Parliament House India

The Highlights of the Business of the House from 17th to 23rd September 2020

  • The Major Port Authorities Bill, 2020 – Tabled and passed in the Lok Sabha.
  • The Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2020 – Not Presented
  • The Factoring Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2020 – Not Presented
  • The Appropriation (No.3) Bill, 2020 and Appropriation (No.4) Bill, 2020 – Returned without discussion from the Rajya Sabha
  • Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill – Adds Kashmiri, Dogri, and Hindi to the official languages of the Union Territories. – Passed by both Houses.
  • 3 Labour Laws passed by both Houses.
  • Bilateral Netting of Qualified Financial Contracts Bill, 2020 – Passed by both Houses.
  • Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020 – Passed by both Houses.
  • 3 Bills related to how farmers can sell their produce – Passed by both Houses. The Opposition has met the President today to convince him to not give his approval on the Bills.
  • 11 members will retire from the Rajya Sabha in this session and will not come back for the winter session.
  • Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2020 – This will give RBI the right to govern co-operative banks also. – Passed in both Houses.
  • The Indian Institutes of Information Technology Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020 – This will make 5 IIITs ‘institutions of national importance’. – Passed by both Houses.
  • 24 reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India related to various ministries and departments were presented to the Rajya Sabha.  
  • The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020 – Passed by both Houses.  
  • The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Bill, 2020 – This law can lead to jail for attacking health workers like nurses and doctors. – Passed by both Houses.
  • Aircraft (Amendment) Bill, 2020 – Passed by both Houses.
  • National Commission for Homoeopathy Bill, 2020 and the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill, 2020 – These will create national commissions for homeopathy and for Indian systems of medicine. Indian systems of medicine include Unani, Ayurveda, Siddha, and Sowa Rigpa.
  • Salaries and Allowances of Ministers (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament (Amendment) Bill, 2020 – The salaries and allowances of all ministers and parliamentarians to be cut by 30% for one year to increase the money available to fight Covid. – Passed by both Houses.
  • The government reduced the import duty on masoor dal to 10% from 30% for all countries other than the US. When importing from US, the import duty is 30% (from 50% earlier).

Phew! A lot to do in 10 days, don’t you think? (Remember, these are just the highlights)