Introducing the Parliament Tracker: Note on Methodology
The Public Record Series
The Future of India Foundation’s Parliament Tracker, part of the Public Record series, offers a session-wise overview of parliamentary engagement with key national issues: youth employment, women’s empowerment, Dalit and tribal empowerment, and artificial intelligence.
Data Sources
All data is sourced from the official websites of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha:
The Tracker is built using the full text of all parliamentary questions - not just subject lines or the websites’ inbuilt search engine - because many relevant interventions are only evident in the detailed phrasing of the questions. This approach ensures a more accurate and inclusive mapping of MP engagement with the selected issues.
Keyword Identification
A comprehensive, domain-specific keyword list is used to flag relevant questions for each issue:
Youth Employment: 299 keywords, including terms like “vocational training,” “wages,” and “gig workers.”
Women’s Empowerment: 24 keywords, such as “menstrual leave” and “anganwadi.”
Dalit and Adivasi Empowerment: 34 keywords, including “SC/ST,” “reservation,” and “atrocities.”
Artificial Intelligence: 133 keywords, including “artificial intelligence,” “LLMs,” “deep learning,” and “emerging technologies.”
Review and Classification
All questions flagged through keyword searches are manually reviewed to eliminate false positives and ensure contextual relevance. Each validated question is then classified and analysed by type (e.g., thematic focus, policy vs implementation), frequency, and session trends.
This rigorous methodology enables the Parliament Tracker to present an evidence-based picture of how India's elected representatives engage with some of the country's most pressing social and technological transitions.
Stay tuned for more insights like these.