Parliament on Wednesday passed a Bill removing leprosy as a ground for divorce under five personal laws, including the Hindu Marriage Act. The Rajya Sabha on the last day of the Budget session passed the Bill without debate after consensus on the issue. The Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018 sought …
Read More »Northeast hails lapse of Citizenship Bill
The Centre’s failure in tabling the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday triggered euphoria across the North-Eastern states. As soon as the news of the lapsing of the Bill came in, people across Assam and the neighbouring States took to the streets bursting firecrackers, singing, dancing …
Read More »MSP for jute hiked by Rs. 250/quintal
The government has increased the minimum support price (MSP) for raw jute by Rs. 250 per quintal, taking the price to Rs. 3,950 per quintal for the 2019-20 season, according to an official statement. The decision was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday. India is the …
Read More »MPs bid adieu amid Mulayam’s twist
The valedictory sessions of Houses of Legislature are a mixture of camaraderie and piquant uncertainties of whether one will be re-elected. Party positions are gently reiterated, but good wishes are also exchanged for being in the same cohort again. The last day of the 16th Lok Sabha saw all this …
Read More »Rajasthan clears 5% quota for Gujjars
The Rajasthan Assembly on Wednesday unanimously passed a Bill giving 5% reservation in government jobs and education to Gujjars and four other nomadic communities. Leader of the Gujjar stir Kirori Singh Bainsla and other protesters occupying the railway tracks on the Delhi-Mumbai route near the Malarna station in Sawai Madhopur …
Read More »‘Majority govt. a must for stability’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his last speech to the Lok Sabha, ahead of the general elections, made a strong pitch for a majority government at the Centre, stating that a full majority government in the last five years had enhanced the status of the country globally. Faced with an …
Read More »Citizenship, triple talaq Bills lapse
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, that had set off a series of violent protests across the northeastern States, lapsed on Wednesday as the government failed to push it through Rajya Sabha despite a last- ditch effort on Tuesday. Along with the Citizenship Bill, the triple talaq Bill that criminalises instant …
Read More »50% cost-sharing for Sabari line
Cabinet likely to give approval for the project in the coming weeks Bowing to pressure from Railways, Kerala has in principle agreed to share 50% cost of the 111-km Sabari railway line that aims to put Sabarimala on the rail map. Though the rail line does not figure on the …
Read More »Rafale cost is 2.86% lower, but Dassault benefited without bank guarantee: CAG
Improvement in delivery schedule was only one month over UPA deal, the government auditor says The contract signed in 2016 to acquire 36 Rafale fighter jets from France through the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) was 2.86% lower in value than “Audit’s aligned price” of the bid received in 2007 when the …
Read More »Algorithms can now spot childhood disease
An artificial intelligence programme developed in China that combs through test results, health records and even handwritten notes diagnosed childhood diseases as accurately as doctors, researchers have found. From the flu and asthma to life-threatening pneumonia and meningitis, the system consistently matched or out-performed primary care paediatricians, they reported in …
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