyses the conduct of voters at polling booths, according to a report by the Economic Times. "The ECI wanted to create a system to monitor voters by behaviour, conduct and time of stay," Sanjeev Kumar, chairman of the State-owned Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) - who was contacted by the ECI for creating the system - is quoted as saying in the report. This move comes after multiple complaints were made to the ECI about booth capturing and election mismanagement. TCIL expects that it could win a contract for the state assembly polls and general elections scheduled in 2024, as per the report. Technological interventions in the voting process, while gaining pace in recent times, have given space for concerns around privacy as well as voter profiling and disenfranchisement. If an automated system analyses voters' behaviour at poll booths, how accurate will this system be, what kind of data will be stored, and how will the secrecy of ballots be maintained, are some of the questions that arise. TCIL will develop proof-of-concept before implementing TCIL may develop a proof-of-concept for a few polling locations after getting ECI's feedback and approval, before getting awarded the contract for the system, the report said. An official of the company is also quoted as saying that they would want a GSM module for encrypted data transfers from a voting machine. "I believe that polling machines should have a…
