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Budget Session
The "recent development" has cast a shadow on the future of Chabahar Port, a vital and strategic port for India, a parliamentary panel on external affairs has said, and welcomed that the Centre "remains engaged" with all concerned parties in order to address the implications of these developments. The 'Twelfth Report of the Committee on External Affairs (2025-26) on Demands for Grants (2026-27)' of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), was presented in Parliament on Tuesday. The Committee of External Affairs is headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. The observation by the panel, assumes significance as it comes amid the ongoing West Asia conflict and in the backdrop of the recent changes in US sanctions or tariff policies on India's participation in the Chabahar project. "The Committee find that for the development of Chabahar Port, an amount of Rs 100 crore was allocated at BE (budget estimate) 2025-26, which was increased to Rs 400 crore at RE (revised estimate). The allocated .
The suspension of eight opposition MPs from the Lok Sabha is likely to be revoked on Tuesday, sources said, citing a decision taken at a meeting convened by Speaker Om Birla. Seven Congress and a CPI(M) MP were suspended for unruly behaviour, following a resolution passed by the Lok Sabha in the first part of the Budget Session. While the eight MPs were suspended for the entire session that is scheduled to conclude on April 2, opposition parties have been urging the speaker to revoke the suspensions during one of the sittings of the Lok Sabha. When Congress members had urged Birla to revoke the suspensions, he had said such action is taken when someone climbs on tables. The revocation of suspension of the eight MPs has been a key demand of the opposition since the second leg of the Budget Session commenced on March 9. The sources said there was a general consensus at the meeting that opposition members will restrict themselves in the Well of the House and not cross over to the ...
The Rajya Sabha will function on the weekend on March 28-29 as the government has accepted the request of some members not to hold sittings on March 19-20 on account of festivals, Chairman C P Radhakrishnan informed members on Monday. During a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee held on March 11, 2026, certain members had suggested that in view of several festivals such as Navaratri, Gudipadwa, Ramadan etc, starting from March 19, it would be inappropriate to hold sittings of the House. "I wish to inform the members that the request made in this regard has been considered favourably by the government. Accordingly, the sittings of the Council scheduled for Thursday, 19 March 2026, and Friday, 20 March 2026, stands cancelled. "However, in order to make up for the time so lost, the Council will instead sit on Saturday, 28 March 2026, and Sunday, 29 March 2026. Members may kindly take note of the same," the Rajya Sabha Chairman said.
The government on Thursday said there was no shortage of petrol, diesel, kerosene or aviation turbine fuel in India after the Opposition criticised it over the handling of the fallout of the West Asia crisis by citing instances of scarcity and panic buying across the country. Responding to concerns raised by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri said it was the foremost priority of the government that the kitchens of over 33 crore families, especially the poor and the underprivileged, did not face any shortage of gas. Domestic supply was fully protected and the delivery cycle unchanged, he said. "There is no shortage of petrol, diesel, kerosene, aviation turbine fuel or fuel oil. The availability of petrol, diesel, aviation turbine fuel, kerosene, and fuel oil is fully assured," Puri said. He said retail outlets across the country were well stocked, supply chains were functioning normally, and additional allocation of PDS (pub
IndiGo has the lowest pilots-to-aircraft ratio at 7.6 compared to other domestic airlines, the Civil Aviation Ministry informed Parliament on Thursday. SpiceJet has the highest at 9.4 pilots per aircraft followed by Akasa Air having 9.33 pilots per aircraft, according to data presented by Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol, in response to a question in the Lok Sabha. Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express have 9.1 pilots per aircraft and 8.8 pilots per aircraft, respectively, the data showed. In response to another question, the minister said that Air India Express had employed the highest number of expat pilots at 48, while IndiGo hired 29 foreign pilots. The minister said that IndiGo has a total of 5,200 pilots, including 970 female pilots in the company, while Air India has 3,123 pilots with 508 female pilots. The number of total pilots with Air India Express is 1,820, and 234 of them are females, the minister said. Akasa Air has 761 pilots, including
The Union Cabinet is likely to approve Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026, which provides for incorporation of Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) as a body corporate and a framework for its effective governance, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. The draft Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026 aims at enhancing ISI's autonomy and accountability, stated Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation Rao Inderjit Singh in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. "The process of Cabinet approval has been initiated. The matter is under consideration in accordance with the prescribed procedure," Singh said. The pre-legislative consultation, including inter-ministerial consultation, on the draft ISI Bill has concluded. Legal vetting of the draft has also been completed, he added. The bill provides more robust and contemporary governance framework which will enable ISI to emerge as a globally recognised centre of excellence in statistical and allied disciplines, he state
The upcoming Census will collect data on sex of head of household--Male, Female and Transgender, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday. Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, in a written response, said Census 2027 will be conducted in two phases. The questions for the first phase, which covers Houselisting and Housing Census, have been notified. "Information on Housing condition, Household particulars including name and sex of the head of the household, amenities available and assets possessed by household will be collected in this phase. Three categories of sex of head of household viz. Male/Female/Transgender will be collected," Rai said. Questions for the second phase, which is Population Enumeration where information of each individual will be collected, will be notified in due course, he added. The minister said enumerators shall undertake house-to-house field visits in the entire enumeration area for the collection of Census data to avoid any exclusion on any
The resolution seeking the removal of Om Birla as Speaker was on Wednesday defeated in Lok Sabha by a voice vote. Amid protests and sloganeering by the opposition seeking an apology from Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Jagdambika Pal, who was in the chair, announced that the no-confidence motion was defeated. Pal urged the opposition to take their seats so that he could put the motion to vote. But as the protests continued, he sought the vote of the House and the resolution was rejected by a voice vote, following which he adjourned the House for the day. Earlier, the home minister hit out at the opposition for bringing the motion for the removal of Birla as Speaker. The opposition objected to certain remarks of Shah and started shouting slogans, disrupted the proceedings and sought an apology from him. Responding to the two-day-long debate, Shah asserted that the House will be run by its own rules and not by the rules of a party. "It is not an ordinary occurrence as after nearly f
The Lok Sabha on Tuesday took up an opposition resolution seeking the removal of Speaker Om Birla from office for his alleged bias towards the ruling party, amid a heated debate on who will preside over the House while the motion is being taken up. Congress legislator Mohammad Jawed read out the notice seeking to move a resolution to remove Birla from office. Besides Jawed, MPs K Suresh and Mallu Ravi had also moved the resolution. As soon as Jawed read out the notice, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi raised a point of order questioning the decision to allow Jagdambika Pal to chair the proceedings as he was appointed to the panel of chairpersons by Speaker Birla. BJP's Nishikant Dubey countered the claim, citing constitutional provisions, law and House rules. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said Owaisi's claim was irrelevant as Pal was competent to preside over the Lok Sabha when the resolution was taken up. Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy said Rijiju should move a mot
Opposition MPs, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, staged a protest in Parliament House complex on Monday, demanding a discussion on the West Asia conflict and slamming the government for its "silence" on critical issues related to it. Earlier, opposition parties' floor leaders met in Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Kharge's chamber in Parliament House complex to deliberate on the strategy for the second half of the Budget session. Besides Kharge and Gandhi, Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav, DMK's Dayanidhi Maran, NCP (SP)'s Supriya Sule and Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Sanjay Raut, among others, attended the meeting. In a post on X, Kharge said, "As the Parliament reconvenes for the second part of the Budget session, US-Israel war with Iran has reached our backyard. In this context, it is imperative to have a full-fledged discussion on the current geopolitical crisis." "A one-sided statement by the EAM is not
The second half of the Budget session of Parliament is set for a stormy start on Monday, with the Lok Sabha scheduled to take up the opposition-sponsored resolution seeking the removal of Speaker Om Birla. The ongoing conflict in West Asia is also likely to figure prominently as the opposition is already attacking the government over its stance towards Iran, the US "waiver" on India's Russian oil purchase, among other issues. Besides, the outcome of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound West Bengal, which led to the deletion of nearly 60 lakh votes, is also expected to cast its shadow on parliamentary proceedings. The no-confidence resolution against Birla was given by several opposition leaders who alleged that he had acted in a "blatantly partisan" manner in the House. They had also accused the speaker of making certain false claims against the Congress members when he spoke of some "unexpected action" in the Lok Sabha and had asked Prime Minister
The stormy first part of the Budget session, which saw heated exchanges over the India-US interim trade deal and unpublished memoir of former army chief M M Naravane, concluded Friday and the House will now reassemble on March 9. The three-week recess period will allow standing committees to examine allocations to various central ministries given in the Union Budget. Earlier in the day, the House was adjourned for one hour after Opposition members raised slogans demanding resignation of Union Minister Hardeep Puri. The opposition members were also protesting against the India-US interim trade agreement. The first part of the Budget Session began on January 28 with the address of President Droupadi Murmu to a joint sitting of the two Houses. The Lok Sabha witnessed dramatic scenes and repeated adjournments from February 2 afternoon after the Chair disallowed Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi to quote from the excerpts of the memoir of Naravane relating to the India-China conflic
Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said on Friday that the government has shelved a plan to bring a motion against Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi for using unparliamentary language against the prime minister, as a BJP MP has submitted a notice to initiate a "substantive motion" against the Congress leader on the same issue. Speaking to reporters here, the Union minister stated that the speaker would be consulted on whether to send the matter to the House privilege committee, the ethics committee, or bring it directly to the Lok Sabha. "It has not yet been decided," he said. He noted that since a private member has already submitted a notice for the motion, the government will refrain from introducing its own motion. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey told PTI Videos on Thursday that he has given a notice to initiate a "substantive motion" against Gandhi, demanding the cancellation of his Lok Sabha membership and calling for him to be barred from contesting
Seeking to avoid any "future unwarranted complication" over continuity of certain laws replaced by the Industrial Relations Code of 2020, an amendment bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Union Labour minister Mansukh Mandaviya introduced the 'Industrial Relations Code (Amendment) Bill, 2026 through supplementary agenda soon after the Question Hour. According to statement of objects and reasons of the proposed law, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 replaces the Trade Unions Act, 1926, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, relating to trade unions, industrial employment and industrial disputes. It contains savings provisions under section 104 to ensure continuity and legal certainty. "Though the repeal has occurred by operation of section 104 of the Code itself, there is a possibility of future confusion being created on a misconceived ground that the Act delegates the power to repeal the said enactments to the .
More than 36 km of the coastline in Gujarat's Valsad and 24 km in Navsari experienced varying levels of erosion between 1990 and 2022, the government told Parliament on Wednesday. The information was shared by Earth Sciences Minister Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Dhaval Laxmanbhai Patel in the Lok Sabha. Singh said the 62.78-km Valsad coastline experienced 2.5 km of high erosion, 3.24 km of medium erosion and 30.88 km of low erosion, according to an assessment of the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR). The Navsari coastline, 40.88 km in length, saw 3.86 km of high erosion, 4.6 km of medium erosion and 16.18 km of low erosion, he added. According to the NCCR shoreline change classification, the region north of Udvada is identified as a high-erosion zone, while the Bhagal coastal stretch falls under the moderate-erosion category -- both are considered erosion-prone or high-risk areas. Other coastal stretches, such as ..