Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh, today announced the restoration of the ‘ration in kind’ for the officers of the three Armed Forces posted in peace areas.
Now all officers of the Armed Forces including those in peace stations will be getting ration. A lot of effort from all levels in the Defence Ministry and the Armed Forces has resulted in this restoration.
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will hold a meeting with the Presidents of all political parties having representation in Parliament on the issue of One Nation One Election in New Delhi today.
During the meeting, celebrations of 75 years of India’s Independence in 2022 and Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary celebrations this year will also be discussed.
Increasing the productivity in parliament and the development of aspirational districts are other items on the agenda.
The Prime Minister has pitched for One Nation One Election on various occasions. During his Mann Ki Baat programme in All India Radio in August last year, Mr Modi had described the debate on the issue as a healthy sign for democracy.
He had said that it is an appropriate tribute to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who changed the country’s political culture.
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, welcomed the unanimous election of Shri Om Birla as the Speaker of the seventeenth Lok Sabha, in accordance with the highest traditions of the House.
Congratulating Shri Om Birla, in his address at Lok Sabha today, the Prime Minister said that it is a proud moment for all the members to have such a distinguished personality as the Speaker of the House.
He said that Shri Om Birla has been in public life for years, starting as a student leader and has been continuously serving the society. He commended the role played by Om Birla in the transformation and overall development of Kota, Rajasthan.
The Prime Minister also remembered his long association with the newly elected Speaker. He underlined Shri Om Birla’s dedication to service and his contributions towards the rebuilding efforts in Kutch after the earthquake and Kedarnath after the floods. He added that the seventeenth Lok Sabha is getting a compassionate leader as its Speaker.
The Prime Minister assured the Speaker that he would receive full cooperation of the members in conducting the proceedings of the House successfully.
In a move to benefit skilled persons from economically underprivileged sections of the society, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to remove the requirement of minimum educational qualification for driving a transport vehicle. Under Rule 8 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, a transport vehicle driver needs to have passed class 8. However, there are large numbers of unemployed persons especially in rural areas of the country, who may not have a formal education, but are otherwise literate and skilled. In a recent meeting in the Transport Ministry, the Haryana government had requested for waiver of the educational qualification condition for drivers from the economically backward Mewat region where the population is dependent for livelihood on low-income earning pursuits including driving. The state government had submitted that many people in the region possess the required skill but not the required educational qualification, and were finding it difficult to obtain driving license. Hence it was felt that driving being more a matter of skill than of educational competence, the condition of minimum educational qualification acts as a hindrance for the otherwise eligible unemployed youth. The removal of this requirement will open up employment opportunities for a large number of unemployed persons, especially the youth in the country.
Not only this, the decision will also help meet the shortage ofnearly 22 lakh drivers in the transport and logistics sector, which is hindering its growth.
However, while removing the requirement of a minimum educational qualification, the Ministry has strongly emphasized upon training and skill testing of drivers so that road safety is not compromised in any way. Anyone applying for a driving license will have to mandatorily pass a stringent skill test. The Ministry has emphasized that training imparted by a school or establishment as mentioned in the the Motor Vehicels Act 1988 should ensure that the driver can read signs and perform logistical duty such as maintenance of driver logs, inspection of trucks and trailers, submission of pre-trip and post-trip records, determination of discrepancies in paperwork, effective communication to report safety hazards. Moreover schools and establishments which are providing vocational training and skilling facilities are subject to regulatory control by the states. Hence, the training imparted should be of high quality covering all aspects of driving a particular type of motor vehicle.
It may also be noted that the Supreme Court, in its judgment dated 3.7.2017 in Civil Appeal No. 5826 of 2011 – MukundDewagan Vs. Oriental Insurance Company Limited &Ors., in the matter of issue of driving licenses for light motor vehicles, had passed directions that the licence for Transport Vehicles would not arise in case of licence of the Light Motor Vehicle (LMV) class.
