People familiar with the proceedings said independent cybersecurity experts from a private consulting firm, technology lawyers, government officials and WhatsApp representatives were asked questions about the Pegasus spyware and the larger issues surrounding surveillance, hacking and remedial measures.
The Parliament on Tuesday unanimously passed the bill to restore the power of states and union territories to prepare and maintain their own list of socially and educationally backward classes (SEBCs).
WhatsApp, last month, sued Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group, accusing it of helping those buying its spyware Pegasus break into the phones of roughly 1,400 users across four continents.
The overall productivity of the House for the first three weeks of the monsoon session has been 22.60 per cent," sources said
Now we do not know if the Board bugs the dressing room or employs Pegasus in players' phones. But nothing stopped them from speaking with Kohli, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Employees of public sector general insurance (PSGI) companies are observing nationwide one-day strike on Wednesday to protest against intended privatisation of state-owned insurers. The Joint Front of Trade Unions in PSGI companies met on Monday and decided to protest against the decision of the government to privatise PSGI companies. The unions have given a call for one-day strike against the passage of the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill 2021 in the Lok Sabha, General Insurance Employees All India Association general secretary K Govindan said. Employees of all four PSGI companies are participating in the day-long strike, he said.
The party, however, did not say exactly when the Congress general secretary received the message.
The Essential Defence Services Bill, 2021, introduced by Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt amid din created by the Opposition over three new agri laws and the alleged Pegasus snooping controversy, seeks to replace an ordinance issued in June.
The two media groups have been critical of the Covid-19 management in the country and have done numerous news stories on the subject during the second wave of the pandemic that hit the country between April and May.
Rajya Sabha was adjourned sine die on Wednesday evening, two days ahead of the scheduled end of the Monsoon session, after the passage of four bills including on the OBC list and state-run insurance companies.
The 'Group of 23' leaders who participated included Ghulam Nabi Azad, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik, Prithviraj Chavan, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor, besides Sibal who hosted the post-birthday dinner for them.
The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the Constitution amendment bill to restore the power of states to make their own OBC lists after a thaw in the logjam as Opposition parties backed the legislation but demanded the removal of the 50 per cent cap on reservation, with many of them also calling for a caste-based census.
"Lalu ji had madhur sambandh (cordial relations) with my father and political mentor Ram Vilas Paswan. I thank him for lending credence to my leadership. But, my current priority is the ongoing state-wide Ashirwad Yatra", Chirag told reporters in Patna.
The spyware gained access to a person's phone even if the attacker's WhatsApp call wasn't answered. The calls also often disappeared from call logs, and affected Android, iPhone and Tizen-based phones.
Proceedings in Rajya Sabha were repeatedly disrupted on Monday before being called off for the day as opposition members protested on the alleged phone-tapping and other issues and demanded discussions on them in the House.
Putting the blame on the Opposition for the unruly scenes witnessed during the monsoon session of Parliament, a group of Union ministers on Thursday said the Rajya Sabha chairman must take the strongest possible action against those who broke the rules.
Home ministry sources say there are fears that international lobbies might have been involved in spying, to create a narrative around Indian governance as well as the economy.
'But India, increasingly, is not that far behind, which is a story I never expected to tell.'
The central government on Tuesday informed the Rajya Sabha that no deaths due to lack of oxygen were specifically reported by states and UTs during the second COVID-19 wave.
The country's 5,000 MPs, MLAs and MLCs should resolve in this historic year to return to the people the favour they have been doing by relentlessly nurturing democracy over the last 70 years, he said.
'These charges of the prosecution will fall to the ground and I am 100 per cent sure of that.'
A new Congress leader may make an electoral impact by his very presence. Congress voters who had moved away from the party, after being influenced by the BJP's 'family rule' campaign, can now return with a certain moral satisfaction, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'One of R&AW's greatest achievements is in projecting itself as benign.' 'This work -- done in tandem with the Diaspora and the MEA -- sells a story of India as mostly the victim.'
Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the unity of opposition parties will take shape on its own, sidestepping questions of her taking on the leadership role.
Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala attacked the government saying that in May, WhatsApp had "quickly resolved a security issue and notified relevant Indian and international government authorities".
The Congress on Thursday attacked the Modi government over the issue, alleging that it had been "caught snooping". The Opposition demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the "illegal hacking" of cellphones.
Gandhi accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of bringing back the idea of a 'king of India' that was 'smashed in 1947" and targeted the PM saying that the 'idea of a king is back.."
The government's programmes should be expected to generate some momentum, but the macro-economic numbers are not encouraging, observes T N Ninan.
The sole intention of the opposition parties is to create roadblocks on the path of development, the prime minister said, as he termed their action "anti national".
The group's digital news site had put out reports, along with pictures, on dead bodies of suspected coronavirus patients floating down the river Ganga in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar which had led to nationwide consternation.
There are "contradictions" in the approach of the two parties in fighting BJP and there is no question of an alliance with the ruling TMC in Bengal as it has inflicted atrocities on grassroot level CPI (M) workers, he said.
Ugly scenes were witnessed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday as opposition MPs climbed on the officials' table, waved black cloth and threw files when the House began a discussion on farmers' protest against new reform laws.
The MP from East Burdwan, who defected to the BJP last December, has been put on 'probation' by the TMC, which he wants to rejoin.
Calling the political condition prevailing in West Bengal "horrible and frightening", Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar alleged on Tuesday that the people of the state do not have the freedom to exercise their franchise fearlessly.
'The larger intention is to create a political State where there is no opposition.'
Images that capture what it was like living through 2021.
Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and some other members sought that the bill be referred to a standing committee for scrutiny.
The first to take off will be Air Pegasus, promoted by Bengaluru-based ground-handling firm Deccor Aviation.
'India is a founding and permanent member of this 'club of shame': Journalists are murdered on account of what they write or intend to write, but nobody is finally brought to justice in such cases.'
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances