Maternity Bill passed: 26 weeks paid leave, creche a must, other highlights

A day after the world celebrated the International Women's Day, the Parliament on Thursday passed a bill that will benefit about 1.8 million women in India. The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was passed by the Lok Sabha, months after the Rajya Sabha approved the measure that takes India to the third position in terms of the number of weeks for maternity leave after Canada and Norway where it is 50 weeks and 44 weeks, respectively. While the bill has given many women reasons to cheer, it has left others with a heartburn.

It is a “historic day for women”, the Ministry of Women and Child Development said, adding that the Bill will “pave the way for a healthy and secure mother and a well-nourished child”. Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi called it a “momentous step” and thanked her colleagues for supporting the Bill.

Top highlights of The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016

* The Bill aims to protect the employment of women during the time of pregnancy and entitles them to full paid absence from work to take care of their child

* Women working in the organised sector will now be entitled to paid maternity leave of 26 weeks, up from 12 weeks

* The maternity leave beyond the first two children will continue to be 12 weeks

* The new law will apply to all establishments employing 10 or more people and the entitlement will be for only up to first two children. For third child, the entitlement will be for only 12 weeks.

* The bill also makes it mandatory for employers in establishments with 30 women or 50 employees, whichever is less, to provide crèche facilities either in office or in any place within a 500-metre radius.

Aslo Read :

Election Results 2017 Live - UP, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur

Nifty hovers above 8,550; Tata Motors up 4%

Nifty hovers above 8,550; Tata Motors up 4%

Markets have shrugged off the clearance of GST in the upper house and are trading in a narrow range with Sensex and Nifty swinging between negative and positive zone.

By 10:25 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 48 points at 27,746 and the Nifty50 gained 14 points to trade 8,559. Broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.5% each.

"Contrary to popular belief, the passage of the GST Constitutional Amendment marks only the beginning of a fairly tedious procedure that should ultimately result in the implementation of a unified GST in India at best by 2HFY18. Even as the adoption of a unified GST is one of the most remarkable tax reforms from a long-term perspective, in the short-term we highlight that this is likely to result in (1) a mild pick-up in inflation as hitherto untaxed goods and services are now brought under the tax net, (2) a meaningful loss of jobs in the informal sector as this sector will no longer be able to fly under the radar of the taxman and (3) consequently trigger pro-electorate measures in the form of higher revenue expenditure from FY18 onwards as the Modi-led BJP Government begins preparing for the 2019 General Elections," adds Ritika Mankar Mukherjee, Senior Economist, Ambit Capital.(more)

'Mischievous' AAP attempting to boost its chances through 'Udta Punjab': Subramaniam Swamy

'Mischievous' AAP attempting to boost its chances through 'Udta Punjab': Subramaniam Swamy

Questioning the release timing of Shahid Kapoor-starrer 'Udta Punjab', Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy on Thursday alleged that theAam Aadmi Party (AAP) was making mischievous attempts to boost its chances in next year's state assembly polls courtesy the drug abuse highlighted in the flick.

Swamy's remark came a day after Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) chief Pahlaj Nihalani alleged that the movie's co-producer Anurag Kashyap has taken money from Arvind Kejriwal-led party to show Punjab in bad light.

Swamy told ANI the timing of this movie is wrong because it really makes out that the Punjab Government is responsible for drug abuse in the state.

"Nobody has doubts that drug is a big problem. Who says it started with Akalis? It started with the Congress. This appears to be a mischievous attempt to further the cause of the AAP. And with the AAP defending itself, that only confirms itself," Swamy said.

The BJP's Rajya Sabha MP further said there is nothing wrong if the movie is released after the Punjab elections are over.

Asserting that the 2017 Punjab elections would be fought on the grounds of the rampant drug abuse in the state, the AAP had yesterday accused Prime MinisterNarendra Modi of having the CBFC chief in his pocket and using him as a pawn to further his chances in the polls by playing politics over 'Udta Punjab'.

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With eye on UP polls, PM Modi to launch 2nd anniversary celebrations

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a public rally in Saharanpur in western Uttar Pradesh (UP) to mark two years of his government on May 26. Several senior Cabinet ministers and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah, too, will address a series of public meetings in UP. The state, which was the key to the BJP reaching simple majority in the Lok Sabha in 2014, is due for Assembly polls in early 2017 and this will be the party’s unofficial launch of its UP election campaign.

