The Lok Sabha elections are scheduled for April and May 2014, and will be conducted in various phases. In its endeavour to understand the general elections of the country, Lokniti-Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in collaboration with the IBN Network is conducting a nation-wide pre poll and post poll survey in the month of April and May 2014.

The Trainer’s Training Workshop for the NES was conducted in Delhi on 5th – 6th April 2014. The main purpose of the workshop was to train the state coordinator/ state supervisor or the main contact person from each state to carry out the study. The workshop was meant to ensure that the quality of the survey is standardized across the country. The main points of emphasis in the two days workshop were on the following:

• Maintaining the quality of the survey through a meticulous fieldwork and proper monitoring of the field research.
• Discussion on survey instruments.
• Sample design, Respondent List, Field Investigator Profile.
• Do's and Don’ts of field work.
• Elaborate discussion on the questionnaire.
• Translation of the questionnaire to local language.
• Modalities on data entry and data analysis .
• The overall schedule of the NES and the involved timelines.

Those who attended the workshop included Aijaz Ashraf Wani (Kashmir), Syed Kashif (Jammu), Jagroop Singh Sekhon and Yogesh Kumar (Punjab), Anita Agarwal (Haryana), Manoj Kumar (Uttrakhand), Kamal Kumar Srivastava (UP – Central), Ashish Bhatt (Madhya Pradesh), Shamsad Ansari (Chhattisgarh), Vijay Kumar Singh (Bihar), B.M. Parmar (Gujarat), Vivek Ghotale (Maharashtra), Reetika Syal (Karnataka), Haris Thonnakkal (Kerela), Suprio Basu (West Bengal), Bisawjit Mohanty (Delhi), P Ramajayam (Tamil Nadu), D.P. Sharma (Assam), Mosaib Ahmad (Aligarh), E. Venkatesu (Andhra Pradesh), Sunil Kumar (Himachal Pradesh) . The entire Lokniti team including Ashish Ranjan, Dhananjay Kumar Singh, Jyoti Mishra, Nitin Mehta, Rahul Verma, Meenu Kumari, Avantika Chamoli, Dishil Shrimankar , Ram Pratap Singh, Shimpy Pandey, Rishikesh Yadav , Shreyas Sardesai and Vibha Attri were present. Sandeep Shastri and Sanjay Kumar gave their valuable suggestions throughout the workshop.