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Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday underscored the need for uniform standards in the functioning of legislative institutions, calling for greater use of technology for capacity building of legislatures.
Addressing a gathering on the second day of the 86th All India Presiding Officers’ Conference (AIPOC) in Lucknow, Birla said the legislative bodies must strive for excellence through innovation and transparent and citizen-centric processes.
A healthy competition among state legislatures on parameters such as efficiency, adoption of best practices and use of modern technology would significantly strengthen democratic governance in the country, he said.
Also, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh stressed the need for a close coordination between Parliament and state legislatures to ensure an efficient and reliable adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in legislative institutions.
The day-long deliberations focused on three key themes — leveraging technology for transparent and efficient legislative processes, capacity building of legislatures to enhance their effectiveness, and reinforcing the accountability of legislatures towards citizens, officials said.
Birla lauded UP Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana for “incorporating best practices followed by legislatures across the country into their functioning”.
He appreciated the state Assembly’s initiative to recognise the educational qualifications and professional expertise of MLAs and to utilise their strength in the legislative work.
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A committee has been constituted to examine issues related to the standardisation of legislative practices and procedures across the country, he added.
The Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman, who moderated the plenary session, highlighted the growing role of AI in improving the functioning of legislatures. He outlined the steps needed to ensure that AI tools are reliable, ethical and suitable for parliamentary use.
Stressing the practical applications of AI in Parliament, he called for closer coordination between Parliament and state legislatures so that institutional knowledge and technological innovations can be shared effectively.
He also highlighted the need for developing a ‘data lake’ comprising legislative debates, documents and the distinctive parliamentary vocabulary from across the country to train AI models. Parliamentary AI should be trained within legislative institutions using carefully curated data and must function under human oversight, he added.
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“What makes AI suitable for parliamentary use is not merely its algorithmic capability. It is the knowledge on which the technology is trained,” he said, adding that parliamentary knowledge is unique and has evolved over decades through debates, rulings, conventions and constitutional practices.
MPs can access House Business and other administrative documents in the language of their choice, which has been put in place using AI tools, he said.
The conference will conclude on Wednesday.
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