Monsoon session of Parliament from today; it's going to be stormy

The monsoon session of Parliament will begin on Monday, July 17. The session will see a lot of political action — the election of a new President of India on the first day (the counting and the result will be announced on Wednesday), the last session with Vice-President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Hamid Ansari, in saddle and a lot of legislative business, including passage of the ordinance to give the Reserve Bank of India more powers to sort out the mess of non-performing assets. On the political front, the session must be scrutinised for the Janata Dal (United)’s moves vis a vis the ruling National Democratic Alliance alliance amid suggestions that the JD(U) might prefer to walk an independent course from the rest of the opposition. 

Coconut palm classification

The third session of the Goa Assembly will begin on Tuesday. “The house will sit for 15 days. A total of 1,596 questions have been received from MLAs, of which 590 are starred and 1,006 are un-starred,” Goa Assembly Speaker and BJP MLA Pramod Sawant told reporters in Panaji. Given that the state Budget was presented in the March session of the Assembly, the monsoon one will see discussions, voting on demands and the passing of the Budget. The session is also likely to see the reclassification of the coconut palm as a tree.