Lok Sabha secretariat to digitise parliamentary proceedings since 1992 for online access

New Delhi: A popular clip which shows a hearty exchange between (then) Lok Sabha MPs Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mamata Banerjee in the floor of the Lok Sabha in 1999 before the downfall of the NDA government under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee has, over the years become wildly popular on social media, introducing the traditions of banter and barbs in Parliament to newer generations. Now, efforts by the Lok Sabha Secretariat could ensure that more such speeches are available to the public. 

Officials of the Lok Sabha Secretariat said that it is developing a system where videos from proceedings from both Houses from 1992 will be digitised so that anyone wishing to access them can look online.

This includes over 18,000 hours of audio visual content of the proceedings of both the Houses which have been digitised and will be put on the Parliament website. 

Work on the digitisation has been going on for months and while data from the Lok Sabha has already been digitised fully, the LS Secretariat has started work on the digitisation of content from the Rajya Sabha.

“We had a total of 18,000 hours of content, of which 10,000 is from the Lok Sabha and 8,000 is from the Rajya Sabha. All the 10,000 hours of content is digitised now, and from the Rajya Sabha archives, work has begun and we have completed 3,000-4,000 hours of content already,” a senior Secretariat official said. 

What’s more, with the help of Artificial Intelligence and machine-learning, people can search for a specific speech. “If a person wants to know what Atal Bihari Vajpayee has spoken over the years on primary healthcare, or Mulayam Singh Yadav has spoken on caste, there will be a list of such speeches, down to the very minute in the video,” the official added.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said that the LS Secretariat has used AI and machine-learning for various innovations.

"This technological knowledge and expertise will be shared with Vidhan Sabhas, so that the legislators across the country can benefit from it. This will also bring the Constitution closer to the people," Birla said.

House of content is also available on the YouTube channel of Sansad TV, but the digitised archive will make it easy to look for specific searches. 

Additionally, the Secretariat is also offering to help various assemblies with this technology. In the ongoing meeting of Indian Region Conference of the 10th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), attendees from various assemblies were offered help in digitising their records. “We have offered them assistance with the technology, some of the data of AV content of some assemblies are with us, and that is dependent on the availability of such content as well as what the assemblies are willing to share with us,” the official said. 

As part of the digitisation, the LS Secretariat is also carrying out translation of old proceedings. “We have been translating to 10 languages, with varying levels of accuracy, and we have a disclaimer indicating how accurate the translation is,” the official added. The entire process is due to end by the end of the year, officials said.