Heena Sharma Blog

  Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV channels have been merged into one channel- Sansad television . Retired IAS officer Ravi Capoor has been appointed the Chief Executive Officer of the channel for a period of one year with immediate effect, or until further orders, whichever is earlier, read a order by Sunil Minocha, the under secretary of Sansad Television. Read More

In an era of technological advancement, where the growth of the digital economy has meant the use of data as a critical means of communication, the Personal Data Protection Bill is proposed to ensure the informational privacy of individuals, and ensuring empowerment, progress and innovation The Personal Data Protection Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, and referred to a Joint Select Committee (JSC) following a voice vote. Well, according to parliamentary procedure, the Bill could also have been referred to the departmental committee, which in this case, would be the parlimentary standing committee on information technology, headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. However, it didn’t happen that way and Tharoor objected to the proposal of sending the Bill to the JSC and also wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to register "strong concerns" with Prasad's proposal. He said the Committee on IT has a mandate and a parliamentary responsibility to ...

The number of Lok Sabha MPs with cases related to crimes against women has increased from two in 2009 to 19 in 2019, according to election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The number of Lok Sabha election candidates with cases of crimes against women went up from 38 to 126, an increase of 231 percent, during the period, an ADR report said. The BJP has 21 MPs and MLAs accused of crimes against women--the highest among political parties recognised by the Election Commission of India. The Congress party has 16 and YSR Congress Party, which governs Andhra Pradesh, has 7 lawmakers who have declared cases related to crimes against women in their election affidavits. According to ADR, there are nine MPs/MLAs who have declared cases related to rape. Out of these, 3 are MPs and 6 are MLAs. West Bengal reported the highest number of MPs/MLAs (16) who declared cases of crimes against women, followed by Odisha and Maharashtra with 12 MPs/MLAs each. Read More

Over 800 posts of teachers of the total 1,748 are lying vacant in Sanskrit universities and institutions funded by central and state governments, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' told Lok Sabha on Monday. He said the government has launched a special drive to fill up vacancies and is currently engaging guest and part- time faculty to meet the shortage. Replying to a question, he said there are about 120 universities which offer Sanskrit as a subject or language while there are 15 Sanskrit universities, with three of them being deemed ones fully funded by central governments. There are 1000 traditional Sanskrit colleges affiliates to these universities with about 10 lakh students, he said. Read More Article Source -> Business Standard

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentarian Om Birla is set to become the Speaker of the 17th Lok Sabha after Wednesday's election. Birla, 57, is a two term Lok Sabha Member of Parliament. He won from Rajasthan’s Kota-Bundi seat in the just concluded general election. Birla has been a three-term legislator in the Rajasthan Assembly. Not just BJP's allies in the National Democratic Alliance, but parties such as the Biju Janata Dal, YSR Congress and others are also likely to support his candidature. Birla’s nomination by the BJP leadership as the party's candidate for the Speaker’s post suggests that it is rewarding 'humble workers' who have come up through the ranks. With Birla’s nomination, the National Democratic Alliance has departed from the decade-and-a-half old trend of nominating an experienced parliamentarian to the post. In 2004, 10-term Lok Sabha MP Somnath Chatterjee was elected as the Speaker. Five-term Lok Sabha MP Meira Kumar succeeded ...

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday decided not to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Narenda Modi as prime minister citing 'untrue" claims by BJP that 54 of the party workers were murdered in political violence in Bengal. Banerjee had on Tuesday confirmed her presence at the ceremony to be held on May 30. "Congratulations, new Prime Minister, Narendra Modiji. It was my plan to accept the "constitutional invitation" and attend the oath taking ceremony. However, in last one year, I am seeing media reports that the BJP are claiming 54 people have been murdered in political violence in Bengal. This is completely untrue. There have been no political murders in Bengal. These deaths may have occurred due to personal enemity, family quarrels and other disputes, nothing related to politics. There is no such record with us," Banerjee said in a tweet. "So I am sorry, Narendra Modi ji, this has compelled me not to attend the ceremony....

