Thursday, December 14, 2017

Sansad Ratna Awards 2018 - Guidelines for Awards

Sansad Ratna Awards 2018 - Guidelines


The 9th Edition of Sansad Ratna Awards 2018 function will be held at IIT Madras during May-June 2018.  The Awards are instituted by the eMagazine PreSense and Prime Point Foundation.  There are seven categories of Awards for Lok Sabha and two categories for Rajya Sabha.  Awardees will be selected by a Jury Committee of eminent Parliamentarians, based on the various performance parameters.  

This is the only Award to honour outstanding Indian Parliamentarians presented by the Civil Society. 

Lok Sabha Awards

1.    Topper in Debates (only original initiated debates)
2.    Topper in Private Members Bills
3.    Topper in Questions
4.    Topper for overall tally in debates, Private Members Bills and Questions
5.    Topper in overall tally among the first time MPs
6.    Topper in overall tally among the women MPs
7.    Two MPs under Jury Committee’s discretion for the Quality of debates and participation.

Rajya Sabha Awards

1.    Topper in overall tally among the Rajya Sabha MPs, retired in 2017 (Jan to Dec)
2.    Topper in overall tally among women Rajya Sabha MPs retired in 2017 (Jan to Dec)

Other Additional Parameters

Lok Sabha Members

In addition to being topper, they should comply with the following conditions:
1.  70% attendance in the House
2.  70% attendance in the Committee Meetings (at least two Committees)
3.  50% spend in the MPLAD (as recorded in the website)
4.  Should be within the top 10 for overall tally (except for the Women category and for nominees under Jury Committee discretion)
5.  If a Member is eligible under more than one category, he will be given only one Award with the mention of all other categories. 
6.  If there is no eligible member under any category, there will not be any nomination for this year under that category. 

Rajya Sabha Members

1.  Topper among the retirees, who have completed 6 years and retired in 2017, for overall  tally: (Debates + Private Members Bills + Questions).  No other additional parameters.

Stages in the Selection Process

1.  The performance data relating to the period from the first session of 16th Lok Sabha till the end of Budget Session 2018 will be considered for the Award.  The data is provided by Lok Sabha Secretariat and PRS India.
2.  Based on the performance parameters, the Jury Committee will nominate the MPs for Award.
3. Nominees will be informed confidentially by the Awards Committee. The nominees will be requested to accept the nomination before a specified date.  The Awards will be presented in the presence of eminent citizens and Media at IIT Madras in May/June 2018.
4.  If the nominated MP does not respond or does not accept, the next qualifying MP will be nominated for the Award.
5. Announcement of the Awardees will be made only after the nominees acknowledge and accept the Award personally at Chennai.

Data sources:

For performance data:  PRS India site www.prsindia.org (A separate data sheet, excluding the associated matters, received from PRS India, will be uploaded by us for reference)

For Committee Meetings:

For MPLADS

Jury Committee for Selection of Award Winners (Sansad Maha Ratna Awardees of 15th Lok Sabha)

Shri Anandrao Adsul MP - Chairman
Shri Hansraj G Ahir , Hon'ble MOS (Home)
Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Hon MOS (Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources)

(The Jury Committee has the right to modify/amend/relax any eligibility condition depending on the other parameters.  The decision of Jury Committee is final and binding.)

We will be posting updates on the website www.sansadratna.in
For more details mail to sansadratna@gmail.com

Sansad Ratna Awards Committee 2018

Jury Committee Members: (Sansad Maha Ratna Awardees of 15th Lok Sabha)

Shri Anandrao Adsul MP - Chairman
Shri Hansraj G Ahir , Hon'ble MOS (Home)
Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Hon MOS (Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources)

Patron:

Shri T S Krishna Murthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India

Principal Office bearers

President
Prime Point Srinivasan
Executive President
Bhawanesh Deora
Vice Presidents
Venugopalan Mohan

N V Kannan

Nurullah

Bhoopathy Narayanaswamy
Convenor and Secretary
Ramesh Sethuraman
Secretary Coordination
Prithvi GA
Treasurer
N Rajaji

Committee Members:

15 Members representing the civil society from different profession.

Sub Committee for analysis of Parliament data to select the awardees (Data will be placed before the Jury Committee)

Chairman:

Srinivasa Prabhu (Senior official at Lok Sabha Secretariat)

Members:

Dr R Jagannathan (Former Vice Chancellor of Middle East University UAE)
Dr Sudarshan Padmanabhan (Associate Professor IIT Madras)

Deepa Seshadri (Chartered Accountant and Big Data analyst)+

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Review of performance of MPs till the end of Monsoon Session 2017 (12th Session) of 16th Lok Sabha


Overall performance of Lok Sabha

The twelfth session (Monsoon Session 2017) of the 16th Lok Sabha was held between 17th July 2017 and 11th August 2017.  During the 19 sittings of the twelfth session, the Lok Sabha conducted business for 76 hours and 41 minutes. During this Session, the Lok Sabha lost 29 hours and 57 minutes due to interruptions and forced adjournments.  However, the Lok Sabha sat late for 10 hours and 36 minutes to complete the business.   

During this session, 17 Bills were introduced and 14 Bills were passed. 281 matters were raised under Rule 377 and 252 matters during ‘Zero Hour’.  382 Starred Questions and 4370 Unstarred Questions were admitted during this Session.  

The 16th Lok Sabha started their business on 1st June 2014.  Till 11th August 2017, 245 sittings were held in 12 sessions.  PreSense analyses the cumulative performance of Members from the first session to the twelfth session.

Top 5 Performers of 16th Lok Sabha

Shri Shrirang Appa Barne, Shiv Sena MP from Maharashtra has been maintaining the first position every year since the beginning.  He has been receiving Sansad Ratna Awards for the past three years.  
As readers are aware, the Sansad Ratna Awards was instituted by this ezine PreSense in 2010.

Shri Rajeev Shankarrao Satav (Cong), Shri Dhananjay Bhimarao Mahadik (NCP) and Shri Shivaji Adhalrao Patil (SS) were also recipients of the Sansad Ratna Awards in the past. 

It may be noted that all the top 5 performers are from Maharashtra.   

Performance of Members State-wise

The National Average of Debates, Private Members Bills and Questions is 235 till the end of twelfth session.  Only 5 major states are above national average. Many states are below the national average. The performance of Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Karnataka improved.  West Bengal has been consistently showing poor performance. (West Bengal’s average 82 compared to national average of 235).

Performance of Members Political Party-wise

Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are doing extremely well with less number of members.  This has helped Maharashtra to gain the first position among all states.  Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party have shown extremely poor performance in the 16th Lok Sabha.  

The poor performance of Trinamool Congress with 37 members has pulled down the performance of West Bengal. 

Performance of Members Gender-wise

(Ministers are not included in the data)

With only 61 members, the women members, as a group, compare well with their male counterparts.  

Performance of Celebrity Members


Some popular film stars and sports persons were nominated by the ruling parties to contest in the Lok Sabha elections, or as members in Rajya Sabha.   These celebrities enjoy the perquisites and the privileges of Members of Parliament.  Among the celebrities, Kirti Azad and Hema Malini perform  well. 
A time has come to review and reconsider celebrity nominations to parliament based on their performance. While the celebs are nominated at the cost of public money, they are deviating from their main duty of representing the people’s cause.  Besides being poor performers, celebrities such as Sachin Tendulkar and Rekha scarcely  attend the Rajya Sabha Sessions.

The ruling Government should analyse the individual performance of celebrities and stop nominating them to Parliament, wasting the public money.  

By K. Srinivasan, Editor-in-Chief, PreSense
(Source: August 2017 edition of ezine PreSense)

Data Courtesy:  Lok Sabha website and PRS India

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Performance of celebrities in Parliament till the end of Monsoon Session 2017

Performance of our celebrities in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha till the end of Monsoon Session 2017 (till 11th August 2017). If the celebrities cannot perform in the Parliament, do we need to nominate them. The parties in power may nominate people who can contribute more to Parliament proceedings.

Performance of various states, political parties will be posted here tomorrow. This is part of the article to be published in our August 2017 issue of ezine PreSense.

Friday, June 9, 2017

Sansad Ratna Award function 2017 - At a glance - 14 minute video podcast

Sansad Ratna Awardees 2017
On 27 May 2017, 8th Edition of Sansad Ratna Award ceremony was held at Indian Institute of Technology Madras to honour the top performing Parliamentarians of 16th Lok Sabha (up to 10th session). Justice (Retd.) Shri  P. Sathasivam, Hon'ble Governor of Kerala presented the Awards. 

Shri Bhartruhari Mahtab, Shri N.K. Premachandran, Shri Shrirang Barne, Shri Rajiv Satav, Shri Dhananjay Mahadik, Dr Heena Gavit, Shri Sanjay Raut, K. N. Balagopal and Dr. T. N. Seema were honoured with Sansad Ratna Awards.