The Ministry had already proposed the removal of requirement for educational qualification in the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill that got passed by the previous Lok Sabha. The subject was also deliberated upon by the Standing Committee and Select committee of the Parliament.
In light of the above the Ministry of Road Transport & highways has initiated the process of amendment to the Rule 8 of Central Motor Vehicles 1989 and the draft notification in this regard will be issued soon.
Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, upon his return from Muzaffarpur, has reviewed the situation arising from the reported cases of AES/JE in Bihar in a high level meeting today which was attended by senior officers of the Health Ministry, ICMR, and AIIMS. Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, MOS(HFW) was alsopresent at the meeting.
The Union Health Minister has directed for anotherhigh level multi-disciplinary team to be sent to Bihar immediately. The team will undertake the necessary ground work for setting up state-of-the-art multi-disciplinary research centre at Muzaffarpur. Dr. Harsh Vardhan during his review visit yesterday has assured the State about establishing such a Centre at Muzaffarpur.
“To establish the cause of the disease, there is urgent need for an inter disciplinary, high quality research team. The research team shall work with the children suffering from AES/JE looking at various aspects including periodicity, cycle of disease, environmental factors and metrological data, besides other factors”, Dr. Harsh Vardhan stated.
The inter disciplinary team consists of experts from ICMR, Delhi; NIMHANS, Bangalore; National Institute of Malaria Research; National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad; National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune; National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE) Chennai and AIIMS, Delhi.
The members of the high level central team are:
Dr. Harsh Vardhan also said thatfive virological labs will be set up in different districts in the State. The location of the district can be decided in consultation with the State Government and can be funded through NHM, he stated.
In one of the decisions taken during his visit, Dr. Harsh Vardhan has instructed to set up a 100-bedded paediatric ICU at SKMCH by the State Government.Also, in the adjoining districts, 10 bedded paediatric ICUs will be set up with support from the Centre, so that such cases can be given better and exclusive treatment and there is no unnecessary load on the facilities available at SKMCH.
Emphasising the need for early detection and treatment of hypoglycemia cases,Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that a dedicated team of doctors should be placed in endemic PHCs with required facilities at least for 3 to 4 months before and during onset of disease and they may be incentivised under NHM appropriately. As for present, the concerned PHCs and CHCs should take prompt corrective measures for hypoglycaemia at the facility itself to utilize the golden hour, he added.
Dr. Harsh Vardhan also said that Ministry of Earth Science will be requested to upgrade its IMD observatory facility for improved monitoring of climate related parameters such as temperature humidity, rainfall, heat waves, etc., and share it with the State Government and NCDC for better preparedness and management of AES.
Union Minister of Commerce and Industry & Railways, Piyush Goyal, held an extensive consultation with tech industry and e-Commerce companies in New Delhi yesterday. E-Commerce and tech companies across all segments, who have businesses in India and foreign MNCs, participated in the interactive session with Commerce& Industry Minister, Secretary Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Secretary Department of Commerce, Secretary Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)and Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The meeting was held by Piyush Goyal in order to understand their concerns and take their suggestions towards building a robust data protection framework that will achieve the dual purpose of privacy and innovation and strengthen India’s position as a global tech leader with focus on trust and innovation.
All the companies who were represented in this meeting put forth their concerns related to RBI data storage requirements and processing related guidelines issued by the RBI. Deputy Governor of RBI, B.P. Kanungo, assured the industry representatives that the Reserve Bank of India will look into this.
The e-Commerce industry representatives also put forth their concerns before the Commerce Minister about the e-Commerce draft policy which they felt was not adequately consultative. Commerce Minister assured the e-Commerce industry representatives that each and every concern of the industry will be addressed and for that the Minister requested e-Commerce representatives to send their concerns in writing to the DPIIT within 10 days.
