'Vote for a Better India' app for Android released to aid voter registration

Indian-American youths in US have developed a smartphone application to help the unregistered voters in India, in particular youths, to register their names in the electoral rolls.

The Android app "Vote for a Better India" was unveiled over the weekend at an event "Big Ideas for a Better India" organised by the 'Overseas Volunteer for Better India (OVBI)'. The event also featured an address by spiritual guru, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, of the Art of Living fame.

The Android app will be used to power Voteathon - an inter-college voter registration competition that is expected to have over 10,000 participating colleges with the goal of registering over 30 million voters - the event organisers said.

In his address, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar emphasised on increasing the voting percentage during elections. Referring to the high voter turnout in the recently held Assembly elections, he called for increasing the turnout to 95 percent.

The OVBI, in a statement, called upon the non-resident Indians to register themselves to vote and travel to India for a fortnight to contribute to voter education drive. It also urged them to encourage their family and friends to vote for a better India.

Interestingly, this is just one of many technology-based tools for the Indian democratic system, with several such small initiatives, as well as major ones by Google (its election portal) and Facebook (candidate information service on mobile), being released this year. The Election Commission also announced the use of a digital system to monitor possible code violations, ahead of the recent round of Assembly elections.