INDIAN PARLIAMENTARY GROUP ANNUAL REPORT 2017 – 2018 S E A L LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT NEW DELHI December, 2018 Sl.No. P CONTENTS Page(s) A INTRODUCTORY 1 R 2. Composition of the Executive Committee 2 T 3. Treasurer and Members of the Executive Committee 2 4. Auditor 2 - PART - I INTER PARLIAMENTARY UNION (IPU) RELATED ACTIVITIES A STATUTORY ASSEMBLIES HELD UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION (IPU) I 136th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union held in Dhaka, 3 Bangladesh in April, 2017 II Australasian Council of Public Accounts Committee Biennial 4 Conference held in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on 19-21 April, 2017 III Regional Meeting of Young Parliamentarians of the Asia-Pacific 5 held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 25-26 April, 2017 IV Regional Seminar on the SDGs for the Parliaments in the Asia- 5 Pacific Region held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on 11-13 May, 2017 V Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Asian Parliamentary 6 Assembly (APA) held in Abu Dhabi, UAE on 21-24 May, 2017 VI Intermediate Working Meeting of the Co-rapporteurs of the Third 6 Standing Committee of IPU held in Geneva, Switzerland on 1-2 June, 2017 VII Second Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries Parliaments 6 held in Seoul, Korea on 26-28 June, 2017 VIII Meeting of Standing Committee on Social and Cultural Affairs of 7 Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) held in Thimphu, Bhutan on 31 August to 2 September, 2017 IX World Parliamentary Forum on Sustainable Development held in 7 Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia on 5 – 7 September, 2017 X 38th General Assembly of ASEAN Inter Parliamentary Assembly 8 held in Manila, Philippines on 14-20 September, 2017 XI Meetings of (i) 39th Session of the Steering Committee of 8 Parliamentary Conference on the WTO; (ii) Parliamentary Session within the framework of WTO Public Forum 2017; and (iii) WTO Public Forum 2017 held in Geneva, Switzerland on 26- 28 September, 2017 XII First Executive Council Meeting of Asian Parliamentary 8 Assembly (APA) held in Phnom Penh (Kingdom of Cambodia) on 1 – 4 October, 2017 XIII 137th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) held in St. 9 Petersburg, Russian Federation on 14-18 October, 2017 XIV Fourth Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians held in 10 Ottawa, Canada on 17-18 November, 2017 XV 10th Plenary Session and 2nd Executive Council's Meeting of 11 Asian Parliamentary Assembly in Istanbul, Turkey on 21-24 November, 2017 XVI International Parliamentary Conference in Astana, Kazakhstan 11 on 27 November, 2017 XVII Parliamentarian Against Drugs held in Moscow, Russian 11 Federation on 4 December, 2017 XVIII Annual 2017 Session of the Parliamentary Conference on the 11 WTO, Buenos Aires, Argentina on 9 – 10 December, 2017 XIX 138th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) held in 12 Geneva, Switzerland on 24 to 28 March, 2018 B CONTRIBUTION TO THE CENTRAL FUNDS OF THE 13 INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION PART – II COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENTARY ASSOCIATION (CPA) RELATED EVENTS I The UK CPA Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop on Modern 14 Slavery in London from 25 to 28 April, 2017 II The CPA Mid-Year Executive Meeting in Darwin, Australia from 14 23 to 28 April, 2017 III The CPA Fundamental Programme on Parliamentary Practice 15 and Procedure, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa from 22 to 28 May, 2017 IV The UK CPA Election Assessment Mission for UK General 15 Election in London, United Kingdom from 3 to 10 June, 2017 V The 14th CPA Canadian Parliamentary Seminar in Ottawa from 15 15 to 21 October, 2017 VI The 63rd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Dhaka, 16 Bangladesh from 1 to 8 November, 2017 VII The 24th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the 18 Commonwealth (CSPOC) in Victoria, Seychelles from 8 to 13 January, 2018 VIII The 6th Conference of CPA India Region in Patna, Bihar from 16 19 to 19 February, 2018 IX The Commonwealth Parliamentarians' Forum in London from 26 20 February to 1 March, 2018 X The Mid-Year Meeting of the CPA Executive Committee in 22 Mauritius from 21 to 24 March, 2018 ANNUAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE COMMONWEALTH 22 PARLIAMENTARY ASSOCIATION PART – III BILATERAL EXCHANGES AND OTHER EVENTS I FOREIGN PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATIONS VISITNG INDIA (i) Parliamentary Delegation from Mexico from 6 to 10 August, 23 2017 (ii) Parliamentary Delegation from Seychelles from 9 to 13 23 August,2017 (iii) Parliamentary Delegation from the Republic of Chile from 5 to 9 24 February, 2018 (iv) Parliamentary Delegation from the Republic of Korea from 8 to 24 11 March, 2018 II INDIAN PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATIONS VISITING ABROAD (i) Visit of Indian Parliamentary Delegation to Mauritius from 6 to 11 25 June, 2017 (ii) Visit of Indian Parliamentary Delegation to Russian Federation 