Hon'ble Union Minister of State (Finance & CA) Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal presided over the function.  This 14 minute podcast video gives the glimpse of the Award function. 

Sansad Ratna Awards 2017 - Photographs and videos of the entire proceedings

The above event was held at IIT Madras on 27th May 2017.  Nine MPs were honoured with Sansad Ratna Awards 2017.  Hon'ble Justice (Retd.) Shri P Sathasivam, The Governor of Kerala presented the Awards.  Shri Arjun Ram meghwal, Hon'ble Union Minister of State (Finance & CA) presided over the event.  Besides there were presentations and panel discussions on subjects of National significance with eminent policy makers and experts.    The links for the photographs and the videos are given below.

All Photographs (Images in jpeg format)

Welcome speech by K. Srinivasan, Chairman, Prime Point Foundation

Felicitation by Shri PP Chaudhary, Hon'ble MOS (Law & Justice)

Key Note address by Prof. Krishnan Balasubrmanian, Dean, IC&SR, IIT Madras

Presidential Address by Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Hon'ble MOS (Finance & CA)

Award Presentation Ceremony

Address by Hon'ble Justice (Retd.) Shri P Sathasivam, The Governor of Kerala

Vote of Thanks by Dr Sudarshan Padmanabhan, Associate Professor, IIT Madras

Interactive Session with Award winning Parliamentarians

Panel Discussion I - National Vision 2022 - Agriculture

Panel Discussion II - Tamil Nadu Vision 2022

Friday, June 2, 2017

Sansad Ratna Awards – A Game Changer in Politics, Waiting to Bloom to International Recognition




It is rare to find an idea that is floated, to transcend the dream stage and become a reality within no time. I remember what the South Korean Electronics giant, LG Electronics’ world-wide Chairman, Kim once told me in an interview: “Everyone has ideas from ordinary to brilliant. Not everyone is able to translate them into action. Those who succeed in translating their ideas into reality are the heroes at the end of the day.”

This kept ringing in my ears when I looked at the success of the NGO, Prime Point Foundation, its editorial arm, PreSense, and the team that propelled the Sansad Ratna Awards into an unparalleled position in polity. It was the initiative of an idea floated by the then President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, “why not honour the peoples’ representatives for the good work they do for their voters, constituencies and public at large?”

Dr Kalam had a point. The public in general seemed to have a wrong notion about parliamentarians as people who never bothered about their constituencies or voters, once they were elected into the Parliament. Many doubted their integrity too. Indian films – be they Hindi, Tamil or Telugu – only reinforce these ideas about the politicians on the celluloid screen, for private profit through box office. However, it is probably true for only a miniscule section of politicians. A large majority of politicians work hard for their constituencies.

So, it was no mean task when a small group of people from the Prime Point Foundation, present there with Dr Kalam, began working on that seed of an idea from Dr Kalam, racking their brains on how to implement such a gigantic scheme against all odds.

Things started falling in place slowly. The PRS India helped with the data on the parliamentarians’ performance in terms of raising questions, participation in discussions and debates. Then came the process of selection based on the PRS data. The PRS data served as a valuable reference point to select the candidates on merit. Over the initial years, the first among the award winners were experienced politicians and parliamentarians, viz. Sarvashri Anandrao Adsul of the Shiv Sena party, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Hansraj Ahir of the Bharatiya Janatha Party. Shri Adsul is the leader of his political party in the parliament, and both Shri Meghwal and Shri Ahir have since become Ministers of State for Finance and Home respectively.

The three senior Parliamentarians then became the jury for selection of future award winners among the Parliamentarians. It is a matter of great pride to note that the process of selection of the candidates by the jury, based on the PRS data, is completely transparent with credibility attributed to it. Thus, Prime Point Foundation became the pioneer in the implementation of this unique awards scheme that recognised performing Parliamentarians.

It was soon felt that the Sansad Ratna Awards needed a co-partner of national stature, and a venue of pre-eminence to make the Sansad Ratna Awards more noticeable at the national level, and to enthuse the younger lot of parliamentarians to set higher benchmarks in performance in both the Houses of Parliament.

IIT Madras, which now ranks as the best engineering institution in the country and the second best as an institution of excellence after the Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru, was more than willing to partner Prime Point Foundation in this initiative. There was no looking back thereafter, and the Foundation has mastered the art of organisation, protocol and other issues connected with a big event.

From a mere presentation of awards’ ceremony, the event also became a platform for meaningful discussions where eminent politicians, journalists and celebrities from various spheres gathered to discuss issues of governance, democracy and the politics. There were at least two sessions of panel discussions, one focusing on national issues and the other at a regional level governing the state.

