ITI to foray into voting machines

ITI Ltd, the public sector telecom equipment manufacturer, will diversify into manufacturing electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the Indian and overseas markets.

The company has entered into a strategic alliance with M S Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies for transfer of technology and specifications of the prototype EVM, developed by the institute.

The Bangalore-based institute has designed and developed the EVM with security features to prevent booth-capturing and better counting capability than the existing EVMs.

Currently, EVMs are being manufactured by Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), Bangalore, and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL), Hyderabad.

Speaking to mediapersons on this foray, ITI chairman Y K Pandey said that the company would be using its existing electronic production facilities in Bangalore or Rae Bareily in Uttar Pradesh to roll out the EVMs within the next 5-6 months.

"Since ITI is basically an electronic manufacturing unit and has diversified into making currency note machines for the public sector banks in the recent past, we are foraying into EVMs to make optimal utilisation of the existing production facilities without additional investment. The market for EVMs will expand to generate enough business for ITI, as e-voting will become the norm in the Indian election process and other countries in South East Asia and Africa," Pandey said.

ITI will soon register with the Election Commission of India to customise its EVMs as per the specifications required for using them in parliamentary and assembly elections in the country.

"In view of the worldwide recognition the Indian EVMs have achieved after the recent elections, we plan to promote our product in the countries that have shown interest and are likely to import them. We will bid for a share of the orders along with BEL and ECIL in the international market by pricing our product competitively," Pandey said.

The academia-industry partnership envisages licensing of the product to ITI exclusively. The royalty aspect will be worked out later.