Press body releases 'Electoral Reference Handbook'

Press body released a detailed analysis of polls compiled into an 'Electoral Reference Handbook' on Thursday to disseminate information over understanding and simplifying the tedious exercise of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The 'General Elections 2014: Reference Handbook', is a compendium on past elections and the latest provisions relating to the general elections. Apart from English and Hindi, the book will be made available in 11 regional languages, namely, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

"We hope that the work we have done over the last many months, we hope that will help you in the way you write about the elections and understanding better the kind of trends that are emerging from India and I think these are of historical relevance. We are one of the largest electrics that are going to the polls. These are elections not only watched nationally but also internationally," said Principal Director General, Press Information Bureau (PIB), Neelam Kapur.

She added that with a very strong election process and a vibrant media the role of PIB really is to be a bridge to help with data and help with analysis and also bring the correct authentic information using the modern tools of communication to reach out to people in an informed way.

Simultaneously, the Bureau also launched a web-portal, dedicated for the General Elections 'pib.nic.in/elections2014' which will be used for dissemination of important instructions, orders and press notes of the Election Commission of India. The Reference Handbook also will be made available on this portal.

On Counting-Day, i.e. May 16th, 2014, the portal shall also be used to disseminate official trends and results, based on real-time data made available by the Election Commission of India. These trends and results will also be shared on social media, and through SMS.

Once the results have been declared, the body will also analyze the data of the Sixteenth General Elections in detail, and a compiled version thereof will be released.