Nepal, April 10 -- India is once again in the grip of a festive season. The 17th parliamentary election, to be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19, is a core discussion point all across the country. The political parties have declared their candidates for constituting the 543-member House of Representatives. This parliamentary election will have many firsts. In addition to the use of electronic voting machines, the upcoming election will have a voter verifiable paper audit trail emanating from each machine after a vote is cast. This enhances the voter's confidence that the vote cast has been done correctly and given to the targeted candidate only.

Though the 2014 election was the first social media characterised election, the 20...