Online search engine Google will support the Election Commission (EC) to manage online voter registration and facilitation services ahead of 2014 polls in India.
Times of India reported that Google will offer EC its resources, including its search engine, to enable voters to check their enrolment status online and locate their polling station, complete with directions using Google Maps.
Google will put its worldwide network and resources at the Commission’s disposal until June 2014 to help it manage online registration of new voters and allow the enrolled ones to check the address at which they are registered, and get directions to the polling station.
With the new rolls with reference to January 1, 2014, slated to be out by January 6, the voters’ queries on the Commission website are likely to be managed by Google starting from the second week of January.
Google will not charge the EC for these services, estimated to cost $50,000 (over Rs 30 lakh), and fund the same from its corporate social responsibility (CSR) budget. Google is offering similar across 100 countries services as part of its CSR obligations.
EC is also exploring the option of using the network and servers of Google for dissemination of results for the 2014 general election likely to be held in May.
The Election Commission tied up with US-based IT firm Akamai for putting out results for the recent assembly polls in five states. The use of 272 servers of Akamai across the world to disseminate the results, as against barely two servers in use during the 2009 Lok Sabha poll, ensured that the EC website could handle the millions of hits it received per minute on the counting day (December 8).