25 from 10 to 14 July, 2017 III VISIT OF FOREIGN DIGNITARIES TO PARLIAMENT 25 COMPLEX IV FUNCTIONS / CONFERENCES HELD UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE INDIAN PARLIAMENTARY GROUP AND FLORAL TRIBUTES TO NATIONAL LEADERS (i) Floral Tributes to National Leaders 26 (ii) Function to bid Farewell to outgoing President of India 27 (iii) National Legislators Conference held in New Delhi on 10 & 11 27 March, 2018 V LETTERS OF INTRODUCTION / FAX MESSAGES 29 VI LIBRARY OF THE GROUP 29 VII FORMATION OF PARLIAMENTARY FRIENDSHIP GROUPS 29 WITH OTHER COUNTRIES VIII MEMBERSHIP 29 IX OBITUARY 30 X ACCOUNTS 31 XI MEETINGS HELD (i) Meeting of Executive Committee of IPG 31 (ii) Annual General Meeting of IPG 31 (iii) Meeting of Award Committee 31 (iv) Meetings of Parliamentary Friendship Groups (a) India-Vietnam on 2 January, 2018 31 (b) India-China on 4 January, 2018 32 (c) India-Russia on 13 February, 2018 32 (d) India-Republic of Korea on 27 February, 2018 32 (e) India-Mongolia on 8 March, 2018 32 APPENDICES Appendix – I List of Parliamentary Friendship Groups 33 Appendix - II Receipt and Payment Account for the year ended on 34 31 March, 2018 Appendix – III Income and Expenditure Account for the year ended 34 on 31 March, 2018 Appendix – IV Balance Sheet for the year ended on 31 March, 2018 34 Appendix – V Certificate of Auditor 34 Appendix – VI Investments of Indian Parliamentary Group 35 Appendix – VII Important Decisions of the Executive Committee of 36 the Group for the year 2017-2018 1 INDIAN PARLIAMENTARY GROUP ANNUAL REPORT (2017-2018) INTRODUCTORY The Executive Committee of the Indian Parliamentary Group (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Group’ has great pleasure in presenting their Annual Report for the period 1 April, 2017 - 31 March, 2018. The Report is divided into the following three parts:- Part I Inter-Parliamentary Union Part II Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Part III Bilateral Exchanges and other events 2. Composition of the Executive Committee President: Smt. Sumitra Mahajan, Speaker, Lok Sabha continued as ex- officio President of the Group for the year. Vice-Presidents: Dr. M. Thambi Durai, Deputy Speaker, Lok Sabha continued as ex-officio Vice-President of the Group for the year. Prof. P.J. Kurien, Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha continued as ex-officio Vice President of the Group for the year. Secretary-General: Shri Anoop Mishra, Secretary-General, Lok Sabha continued as ex- officio Secretary-General of the Group upto 30 November, 2017. Smt. Snehlata Shrivastava who was appointed as Secretary-General, Lok Sabha on 1 December, 2017 became ex-officio Secretary-General of the Group from that date and has since continued. 2 3. Treasurer and Members of the Executive Committee The Executive Committee of the Group, was constituted on 14 January, 2018 by the President of the Group. The composition is as under: TREASURER Shri Om Birla, MP MEMBERS 2. Shri Ramesh Bais, MP 3. Shri Rakesh Singh, MP 4. Shri Anil Gulabrao Shirole, MP 5. Dr. (Ms.) Heena Vijaykumar Gavit, MP 6. Shri Rajeev Shankarrao Satav, MP 7. Shri Sudip Bandyopadhyay, MP 8. Shri Baijayant 'Jay' Panda, MP 9. Smt. Supriya S. Sule, MP 10. Shri N.K. Premachandran, MP 11. Dr. Satyanarayan Jatiya, MP (RS) 12. Shri Ranvijay Singh Judev, MP (RS) 13. Dr. Vinay P. Sahasrabuddhe, MP (RS) 14. Shri Anil Desai, MP (RS) 15. Shri Naresh Gujral, MP (RS) ASSOCIATE MEMBERS *16. Dr. Karan Singh, ex-MP 17 Shri Sitaram Yechury, ex-MP 18. Dr. Vallabhbhai Kathiria, ex-MP 19. Shri Pradeep Gandhi, ex-MP 20. Smt. Bhavna Kardam Dave, ex-MP *[Dr. Karan Singh, MP (RS) was Member of Executive Committee till his retirement on 27 January, 2018 and became Associate Member from 28 January, 2018] SECRETARY-GENERAL Smt. Snehlata Shrivastava, Secretary-General, Lok Sabha INVITEE Shri Desh Deepak Verma, Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha 4. Auditor M/s S.S. Kothari Mehta & Company were appointed as Auditor of the Group for the year 2017-2018. 3 PART- I INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION RELATED ACTIVITIES A REPRESENTATION OF INDIAN PARLIAMENTARY GROUP IN THE STATUTORY ASSEMBLIES OF THE INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION AND OTHER SPECIALIZED MEETINGS I. 136th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union held in Dhaka (Bangladesh) in April, 2017 The 136th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union was held in Dhaka (Bangladesh) from 01 to 05 April, 2017. An Indian Parliamentary Delegation led by Hon'ble Speaker, Lok Sabha, Smt. Sumitra Mahajan and consisting of following Members of Parliament attended the Assembly: Shri N. K. Premachandran, Dr. (Prof.) Kirit Premjibhai Solanki, Smt. Viplove Thakur, Shri Anil Desai, Shri Nagendra Singh, Shri Raj Kumar Singh, Km. Sushmita Dev, Shri Deepak Adhikari, Ms. Dola Sen. Shri Anoop Mishra, Secretary General, Lok Sabha also attended the Assembly. Shri P. C. Koul, Joint Secretary, Lok Sabha Secretariat was Secretary to the delegation. The Assembly held General debate on the overall theme of 'Redressing inequalities: Delivering on dignity and well-being for all'.