On March 15th, the  Election Commission of India  published electoral bonds data it received from State Bank of India . This comes following a directive from the Supreme Court of India, underscoring the significance of transparency in electoral funding. Exactly a month ago, the Supreme Court declared the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional. Their reasoning was that funding to political parties, especially from corporates, cannot be anonymous. The State Bank of India provided this data to the ECI on March 12th, as per the directive of the Supreme Court, which mandated its publication on the ECI's website by March 15th. The data furnished by the SBI is divided into two sets.  The first set outlines the date of purchase, purchaser's name, and denomination of each electoral bond bought between April 1st, 2019, and February 15th, 2024. A total of 22,217 bonds were procured during this period. The second set outlines the date of bond encashment, bond denomination, and the respective political party that redeemed them.  A sum of 22,030 bonds were cashed by political entities within the same time frame.  So, who were some of the biggest donors who purchased electoral bonds? Script and Production: Shikha Kumari A Voiceover: Sharmada Venkatasubramanian Also Read: https://www.thehindu.com/data/electoral-bonds-data-bjp-received-rs-6060-crore-highest-among-all-parties/article67951830.ece https://www.thehindu.com/data/future-gaming-and-hotel-services-purchased-rs-1368-crores-worth-electoral-bonds-most-among-firms/article67952165.ece https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/santiago-martin-aka-lottery-king-the-business-tycoon-who-topped-the-list-of-electoral-bond-donors/article67953870.ece https://www.thehindu.com/data/ed-and-it-had-conducted-searches-on-many-firms-which-purchased-electoral-bonds/article67954005.ece #electoralbonds #donors #electioncommissionofindia Thank you for watching our video! You can subscribe to our channel here: https://bit.ly/3c8Adi6 Visit https://www.thehindu.com/ for the latest updates, analysis, opinions, and more. You can also download our apps: Android: https://bit.ly/3nboBEi iOs: https://apple.co/3EDCwt4 The Hindu is committed to keeping you up-to-date with information on the developments in India and the world. We promise to deliver quality journalism that stays away from vested interest and political propaganda. You can support us by subscribing to our digital offerings here: https://bit.ly/3emywiz Follow us: Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_hindu Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_hindu/