PRS Legislative Research

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PRS Legislative Research (PRS) is a not-for-profit, non-partisan research initiative based in New Delhi, India. It aims to strengthen the legislative debate by making it better informed, more transparent and participatory. Founded in 2005, PRS is the first initiative of its kind in India.

Contents

[edit] Background

Each Member of Parliament (MP) in India represents over two million constituents.[1] Each year, the Indian Parliament passes an average of 60 Bills. Thus, MPs are required to legislate on a range of issues over a short period of time. In such a context, support for their work in Parliament becomes essential to help them make better informed decisions. However, there is no dedicated research staff or institutional support for each MP.

[edit] Research Services and Activities

[edit] Research Support to MPs

PRS boils down 40-page Bills into four-to-six pages of bullet points and analysis, stripped of legalese and partisanship. They highlight key points and provide context—the product of a month of research and interviews with stakeholders, outside experts and the government officials who drafted the Bills.[2] These Legislative Briefs channelise diverse stakeholder inputs for a better understanding of issues.

In its research, PRS makes no recommendations and is guided by the principle of non-partisanship. Since its inception, PRS has directly briefed MPs from over 20 political parties from both the treasury and opposition benches.[3]

[edit] Tracking Parliament

PRS collates detailed data and information about parliamentary activity. It prepares detailed reports providing timely updates about business in Parliament before and after each session. It also enables citizens to track the activity of their MPs in Parliament through an MP track tool.[4]

[edit] Citizens Engagement

Additionally, the initiative is also making significant efforts to reach out to the citizen sector, the corporate sector and the Press. The briefs (about bills) are sent to all the MPs, about 700 journalists and 1,000 non-governmental organizations around the country. The briefs are available free on the PRS website.[5] Additionally, data sets complied about the work of the parliament is freely shared with others.[6]

[edit] Laws of India Project

PRS has launched a website providing a searchable database for laws from different states of India. Laws of India enables users to search, download and compare laws on different subjects across states.

[edit] LAMP Fellowship

The Legislative Assistants to Members of Parliament (LAMP) Fellowship is a unique program offered to Indian students to expose them to parliamentary framework and policy making at national level. The LAMP Fellowship places one legislative assistant to work with one MP for a period of 11 months.

[edit] About PRS

Currently, PRS is a twelve-person team, financed by the Ford Foundation and Google. The "institutional anchor" is the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, an autonomous institution set up in 1973 with the objective of studying major policy issues before the nation and suggesting alternative policy options.[7] CV Madhukar is the Founder Director of PRS.

[edit] Media on PRS

[edit] Articles by the PRS team

[edit] Articles citing PRS

[edit] References

  1. ^ Singh, Nirvikar (2003). "Some Economic Consequences of India's Institutions of Governance: A Conceptual Framework". Recent Work: Santa Cruz Centre for International Economics (UC Santa Cruz). Retrieved 2012-04-17. 
  2. ^ C.V. Madhukar: His work on Bills makes it easy for MPs to take part in debates
  3. ^ About Us on the PRS Website
  4. ^ MP Track on the PRS website
  5. ^ PRS Website
  6. ^ Media section on the PRS Website
  7. ^ CPR website

[edit] External links

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