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Yes, the election is for real. But the way virtual space is being used to reach the masses makes forthcoming general elections in India the most 'tech-savvy' one in the political and democratic history of the country.

From political parties to candidates, everyone is embracing the Net with great vigour. While some have redesigned their existing websites, others have launched new ones with the elections in mind.

Apart from its official site, www.congress.org.in, Congress party has launched a special site for the general elections - www.voteforcongress.in. It has also launched a site, www.soniagandhi.org, for their leader, Sonia Gandhi.

And, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has www.bjp.org apart from L K Advani's special website, www.lkadvani.in, that is being publicised on almost all websites. PLus Advani has a personal blog too. Then there is www.cpim.org, the website launched by the CPI(M).

Even smaller and regional parties have followed this new trend. Shiv Sena's www.shivsena.org, Trinamool Congress' www.trinamoolcongress.com, Telugu Desam Party's www.telugudesam.org, to mention a few.

Keeping the regional ideology, most of these sites have full-content in local language that restricts its exposure to users from other regions, however.

This apart, parties are aggressively using SMS, online advertisements and promotions, as also the conventional methods to influence voters. Is it that the Obama syndrome spreading to the Indian electoral landscape?

Not exactly, feels JuxtConsult's co-founder, Mrutyunjay Misra.

"We will be wrong, if we compare their (parties) effort to the 'Obama effect', because Internet penetration in India is very low compared to USA or UK, where it is a major channel of communication, mass engagement and influences decisions."

Talking about parties' portals, Misra says most of them haven't followed any set standards of user experience, usability, visual appearance, interactivity and content updates. Some websites lack the proper navigation system that causes long page-scrolling for reading content. And in many, there is no provision for users' comments and suggestions.

Interestingly, Misra points out that political parties' websites still need to go a long way if we compare them against the best practices of web development.

"Parties' websites lack the efforts to engage the youth audience and appears more of plain vanilla brochure websites," he quips.

According to Tonic Media's business director Sudish Balan, there's little doubt at the moment that of all the parties, BJP website is the one with more depth and it is also the frequently updated one.

"Since BJP has a dedicated team of individuals spread across multiple states (the IT cell), the results are showing. Off the rest, Congress has only recently started paying attention to the online property while CPI(M) website seems more like a blog and not a professional website. And the others are mere laggards," Balan says.

Coming to the personal sites and blogs of leaders, there are many more including that of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, (www.manmohansingh.org), Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi (www.narendramodi.in) and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy (www.ysrportal.com).

Will it benefit the parties in election?

Of course, all the political parties want to reach the targeted audience with their websites but multiple websites may not always serve the purpose.

Balan points out that BJP with L K Advani's site, is trying to project a larger-than-life image of its Prime Minister candidate.

"From the perspective of reach, indeed multiple websites do segment the market at different levels, and also can be separately linked to other channels of communication," he explains.

About Congress, Balan reckons that the party discourages personal websites of its leaders to keep the party's leadership intact.

However, the party's young brigades, like Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora and Jyotiraditya Scindia, have created online platforms with personal websites - like www.sachinpilot.com, www.milinddeora.com, www.jyotiraditya.com to connect to their electorate.

Still, Internet being a relatively new platform for campaigning, it may take a few more terms, before they can further use the platform's power for engaging audience, feels Misra.

What do you think? Can Internet campaign make a decisive difference among the electorate, especially the rural mass who are more concerned about bijli, sadak aur pani?
"You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want."

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, will not only have a dedicated election website, but have one that actually has a provision for mobilizing contributions.

The website, Vote.cpim.org, according to two party officials, is to be launched on Wednesday but was already live on Tuesday and is seen by analysts as the party's counter to the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani's website launched in November last year and the digital marketing plans of the Congress. Still, it will be a first for the party.

Advani's website Lkadvani.in is his own--aimed at bettering his chances of prime ministership--and his party has preferred to use the regular party website Bjp.org for its digital campaign. The Con- gress, too, plans to use its party website aicc.org.in for this purpose.

The digital efforts of political parties come in the run-up to an election where around 70% of India's estimated 1.3 billion population is less than 35 years of age, many of them first-time voters. They also come at a time when urban India's representation in the Lok Sabha has gone up following an effort to redraw constituencies on the basis of population density.

