Chairman of the Standing Committee on Lokpal Abhishek Singhvi on Thursday refused to set a deadline for finalising its crucial report but insisted that the panel was working on the issue with unparallel swiftness.
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".
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.
At the same time, offences attracting disqualification should have punishment more than five years, instead of existing two years.
The Lokpal Bill is set to be put on the fast-track with the Parliamentary panel on Law taking it for examination from Friday by hearing views of Aruna Roy and Jaiprakash Narayan who have presented their own drafts.
China on Thursday amended a law on guarding state secrets that makes it mandatory on Internet and telecommunications companies to inform on customers who discuss state secrets.
Bill's 2011 version has provision to punish both taker and giver.
The bill which seeks to keep political parties out of the ambit of the transparency law will be sent to a standing committee for wider consultations, government informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
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.
The government sources said the bill incorporates various electoral reforms which have been discussed for a long time.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour will recommend to the Union Ministry of Labour to frame laws so as to bring workers of the unorganised sector in the country under the social security net.
As per the comprehensive format devised by the government, the selected candidates, besides being asked to provide information about themselves, their family members, including in-laws, have to provide information about the mobile numbers used during the last five years, the registration number of vehicles owned or used, email and social media or web-based portal accounts, in addition to bank and post office account numbers among others.
The BJP cannot afford to alienate the OBCs, who have explicitly voiced their opposition to the Maratha quota.
In a report submitted Monday to Rajya Sabha chairman and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs also said there was a need for a comprehensive public health law to keep a tab on private hospitals and check black-marketing of medicines.
Pakistan's National Assembly has passed a government-backed bill that will provide the right of appeal to Indian death-row prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav, according to a media report.
Under Urjit Patel, the then RBI Governor, the central bank had a habit of making complete about-turns on various issues, including electoral bonds and digital payments, former finance secretary Subash Chandra Garg said in his book titled 'We Also Make Policy: An Insider's Account of How the Finance Ministry Functions.' Citing some instances of about-turns by the then RBI Governor Patel, Garg in his book said, RBI had done so on the electoral bond issue and it had so in case of setting up of Payments Regulatory Board (PRB). RBI also made unilateral decisions like ordering complete data localization for participation in the payment system, Garg wrote in the book which will hit the stands on October 1.
The Centre on Monday told the Delhi high court that Mughal Mosque in South Delhi's Mehrauli area is a "protected monument" and sought time to state its stand on a plea against the stopping of offering namaaz by devotees there.
Against the backdrop of December 16 Delhi gang rape, a Parliamentary panel has recommended that mercy petitions should generally not be considered in cases of rape and murder and reasons for any grant of pardon should be made public.
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.
August 15, 2023 became for me, an extraordinary Independence Day. I will remember it as the day the country's largest political party -- one that struts around like a colossus and tutors us in apt behaviour -- suddenly looked bankrupt in terms of ideas and had to take out a personal guarantee from the prime minister to underscore its capacity to deliver our future, observes Shyam G Menon.
Despite government declaring it as a "top priority," the Women's Reservation Bill is unlikely to come up in the Budget session of Parliament beginning on Thursday.
All 23 of the World cup-winning squad including Jenni Hermoso, as well as 32 other squad members, said they would not play internationals while Luis Rubiales remains head of the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
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.
The Centre on Monday said it has no role to play in the issue of impeachment process of Karnataka high court chief justice P D Dinakaran except notifying the committee constituted by the Rajya Sabha Chairman.
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.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice KM Joseph said the concepts of liberty, equality and fraternity must not be "strange bedfellows" to the ruling class.
The law minister said his ministry is committed to the use of simpler language wherever possible.
The Opposition on Saturday forced Law Minister Kapil Sibal to apologise in Rajya Sabha for failing to get a Constitution Amendment Bill passed in the Lok Sabha, alleging that he "misled" the Upper House while getting it passed in "haste".
Accusing Congress of 'abuse culture', Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday urged the people of Karnataka to punish those indulging in abuse, while casting their vote in polling booths on May 10.
"It is a historic day. We are making history today," Law Minister said.
In an interim relief, the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the status quo and said the Delhi High Court-appointed three-member Committee of Administrators (COA) will not take over the affairs of the Indian Olympic Association.
A bill to award death penalty to hijackers and give the right to security forces to shoot down an aircraft which may be used as a missile is likely to be brought in Parliament in the next session.
When powers vested by the Finance Bill 2017 begin to get mildly used, fellow Indians living in the corporate bubble will get a faint whiff of what life can be like when you run a grocery store in the streets of Kashmir or the North East.
On one hand, South Indian states have been complaining about denial of a proportionate portion of the sharable funds from the Centre, based on population. On the other hand, they stand to lose Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats that again are based on population, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
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The Direct Taxes Code bill was introduced in Lok Sabha in 2010 and Standing Committee on Finance has given a report after its scrutiny.
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.
The controversial issue of Muslim girls wearing 'hijab' in educational institutions, which had hit national headlines last year with a government pre-university college in Udupi banning it inside classrooms, does not appear to be a serious campaign issue for the May 10 elections to the Karnataka assembly.
The results of the assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are likely to play out during the winter session of Parliament beginning Wednesday.
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.
Spanish prosecutors last month filed a complaint against Barcelona over payments of 7.3 million euros ($7.95 million) from 2001 to 2018 to firms owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.
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