The Sansad Ratna Awards has successfully grown from an idea into an institution of credibility, integrity and strength, where the civil society recognises the people’s representatives who do good work for the people at large in a democratic state. In 2010, it was an idea. By 2017, more than 50 Members of Parliament over the span of the past seven years, have been honoured for their good work. It is now a matter of time that the Sansad Ratna Awards will break national barriers, and gain international recognition for its founders, the Prime Point Foundation.


By TN Ashok, Editorial Advisor, PreSense

Sansad Ratna Awards 2017 - 9 MPs honoured - A Detailed report


Award winning MPs with Hon’ble Governor: L to R : Shrirang Appa BArne, Bartruhari Mahtab, Arjun Ram Meghwal (MoS), Justice (Retd) P Sathasivam (Hon’ble Governor of Kerala), N K Premachandran, K N Balagopal, Dr T N Seema, Rajeev Shankarrao Satav, Dhananjay Mahadik, Dr Heena V Gavit
Award winning MPs with Hon’ble Governor: L to R : Shrirang Appa BArne, Bartruhari Mahtab, Arjun Ram Meghwal (MoS), Justice (Retd) P Sathasivam (Hon’ble Governor of Kerala), N K Premachandran, K N Balagopal, Dr T N Seema, Rajeev Shankarrao Satav, Dhananjay Mahadik, Dr Heena V Gavit
The 8th Edition of the Sansad Ratna Awards 2017 and the 6th Edition of the National Seminar on Politics, Democracy and Governance was held in the prestigious IIT Madras campus on Saturday, May 27th, 2017. It was a day-long event of presentation lectures, awards and panel discussions, interspersed with addresses by eminent dignitaries to the function.

Presentation on Indian Parliamentary System

Dr M R Madhavan, President, PRS Legislative Research
Dr M R Madhavan
The morning started early with people filing in for registration at least an hour before the commencement of the event. Before the first item of the day’s programme was due, the auditorium was fast filling up with people from different academic and professional backgrounds. The stage was set for the first presentation by Shri M R Madhavan, President of PRS Legislative Research, Delhi. He made an hour-long interactive presentation on “Making the Indian Parliament More Effective”. He concluded the session, proposing some ideas for deliberation to make better sense of governance by the Parliament.

Presentation on Journalism
Mukund Padmanabhan, Editor, The Hindu
Shri Mukund Padmanabhan
The second one-hour presentation was by Shri Mukund Padmanabhan, Editor of the prestigious daily newspaper, The Hindu. He spoke about the current and much speculated topic of “Journalism: New Challenges and Threats”.

The prime point of the event was the session that followed – The Sansad Ratna Awards 2017 function. The front row of the audience section of the auditorium was already decorated with the presence of Parliamentarians from across the country and across all main political parties. They were the award-winning candidates for their top performance in the just concluded Parliament session. The Honourable Minister of State for Finance and one of the members of the Jury that selected the award winners, Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal too had arrived. The other two Jury members, who were also veteran Parliamentarians, were conspicuous by their absence due to exigencies.

Presentation of Sansad Ratna 2017 Awards

Soon after a brief tea-break, the Chief Guest, Justice (Retired) Shri P.Sathasivam, Honourable Governor of Kerala arrived on the dot to take his seat on the dais, with the Central Minister and the associated team members of the Sansad Ratna Team, led by Shri K.Srinivasan, popularly known as Prime Point Srinivasan. The session kickstarted with the National Anthem, followed by the welcome address by Shri K.Srinivasan, who spoke about the need for a proactive role of the civil society, and the innovative work Parliamentarians could do in their respective constituencies. Shri P. P.Chaudhary, Honourable Minister of State for Law & Justice, who could not make it to the event, compensated for his absence by sending across a video recording of his message for the occasion. This was played for the benefit of those present at the event.

Prof Krishnan Balasubramanian, Dean of IIT Madras, which were co-partners with Prime Point Foundation and the ezine, PreSense, delivered the keynote address. He spoke of the role of IIT in participating in the nation’s economic development through projects with innovative technology that are economical and energy-saving.

The presidential address was presented by the Honourable Minister, Shri Meghwal. In his speech, he lauded the high benchmark laid by the award-winning Parliamentarians and he made a special mention of the Parliamentarian recipients of the Jury’s Special “Sansad Ratna Award 2017”. He appreciated the quality of their performance in the Parliament. Shri Meghwal also dwelt on the pivotal and pioneering role of Prime Point Foundation under Shri K.Srinivasan, who translated an innovative idea into reality with the institution of the Sansad Ratna Awards.