"The point is that the number of Internet users is still a very small proportion of our electorate. However, there is still a specific proportion that is net savvy and we should reach out to them. A campaign website is our way of expanding our propoganda," said Sitaram Yechury, politburo member, CPM.

Source: Live Mint Reds go online for votes, cash in on run-up to `young' polls

Today many politicians are embracing the internet (blogs, websites, social networking and other social media forums) to reach out to voters. But so far they have not been very successful in engaging the Indian population in a dialogue with them about their own party's platform or their personal stands on issues of public importance.

One of the major reasons is that the efforts so far by politicians have been only marketing campaigns rather than efforts to organize the community, or to translate the population at-large into reliable vote banks. A party having or not having a website cannot be the major reason for people to choose party affiliations, but having a good and interactive website it can cause people with a certain party preference to articulate their support for that party more strongly. And articulation of the support in public can motivate them to stick with that stand till election time, and also cause more people to speak up in support and identify themselves with the political party.

Many current initiatives by the political parties, and BJP seems to be the more determined to use the Internet in a big and systematic way, are bound to fail as they are just copying Western ideas of running political campaigns into an Indian environment. And the difference in the Indian environment from the Western environment is not only in digital penetration or techno-saviness of the masses, but the difference lies in the very nature of how power flows in the Indian Society and the inefficiencies in its flow compared to the Western societies. For example, the funds for a politicians campaign in the United States are collected from the citizen and there upper limits to the amount that can be contributed by a citizen/corporate, and all of this must be publicly disclosed. So, to raise more money politicians have to reach out to more and more people, and like Obama/Hillary/McCain  get people to contribute  $5, $50, etc. Thus, their approach in the US elections was a marketing and fundraising campaign. This does not hold true for India, and the reason for an Indian Politician to make a website cannot be his/her intention to collect contributions from the public.  

Another example of the difference in the US and Indian milieu is the notion of access to the politician or his office. Access to a politician in India is almost impenetrably guarded by a circle of people around the politician and his/her office in contrast to the politicians in the US. So, having "discussion forums", or "feed back" links are misleading on an Indian politician's website as they signal that a website visitor can just by tapping the keyboards get the attention of the politician - which due to the layer of people around the politician is not true. And if you can't get access to the politician, or can't find out a reasonable path by which to access the politician from the website, then what good is this electronic outpost for most citizens?    Hence, to succeed websites of Indian politicians must be grounded in Indian realities and not mere copies of websites of Western politicians.

Despite the growing number internet users today, many Indian politicians and political parties are reluctant to tap the growing number of Indian Internet users. One clear hinderance to the adoption of the net by the Indian politican is that most cannot figure out the basic tradeoff that they face - what do I want from my website for the citizens, and what am I willing to give in return to the citizens for getting what I want. Without addressing this basic issue of access, aggressive marketing campaigns like that being down by one of the major political parties may be shooting at the wrong target in the Indian context. There is a plethora of direct mail and there is a huge amount of graphic ads of the party's Prime Ministerial candidate's portal on thousands of websites across the web - there is a very intense online marketing campaign going on. Surely almost every one knows about the PM candidate, and to expect people to go and read about his bio, daily adventures, etc is not rational. And hoping that as more people know the PM candidate has his own website they will vote for him is also not realistic. So, what is it that the visitor should be provided when he visits the website? The visitor shoulf be provided access to the candiate or access to people in his circle and influence. The question that becomes most important for the candiate to decide, and infact for every Indian politician aspiring to create a website is - "in this new electronic channel and platform that is created, what do I want to flow to the people, what do I want to flow from the people, and what is that can flow amongst people on the platform that I create?"

The problem is complex not only in Indian context but in US also. Of interest is as to how Mr. Obama will transform his website meant for campaign to a website meant to govern. The way in which his free-flow conversations on websites as  a candidate are tempered to match the staid conversations of  the POTUS office, the way in which he will get his administration to respond to concerns raised by citizens, etc will help guide Indian politicians. Indian politicians should learn lessons not from Obama the candidate's website, but from Obama the President's website. The restrictions and realities of Obama the president's websites are more akin to the need of the Indian politician.

A lot of Indian politics plays out in the shadows. The relationships are not clear, the stands are ambigious, and their positions can change based on political realities. As long as a website is considered by politicians as a place where they have to declare information, and then be held acountable to it, they will hesitate. All they will be willing to provide is general banalities, which is not enough to make a successful website.