The PM will also visit his Lok Sabha constituency in Varanasi as part of the fortnight-long two-year anniversary celebrations. The BJP considers western UP its stronghold and the focus of the PM’s speech will be to highlight his government’s schemes for farmers, especially sugarcane growers, of the region.

There is also the possibility of increasing UP’s representation in the council of ministers. The party, in an effort to consolidate its Jat support base in western UP, has asked Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh to merge his party with the BJP. Singh, at least until now, is insistent that the two parties have a seat-sharing arrangement for the UP Assembly polls. Read more.

Why PM Modi should ignore Subramanian Swamy's letter to sack Raghuram Rajan

Subramanian Swamy, BJP’s newly nominated member to the Rajya Sabha, recently said that Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan should be removed from his post.

In a fresh salvo at Rajan, Swamy has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking immediate sacking of the former IMF Chief Economist while alleging he was "mentally not fully Indian" and has "willfully" wrecked the economy.

Following up his barb against Rajan at the end of Parliament session last week, Swamy yesterday wrote to Prime Minister seeking termination of Rajan's services with immediate effect.

According to Swamy, Rajan has hiked interest rates "in the garb of controlling interest inflation", which has "damaged the country", and that he was responsible for “unemployment and collapse of industrial activity".Read more.

Ruckus in RS as Manohar Parrikar speaks on AgustaWestland deal

Despite opposition from the Congress, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikaron Wednesday told the Rajya Sabha that he only wanted to give chronology of the events with regard to corruption in the Rs 3,600-crore sale of 12 VVIP choppers to India.

"This matter is not of today, this pertains to year 2002. I just wanted to inform the House, the chronological order of events, without any comments on them, so that the House is aware of when it took place and what happened," Parrikar said in the Upper House.

"Whether they want or don't want, it is for them (Congress)," he added amid uproar in the upper house.

Parrikar, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modiyesterday, had earlier on Monday said that his address in the Parliament would include how and when necessary clauses or provisions were relaxed to suit the company.

Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, has accused the Centre of pursuing a politically motivated campaign to defame the grand old party through the AgustaWestland copter scam.

Meanwhile, former Indian Air Force chief S.P. Tyagi is being grilled for the third consecutive day by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at its headquarter here in connection with alleged irregularities in the Rs. 3600 crore VVIP chopper deal.

As per reports, the former IAF chief is said to have told the CBI yesterday that he met senior officials of Finmeccanica, the parent company of AgustaWestland, while negotiations for the purchase of VVIP choppers were going on.

He also told the interrogators that he had met Finmeccanica's Chief Operating Officer Georgio Zapa in New Delhi on February 15, 2005.

The CBI yesterday quizzed the former IAF chief on the four firms which he and his wife set up after his retirement from service.Read More.

Aadhaar cleared through Money Bill route: Why Modi cannot use this option every time

Will the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government now use the Money Bills route to get Parliament — more to the point the Rajya Sabha where it does not have a majority — to clear legislation?
The fact is, getting all Bills to be classified as Money Bills to circumvent the Rajya Sabha could be a stretch.
The law on this is crystal clear.
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• Aadhaar Bill passage a landmark development: Panagariya
• Lok Sabha passes Aadhaar Bill to empower citizens

Under Article 110(1) of the Constitution, a Bill is deemed to be a Money Bill if it contains only provisions dealing with all or any of the following matters, namely:
(a) the imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax;
(b) the regulation of the borrowing of money or the giving of any guarantee by the Government of India, or the amendment of the law with respect to any financial obligations undertaken or to be undertaken by the Government of India;
(c) the custody of the Consolidated Fund or the Contingency Fund of India, the payment of moneys into or the withdrawal of moneys from any such fund;
(d) the appropriation of moneys out of the Consolidated Fund of India;
(e) the declaring of any expenditure to be expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund of India or the increasing of the amount of any such expenditure;
(f) the receipt of money on account of the Consolidated Fund of India or the public account of India or the custody or issue of such money or the audit of the accounts of the Union or of a State; or
(g) any matter incidental to any of the matters specified in sub-clauses (a) to (f).
A Bill is not deemed to be Money Bill by reason only that it provides for the imposition of fines or other pecuniary penalties, or for the demand or payment of fees for licences or fees for services rendered, or by reason that it provides for the imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax by any local authority or body for local purposes.