65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Canada

Tags: International News

An Indian parliamentary delegation led by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla is participating in the 65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPA) in Halifax, Canada.

IMPORTANT FACTS -

• The conference is being held in Halifax, Canada from 20-26 August.

• The delegation included Anurag Sharma, MP (Lok Sabha) and CPA executive committee member, Sunita Duggal, MP (Lok Sabha) and member of CWP steering committee, Neeraj Shekhar, MP (Rajya Sabha), Santosh Kumar, MP (Lok Sabha), Anubhav Mohanty, MP (Lok Sabha), Dr. Kanimozhi NVN Somu, MP (Rajya Sabha) and Utpal Kumar Singh, General Secretary, Lok Sabha.

• The conference will also be attended by 23 Presiding Officers of India and 16 Secretaries of State Legislatures who are also members of the CPA.

• Eight workshops on various topics will be organized during the conference.

• The Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will participate as a panellist in the Workshop ‘C’ titled “A People’s Parliament : Accessibility through Innovation”.

• The Speaker will also interact with his counterparts from other Commonwealth countries to discuss matters of mutual interest and parliamentary cooperation.

About Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) :

• The conference is the largest gathering of Commonwealth Parliamentarians who come together to discuss and debate major global political issues and developments.

• Between 1948 and 1959, this conference was held biennially, since 1961 it has been held annually.

• Due to COVID-19 global pandemic, the Conference has not been held since 2019.

• The 64th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) was held in Uganda (2019). 

Members of the Commonwealth of Nations :

• The head of the Commonwealth is the Queen of Great Britain Elizabeth II.

• He received this title as a result of elections following the resignation of his father. 

• The title of head cannot be inherited, so the new head of the Commonwealth of Nations is elected by voting at each meeting.

• The Commonwealth comprises 54 countries of the world in all 6 continents.

• The members have a total population of 2.1 billion, which is about a third of the world's population.

• Of its total population, 1.17 billion live in India.

• After India, the next largest Commonwealth countries by population are Pakistan (176 million), Bangladesh (156 million), Nigeria (149 million).

• The land area of the Commonwealth of Nations accounts for about 21% of the total world land area.

• The largest Commonwealth nations by area are Canada, Australia and India.