There is a lot of criticism about the current internet initiatives by politicians as many feel it won't work in India because the penetration of technology is restricted to urban India. But, this is wrong. Penetration of technology is only a restriction if you consider a website as a marketing effort. Otherwise even a basic mobile phone has sufficient technology to connect to the electronic presence (or website) of the Indian Politician. Further, the material on the website can be picked up by the mainstream press, and mass media, and that can reach the rural areas. The real question for the Indian politician is not really as to who all can you reach via your website, but the question is what will you do when someone does reach your website. Once citizens know the value proposition that the Indian politician offers on his/her website, they will find a way to connect with him/her - even if only briefly.

All social media forums from social networking site like Facebook, Orkut to websites to blogs to twitter have a role in the Indian Politicians website, but the politican will have to identify and create a space in it for each of these communication technologies. And it is important to note that these social media forums involve a give and take, i.e. that is what makes it social. So, the politician has to decide that what he/she wants to take, and what he/she or other people in his social network are willing to give on his/her behalf. All the social media sites are used to find people who have a preference for a party or politician, and this is a form of targeted marketing. And twitter, blogs, etc are just a form of communicating effectively. Twitter technology just means sending sms to a huge group of people - just like group sms messaging. But the twitter marketing means that only people who have expressed a need to hear from you get the sms - that is how it is different from group/bulk sms messaging. Further facebook, orkut, etc are important because of the marketing that happens amongst people with certain declared preferences, and the possibility that your message will be heard mostly by people willing to listen to you in the first place ...

Despite websites or blogs or social networking sites, online supporters and voters seemed pretty disappointed by the weak response of leaders to their requests, pleas and comments.  They are disappointed, because the access that seems possible when you visit the website turns out to be illusionary when tried in practice, and hence is a big disappointment. What sort of bonding needs to be done is the toughest of the questions that has to be decided by the individual politicians, as it is according to their needs that they must cultivate their website and bonding. At the least the politican must spell out clearly on the website the clear and fair path according to which they citizen can gain access to the politician, even if it involves layers of heirarchy.

There are many challenges to adapting the internet and communication technologies in the 2009 general elections. Two to 3 months is too short a period in which something dramatic can happen.  It is true that each day is an eternity in a political campaign, but the Indian politican has not yet gotten a solution to the tradeoff - "what do I want from my website for the citizens, and what am I willing to give in return to the citizens for getting what I want." The more there is in the website for the citizen, the more will it give back to the Indian Politician. The more the website empowers citizen, the more the website will empower the Indian Politician.

One of the ways to empower citizens is to help them peek into the corridors of power, and then provide them tools to be able to make those in power more transparent and accountable. The RTI Act of 2005 is the most powerful tool that the Govt has given to the citizen, and will someday be used by many politicans to help people seek administation transparency and accountability, and knowing that their actions are also open to RTI will make them more proactive about the use/abuse of power. The judicious use and spread of information obtained by RTI Act will make the websites of Indian politicians more meaningful and eventually lead to websites being important tools in the fight between political parties.

To be a really effective tool, there must be something that is being leveraged. A website that uses the leverage of information (transparency) and access (accountability) is going to be effective and powerful tool in the political battles ....

And so, after spending Rs24 lakh, which can buy someone a little less than three-quarters an entry-level Mercedes, India's biggest auto maker by revenue has been deluged by enquiries by the thousands from far and wide.

Through an eponymous portal, www.tatanano.com, which has been up since January last year, Tata Motors has been spreading the message of the Nano, and extended this to online, high-traffic properties such as Facebook and Orkut.

To be sure, this is not the first time that an Indian firm has used online techniques to market wares and ideas. Indeed, the likes of Microsoft India Pvt. Ltd, organizers of the Indian Premier League cricket tourney and, even, political parties such as the Congress party have done so, some beginning as early as 2006. And, even auto makers such as General Motors India Ltd (GM) or Yamaha Motors Ltd took to social networking in their marketing overdrive.

But the scale and scope of expectations worldwide is different this time. At the Nano page on Facebook, the response is gushy, almost. And so you have Darlene who says: "Please bring this car to Toronto, Canada!!!" Then, there is some gratuitous advice for the future in case the Tata company planned a manufacturing beachhead in Americas. "You guys should make the Nano in Colombia since it would be a good place to produce them; we are in the middle of the American continent so it can be easily transported anywhere from Canada to Argentina at a lower cost; we have ports in the two oceans and many international cargo airports; we also happen to already have auto maker plants in Colombia too," says Luis.