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has surged to a majority on his own in India’s general election, with his Bharatiya Janata Party establishing a commanding lead in vote counting. "India wins yet again," Modi said in a tweet. "Together we grow. Together we prosper. Together we will build a strong India." BJP supporters have begun celebrating in the streets as the party extended its lead in more than 299 seats -- easily ahead of the 272 seats needed to form government and more than the 282 the party won in 2014. The opposition Congress party is ahead in 51 seats, official election commission results show as of 2:46 pm local time. Follow our TOPLive blog coverage here. After the initial euphoria over the prospects of a landslide victory, gains in Indian assets are evaporating fast. The Sensex, the benchmark equity index, is close to erasing its climb to a record. The outcome is a validation of Modi’s hardline Hindu nationalism and populist economic policies, ...

Karti Chidambaram , son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday in connection with a money laundering probe against him. Officials said Karti Chidambaram was summoned to record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). He arrived at the ED office in Jamnagar House in central Delhi at about 11 am. It is understood that he would be questioned in the INX Media case , officials said. The agency has alleged that Karti received money from INX Media, using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) conditions to receive investment from Mauritius. It registered a PMLA case in May 2017 to probe the issue. Read More Article Source -> Business Standard

The budget session of Parliament is likely to be held from January 31 to Feb 13, and an interim budget is expected to be presented on February 1, government sources said Wednesday. They said the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs deliberated on the dates for the budget session at a meeting. Budget 2019 It is expected to be the last session of the current Lok Sabha as general elections are due in April-May. Read our full coverage on Interim budget 2019

The Government on Tuesday introduced in Lok Sabha amendments to the POCSO Act , which provides for death penalty for aggravated sexual assault on children, making it gender neutral and introducing provisions against child pornography and for enhancing punishment for certain offences. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2019, seeks to protect children from offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography and provide for establishment of Special Courts for trial of such offences. The POCSO Amendment Bill, introduced by Minister of State in Ministry of Women and Child Development Virendra Kumar, also provides for stringent punishments for other crimes against those below 18 years of age. "The said Act is gender neutral and regards the best interests and welfare of the child as matter of paramount importance at every stage so as to ensure the healthy physical, emotional, intellectual and social development of the child," said the...

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2016 that prohibits commercial surrogacy and allows altruistic surrogacy to needy Indian infertile couples. Elaborating on the Bill, Union Health Minister JP Nadda said, "This bill protects the dignity of women, economic exploitation and also the interest of the surrogate children who are abandoned." "The bill allows altruistic surrogacy to the needy Indian infertile couples and it prohibits commercial surrogacy," he added. Things to know about the new surrogacy legislation 1. The bill proposes a complete ban on commercial surrogacy, but altruistic surrogacy will be allowed for needy infertile couple under strict regulation. 2. The bill entitles only Indian citizens to avail surrogacy. Foreigners, NRIs and PIOs are not allowed to seek surrogacy in the country. 3. Under this bill, homosexuals, single parents, and live-in couples are also not entitled to surrogacy. Read M...

Reacting to election trends, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday said the BJP was nowhere in the "semi-final" ahead of the "final match" in 2019 and people were always the "man of the match" in a democracy. "People voted against BJP. This is the people's verdict and victory of the people of this country. Victory of democracy and victory against injustice, atrocities, destruction of institutions, misuse of agencies, no work for poor people, farmers, youth, Dalits, C, ST, OBC, minorities and general caste," she said in a series of tweets. The Trinamool Congress chief, who is currently in Delhi and holding meetings with opposition leaders, also said the trends indicated the outcome of the 2019 general elections . "Semifinal proves that BJP is nowhere in all the states. This is a real democratic indication of 2019 final match. Ultimately, people are always the 'man of the match' of democracy. My congrats ...

Practicing yoga regularly can enable governments and individual households save on healthcare costs, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu said here on Monday. Speaking at the inaugural session of a two-day international yoga conference, Prabhu said that yoga helps provide the right balance between providing good healthcare without burdening individual households or governments. "If you do yoga regularly, it will prevent diseases, it will make life better with almost no cost. The governments will not be burdened with costs, nor households will have to face the big challenge of how to provide hospitalization to the family members," the Minister said. "This is a great opportunity of bringing yoga as an answer to many problems that the global world is facing." Read Complete Article Business Standard

Hitting back at Union Minister Maneka Gandhi over her comments on the killing of Tigress Avni , Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said that he would have been happy if Gandhi had spoken to him before commenting on the matter. Mungantiwar said, "I would have been happy if Maneka Gandhi had talked to me before commenting on the issue. 13 people were killed and on the guidelines of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the decision to kill Avni was taken." He added that it would be wrong of Gandhi to doubt the integrity of the forest officials. "Neither I nor the forest department had taken the decision. Officials were trying to capture her from the last one-and-half months. When they tranquilised her, she attacked them so they had to shoot her. It will be wrong to doubt the integrity of the forest officials," Mungantiwar elucidated. Continuing his tirade against Gandhi, the Maharashtra Forest Minister said that if she thinks...

