Parliament

Pvt Members' Bills return to spotlight, even as history shows rare success

Despite rarely becoming law, these have left a lasting imprint on India's legislative journey

Parliament panel urges labour ministry to set up women's creches with NGOs

Noting that only Madhya Pradesh and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu had reported creche facilities on the central portal for women construction workers, a Parliamentary committee has recommended that the Ministry of Labour explore the feasibility of involving NGOs for opening creches for women. In a report titled Safety and protection of women in unorganised sector' tabled in Parliament, the Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women, chaired by BJP MP D Purandeswari, also recommended extending the operating hours of the creches to match women's work schedules (8 hours), ensuring childcare aligns with employment needs. It also recommended a mandate of a fixed percentage of CSR funds for childcare and maternity support in the informal sector. According to the report, The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, mandates comprehensive welfare measures for women construction workers. Th

Govt's SHANTI Bill may put citizens' lives in danger: Prashant Bhushan

The SHANTI Bill could be challenged on the ground of violating Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, alleged Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan in a press conference in Delhi

Parliament Winter Session Highlights: Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha adjourned sine die amid Oppn protest

Parliament Winter Session LIVE updates: Follow all the latest updates from Parliament as government and opposition debate key issues

Disruptions unbecoming of MPs, says RS Chairman as Winter session ends

Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan on Friday strongly disapproved of disruptions by Opposition members during the passage of the rural employment guarantee bill (G RAM G), terming the conduct "unbecoming of Members of Parliament", and urged them to introspect and refrain from such behaviour in future. Radhakrishnan read out a synopsis of the legislative and other business transacted during the 15-day sitting of the Winter session before adjourning the proceedings sine die. Adjourned sine die (Latin for without a day') means suspending a parliamentary session indefinitely, without setting a specific date to reconvene. It's used when legislative bodies end a session without naming a future date for reassembly. The Winter session of Parliament started on December 1. "Disruption created during yesterday's sitting by the Opposition Members by shouting slogans, displaying placards, disrupting the Minister replying to the discussion, tearing up papers and throwing them in the well of

Oppn sits on overnight protest in Parl against passage of G RAM G bill

Opposition leaders staged a 12-hour overnight protest dharna in Parliament complex on Thursday night, while protesting against the passage of the VB-G RAM G bill that seeks to replace the MGNREGA rural employment programme and said they would take to the streets across the country. Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha deputy leader Sagarika Ghose accused the Union government of bulldozing the VB- G RAM G bill, as opposition MPs sat on a 12-hour dharna in the Parliament complex. The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill was passed by Parliament amid opposition's protests, with the Rajya Sabha giving it its nod post midnight. Ghose said the manner in which the Modi government has brought in this completely "anti-poor, anti-people, anti-farmer, anti-rural poor" VBGRG bill, and has done away with the MGNREGA. "This is an insult to India's poor, it is an insult to Mahatma Gandhi, it is an insult to Rabindranath Tagore. With just five hours' notice,

Parl panel flags delays, seeks clearances for critical mineral projects

A Parliamentary Panel has flagged delays between mine auctions and operationalisation and has urged the government to explore setting up an inter-ministerial committee to monitor the post-auction progress for mineral and critical mineral projects. The panel also stressed that critical mineral projects should be given priority in necessary statutory clearances. "Although policy initiatives and simplification of exploration norms for auction of mineral blocks are in place, the Committee feels that the lengthy process of regulatory clearances, inadequate exploration, forest clearance requirement even at the exploration stage, considerable time lag between auction of mines and their operationalisation, etc., needs to be looked into," it said. The observations were made by the Standing Committee on Coal, Mines and Steel in its latest report titled "Self-Reliance in Minerals and Metals". "In view of these persistent challenges, the committee desires to explore the possibility of setting

Lok Sabha clears SHANTI Bill by voice vote amid Opposition walkout

The tough provisions of India's nuclear liability laws led to "silent phobia" among industry, prompting the government to bring a new comprehensive bill to address their concerns and open up the atomic energy sector for private participation, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Wednesday. Singh was replying to a discussion in the Lok Sabha that passed the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill by a voice vote amid a walk out by the opposition. The opposition contended that the government was putting citizens in harm by allowing suppliers of nuclear equipment to escape the liability net in case of a nuclear accident. "The government will deal only with the operator, it is upon the operator to deal with the supplier," Singh, the Minister of State in the PMO, who oversees the Department of Atomic Energy, told the Lok Sabha. He said the operator liability has been rationalised through graded caps linked to reactor size to encoura

Parliament clears 100% FDI in insurance: What it means

The Lok Sabha has passed an insurance reform bill, raising foreign direct investment in the sector to 100%. The government says this will bring capital, competition, and better coverage.

Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha Bill passed; way paved for 100% FDI in insurance

The Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Bill, 2025, was cleared by the Rajya Sabha with a voice vote, a day after it was passed by the Lok Sabha

Revamping rural employment: New law will bring significant changes

The Bill proposes to increase the number of guaranteed days of employment to 125 per household

Parliament Winter Session LIVE: India mother of democracy, says Nadda, urges respect for EC on SIR

Parliament Winter Session LIVE Updates: Follow all the latest updates from Parliament as government and opposition debate key issues

Govt introduces bill in Lok Sabha to hike FDI in insurance sector to 100%

A bill seeking to raise FDI in the insurance sector to 100 per cent was on Tuesday introduced in the Lok Sabha amid strong protest from the Opposition. The Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act, 2025, seeks to amend Insurance Act, 1938, Life Insurance Corporation Act, 1956, and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999, as per the bill circulated to members of Parliament. Introducing the bill, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the common people's insurance has always been the focus of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central government has provided insurance to the marginal sections of the society even during the Covid pandemic. Sitharaman said objections of some of the Opposition members could be part of the debate and she was ready to answer all their questions during the debate on the proposed legislation. Opposing the introduction of the bill, RSP member N K Premachandran said the nomenclature of the bill has nothing to do wit

Big Nuclear Shift for India! All about the new SHANTI Bill and it's major provisions

India is on the brink of a major shift in its energy policy. The SHANTI Bill, cleared by the Union Cabinet and tabled in Parliament, could fundamentally change how nuclear power is built

Congress seeks apology after govt says 'no Nehru papers missing from PMML'

The Congress on Tuesday took a swipe at the government over its reply to a question in the Lok Sabha that no documents related to Jawaharlal Nehru were missing from the Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML) during its annual inspection, asking if there would be an apology forthcoming. In September, Rizwan Kadri, a member of the Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML) Society, had said he had written to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi to allow physical or digital access to private papers related to former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru that are in her possession. Sharing the reply of the government in the Lok Sabha, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "The truth was finally revealed in the Lok Sabha yesterday. Will there be an apology forthcoming?" The government informed Parliament on Monday that no documents related to the first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, have been found missing from PMML during its annual inspection this year. Union

Hindi words in English Bills an affront to non-Hindi speakers: Chidambaram

The Congress leader highlighted that the practice was to write the title of the Bill in English words in the English version and in Hindi words in the Hindi version

Bill introduced in LS to send 71 laws which are in disuse to chopping board

A bill to repeal 71 laws which have outlived their utility in the statute books was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday. While 65 of the bills are amendment Acts, which were brought to tweak existing laws, six are principal laws that have become outdated. At least one law, proposed to be repealed, is of the British era -- The Indian Tramways Act of 1886. The law was brought to facilitate the construction and to regulate the working of tramways in British India. The proposed repeal and amendment Bill is not aimed at striking off colonial laws but to remove Acts which have outlived their utility. "Once an amendment is passed by Parliament, it gets subsumed in the principal law. It then only clutters the statute books. Its use has ended, but it still exists, creating confusion," an official explained. So far, 1,562 old archaic laws have been repealed. Once the proposed Bill gets Parliament's nod, the total number of laws to be repealed will stand at 1,633. Since May 2014, the Mo

Datanomics: Right to Disconnect Bill fuels work-life balance debate

Since it is a private member Bill, there is a high probability of it not getting passed in the house

Bill to set up single higher education commission tabled, sent to JPC

The introduction of the bill faced sharp resistance from the opposition

Parliament Winter Session LIVE: Dharmendra Pradhan introduces Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill

Parliament Winter Session LIVE Updates: Follow all the latest updates from Parliament as government and opposition debate key issues