ECI’s Upgraded Index Card System |ForumIAS

News– On June 5, 2025, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced a major technological upgrade in its Index Card system. It aims to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and accessibility of post-election data dissemination. ECI’s Upgraded Index Card System.

About Index Card

The Index Card is a non-statutory, post-election statistical reporting format developed as a suo moto initiative by the ECI.
It serves as a constituency-level data tool to record and publish electoral details for public, academic, and research use.
It provides constituency-level data across multiple dimensions, including candidate information, vote counts, party performance, gender-based voting patterns, and regional voting variations.

Why was the System Upgraded?

Earlier, information was manually filled at the constituency level using various statutory formats on physical Index Cards.
These physical Index Cards were later used for data entry into the online system to generate statistical reports.
The process was manual and multi-layered, making it time-consuming and resource-intensive.
It frequently led to delays in data availability and slowed dissemination of post-election statistical information.

Key features of the new technology-driven system