At a time when everyone is talking about how to create and maintain a paperless office which can help reduce their carbon footprint while saving money and increasing productivity, Members of the Parliament (Rajya Sabha) have shown the way to achieve it.
In the current session of Parliament, the committee for the provision of computer equipment to Members of Rajya Sabha has enhanced the financial entitlement of members by Rs 50,000 to facilitate the purchase of approved e-reader compatible devices such as Apple iPad2 and Samsung GalaxyTab – to reduce their dependency on paper copies of Parliamentary documents.
Sharada Subramaniam, joint secretary, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, said to ‘The Mobile Indian’, “Around 60 MPs of Rajya Sabha including the Vice President of India are using tablets manufactured by Samsung and Apple.”
She further said, “Our MPs are quite excited about using the new technology available that can help them in managing their recourses and time in a productive way.”
Also, in order to enhance the tablet experience of the MPs and to reduce their dependency on paper, NIC (National Informatics Centre) and Samsung have developed a widget called Rajya Sabha, which facilitate easy access to daily Parliamentary papers.
Using this widget, Members are be able to access the latest list of business, papers laid on the table of the House, as well as Parliamentary bulletins, questions lists, and members’ birthdays.
Subramanium further said, “Shortly we would be adding a Lok Sabha TV feed in the widget through which members and general public can view the proceedings in the Lok Sabha live on their mobile and tablet screen.”
NIC has made the widget for both iOS and Android platforms; Whereas Samsung has it for Android. The widget can be downloaded by anyone from Samsung’s App store.