In this exclusive interview with Parliament expert C V Madhukar, Founder and Director of PRS Legislative Research, he tells rediff.com's Sahim Salim that there is a need for a JPC to look into the smooth functioning of the Parliament, if for nothing else.
Anirudh Burman, analyst with New Delhi-based PRS Legislative Research, details concerns about India's nuclear power generation
The current batch of LAMP Fellows have been engaged in working with members of Parliament on several Parliament related research tasks. For details of the fellowship and the application process, please visit www.prsindia.org/lamp. Applications close on March 20, 2011.
Parliament is expected to take up a motion for impeaching Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court. M R Madhavan (head of Research, PRS Legislative Research, New Delhi) explains the process of impeachment and the facts of this case.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, or AFSPA, as it is commonly known, has of late been a subject of intense discussion and debate. AFSPA has been in force in the North-East and Jammu and Kashmir, and the 'draconian' law has been the reason of wide protests.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, or AFSPA, as it is commonly known, has of late been a subject of intense discussion and debate. AFSPA has been in force in the North-East and Jammu and Kashmir, and the 'draconian' law has been the reason of wide protests.
A graphical look at the performance of our MPs in both Houses of Parliament during the Budget session.
Over the last 50 years, the number of sittings of Parliament has been declining and has halved since the 1950s and the 1960s, the report stated.
The company also announced $765,000 for Bangalore-based Centre for Budget and Policy Studies, $660,000 for Centre for Policy Research, $1,015,000 for Institute for Finance Management & Research (IFMR) while NGO database information PRS Legislative Research will get $880,000.
The need for finding options for proper functioning of Parliament is of paramount importance as the frequency of the passage of Budgets and other economic Bills without discussion or debate has only increased in the last few years, notes A K Bhattacharya.
As the Lok Sabha debates a no-confidence motion brought against the Narendra Modi government by the opposition, the 28th such motion to be admitted in the Lower House, data compiled by a think tank shows all previous ones have either been defeated or remained inconclusive.
Parliament has cleared the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2023, recently. The objective of the Act is to invite investments from the private sector, including foreign companies, for mining minerals such as lithium and other critical minerals. Other than lithium, some of these minerals were classified as atomic minerals, including beryl and beryllium, niobium, titanium, tantalum and zirconium.
Higher reliance on GST receipts for revenue reduces states' autonomy as these receipts depend on tax rates decided by the GST Council, a report by Delhi-based non-profit, PRS Legislative Research shows.
The students will spend four to five hours daily in assisting the MPs by getting them required inputs in a timely manner
No confidence motions have been moved in the Lok Sabha 27 times in the past, and all of them have either been defeated or remained inconclusive, data compiled by a think tank shows.
The Budget session of Parliament was the least productive since the year 2000.
According to data collated by think-tank PRS Legislative Research, productivity of Parliament during the session was the 'third lowest' in the 16th Lok Sabha.
Running a fractious House full of members every bit as well versed in parliamentary law as the chair, has, in the past, reduced several Rajya Sabha chairmen to tears.
Lok Sabha lost a sixth of its time to disruptions.
In a first, the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) officers reached out to several ministries in the last week of April as part of a confidence-boosting measure. The meeting brought the CAG officials and those from the ministries across the table to discuss the pain points in their relations. CAG of India Girish Chandra Murmu took this novel step because of growing tensions between those audited and the auditor.
The Modi government could steer through Parliament 59 out of 75 Bills.
The move will help industries in pushing authorities for exemption under various labour laws at a micro-level, along with demanding changes to bring greater flexibility in their operations related to retrenchment, safety standards, and collective bargaining.
The new Lok Sabha will have 300 MPs who have been elected for the first time to the Lower House.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the session has been "more productive and satisfactory" than the previous Budget Session and last year's monsoon session.
Rekha, the Rajya Sabha MP, once again came last when it came to attendance of actor-turned-MPs with an abysmal 5 per cent.
While the likelihood of these states going the Lanka or Greece way may be an alarming assessment, the financial situation of some states such as Punjab and West Bengal is indeed quite weak.
During the 16th Lok Sabha, 180 bills were passed and 45 ordinances promulgated.
The landmark bill to liberalise the insurance industry, which marks Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first stab at legislative reforms, will now go to a parliamentary committee, which will submit a report later this year.
Telangana govt currently provides the state's 5.83 million farmers an income support of Rs 4,000 per acre per season, irrespective of the size of their land holding
'Votes-for-notes no longer only means cash and goodies for fence-sitting voters,' points out Sunil Sethi.
Taking a leaf from the US, Canada and the UK, where students and research scholars get to work with Parliamentary panels, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan is pushing for induction of interns in the Parliamentary standing committees.
'The role of Parliament is to hold the government of the day, whichever party is in power, accountable for its actions, policies.' 'The amount we are wasting on Parliament is a very miniscule amount. But the cost of delay in policy-making is huge and that affects the entire nation.'
India will benefit hugely if the representation of women in Parliament is increased to a just level.
Even as Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje faces the worst crises in her political career, son Dushyant Singh is vacationing with his wife and children at an undisclosed location abroad
Laws in several states are inconsistent with the model Bill passed by Parliament.
According to data culled by PRS Legislative Research, Singh has asked 13 questions in the Lok Sabha in its proceedings up to the last budget session, while the average is 69.
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Sakshi Balani presents an FAQ on the Food Security Bill that was passed by Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
'Do we not all exhibit a sense of entitlement every day,' asks Savera R Someshwar.
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.
Joyita Ghose on the land acquisition laws in the country and the changes that the NDA government's controversial bill in Parliament makes to the land acquisition act, 2013 brought in by the United Progressive Alliance government.
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