FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an indelible ink formulation comprising skin marking stainer composition optionally along with an activator composition to mark the voter's finger instantaneously to prohibit fraudulent voting during elections.
The present invention further relates to a impregnable/diffusing/ permeable/ penetrating skin marking staining compound using a high-tech applicator/ dispenser to mark the voter's finger spontaneously by consuming a minimum quantity of Indelible ink to prohibit fraudulent voting during elections.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The problem of casting votes by fraudulent means has been a matter of great concern by almost all the Government and civic agencies around the world. To avoid fraudulent voting the finger of a voter is generally marked with an indelible ink prior or after the voting. In some of the cases even the finger or thumb of voter is dipped in the container containing the stain marking indelible ink. The markedstain on the finger should be clearly visible and should not be easily erasable by bleaching powder solution, alcohol, light detergent, vim powder, rectified spirit, Petroleum hydrocarbon and trichloroethylene ( i.e. by chemical manipulations). The indelible ink mark helps the voting monitoring committee to identify the person having voted earlier and prevent the voter to proxy vote again. The voting process now a days spans several days and even for a month from one state to another and it becomes necessary that the black stains.
References may be made to Indian Patent application No. 051/DEL/1982, wherein the indelible ink being used should persist for that period of time and should not be easily erasable to mark the finger in elections are
premixed solution of silver nitrate, violet dye potassium bromide and alcohol in water. The ink when applied to voter's finger leaves a violet color of the dye immediately which in turn becomes dark brown black inan hour or so. The coloration which appears because of silver nitrates clearly visible, semi- permanent (i.e. remains so for 3-10 days on skin part and for about 3-20 days for nails) has the several following shortcomings:
a) Takes a longer time to impart a brown black stain on a finger.
b) The stainer comes out by the acetone, common detergent, bleaching powder solution, vim powder etc.
c) The penetration depth of the solution in the skin is very low.
d) The contrast is very low on a person with dark complexion.
e) The shelf life of the material is limited.
f) Shipping/transportation is dangerous because of use of solvent such as alcohol. References may be made to US Patent application No. 10/238068, wherein a method for marking a semi-permanent mark on an individual body comprises preparing a marking solution containing ninhydrin in water to provide a solution having a ninhydrin (concentration of about 2 % to 3% by weight) and applying the resulting solution to a finger. The marking of a ninhydrin solution gives a blue-violet stain on the finger which appears in 10-15 minutes. A small quantity of compatible dye, such as Rhodamine is also added to the marking solution to produce an intermediate though less permanent light magenta stain. This invention suffers from the disadvantage of large time being taken to impart a stain on the finger, the contrast is very poor on the black complexion person, and the instantaneous stain of Rhodamine dye can be erased by the use of common chemical solvents, light detergents and alcohols.
References may be made to US Patent application No. 11/494236, wherein a ready to use skin marking stain/applicator. Inhibit voter fraud requiring the addition of water in a container having stain producing compound disposed therein. Thus compound formulation of silver nitrate, ninhydrin (2-3%) and Rhodamine dye in water is used to produce a within relatively short time (10-20 mm), a semi - permanent highly visible, stain on thefinger. The compound used in giving the stain on the finger is Rhodamine dye, ninhydrin and silver nitrate. The Rhodamine dye used gives an instant marking which can be erased by the use of bleaching compounds and vim powder. The ninhydrin takes the fairly sufficient time (10-20 min) to impress a stain on the body and the silver nitrate takes a comparatively much longer time (1 hour) to impart a black stain. This invention suffers from the disadvantage of sufficient time being taken to impart the semi-permanent stain, erasure by chemical manipulations like bleaching compound, vim powder, detergents, acetone etc. The shelf life of the solution is limited; the contrast is poor on black complexion and is not penetrating into skin so it can be scrubbed by mechanical manipulations.
The indelible inks presently being used worldwide to prohibit fraudulent voting in election are i) premixed solution of silver nitrate, violet dye, potassium bromide and alcohol in water, ii) solution of ninhydrin in water and iii) solution of ninhydrin and silver nitrate in

We claim
1. An indelible ink formulation comprising a stainer composition optionally along with an
activator composition wherein
i. a distilled water based stainer composition comprising a stainer ranging between 20 to 75% optionally along with a dye ranging between 0.01 to 6% and alcohol ranging between 1.0 to 5.0% of distilled water used and;
ii. a distilled water based activator composition comprising a surfactant ranging between 0.5 to 4.0%, a conditioner ranging between 0.5 to 5.0% optionally along with colorant in the range of 0.02 to 1.5% and alcohol in the range of 1.0 to 40% of distilled water used.
2. The indelible ink formulation as claimed in claim l(i), wherein stainer used is selected from the group consisting of silver nitrate, ammonium nitrate, sodium nitrate, auric nitrate or potassium nitrate.
3. The indelible ink formulation as claimed in claim l(i), wherein dye used is selected from the group consisting of Gentian violet , methyl violet, crystal violet, Rhodamine 6G, Rhodamine B, metanil yellow, savannah yellow, methyl yellow, auramine, Basic violet, UV blue D-282, FD&C Blue No. 1, coumarin derivatives, ninhydrin, nitramine, stilbene or its analogs.
4. The indelible ink formulation as claimed in claim l(ii), wherein surfactants used is selected from the group consisting of sodium lauryl sulphate, α-olifinic sulphate, citrimide, quaternary ammonium salt of long chain bromide group, Triton X-100, Triton X-200, Triton X-300, Triton X-400 and its analogs.
5. The indelible ink formulation as claimed in claim l(ii), wherein the conditioner used is selected from the group consisting of glutraldehyde, formaldehyde, sodium benzoate, glyoxal, hydrazine hydrate, hydrazine sulphate, hydrazine citrate or hydrazine tartrate.
6. The indelible ink formulation as claimed in claim l(ii), wherein the colorant used is selected from the group consisting of Gentian violet , methyl violet, crystal violet, Rhodamine 6G, Rhodamine B, Magenta, metanil yellow, Auramine, Basic violet, UV blue D-282, stilbene or its analogs.
7. The indelible ink formulation as claimed in claim l(i and ii), wherein the alcohol used is ethyl alcohol.
8. The indelible ink formulation as claimed in claim 1, wherein said formulation is useful
for instantaneous stain marking on the finger of a voter in the elections for inhibiting fraudulent voting.
9. The indelible ink formulation as claimed in claim 1, wherein stain can be marked on the front side of the finger or on the back side of the finger preferably on front side of the finger.
10. The indelible ink formulation as claimed in claim 1, wherein activator solution and stainer solution requirement per vote is in the range of 9 to 11µl and in the range of 0.1 to 1 µl respectively to give significant marking on a finger.
11. The indelible ink formulation as claimed in claim 1, wherein the initial blue stain is due to dye which appears in 1 second to 1 minute, the intermediate stain violet-blue appears in 3-10 minutes and the final dark brown-black color appears in 5-20 minutes.
12. The indelible ink formulation as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said formulation react with the skin proteins to penetrate spontaneously leaving a black, semi-permanent, high contrast stain on the skin which inhibits erasure by chemical and mechanical manipulations.