Abstract. In the present paper we review the progress of the project of classification and construction of invariant differential operators for non-compact semisimple Lie groups. Our starting points is the class of algebras, which we called earlier 'conformal Lie algebras' (CLA), which have very similar properties to the conformal algebras of Minkowski space-time, though our aim is to go beyond this class in a natural way. For this we introduced recently the new notion of parabolic relation between two non-compact semisimple Lie algebras G and G' that have the same complexification and possess maximal parabolic subalgebras with the same complexification. In the present paper we consider in detail the orthogonal algebras so(p,q) all of which are parabolically related to the conformal algebra so(n,2) with p+q=n+2, the parabolic subalgebras including the Lorentz subalgebra so(n-1,1) and its analogs so(p-1,q-1).

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