IT-Savvy Army Takes Modi’s Campaign to New Levels

Candidates who gain the early support of young workers in the IT and finance industries can distribute their messages far and wide. High-tech projectors and satellite dishes allowed Narendra Modi, now India’s prime minister-designate, to address more than 100 simultaneous meetings each night. “The nationwide deployment of 10-foot high holograms of Mr Modi – requiring scores of shipping containers, trucks and buses and some 4,000 workers, four of whom died in road accidents – was just one element of a logistical and technological operation unprecedented in Indian politics,” reports Victor Mallet for Financial Times. A 36-year-old UN health specialist and an early supporter of Modi created the group Citizens for Accountable Governance, which quickly whipped up support and recruited volunteers from the Indian diaspora working and studying around the globe. Analysts compare Modi’s campaign with that of US President Barack Obama. Yet the challenge in India was using technology to reach out to voters who lacked technology – and the Modi campaign focused on delivering communications to remote villages with mobile phones and video vans with large screens. – YaleGlobal