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E-Parliament for a global cause

Our Bureau

BANGALORE, July 16

AFTER education, entertainment, trade, services and more, the Internet is now going to be the plank from where the world's policy-makers will network to solve global problems.

That's the idea behind an E-Parliament, an Internet-based forum of the world's estimated 25,000 legislators that is taking shape, at www.e-parl.net.

And no surprises -- Bangalore, which only a few days ago also figured in the UN's best tech hubs list, has been chosen to build and host the E-Parliament Web site.

Prime movers in the project, Mr Nicholas Dunlop of the UK-based Earth Action, and the Congress(I) MP, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, on Monday opened consultations on it with the cream of Bangalore's IT industry and the Karnataka Government. Earth Action is a gl obal network for the environment, peace and social justice.

Bangalore was hosting the first formal meeting on the strategy, they said. Among the 20 participants were the Chief Minister, Mr S.M. Krishna, Dutch parliamentarian, Mr Bert Koenders, Mr Ashok Soota of MindTree Consulting, Mr Sudip Banerjee, CEO, Wipro, Dr Bob Hoekstra, CEO, Philips Software, Mr Abraham Thomas, CEO, IBM India, Mr S. Gopala Krishnan, Deputy MD, Infosys, Mr Bobby Mitra, MD, Texas Instruments, Mr R. Ramanan, VP, TCS, Mr B.V. Venkatesh, CEO, Majoris, Mr M. Chandrasekaran Corporate Adviser, Sasken, Mr Vikram Shah, MD, Novell India, the Karnataka IT Secretary, Mr Vivek Kulkarni, and IT Director, Dr E.V. Ramana Reddy.

E-parliamentarians are expected to interact with the public on issues like child rights, AIDS, environmental problems and climate change, conflicts, etc.

According to Earth Action, E-Parliament will try to bridge three biggest gaps for solving problems: a `democracy gap' or lack of public say in decisions; extremely slow decision-making across governments; and resources gap.

E-Parliamentarians can form `caucuses' or common interest networks. Two such on AIDS vaccine and children's rights are under way. Aided by a consultative E-Forum, it will function like any national parliament with committees, online voting but non-bindin g recommendations to governments.

The Harvard Program on Negotiation is coordinating a study group on designing the E-Parliament while groups like the World Federation of UN Associations and One World Now are actively involved in the plan.