India to host International Conference on Federalism

New Delhi, Feb 20 (UNI) At a time when controversies over imposition of President's rule in Uttar Pradesh and Cauvery Water dispute were posing major challenge to the federal structure of India, the government has decided to hold an International Conference on Federalism.

The 4th International Conference on Federalism on the theme 'Unity in Diversity-learning from each other' will be hosted by New Delhi in association with the Forum of Federations, Ottawa, Canada from November 4 to 6 this year.

A three day pre-conference will be organised here from tomorrow to give a final shape to the subject themes and papers to be discussed during the main conference. The pre-conference, to be inaugurated by Home Minister Shivraj Patil, also aims at finalizing country-specific and issue-specific case studies to be presented during the main conference.

The Main conference would have four broad themes 'Fiscal Federalism- Emerging issues in Fiscal Federalism,' 'Managing Diversity --Building on&Accommodating Diversities,' 'Inter-Governmental Relations-Interaction in Federal Systems and 'Local Government and Federal Systems.' The Conference will also have 12 sub-themes each of which have been developed by a panel of Indian and international experts. The objective of the Conference is to promote dialogue on the renewal and development of federalism and greater co-operation among practitioners in pursuit of better governance.

Practitioners of federal democracy at all levels including Presidents, Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers, scholars, experts, administrators and social activists dedicated to federalism will collectively engage in the process of sharing ideas, experiences and drawing inspiration from one another.

The earlier such conferences were held in Canada in 1999, Switzerland in 2002 and Belgium in 2005.

In tomorrow's pre-conference eminent national and international experts on federalism, Parliamentarians, civil society activitists, ambassadors /high commissioners of partner governments of the Forum of Federations and CEOs of industrial houses would participate.

Several Union Ministers and Chief Ministers will also attend it.

UNI