A parliamentary panel on Friday opposed the new bank licences to corporate houses and voiced concerns over the discretionary power vested with RBI for applying 'fit and proper' criteria for deciding on applications.
Tharoor put the blame for the logjam in Parliament on BJP and accused the saffron party of reducing the "temple of democracy to a rubber stamp for its agenda or worse, a notice board to announce its unilateral decisions".
'There is some deep rot that has set in the Congress party. This requires an organisational surgery.'
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 bench said it was not questioning the credentials of the election commissioners appointed but the procedure.
The Election Commission will announce the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls on Saturday.
A parliamentary committee has recommended that the medium of instruction in technical and non-technical higher education institutes such as IITs in Hindi-speaking states should be Hindi and in other parts of India their respective local language. It said the use of English should be made optional.
Of the 76.41 crore eligible voters in the first five phases of the Lok Sabha polls, as many as 50.72 crore people have cast their vote, according to data shared by the Election Commission on Saturday.
The report was earlier listed in the agenda of the lower house for December 4 but was not tabled.
The Democrats have elected a set of state representatives who will act as an electoral panel. These representatives will have to pick someone else. This could be Vice President Kamala Harris, who is widely seen as a top contender, but is not popular, points out Aakar Patel.
The decision on Rahul Gandhi's appointment as the Leader of Opposition was made after a meeting of the floor leaders of the INDIA bloc at Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge's residence.
After Twitter briefly blocked IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from accessing his account for alleged copyrights violation, chairman of the parliamentary panel on information technology Shashi Tharoor on Friday said the same thing happened with him and the standing committee will be seeking an explanation from the social media firm over the temporary locking of their accounts and the rules it follows while operating in India.
This is for the first time the EC has officially come out with a statement on allegations of delay in sharing turnout data.
Some questions cited concerns that larger warnings can hurt tobacco farmers and boost illicit trade.
Election Commission on Tuesday directed social media platform 'X' to 'immediately' take down an animated video shared by the Karnataka unit of the BJP related to the row over reservation for the Muslim community.
When the margin of victory is less than the number of postal ballot papers rejected, all such rejected postal ballot papers shall be mandatorily re-verified before declaration of the result.
Kakar, a lawmaker belonging to Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), will lead a caretaker government until a new election later this year.
The Pakistan government is finalising agreements with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation over the reopening of supply routes to Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has told a key parliamentary panel.
The committee has given its recommendations to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who will take necessary action, the sources pointed out.
In separate letters to the speaker, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Supriya Sule of the NCP, DMK leader Kanimozhi and TMC's Aparupa Poddar said what had happened with Ali is unfortunate and that action should be taken against Bidhuri.
Opposition charged the government with making Parliamentary Standing Committees irrelevant.
Since it was formed 58 years ago, Haryana has had Jat chief ministers for 33 of those.
The opposition parties will meet on Monday morning to evolve their strategy in both Houses of Parliament after protests by them on the Hindenburg-Adani issue overshadowed most of the first half of the Budget session.
The central government's Great Nicobar development project, proposed around an unprecedented transhipment port, will be executed to keep environmental impact minimal, and is essential as it is of national importance, the government has said amid calls to abort the controversial project due to ecological concerns, the Centre said in an official statement.
A former TRAI chief, who appeared before a Parliamentary panel today, rejected suggestions that private telecom players benefitted from his decisions.
The joint committee of Parliament examining the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 has adopted its report on the bill with several opposition MPs, including those from the Congress, Ttrinamool Congress and Biju Janata Dal, submitting their dissent notes.
Officials said the polling went off peacefully in all segments including special polling stations along the International Border and Line of Control (LoC) with no untoward incident reported from anywhere.
The report published in the gazettes of India appeared in local newspapers on Monday and showed that Habba Kadal seat in Kashmir division and Suchetgarh seat in Jammu province had been restored.
Political leaders and candidates should not use children for campaign activities in any manner including holding a child in their arms, carrying a child in a vehicle or in rallies, the poll watchdog said.
The Law Commission is working on a formula to synchronise all assembly polls by extending or reducing the tenure so that all state elections can be held along with the Lok Sabha polls 2029 onwards, sources said on Friday.
It is being suggested that apps, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, should share their APIs with each other to ensure there is interoperability, just as it exists across email services.
The poll panel said it found Kharge's letter, placed in the public domain in the middle of the ongoing electoral process, 'highly undesirable' and designed to create confusion, misdirection and impediment to the conduct of smooth, free and fair elections.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday clinched a stunning hat-trick win in Haryana overcoming anti-incumbency and dashing Congress' hopes of a comeback while the National Conference-Congress combine pulled off a spectacular victory in maiden elections in Jammu and Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
The preferred format would be for the top BJP leadership in the government to reach out to the alliance leaders on a case-to-case basis.
The Election Commission on Tuesday appointed special observers for administrative, security and expenditure monitoring purposes in several states to ensure a level playing field during the upcoming elections.
Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh on Monday announced a probe into the complaints of at least four MPs that their names were included in a proposed select committee of the house for the Delhi services bill without their consent.
Even non-partisan observers are saying the Congress and INDI alliance are not making any significant effort to campaign on the ground, he said.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday deprecated criticism of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and calls for reverting to ballot papers, saying the electoral process in India is a "humongous task" and attempts should not be made to "bring down the system".
Adopting a tough posture, team Anna Hazare on Wednesday asked a Parliamentary panel to recommend to the government to withdraw the Lokpal Bill and come out with a fresh measure that deals with problem of corruption faced by the public.
Amid allegations by opposition parties that the government was misusing probe agencies to target its leaders, the Election Commission on Tuesday asserted that while it remains committed to protecting level playing field and campaign entitlement of parties and candidates, it has not found it correct to take any step that could overlap or overrun the legal judicial process.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances