BRICS Parliamentary Forum to meet in Delhi: Om Birla, Pg14

Key Highlights:

• The 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum is scheduled to take place in New Delhi on October 26 and 27.
• The forum's central theme is "Fostering Parliaments for People-Centric Development."
• Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla announced the event, which will feature both bilateral and multilateral discussions.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend the forum.
• Key discussion areas include institutional resilience, ethical artificial intelligence, digital transformation, global governance reform, and sustainable development.
• Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia indicated their inability to participate in the forum.

Detailed Insights:

• The forum aims to strengthen parliamentary diplomacy and facilitate dialogue and consensus-building among BRICS and partner countries.
• It provides a platform for parliamentarians to exchange legislative experiences and best practices on various global challenges.
• The event will be hosted at the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan, the old Parliament building.
• The agenda includes four high-level sessions focusing on resilience, innovation, cooperation, and sustainability.
• Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla clarified that the President holds the constitutional power to summon or prorogue parliamentary sessions, as per Article 85 of the Constitution.
• The Speaker also addressed ongoing discussions regarding potential delimitation legislation and the process for disqualifying Trinamool Congress MPs.

Key Concepts Involved:

• BRICS: An intergovernmental organization comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Indonesia, focused on economic and geopolitical cooperation.
• BRICS Parliamentary Forum: A platform for legislative bodies of BRICS and partner nations to engage in dialogue and enhance cooperation on shared global issues.
• Article 85 of the Constitution: An article in the Indian Constitution that grants the President the power to summon, prorogue, and dissolve Parliament, ensuring regular sessions.
• Delimitation: The process of redrawing the boundaries of parliamentary and assembly constituencies to ensure equitable representation based on population.