Page 10 - Coffee Table ebook

It is heartening to note that Parliamentary Research and Training Institute for

Democracies-PRIDE (earlier known as Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and
Training) has decided to publish a Coffee Table Book to mark 46 years of its

existence. Established in 1976, PRIDE has emerged in less than five decades as
a centre of excellence for training and orientation in parliamentary practices

and procedures. The services offered by PRIDE have benefitted Parliamentarians
and Legislators, Legislative staff, Press and media personnel, civil servants and

students from around the world.

The democratic traditions and ethos of our country are old and deep. This democratic
spirit has been nurtured and reinforced over the ages through a well acknowledged

tradition of debate, discussion and argument. In modern India, the Parliament,
State Legislatures and Panchayati Raj Institutions have served as pulsating sites

of debates and discussions, as formal loci of participatory governance. It was
therefore only natural that a training institute be established in the Parliament of

India to provide a forum for familiarisation of our Parliamentarians, Legislators,
Panchayat Representatives, civil servants and other sections of civil society with

our democratic institutions, Parliamentary rules of Procedure and Precedents,
emergent issues of national and international importance etc. The aim and

objective behind setting up an institution like PRIDE in the Parliament of India
is to provide necessary support to our public representatives through focused

capacity building workshops andprogrammes so as to help, in turn, enrich quality
of legislative debates and participation in the business of the houses of Legislature.