Ravi Singh made history of sorts by being the youngest Indian American at the age of 25 to contest for a seat in the Illinois State House. Though he lost in the race, it sowed the seeds of a good business model for him.
Singh set up his own company ElectionMall Technologies Inc, which claims to be a non-partisan technology firm that provides candidates, citizens, and political parties with the necessary online tools, services and products to help them win elections through the Internet. The company leverages proprietary information technology applications providing affordable tools and services to campaigns, resulting in increased awareness, funds and votes for its clients.
He had developed former president Bill Clinton?s online election campaign tools and is currently helping Hillary Clinton and John McCain with their interactive websites. ?By utilising business know-how and technology, we offer campaigns a cutting-edge solution. I believe we can empower candidate and voters regardless of party affiliation, agenda or race and provide them a chance to win and increase political participation,? says Singh, who is considered as the campaign guru in a recent USA Today article.
In less that a decade of its operations, Singh, 36, has turned ElectionMall Technologies Inc into one of the fastest growing companies in the e-democracy space in the world. And with over one million candidates running for political office in the United States from school boards to the White House, an estimated $10 billion will be spent in 2008 alone on elections. Singh expects to be the market leader with his company valued over $17 million. In fact, Business Week magazine has recently rated the company as the largest and fastest growing campaign and election technology firms in the United States.
?Online campaign websites permit candidates to disseminate their message to a broad audience, minimising the candidate?s need for special interest and private donor money. Moreover, through websites, candidates are able to delve more deeply into political issues than through other media and they can also interact more effectively with the electorate,? says Singh. He adds that technology has now made it possible for candidates to disperse information quickly and cost-effectively to voters through e-mails, text messages, and online video or audio files.
Singh?s business model is based on the concept of software as a service (SaaS)?a distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet. He charges a fee from candidates on the money generated through online donations.
Globally, Singh says, the election business is a $100-billion industry and the true business potential of online tools is in a country like India because of the country?s demographic profile. In fact, to make his presence felt here, he has recently invested over $2 million to set up research and development centres in New Delhi and Bangalore. It will develop software for political parties and candidates to disseminate information and create a gateway for online fund collection. ?India in the future will support democracies worldwide and online technologies will help to bring in transparency and accountability in the election process and among the candidates,? he says.
He further adds that a candidate?s use of new technologies can directly effect the outcome of an election campaign in India. ?Technology also provide ordinary citizens the chance to be active participants in campaigns. Online citizens have the chance to utilise communication tools to engage in grassroots operations and learn about political issues.?
Though India?s Internet population is low as of now, the numbers are fast increasing. Moreover, with the next general elections scheduled in 2009, Singh is upbeat about India?s potential. ?We have seen dramatic changes in how the Internet has been used in US campaigns during the last one decade and are we very hopeful that a similar thing will happen in India,? says Singh.
The first-born of US immigrant parents, Singh created a stir at the age of 14 when the US Armed Forces didn?t allow him to wear his turban in the
USA Military Academy. To redress the issue, Senator Paul Simon and Congressman Dennis Hastert introduced a legislation to enable Sikh Americans to graduate from themilitary academy with a turban. The legislation was signed by former president Ronald Regan in 1987 and as a result, Singh was able to graduate from the military academy with full honours making him the first American to wear a turban and do it. Later on, he pursued graduation from Valparaiso University and masters in political science from North-western University.