Industry representatives also informed the Minister that the consultations for the Data Protection Bill by MeitY was satisfactory but as a lot of time had elapsed and the industry was not sure about the final shape of the Bill. Secretary MeitY, Ajay Prakash Sawhney, assured the e-Commerce companies that the Bill will reflect all the consultations that had taken place with the industryduring the formulation of the Bill.
The principles of data protection and privacy were discussed at length in the meeting and industry representatives requested the Minister to ensure that the Bill will have more clarity around classification of data and the manner of cross border flow of data. Commerce Minister assured that MeitY will address this concern too.
E-Commerce and tech companies also informed Piyush Goyal that the data free flow discussed in the recent G20 Ministerial Meeting on Trade and Digital Economywas a positive development for India in principle and India must participate in the discussions on digital trade but issues of concern for the country must be taken up as and when they arise during the G20 discussions.
Commerce Minister said that MeitY and National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) may deal with the concerns of companies who build products in India and store their data in the country and the Billmust reflect this.
NASSCOM President, Debjani Ghosh, put forth before the Commerce Minister the necessity of harmony across all policies of all Ministries and RBI which deal with digital trade. She also said that this meeting is happening at an opportune time when India is emerging as a data powerhouse and innovative digital technology is bringing immense economic opportunities and disruptions and allowing Developing and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to leapfrog.
Commerce & Industry Minister said that this meeting will help the Ministries of Commerce and Industry,MeitY and RBI to work in synergy towards realizing the full use of digital technology together with trade and investment and also be mindful of our national needs priorities and sensitivities.
Apart from all the major e-Commerce and tech companies in India, the meeting was attended by Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Som Parkash, senior officers from Ministry of External Affairs, Department of Commerce & DPIIT. India’s Ambassador to the WTO, J.S. Deepak and President and CEO of Mastercard, Ajaypal Singh Bangaparticipated in the discussions via direct video link.
Senior Leader Shri JP Nadda was appointed as the national working president of the BJP at the party’s parliamentary board meeting on Monday.
Shri Amit Shah, who has entered the Shri Narendra Modi cabinet as the home minister, will continue to be BJP chief and will likely see the party through assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand elections later this year.
“The BJP won several elections under leadership of Amit Shah ji. But since PM appointed him home minister, Amit Shah ji himself said the responsibility of party president should be given to someone else. The BJP parliamentary board has selected JP Nadda as working president,” senior leader and defence minister Shri Rajnath Singh said.
Educated at St. Xaviers School in Patna, Nadda thereafter did his BA from Patna College, Patna University and LLB from Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla. He was three-time MLA in the Himachal assembly and came to the Upper House from Himachal Pradesh when he was appointed Union minister in 2014.
After being appointed working president, Shri Nadda, in a series of tweets, said Modi’s guidance has always been inspirational for him and under the prime minister’s leadership the party has got huge support from people of the country. “I will try to strengthen the party as its worker…serving the party is like worship for me,” Shri Nadda said.
The first session of the newly elected Lok Sabha has begun with administering of oath to the Members.
Pro-Tem speaker Dr. Virendra Kumar administered the oath to the members. Prime Minister and Leader of the House Shri Narendra Modi took the oath. After taking the oath, Mr odi signed the roll of Members and greeted them.
Cabinet Ministers including Shri Rajnath Singh, Shri Amit Shah, Shri Nitin Gadkari, Shri D V Sadananda Gowda, Smt Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Shri Santosh Gangwar among others took the oath as Members of the Lok Sabha.
The House also observed silence for a short while to mark the solemn occasion of the first sitting of the 17th Lok Sabha. The sitting of the Lok Sabha is underway.
At the all-party meeting on the eve of the Budget session of Parliament, Prime Minister Shir Narendra Modi sought the help of leaders of all political parties in realising the dream of building a New India by 2022, even asking them to ‘introspect’ how people’s representatives could win the hearts of the people they represented by disrupting Parliament.
PM has led the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a rare successive single-party majority in the 2019 polls with 303 seats in the LS, and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with 353 seats. The numbers would make passage of legislations in the LS easy for the government.
