16 MARCH 2015: Functioning of parliament improved, says PRS

Ø  Upset by what the government perceives as a snub from the European Union, India has called off plans for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s travel to Brussels during his visit to Europe and Canada next month. The incident could set off a bigger row as the decision comes just as a high-level delegation of EU parliamentarians, including two senior most members of the European Parliament in charge of relations with India, Mr. Geoffrey Van Orden and Ms. Neena Gill, are in India for official meetings and to address trade ties that have been lagging in the past year.

Ø  The current budget session is likely to be the most productive for the Lok Sabha in over a decade, according to official data. Both Houses of Parliament have worked for more than their scheduled time, so far. The Lok Sabha worked for 113 per cent of its scheduled time as of Friday night, Parliament data compiled by the independent, non-partisan research group, PRS Legislative Research shows. This is the most productive it has been since 2002. The Rajya Sabha also worked for more than its sanctioned time — its productivity is at 104 per cent — but has achieved this milestone on a few occasions in the recent past, including the first session of the 16{+t}{+h}Lok Sabha and the first session of the 15{+t}{+h}Lok Sabha. On most days, Parliament was able to start without question hour being disrupted; it functioned for 78 per cent of the time in the Lok Sabha and 98 per cent of the time in the Rajya Sabha. In all, the Lok Sabha passed 20 Bills this session.

Ø  State governments still want to embrace the bicameral system and set up an Upper House or legislative council. These State governments reason that an Upper House will provide a better opportunity for people’s participation in governance and decision-making. The setting up of legislative councils in States has to be cleared by an Act of Parliament. In 2013, Assam and Rajasthan both introduced Bills in Parliament to create legislative councils of 42 and 66 members respectively. They are pending approval after being cleared by standing committees. In January this year, the Odisha government set up a panel to look into the creation of a legislative council while in the current session of Parliament, Andhra Pradesh moved a Bill to increase the number of members in its legislative council from 50 to 58. Currently, only six States follow the bicameral system — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. The parliamentary standing committee reports on the setting up of legislative councils in Assam and Rajasthan recommended that the Central government should evolve a national policy for the creation of an Upper House in State legislatures so that it is not abolished by the incumbent government. This is in recognition of the fact that the issue of setting up legislative councils has become a highly politicised decision. According to Yogendra Narain, former Secretary-General of the Rajya Sabha, this has to do with the growing number of politicians across the country. “Legislative councils are a way to increase the political space. For several parties there is the pressure to accommodate people who cannot be elected and are not nominated to other corporations or State bodies,” 

Ø  More than two years after the Centre set up the high profile Nirbhaya Fund with a corpus of Rs. 1000 crore, only Rs. 200 crore has been allocated so far towards various schemes to ensure women’s safety.

Ø  Noted Gandhian Narayan Desai, known for his rendition of Gandhi Katha – stories on the Mahatma’s life – passed away at a private hospital in Surat on Sunday at the age of 90. In 2004, Mr. Desai started a lecture series on Gandhiji called ‘Gandhi Katha,’ which he took across the world and received much acclaim for it. Mr. Desai was the Chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith from July 23, 2007, but resigned last November. Born in Valsad in Gujarat, he grew up at the Sabarmati Ashram and Sewagram Ashram in Wardha. Inspired by Vinobha Bhave’s Bhoodan movement, Mr. Desai travelled through the State urging the rich to distribute land among the landless. Mr. Desai won the Sahitya Akademi Award for Gujarati in 1993 and the Jamnalal Bajaj Award in 1999 and the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence in 1998. He was also associated with the anti-nuclear movement.

Ø  Top Ministers, bureaucrats and more than a dozen Ambassadors in the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) are meeting for the first time in Odisha to discuss strategic challenges in the region. The participants include External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Information and Technology Minister Ravishankar Prasad, Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman; National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Dobhal Doval and the Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, besides security and strategic affairs experts. The IORA is a regional forum consisting of coastal States bordering the Indian Ocean. The conference — India and the Indian Ocean: International Conference on Renewing the Maritime Trade and Civilisational Linkages — will witness participation of many countries in Bhubaneswar, between March 20 and 22. One of the hosts told The Hindu that the NSA will preside over a close-door session of “at least a dozen Ambassadors.” The objective of the conference is to draw a resolution outlining India’s role, including trade ties and strategic challenges, in the Indian Ocean region. Beijing’s announcement to have a ‘Maritime Silk Road’ in 2013 has “kind of pushed” the organisers to host a conference involving multiple stake-holders. Since China announced a $20 Billion dollar so-called ‘silk route’ project of connecting East Africa, Gulf countries and South East Asia, our concerns have increased.