The finance ministry on Friday asked state governments to accord priority to employees of banks and insurance companies for Covid-19 vaccination, saying they are exposed to high risks during these difficult times.
Some celebrities have come under fire for endorsing brands misleading consumers.
In a landmark overhaul of colonial-era criminal laws, the Centre on Friday introduced in the Lok Sabha three bills to replace the IPC, CrPC and the Indian Evidence Act, proposing among other things repeal of the sedition law and introducing a new provision with a wider definition of the offence.
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.
Expressing concern over frequent internet shutdown without any empirical study, a Parliamentary panel has pulled up the Department of Telecommunications for not maintaining the record of incidents and inaction on several of its recommendations. The Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology on 'Suspension of Telecom Services and Internet and its impact' tabled in Lok Sabha on Thursday, the panel has asked the Department of Telecom (DoT) to lay down a clear cut principle of proportionality and procedure for lifting of shutdown in coordination with the home ministry to prevent any misuse of the suspension rules. The panel rejected the logic of the DoT and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for not maintaining the record of the shutdown, saying it cannot simply take the plea that police and public order are essentially state subjects and suspension of the internet does not actually come under the ambit of crimes.
A Constitutional Amendment Bill paving way for the creation of a Judicial Appointments Commission to replace the present collegium system to appoint judges to higher courts was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday amid high drama with the Bharatiya Janata Party walking out.
As per the recommendations of the 2nd National Commission on Labour, the ministry is codifying existing 44 central labour laws into four codes by simplifying, amalgamating and rationalising the relevant provisions of the legislations.
After 17 tumultuous years, a nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) will rollout from midnight of June 30, overhauling India's convoluted indirect taxation system and unifying the $2 trillion economy with 1.3 billion people into a single market.
The 14-year political journey of Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra has encountered both upheaval and elevation, as her expulsion from Parliament in a cash-for-query case marked the culmination of her tumultuous parliamentary term.
In the wake of shocking Delhi gang-rape incident, a Parliamentary Committee is mulling recommending a slew of corrective measures, including mandatory filing of First Information Reports in cases of sexual assault and fast tracking of such cases.
The meeting lasted for nearly two hours, sources said.
'The people of Tamil Nadu in particular Chennai know about the double standards of the BJP. Nothing will work for them here.'
The Congress on Friday alleged that Facebook was being used as a weapon by the Bharatiya Janata Party to spread hate and fake news in the country and demanded that a joint parliamentary committee probe be conducted on the issue and laws be enacted to restrict Facebook and WhatsApp.
'If businessmen should be included in the political process -- which is essential in my opinion -- they need to have the freedom to express themselves and to take stands against the government of the day, without fear of reprisals and attacks on their business.'
The plea was made before the Department Related Standing Committee for Subordinate Legislation as according to the Manual on Parliamentary Work, the rules for any legislation should be framed within six months of the presidential assent or an extension must be sought.
Britain's longest serving Indian-origin Labour MP Keith Vaz on Tuesday resigned from his post as chair of the influential House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee in the wake of being embroiled in a sex scandal.
The law ministry said 78 per cent of high court judges appointed between 2018 and 2022 belonged to the upper caste.
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Wednesday said it has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh on e-commerce firm Flipkart for allowing sale of substandard domestic pressure cookers on its platform, in violation of mandatory standards. Headed by Chief Commissioner Nidhi Khare, the CCPA has directed Flipkart to recall all such 598 pressure cookers sold on its platform, reimburse their buyers, and submit a compliance report within 45 days. The central government routinely notifies the Quality Control Orders (QCOs), specifying compulsory conformity to a standard and use of the standard mark for a product to protect consumers from the risk of suffering injury and harm and in the interest of the public at large.
The CAA, enacted by the BJP-led government at the Centre in 2019, aims at granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.
The report on the Lokpal Bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha by Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Law and Justice, Public Grievances and Personnel.
The Congress on Wednesday said the Supreme Court judgment on certain matters relating to transactions by the Adani Group has proven to be 'extraordinarily generous' to Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and asserted that the party's fight against crony capitalism and its ill-effects on prices, employment and inequalities will continue.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said although his outfit does not agree with the demand of anti-Bharatiya Janata Party outfits for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into allegations against the Adani group, it will not go against their stand for the sake of Opposition unity.
Lok Sabha is set to witness a confrontation over Land Acquisition Bill on Tuesday when it is taken up for voting with opposition bent on opposing it even as the government again offered to make changes in the legislation in the "larger interest" of the farming community.
Indian-origin ex-Member of Parliament Sebastian Edathy will stand trial in a German court on charges of acquiring and possessing child pornography. The regional court in Verden in the state of Lower Saxony said on Tuesday that after examining the indictment against him filed by prosecutors four months ago, it came to the conclusion that there are enough evidences to open proceedings on child pornography charges.
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 parliamentary committee on IT has recently been in the news for asking global representatives of Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram to present their views on misuse of social media platforms and its impact on citizens.
The Bill proposes death penalty for hijackers and stringent punishment for people acting in concert with such anti-national forces.
Rahul Gandhi said both Rae Bareli and Wayanad "will get two MPs".
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.
As the Narendra Modi government nears completing a year in office, the Congress on Wednesday stepped up its offensive against the prime minister accusing him of weakening democracy by running a "one-man show" while scoring maximum on "arrogance" and minimum on governance.
Paving the way for early enactment of nuclear liability law, a Parliamentary Committee on Wednesday presented its report that addresses major concerns of the Bharatiya Janata Party as it recommended provision for "clear-cut" accountability of suppliers for any mishap involving an atomic plant.
Even though the NIA claims that more than 90 per cent of cases charge-sheeted have ended in conviction, the figure is likely misleading. To date, very few cases investigated by the NIA have resulted in a completed trial, points out former CBI joint director Navneet Rajan Wasan.
Yatnal, who has launched a tirade against Yediyurappa and his family, especially after his second son BY Vijayendra was made the BJP state president, said there was large-scale corruption in coronavirus management during the BJP government.
The contentious bill providing for legal sanction to police to obtain physical and biological samples of convicts and detainees for investigation in criminal matters was passed by Lok Sabha on Monday, with Home Minister Amit Shah asserting it will act as a defender of human rights of law-abiding citizens.
It will be in Modi's interest to reinvent his party, read the writing on the wall that voters wrote, and move ahead. He has little choice now. The country is watching, asserts Ramesh Menon.
A Parliamentary panel examining the Lokpal bill may recommend that the proposed anti-corruption watchdog be a single window stop for probing all corruption complaints against government functionaries by ending multiplicity of investigating agencies to investigate graft cases.
A parliamentary panel on Friday recommended for fixing of an upper limit for the economy class airfares to curb the "exorbitant" air fares during the peak tourist seasons.
A group of faculty members of Ashoka University has written to its vice chancellor claiming that free thought within universities in India is in crisis today and demanded that all decisions on matters related to academic freedom should be put on hold till the promised committee for academic freedom is in place.
The much-delayed Women's Reservation Bill may not come up in the Budget session of Parliament as it has to be scrutinised by a new Parliamentary panel. A Union minister, who declined to be identified, said work needed to be done on the Bill which was before the Standing Committee on Law and Justice.
The meeting was convened by the Congress. Six major parties -- the DMK, the SP, the BSP, the TMC, the AAP and the Shiv Sena -- choose to stay away. The BJP took a swipe at the absence of major opposition parties at the meet and also said that their anti-CAA resolution must've made Pak happy.
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