New Delhi: A year ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission of India is going to use the latest Artificial Intelligence tools to train its officials at International Institute of Democracy & Election Management (IIIDEM), the training and capacity-building arm of the Commission, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said on Tuesday.
Kumar made the remarks while inaugurating the hostel block at IIIDEM in New Delhi's Dwarka. IIIDEM was established in 2011 to train, prepare and equip election officials and other stakeholders. On the occasion, CEC Kumar asked IIIDEM to design training content and training methods for the election officials using the latest AI tools to make it engaging and in the self-learning mode.
“The Election processes are so robust that all guidelines, information, and forms have been codified and standardized. They need to be integrated through AI tools for easy reference, search and interactive training," the CEC said. Kumar said that catering to the world's largest democracy, IIIDEM needs to expand collaboration for training election officials in other democracies as well.
Election Commissioner Arun Goel while congratulating the IIIDEM officials, said that IIIDEM must become a fulcrum of thought process, debates and discussions around democracy. While acknowledging that the election staff was the "best-trained" staff in the government, Goel emphasized that IIIDEM has to now be in tune with the latest trends to train the staff for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
EC Anup Chandra Pandey emphasized that conducting elections in India with clockwork precision in over 10 lakh polling stations with 1 crore election officials was only possible if officials are trained properly. He added that an apex electoral management institute of IIIDEM stature serves the critical need for ensuring free and fair elections.
He said that IIIDEM provides a platform for the exchange of ideas and experiences and the adoption of best practices in the field of election management from other EMBs.
Besides training election officials in India, IIIDEM also organizes training programs for Election Management Bodies (EMBs) world over. Till date, 2,478 International participants from 117 countries have benefitted through 122 programs conducted by IIIDEM. IIIDEM in association with Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has also commenced the first batch of Master’s Program in ‘International Electoral Management and Practices’ (MIEMP), online. It is a two-year blended Master’s Program, involving Classroom Teaching and Integrated Learning from Field Practices at TISS and IIIDEM.
The program aims to enhance the capacity of election officials currently engaged in the organization and management of elections in various parts of the globe in various countries, and to raise the professional standards of election management bodies. The inaugural batch consists of 25 working professionals nominated and sponsored by the Election Commission of India including 5 International participants from the Election Management Bodies (EMBs) of Maldives, Bangladesh, Philippines and Bhutan.
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