Source: Live Mint Selling Nano in the time of Facebook, Orkut

The BJP on Saturday unveiled an ambitious "IT Vision" document that it vowed to imple ment if voted to power in the next elections "setting the stage for the next IT revolution in the country". NDA prime ministerial candidate L K Advani, who unveiled the document, said with IT in governance, the Government delivery mechanism would be improved dramatically. "Every Indian would get to know where every single rupee spent on him by the Government goes."

The document vowed a "golden IT quadrilateral" that would take IT to villages, "making IT as ubiquitous as electricity"; talked about making the parameters of broadband connectivity at par with that in the western world; and to make IT an integral part of the literacy drive across the country. "This would also help create as many as 1.2 crore IT-enabled jobs in rural India," said Advani. He said "IT would be used to make national security more robust and expand education and health care services, "especially in telemedicine".

The BJP said if voted to power, the poor would be provided with laptops at Rs 10,000 each. Interestingly, it said manufacturers would have to set up plants in India for this "that would boost the hardware industry in the country".

Interspersing his speech with anecdotes like his first use of the Casio digital diary in early 80s, and a visit to the Microsoft office in the late 90s ("where Indians constituted the one-fourth of the workforce"), the BJP leader said: "A BJP led Government will create a new policy climate where we use technology mainly for India's and indeed Bharat's sustainable development.

Advani, who during his tenure as Union Home Minister, had mooted the idea of national identity cards, also felt that IT could be effectively used to make national identity cards for the citizens. The party also promised to increase mobile phone penetration in five years from 40 crore to 100 crore subscribers.

On the occasion, BJP president Rajnath Singh launched its redesigned website. A host of BJP leaders, including Jaswant Singh, Arun Shourie, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley were present on the occasion. Sudheendra Kulkarni and Prodyut Bora helped prepare the Vision document.

The broader implications are that it allows ISps to control acces to the internet. Vaibhav Kumar Spokeperson, IBF

Bharti Airtel Ltd and Tata Communications Internet Services Ltd, or TCISL, in February adopted a so-called fair usage policy, or FUP, as part of the terms and conditions that govern the use of broadband Internet which puts data caps or download restrictions on unlimited plans.

Another broadband service provider, Sify Ltd, recently indicated to the country's telecom regulator that it too favours limiting unlimited plans.

As per this new usage policy, even those Airtel or Tata customers who have subscribed to an "unlimited Internet plan" will be subjected to restricted Internet usage. Through its FUP, Airtel, for instance, has "defined fair usage levels for unlimited data transfer plans" and "on reaching the fair usage level, the plan speed would be rationalized by up to 50% for the rest of the monthly billing cycle".

This means that in the 256 kilobytes per second (kbps) connection, where Airtel has a download limit of 50GB, once this limit is reached, it halves the speed to 128kbps.

Source: Live Mint Service Providers Set Data Transfer Limits On Unlimited Internet Plans

The prime ministerial candidate of the NDA, L K Advani, is fighting the most formidable political battle of his life. With the onset of the election season, he is set to criss-cross the country as part of his Vijay Sankalp Yatra. He is also busy giving final shape to his alliance's good governance agenda when not talking to prospective suitors, both for pre-election and postelection tie-ups.

While Advani has a choc-abloc schedule for the next three months, it is an agile team of volunteers, working out of 26, Tughlak Crescent office (that Advani likes to call his `extension office' as opposed to the more fashionable `war-room') that has kept his online election campaign running. The volunteers are now taking the campaign to university campuses, besides synchronising it with other off-line activities. Some of the volunteers are on a sabbatical. Some others are keen on a full-time career in politics at a late stage.

Take Mallika Noorani, for instance. The bespectacled 23year-old banker thinks "it's uncool not to be concerned about politics and other larger societal concerns". On a threemonth sabbatical (she works with a multinational bank in Mumbai), she is now managing the content appearing on Advani's website.

Anay Joglekar, working full-time for an embassy in Mumbai, has similarly taken a few weeks off to join Advani's campaign office. After having studied international relations at the Johns Hopkins University, Zorawar Daulet Singh assists the team with inputs on international affairs and strategic issues.

Source: The Indian Express MEET THE BACKROOM BOYS - TEAM ADVANI Management expert, techie, Johns Hopkins alumnus...