Lok Sabha goes high-tech: Digital attendance, AI-powered transcription mark new era

NEW DELHI: As part of its ongoing efforts to modernise and digitise Parliamentary functioning, the Lok Sabha Secretariat has undertaken a number of initiatives under the guidance and leadership of Lok Sabha Speaker to enhance transparency, inclusivity, and accessibility of Parliamentary processes for Members and the public alike. The following initiatives were discussed today during an informal meeting.

To promote a digitally empowered working environment for Members of Parliament, the Lok Sabha Chamber has been equipped with dedicated multimedia conferencing devices at every seat. In order to save time and resources, a new feature has been added and now all members will be able to mark attendance through MMD (Multi Media Device) installed at their respective seats. This will reduce one stage and save time of members on every day basis.

In a significant step towards linguistic inclusivity and citizen engagement, the Lok Sabha Secretariat is now publishing daily Parliamentary business and agenda papers in 12 languages using AI based tools — Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu. These documents are made available in real-time through the Digital Sansad portal (https://sansad.in), enabling wider access and better understanding of legislative proceedings for Members of Parliament as well as citizens across the country.

In collaboration with Bhashini developed by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under its “National Language Translation Mission”, the Lok Sabha Secretariat has developed a tool for AI-driven verbatim transcription of House proceedings using the Sansad Bhashini speech-to-text model. Starting from the upcoming session, this AI-powered transcription system will operate parallel to traditional verbatim reporting, ensuring enhanced accuracy, speed, and multilingual support in capturing proceedings.

The long-term objective is to mainstream AI-powered transcription, enhancing efficiency and enabling real-time multilingual accessibility of debates and discussions held in the Lok Sabha. (ANI)