Ordinances for coal auction, insurance reform approved

The relevant ordinances for holding auctions for coal blocks and to hike the foreign equity cap in the insurance sector to 49 percent from the present 26 percent were approved Wednesday by the union cabinet.

Legislation for the same could not be taken up in the Rajya Sabha, as the opposition parties did not allow the upper house to conduct business during the last few days of the winter session that ended Tuesday.

A meeting here of the cabinet, presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave its consent to the two ordinances to send a strong signal that the government will pursue reforms and won't allow disruptions in parliament to come in the way, an official said.

The ordinance on coal is necessary for the government to hold auctions for the blocks that were ordered cancelled by the Supreme Court, while that on insurance will operationalise the reforms in the sector, the bill for which had been okayed by the Select Committee of the upper house.