Explore Business Standard
Leaders of several opposition parties met in Parliament on Wednesday to discuss their joint strategy for the Winter Session. Floor leaders of various parties, including the Congress, DMK, RJD, SP, JMM, CPI-M, CPI, IUML, NCP-SP, and SS-UBT, attended the meeting, while Trinamool Congress (TMC) skipped it. The TMC was also absent from the last meeting of Opposition leaders, held on December 1 the first day of the winter session. Leaders of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, were present at the meeting, which was held in Kharge's chamber. During the meeting, the leaders also stressed that their unity and continued pressure on the government have forced it to agree to their demand for a discussion on Electoral reforms, including SIR. They also called for the smooth functioning of Parliament, saying it is the government's responsibility to ensure it. The Opposition has been protesting in Parliament over their demand for a discussion on ...
The government has listed nine economic bills, including a bill to amend Insurance Laws and two others to levy tax and cess on sin goods like tobacco and pan masala, for the Winter Session of Parliament beginning Monday. Also, the first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2025-26 would be brought in during the Winter Session which is scheduled from December 1-19. As per the list of Bills circulated with the members of Parliament for the upcoming session, the government proposes to introduce The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2025, to raise the FDI limit in the insurance sector to 100 per cent, from 74 per cent, as part of new-generation financial reforms. So far, the insurance sector has attracted Rs 82,000 crore through foreign direct investment (FDI). Besides, The Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and 'The Health Security se National Security Cess Bill, 2025' are listed for introduction by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The Bills
A bill seeking to open up the civil nuclear sector for private players is among the 10 new proposed legislations listed by the government for introduction in the winter session of Parliament, beginning December 1. Besides the crucial 'The Atomic Energy Bill, 2025', which seeks to govern the use and regulation of atomic energy in India, the Higher Education Commission of India Bill is also on the agenda. According to a Lok Sabha bulletin, the proposed law seeks to set up a Higher Education Commission of India to facilitate universities and other higher educational institutes to become independent and self-governing institutions and to promote excellence through a robust and transparent system of accreditation and autonomy. It has long been on the government's agenda. The National Highways (Amendment) Bill, also listed for introduction, seeks to ensure faster and transparent land acquisition for national highways. Another proposed legislation is the Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, .
The Winter session of Parliament will be held from December 1 to 19, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Saturday. "The Hon'ble President of India Smt. Droupadi Murmu ji has approved the proposal of the Government to convene the #WinterSession of Parliament from 1st December 2025 to 19th December, 2025 (subject to exigencies of Parliamentary business)," Rijiju said on X. "Looking forward to a constructive and meaningful Session that strengthens our democracy and serves the aspirations of the people," he said.
The Congress on Friday demanded that the government must introduce a law for implementing Article 15(5), which pertains to reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs in private educational institutions, in Parliament's next session. To buttress its argument, the opposition party cited a parliamentary committee report which stated that the SC, ST, and OBC community students are underrepresented in private universities. Addressing a joint press conference along with Adivasi Congress chief Vikrant Bhuria and party's OBC department head Anil Jaihind, Congress' SC Department chief Rajendra Pal Gautam said the number of private educational institutions in the country has been continuously increasing, but due to the non-implementation of reservations there and lack of money, children from SC, ST, OBC categories could not get access to them. "Due to this, during the Congress government, a law was made, in which provision was made for reservation for SC, ST, OBC categories in private higher education
During the consultation process on 'one nation, one election', 32 political parties supported the idea while 15 did not, according to former president Ram Nath Kovind, who headed a high-level committee that studied the proposal. Delivering the 7th Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Lecture on Simultaneous Elections on October 5, Kovind had said that many among these 15 parties supported simultaneous elections at some point in past. The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved bills to implement 'one nation, one election', and the draft legislations are likely to be introduced in Parliament in the ongoing Winter session. "During our consultation process, 47 political parties presented their views to the Committee. 32 out of these 47 parties supported the idea of simultaneous elections. 15 parties did not. However, many among these 15 parties have supported simultaneous elections in the past, at one time or another," Kovind had said. Among the national parties, the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP
India is likely to have 777 GW power generation capacity, including 500 GW clean sources and about 277 GW fossil fuel-based, to meet the projected peak demand of about 335 GW by 2030, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. "Accordingly, the percentage of clean sources of energy in the total installed capacity is likely to be 64.4 per cent by 2029-30," Minister of State for New & Renewable Energy Shripad Yesso Naik said in a written reply to Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The minister said that to meet the projected peak demand of 334.8 GW and energy requirement of 2,279.7 billion units of the country, as per the National Electricity Plan. He added that the installed capacity for the year 2029-30 is likely to be 7,77,144 MW comprising of fossil-based capacity of 2,76,507 MW and non-fossil-based capacity of 5,00,637 MW along with a battery energy storage capacity of 41,650 MW/208,250 MWh. The coal-based capacity will be 2,51,683 MW and the gas-based capacity will be 24,824 MW, the minister .
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Saturday said there is a new trend of obstructing the proceedings in the House in a planned way and the time has come to change it. Addressing the 84th All India Presiding Officers' Conference (AIPOC), Birla said there is enough space to give voice to dissent in a democratic system and, therefore, disruption should not be used as a tool of protest and dissent. "There is a new trend of obstructing the proceedings of the House in a planned way. Time has come to change this," he said, noting that state legislatures, Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha are places for discussion and dialogue. The agenda of the 84th AIPOC is to strengthen people's trust in democratic institutions - the need to maintain discipline and decorum in Parliament and the legislatures of States and UTs; and how to make the committee system more purposeful and effective. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the AIPOC through video message, while 26 presiding officers took part in the inaugural .