PRS Legislative Research
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PRS Legislative Research is a not-for-profit research initiative that aims to strengthen the legislative debate by making it better informed, more transparent and participatory, mainly through summaries of Bills. "The group 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."[1] PRS is the first initiative of its kind in India.
PRS seeks to build strong professional relationships with political parties and Members of Parliament across party lines. 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 for free on the PRS website (see external links).[2] Additionally, data sets complied about the work of the parliament is freely shared with others.[3]
PRS for the time being is a six-person team, financed by the Ford Foundation.[1] The "institutional anchor" is a collaboration with 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.[2] Director of PRS is CV Madhukar, who told Mint (newspaper) about his motivation: "'Indian elections are so personality driven, not policy driven,' he said. 'My emotional reaction was to ask: how do you get more substance on policy and performance into our election debates?'".[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c C.V. Madhukar: His work on Bills makes it easy for MPs to take part in debates
- ^ a b About Us on the PRS homepage
- ^ Women at the bottom The Telegraph (Calcutta) Sunday, July 29, 2007
