Parliamentary
Affairs
The Ministry that moves the Government’s business through the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and that runs two national programmes: the digitisation of every legislature in the country, and the teaching of parliamentary procedure to students and citizens.
Shri Kiren Rijiju
Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal
Dr. L. Murugan
4 June 2026, PIB
How government business reaches the House
Institutional description. The following sets out the working of the Ministry and of parliamentary procedure generally, and is not attributed to any individual.
- 01
Planning the session
Before a session, the Ministry works with the Houses and with other Ministries to settle what business the Government intends to bring: Bills to be introduced, considered or passed, resolutions, and statements to be made.
- 02
The List of Business
For each sitting, the business to be transacted is set out in a List of Business. The Ministry coordinates the Government’s entries on that list and the order in which they are taken.
- 03
Questions and replies
Members table questions to Ministries. Answers are prepared by the Ministry concerned and laid before the House by its Minister. This is the routine mechanism of accountability, and the source of most of the dated figures reproduced across this record.
- 04
Assurances
Where a Minister gives an undertaking on the floor of the House, it is recorded as an assurance and its implementation is followed up until it is fulfilled.
- 05
Between the Houses
A Bill must pass both Houses. The Ministry coordinates its movement between the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and its reference to committees where the House so decides.
National e-Vidhan Application
A single digital platform intended for every State and Union Territory legislature in the country, under the stated vision of “One Nation – One Application” for legislative governance.
NeVA is a Mission Mode Project of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs under the Digital India programme. Its object is to make the proceedings of State and Union Territory legislatures paperless from end to end, and to make the resulting record publicly accessible.
The platform handles legislative business digitally: questions and their replies, Bills, notices, assurances, committee business, the List of Business, bulletins, debates, proceedings and papers laid. It creates a permanent digital repository of legislative records, and gives Members direct access to legislative information. A public portal makes the same material available to citizens.
The Ministry provides participating legislatures with financial assistance, technical support, capacity building and implementation assistance, sets up NeVA SeVA Kendras to assist Members, and funds the digitisation of legacy records. Translation and speech tools built on BHASHINI have been incorporated into the platform.
- Legislatures joined
- 33
- Fully digital Houses
- 21
- Target legislatures
- 37 States & UTs
- Position as on
- 4 June 2026
NoteAn earlier reply of 1 December 2025 recorded 28 legislatures having signed Memoranda of Understanding and 20 fully digital. Both figures are reproduced with their dates; neither is presented as the position today.
West Bengal Legislative Assembly joins NeVA
A tripartite Memorandum of Understanding for implementation of NeVA in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly was signed in the presence of the Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju; Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Law and Justice and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs; and Dr. L. Murugan. The release records that Shri Meghwal “emphasised the role of digital platforms in strengthening legislative functioning and enabling Members to access legislative information in a timely and efficient manner”. With this signing, the West Bengal Legislative Assembly became the 33rd legislature in the country to join the initiative.
Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, 4 June 2026 (Release ID 2269037).
The Youth Parliament scheme
The Youth Parliament scheme acquaints students with the practices and procedures of Parliament and with the techniques of discussion and debate. Teams conduct a mock sitting: a Speaker is elected, questions are asked, Bills are moved, and the proceedings follow the forms of the House.
The Ministry has organised the competition for Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas for 29 years. The 26th competition in that series was held during 2024–25 among 88 Vidyalayas across the eight regions of the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti.
In March 2026 the Ministry unveiled an upgraded version of the National Youth Parliament Scheme web portal, NYPS 2.0. Unlike the earlier version, which was limited to students of recognised educational institutions, NYPS 2.0 is open to educational institutions, groups and individual citizens across the country, irrespective of gender, caste, creed, religion, race, region or place, including rural areas and small institutions.
Prize distribution, 26th National Youth Parliament Competition
Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal presided over the prize distribution function for the 26th National Youth Parliament Competition, 2024–25 for Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, held at the Mavalankar Auditorium, Constitution Club of India, New Delhi, and distributed prizes to the winning teams. He interacted with the students, spoke of the place of teachers in a student’s life, and administered a “Life Pledge” to all participants for protecting the environment. The first prize at national level went to PM Shri School Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Suratgarh, Sriganganagar-II, Rajasthan, in the Jaipur region, whose team gave a repeat performance of their Youth Parliament sitting.
Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, 15 January 2026 (Release ID 2215071).
Reaching beyond the Houses
Two threads run through the Ministry’s non-legislative work. The first is access: putting the record of legislatures online, in many languages, so that a citizen can read what was asked and what was answered without going to the House. The NeVA public portal has been made available in 23 languages.
The second is education: teaching the forms of parliamentary procedure to people who will not sit in a legislature, on the view that a democracy is better served when its procedures are widely understood. The widening of NYPS 2.0 beyond recognised institutions to groups and individual citizens belongs to that thread.
Both are institutional programmes of the Ministry. They are described here as the Ministry’s work; the Minister’s individual participation is recorded separately above, by date and release.
Sources
- 1Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs — “West Bengal Legislative Assembly Signs MoU for Implementation of National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA)”, 4 June 2026 (Release ID 2269037).
- 2Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs — “20 State/UT Legislatures have Implemented National e-Vidhan Application for Digital Legislatures”, 1 December 2025 (Release ID 2197047).
- 3Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs — “Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal distributes prizes of 26th National Youth Parliament Competition, 2024-25”, 15 January 2026 (Release ID 2215071).
- 4Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs — “Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs Unveils Upgraded Version of National Youth Parliament Scheme Web Portal”, 11 March 2026 (Release ID 2238449).