IFORINDIA?An ‘Eye’ on Politicians

By Valsala Menon

How many of us bothered to cast their vote in the last elections? Did most of us shirk our responsibility as a citizen of a democratic nation? More than half of us are unaware of the name of our constituency let alone the names of the respective MLA or MP. We have several startups and entrepreneurial ventures but not many in the political space.

Here’s Ankur Garg, founder of iForIndia, a web based citizen engagement platform, wherein you can express your views on your elected representatives, the MLA and the CM, rate the services of the government in your constituency, thereby help to build a real time report card on the performance of these representatives.

A qualified engineer, Ankur was heading Customer Partner Experience at Microsoft India and seven years down the line, decided to go ahead with his entrepreneurial dream, supported by his co founder Tarun. The latter himself is a veteran in data analytics and research. It took them some time to fully acknowledge that they cannot expect much support from corporates and media due to their alleged proximity with the politicians. Not to be discouraged, on 12^th August of 2013, iForIndia was officially launched. Ankur clarifies, “A politician plays a pivotal role in the development of a region. As citizens, we are left with hardly any benchmark or parameter to evaluate their performance. It’s highly important to keep an eye on them; hence I wanted to put technology and internet to good use in order to create awareness and add value to the existing system as well.”

It’s fairly simple. To post your views on iForIndia, you need to register on this site using your phone number. Once registered, the user can then rate his /her constituency in terms of parameters like law and order, basic infrastructure, electricity, sanitation, developmental investment and corruption. The flexibility of changing ratings based on progress made in developmental activities is given to the user. There are over 12,000 registered users on the site already and the current model is evolving to introduce deeper engagements.

IForIndia has already rolled out report cards for all 28 states, and has a healthy distribution of respondents across all these states. More than two-thirds of the assembly constituencies are being represented on the portal.

This portal is a not-for-profit entity. They primarily target long-term media partnerships by offering valuable data and analysis. “It’s not just funding which inhibits entrepreneurs from venturing into the political arena. The challenges here hit hard on your ideology, morality and conscience. You seldom come across people to support you in your endeavor”, Ankur says.

iForIndia serves two main purposes-participation of people to generate statistically relevant data and also creates political awareness by providing information to a larger audience.

Let’s join hands with them, register with them and help to carve out a corruption-free, progressive India.

A writer by profession, a journalist by intuition and an author by passion. Has worked with several start-ups and acclaimed magazines and dailies and has explored several beats of writing. Formerly Associate editor, Ability Foundation, Adyar, and also Associate editor, Eves Times, a citizen centric magazine. Regular contributor to the Chicken Soup series, with work published in many. Currently penning down her first novel, she is always game for challenges in the literary space. Drop a mail : valsala.menon7@gmail.com