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The Election Commission of India (ECI) cannot escape from addressing the questions about the credibility of the EVMs . Officially, ECI acknowledges that three versions of the machine are in use: a) Pre-2006 b) Post-2006 and c) Upgraded-Post-2006. They do not clearly explain what the key differences are in its hardware and software. The ECI’s claims about the integrity of EVMs are based almost exclusively on what they call the “effective technical and administrative safeguards”. In other words, ECI claims that their physical custody and control of the devices make it impossible to tamper. The ECI asserts that “it always had a firm conviction and complete satisfaction that EVMs could not be tampered with” and that “no one has been able to actually demonstrate that EVMs used by the Election Commission can be tampered with or manipulated” ( ECI Press Release 16-Mar-2017 ). Perhaps, ECI’s “faith on the machine has never wavered”. However, that of other stakeholders have. And, ECI...

Was planning to write a long note on the inflated hue and cry over India’s space program. This is a summary of my views without going into the details. Of late, every successful event of the Indian space programme is celebrated as if it is a ‘historic’ one. An impression is given as if the whole program is merely a few years old and all that it has achieved has been in a short period of a few years. To be more specific, unlike in the case of the missions of countries like the USA, when Indian media reports on the Indian missions readers do not get any idea as to when the mission was planned and what kind of effort has gone into it. Just like the Mars Mission launched towards the end of 2013 , the various satellite launches are the result of many years of planning to ensure that India has a series of satellites of different capabilities and there are replacements as old satellites are retired.  India’s Mars Orbiter Mission that was placed into an orbit around Mars in September ...