The highlights of the session will be the President’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament on Monday, oath-taking of new members, and election of the Speaker, the tabling of the Economic Survey on July 4, and the Union Budget on July 5.
Later in the day, the BJP also held a meeting of its parliamentary party executive committee. It has appointed new leaders for the RS, with Union Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot as its leader in the House and Piyush Goyal his deputy. Modi remains the leader of the LS, while Rajnath Singh remains his deputy. The Congress is yet to decide on its leader in the LS. Mallikarjun Kharge was its leader in the previous LS, but lost the polls. While some in the party want Congress President Rahul Gandhi to accept the job, Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor has expressed his keenness to take up the job.
After the all-party meeting, new Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shri Pralhad Joshi said the PM has proposed two new initiatives during the meeting. He said that in “order to build esprit de corps among members of all parties in Parliament, the PM has invited party chiefs of all political parties with representation in Parliament on June 19 and MPs of both Houses on June 20 for meetings”.
Referring the popular election slogan “Modi hai to mumkin hai”, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has sought to take the bilateral relationship with India to the next level and said the Trump and Modi Administrations have a “unique opportunity” to make it happen.
“As Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi said in his latest campaign, ‘Modi hai to mumkin hai,’ or ‘Modi makes it possible’, I’m looking forward to exploring what’s possible between our people,” Pompeo said in his major India policy speech at the India Ideas Summit of US-India Business Council.
Very much looking forward to his trip to New Delhi later this month, and meeting Modi, and his new counterpart, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Pompeo listed out some of the “big ideas and big opportunities” that can take the bilateral relationship to a new level.
Giving a sneak preview of his India mission, he said he truly believes the two nations have a unique opportunity to move forward together for the good of their peoples, the Indo-Pacific region, and the world.
Pompeo will travel to India, Sri Lanka, Japan and South Korea from June 24 to 30. His four-nation is aimed at deepening US partnerships in the strategic Indo-Pacific region.
Pompeo said under President Donald Trump, the US has taken defence cooperation to newer heights, solidified their common vision for the Indo-Pacific and taken a far tougher stand on Pakistan’s unacceptable support for terrorism.
The Union Cabinet has approved the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill 2019 which will be introduced in both the Houses of Parliament in the forthcoming session.
The bill is aimed at providing relief to persons in Jammu and Kashmir residing in areas adjoining international border. They can now avail reservation in direct recruitment, promotion and admission in different professional courses.
The bill will replace the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Ordinance 2019 by amendments in the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act 2004 and bring persons residing in the areas adjoining international border within the ambit of reservation at par with persons living in areas adjoining Actual Line of Control.
The Government of Japan has decided to invest an amount of 205.784 billion Yen, equivalent to approximately Rs.13,000 crore, in several ongoing as well as new projects in different states of India’s North- Eastern region.This was disclosed after a meeting which the DoNER Minister Dr Jitendra Singh had with the Japanese delegation led by Ambassador Mr Kenji Hiramatsu, here today.
Some of the important projects in which Japan will collaborate include Guwahati Water Supply Project and Guwahati Sewage Project in Assam, Northeast Road Network Connectivity Improvement Project spread over Assam and Meghalaya, Northeast Network Connectivity Improvement Project in Meghalaya, Bio-diversity Conservation and Forest Management Project in Sikkim, Sustainable Forest Management Project in Tripura, Technical Cooperation Project for Sustainable Agriculture & Irrigation in Mizoram, Forest Management Project in Nagaland, etc.
Dr Jitendra Singh appreciated the Japanese contribution to the development and transformation of the North-Eastern region in the last three to four years. He said, in the times to come, new areas of collaboration will also be sought to be worked out, which could possibly include Bamboo-related collaboration. Significantly, it was the Government led by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, which amended the 90-year old “Indian Forest Act of 1919” of the British Government to bring the home-grown Bamboo out of its purview, he added.
PrintFriendly