Even as developers are still grappling with possible web tools to monitor and prevent fake news on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp, Uttar Pradesh Police has raised a network of 200,000 'digital volunteers' to tackle the menace. UP Police, touted as the world’s largest single command police force with headcount of nearly half-million, wants the total strength of these volunteers to cross 365,000 in the state. In the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha poll , there is even greater urgency to weed out the spectre of fake news circulating on social media and rumours being spread by vested interests to disturb peace. All the 1,465 police stations in UP have so far networked over 200,000 digital volunteers drawn from the civil society and comprising teachers, journalists, village heads, doctors, corporators, lawyers, traders, members of civil defence, religious groups etc. Read Complete Article Business Standard

The only time he lost a Lok Sabha election was against Madhavrao Scindia of Congress from Gwalior in 1984, when he lost by a margin of close to 2 lakh votes Current Affairs News : Atal Bihari Vajpayye had a unique distinction of being a member of Parliament for 12 terms -- a 10-time Lok Sabha member and twice of Rajya Sabha. The only time he lost a Lok Sabha election was against Madhavrao Scindia of Congress from Gwalior in 1984, when he lost by a margin of close to 2 lakh votes. Vajpayee represented Lucknow in the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th Lok Sabha from 1991 to 2009. He represented Balrampur in the second and fourth Lok Sabha, Gwalior in the fifth and New Delhi in the sixth and the seventh LS. In 1962 and 1986, he was elected to Rajya Sabha. In December, 2005, Vajpayee had announced his retirement from electoral politics at a party gathering in Mumbai. He was a parliamentarian for nearly 47 years. Vajpayee served as the prime minister between ...

Kumar was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of his weekly public interaction programme 'Lok Samvad' Current Affairs News : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Monday that if Social Welfare Minister Manju Verma is found involved or if anything is found against her in connection with the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal , she may be asked "to go". Kumar said this in response to the Opposition demand for the resignation Verma in the wake of sexual abuse of girls at a state-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur. Verma is in the eye of a storm after the name of her husband cropped up in connection with the abuse case. The chief minister said his government has decided to run such shelter homes across the state directly. Kumar was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of his weekly public interaction programme "Lok Samvad". Article Source >> BS

The proposed 'Bharat Bandh' called by Dalit organisations on August 9 to protest the Supreme Court ruling on the SC/ST Act should be called off as the centre has decided to bring an amendment bill to restore the law, LJP leader and Lok Sabha MP General News : The proposed 'Bharat Bandh' called by Dalit organisations on August 9 to protest the Supreme Court ruling on the SC/ST Act should be called off as the centre has decided to bring an amendment bill to restore the law, LJP leader and Lok Sabha MP Chirag Paswan today said. "There is no reason now to go ahead with the bandh and protest the Supreme Court verdict given that the government has decided to bring an amendment," he told reporters here, adding that the legislation could be introduced today itself and passed early next week after a debate. Dalit groups under the banner of the All India Ambedkar Mahasabha (AIAM) have given a call for Bharat Bandh on August 9 to press for their dem...

The mention of the Rafale deal triggered noisy protests from the ruling party MPs Current Affairs News : Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday said French President Emmanuel Macron had told him that there was no secrecy pact with India on the Rafale jet deal, alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had lied to the nation about it. "I personally met the French President and asked him if there was a secrecy pact with India. He told me that no such pact was signed between the two countries. He said he had no hesitation in saying this and that I can tell this to my country," Gandhi thundered in the Lok Sabha. Gandhi said the price per plane during the UPA regime was Rs 520 crore (Rs 5.2 billion) but when Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to France and "with some magic" powers, the price per plane increased to Rs 1,600 crore (Rs 16 billion). "Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is here. She said s...