This session was selected for honouring Shri M.R.Madhavan as President of PRS Legislative Research for the outstanding work contributed by the institution to the Parliament, and to the civil society through its data collection, analysis and collation. He was awarded a citation by the Chief Guest. The Members of Parliament were then called to the stage individually to receive their respective citations. The awards were presented to them by the Chief Guest, the Honourable Governor. The achievements of the individual MPs were announced as each of them stepped forward onto the stage to receive the award. This was followed by a photo session of the MPs with the Governor and the Minister.

The Chief Guest, Justice (Retd) Shri Sathasivam then took to the podium to deliver his inaugural address. He applauded the successful Parliamentarians. As the performing Parliamentarians were also evaluated by their utilisation of the funds under MPLADS (Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme), Shri Sathasivam shared the story of how the relevance of the scheme of MPLADS was deliberated upon by a panel of judges where he solely supported it and convinced the panel to approve the plan.

At the conclusion of his address, the Chief Guest was presented a memento of books by Shri Meghwal. The session wound up with a Vote of Thanks by Dr S. Padmanabhan, Associate Professor, IIT Madras, and the National Anthem, before the Governor exited from the auditorium.

Interaction Session with Award Winning Parliamentarians

Interactive session with Sansad Ratna Awardees 201
Interactive session with Sansad Ratna Awardees 2017
The final one-hour session before lunch was an interactive session with the MPs, when the MPs answered questions about their special achievements in their respective constituencies. The session was moderated by Dr Bhawanesh Deora, Secretary, Sansad Ratna Awards Committee, Shri Ramesh Sethuraman, Additional Secretary of the Awards Committee. Shri V.Rajendran, member of PreSense Editorial Team, assisted in translation of Hindi to English to Hindi, where necessary.

Honouring Social Worker

Shri Natarajan Raman of Dream India, an NGO associated with the education of government school children, and adults, was honoured with a citation for his outstanding social service, by the Honourable Minister. The morning session concluded with the presentation of mementos to the team and volunteers who worked for the event, and a photo session. 

Panel Discussion on National Vision 2022 – Agriculture


Panelists  - L to R : S S Rajasekar, Rajendra Singh, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss MP and S Ranganathan
Panelists  - L to R : S S Rajasekar, Rajendra Singh, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss MP and S Ranganathan

The post-lunch session was a panel discussion on a topic of national relevance captioned “National Vision 2022 – Agriculture”. Susan Koshy, Editor, PreSense introduced the panel of speakers. The panel was chaired by Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, MP. The other panellists included Shri Rajendra Singh, activist and popularly known as the “Waterman of India”, Shri S.Ranganathan, General Secretary, Tamil Nadu Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Welfare Association, and Shri S.S.Rajasekar, Managing Trustee of National Agro Foundation. The salient points discussed were the relevance of traditional knowledge in crop cultivation, regulating the market to give the fair share to the farmer, and incorporating modern technology in the traditional process of agriculture to bring optimum yield to the advantage of farmers and the economy.

Panel Discussion on Tamil Nadu Vision 2022

Panelists: L to R – PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan MLA, R Nataraj MLA, Dr Mariazeena Johnson and K T Raghavan
Panelists: L to R – PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan MLA, R Nataraj MLA, Dr Mariazeena Johnson and K T Raghavan
The final session was the second panel discussion on “Tamil Nadu Vision 2022”. The panel was chaired by Dr Mariazeena Johnson, Pro-Chancellor, Sathyabama University. The other panellists were Shri R.Nataraj MLA, IPS (Retired) of the AIADMK Party, Shri PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan MLA (DMK) and Shri K.T.Raghavan, State Secretary of BJP. The panel was introduced by Shri R.Nurullah, Vice-President of the Sansad Ratna Awards Committee. The panellists deliberated on the inefficiency of the current bureaucratic system, and the lack of vision in the political system of the state. The extent of corruption was instrumental in most of the potential industries moving away from Tamil Nadu to other states. It was strongly endorsed by the panel that until and unless a genuine sense of patriotism is imbibed, there would always be a gap between vision and implementation of a progressive Tamil Nadu.


The day’s event came to a conclusion with the National Anthem. The partners for the event were Sathyabama University and Canara Bank..

The video clippings of the entire proceeding are available at www.yutube.com/prpoint and also in www.sansadratna.in

By Susan Koshy, Editor, PreSense
(This is the cover story in the May 2017 issue of ezine PreSense)



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