Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sumitra Mahajan will be appointed Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha on Friday. Other key parliamentary posts like that of Leader of Opposition, deputy Speaker, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and head of the all-important standing committee on finance will be keenly contested.
'If the Congress is to challenge the NDA government, Rahul Gandhi will have to shed his indifference to Parliament, become more visible and vocal and, essentially, lead from the front,' says Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal.
Corporate affairs minister Murli Deora has supported the recommendations of the Parliamentary standing committee to make spending under corporate social responsibility (CSR) mandatory under the proposed Companies Bill. Pending the Bill, the minister also announced a slew of measures to simplify procedures akin to the licence raj.
Dissatisfied with the reply about non-submission of the controversial March 25 note on 2G spectrum allocation before the panel examining the issue, non-United Progressive Alliance members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Monday asked the finance ministry to provide input documents that helped its compilation.
New Companies Bill to propose equal responsibility of auditors, firms.
A house meeting has been scheduled for Saturday as per the Parliament's notice and the matter relating to the constitution amendment bill is likely to come during the meeting, parliamentary sources said. Meanwhile, in a conciliatory tone, India on Thursday said it deeply values its friendly ties with Nepal.
The Centre is likely to introduce the Central GST and integrated GST bills in late November or early December in the ongoing session in the form of money Bills.
Currently, the ministry has not set any limit for the tenure of independent directors.
Nepal last month released the revised political and administrative map of the country laying claim over the strategically key areas, more than six months after India published a new map in November 2019.
Modi announced a USD 14-million grant for community development projects in the Caricom and another USD 150 million line of credit for solar, renewable energy and climate- change related projects, a statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs said.
Several Indian companies might have to set aside 2 per cent of their average net profits during the preceding three years to meet corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending requirements. A parliamentary standing committee on finance, which vetted the Companies Bill, 2009, said in its report that the ministry of corporate affairs has agreed to the suggestion.
The Centre on Thursday said it was confident of overcoming the Maoist problem in the next three years and had prepared a two-pronged strategy of initiating development and police action in the affected areas.
Ministry of Corporate Affairs suggests overhaul of rules for independent directors.
The finance ministry on Friday informed a parliamentary committee that smuggling of fake currency has totally stopped post demonetisation and the tax department has seized Rs 515 crore in cash, including Rs 114 crore of new currency notes, up to January 10.
As the Centre's decision ahead of the end of the 40-day lockdown brought cheers to lakhs of migrant workers across the country, quarantine centres and shelter homes were also being readied for the returning migrants with Uttar Pradesh alone preparing to receive an estimated 10 lakh people.
Opposition parties in Parliament on Monday vociferously protested the "snooping" on Rahul Gandhi, with the government dismissing their contention saying they were making a "mountain out of what is not even a molehill", leading the Congress to walk out of Rajya Sabha.
Vowing to crush the activities of Sikh terrorist organisations in the country, a top foreign ministry official said Canada will not allow its soil to be used by the separatists.
Most, save Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu, were silent on Bihar polls; it was business as usual for the PM.
Manjhi has called planned JD-U legislature party meet an unauthorised one.
Fourteen ministers are from the Congress, nine from its ruling coalition partner Janata Dal-Secular and one each from the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party.
Amid Opposition uproar over reports of schools being ordered to remain open on Christmas Day to observe 'good governance day', the government on Monday clarified that no such instruction has been issued and only an online essay competition on the subject is being organised.
The panel has questioned the purchase of properties with 'avoidable' expensive appurtenances by the MEA for envoys posted abroad.
The Union cabinet is likely to meet on October 3 or 4 to take a call on possible withdrawal of the controversial ordinance on convicted lawmakers, whose fate appears to have already been sealed after Rahul Gandhi's strong denunciation of it.
The second part of our series on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ministers with a criminal record.
According to a decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices will consider the above elements while recommending the MSP. The CACP, an advisory body under the agriculture ministry, recommends MSPs of over 20 crops, including wheat and rice.
The CM met M B Patil, a prominent Congress leader under whose leadership a section of dissatisfied MLAs have been holding meetings.
Union Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has asked the Secretary, Sports, who is holding concurrent charge as Director General of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), to expedite the restructuring of its cadre to create at least nine more regional centres in the country and to effectively manage these centres, especially in the north eastern region and bigger states like Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
It was Prime Minister Modi's first such virtual bilateral engagement with a leader of a neighbouring country. For Rajapaksa, it was the first diplomatic engagement with a leader of a foreign country after he was sworn in as prime minister.
The draft law also allows courts to send summonses and warrants to the accused through a specially designated website to be hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs.
Amid furore created by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam members in Parliament for the second day running, the government on Tuesday admitted that a Supreme Court collegium during the United Progressive Alliance rule had recommended extension of a judge in Tamil Nadu who was under corruption cloud.
A recent report by the parliamentary standing committee on health and family planning pulled no punches on the abysmal state and poor functioning of the Medical Council of India.
Government sources said on Wednesday that the prime minister has informed presiding officers of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha about the arrangement. The session of Parliament which began this morning is a 10-day affair.
Home ministry officials told the parliamentary panel that those detained under the PSA can challenge their detention in a designated tribunal.
Let there be a rule that if the Budget is not passed and funds cannot be drawn from the Consolidated Fund of India, there will be a government shutdown as it happens in the United States, says A K Bhattacharya.
The government on Monday came under sharp attack on the issue of crucial files of Coal ministry going missing, with the Opposition alleging that it was a conspiracy to save Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the coal block allocation scam and demanding an impartial probe into it.
The Madras high court on Thursday expressed doubts over the death of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in response to a petition filed by a member of her party.
While players in the financial ecosystem are opening up to the idea of receivables funding for the sector, this market needs a regulator, which a Parliament panel feels only RBI can provide.
The new Ministers of State sworn in by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony in the Rashtrapati Bhavan include Virendra Kumar, Anant Kumar Hegde and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, former IAS officers Alphons Kannanthanam and R K Singh, former diplomat Hardeep Puri and ex-Mumbai police chief Satyapal Singh. Two other new faces are Ashwini Kumar Choubey, a member of the Lok Sabha from Bihar, and Shiv Pratap Shukla from Uttar Pradesh.
No mention of cab aggregators in GST bills
In a communication to the ministry of electronics and information technology, the messaging service said it was committed to protecting the privacy of its over 400 million users in India.
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