YEStudies

  Introduction Did you know that India's 2024 general election is estimated to have cost more than the entire 2020 US presidential and congressional cycles combined—despite India having a significantly lower per-capita income? How did a nation that began its democratic journey with low-cost, hand-painted wall slogans in 1951 transform into a high-tech battleground of AI deepfakes and multi-billion dollar campaigns? In this lesson, you will learn: How campaign technology evolved from physical foot marches to sophisticated AI-generated media. The major historical milestones, campaigns, and inflection points that redefined Indian political advertising. The driving forces behind the astronomical rise in election spending. The widening regulatory gap between official candidate spending limits and actual, uncapped party expenditure. The Early Decades: Low-Cost, High-Labor Campaigns (1950s–1980s) In the decades following independence, Indian elections were highly localized, labor-int...