New Delhi, 15 January (H.S.): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 28th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) today at the historic Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan, convening 61 Speakers and Presiding Officers from 42 Commonwealth nations alongside representatives from four semi-autonomous parliaments.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, serving as conference chairperson, will preside over the three-day gathering from January 14-16, which commenced yesterday with a Standing Committee meeting under his leadership and features informal interactions between PM Modi and delegates.

This premier forum seeks to fortify parliamentary democracy through knowledge exchange, best practice dissemination, and institutional fortification across diverse Commonwealth legislature's.

Cutting-Edge Agenda Addresses Modern Challenges

Delegates will deliberate pressing contemporary issues, commencing with the pivotal role of Speakers in upholding robust democratic frameworks, followed by sessions on artificial intelligence integration in legislative operations, social media's multifaceted impact on parliamentarians, and pioneering tactics to amplify public comprehension of parliamentary processes alongside citizen engagement transcending mere electoral participation.

Additional workshops explore security protocols for legislatures, MPs' health and wellbeing, consensus-building mechanisms under presiding officers' guidance, and youth-gender sensitive parliamentary inclusivity, reflecting CSPOC's mandate to evolve practices amid technological and societal flux.

These discourse threads underscore India's vanguard positioning in harmonizing tradition with innovation during its stewardship of this quinquennial conclave.

Post-conference, Om Birla will ceremonially transfer CSPOC chairmanship to UK's House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, capping India's tenure that amplifies its stature within the 56-member Commonwealth fraternity spanning over 2.5 billion citizens.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar