The Lok Sabha, on Thursday, passed the VB-G RAM G Bill as Opposition members resorted to sloganeering in the well of Lok Sabha.
Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan responded to the discussion on the VB-G RAM G Bill.
Earlier in the day, the Securities Markets Code Bill, 2025, was tabled in Lok Sabha.
The discussion on air pollution in Delhi-NCR is expected to take place in the last day of the Winter Session. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K Kanimozhi and Bansuri Swaraj are expected to participate in the discussion.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Lok Sabha passed the SHANTI Bill and Rajya Sabha took up the discussion on the VB-G RAM G Bill and the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act, 2025.
The Lower House also passed the Repealing and Amending Bill, 2025, which seeks to scrap 71 outdated laws.
INDIA bloc MPs, including TMC, hold a march from the Gandhi statue to Makkar Dwar in protest against the VB-G RAM G Bill.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, DMK's K Kanhimozhi, TR Ballu, A Raja, IUML's ET Mohammed Basheer, Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Arvind Sawant and RSP's N K Premchandran, are some who participated in the protest.
"The Modi government has not only insulted the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, but has also crushed the right to work, which was instrumental in bringing about socio-economic transformation in India's villages," Kharge said in a post on X in Hindi after the protest.
NPP MP Wanweiroy Khalukhi on Wednesday flagged the adverse fallout of the coal ban in Meghalaya, saying it has severely impacted people’s right to earn a livelihood.
He further added the restrictions have also led to a sharp drop in the State’s revenue and urged the Centre to step in with measures to support those affected and stabilise the region's economy.
BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal accused the Opposition of playing politics over pollution during the Lok Sabha debate, arguing that they were demanding relief while simultaneously opposing every measure taken by the government.
“Both cannot go together,” he said, alleging that the Opposition was uncomfortable with the prospect of a pollution-free environment, as it would deprive them of a political issue.
Khandelwal said the parliamentary discussion would place the facts on pollution before the people of Delhi and the country, and asserted that the BJP would highlight how the government that ruled Delhi for ten years failed to take concrete steps to tackle the crisis.
AAP MP Raghav Chadha called for urgent reforms to India’s copyright framework to safeguard the interests of digital content creators, saying millions now depend on online platforms for their livelihood but remain vulnerable to arbitrary copyright strikes.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Chadha said content creation has emerged as both a source of income and grassroots communication in India.
However, he argued that decisions on fair or transformative use are often left to opaque platform algorithms rather than being guided by law. Stressing that fair use is not piracy, he said the intent was not to undermine copyright holders or originality.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the Securities Market Code Bill in the Lok Sabha and proposed referring it to the department-related standing committee for greater discussion.
The Securities Markets Code Bill 2025 seeks to merge the provisions of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992, the Depositories Act, 1996 and the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 into a unified code.
Opposition members, including Shafi Parambil, Dean Kuriakose and Hibi Eden, stood on the table and resorted to sloganeering in the well of Lok Sabha against G RAM G Bill by tearing papers and flinging bits in the House as Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan replied to the discussion on the VB-G RAM G Bill.
Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav informed the Parliament that the Centre does not have species-specific conservation plans for wild birds, including the Indian Roller.
Replying to a question by BJP MP K Laxman, the minister said birds are protected under Schedule I and Schedule II of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, and several measures are in place to prevent poaching and safeguard habitats. However, he clarified that conservation efforts are not tailored to individual bird species and emphasised that state governments play a crucial role in protecting wild birds.
Yadav also addressed concerns over the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard in Gujarat, saying multiple steps have been taken to ensure the survival of the species.
DMK MP Tiruchi Siva on Thursday demanded that the Centre immediately publish the Archaeological Survey of India's report on the Keezhadi excavations, saying the delay amounts to "denying the opportunity to the Tamil people to understand their rich culture and heritage".
Raising the matter during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Siva said the excavation site in Sivaganga district near Madurai was identified by the ASI in 2013-14, and under archaeologist K Amarnath Ramakrishna's leadership, the team discovered 7,500 artifacts within two years.
However, after Amarnath was transferred in 2016, "the process came to a standstill", Siva said.
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Thursday recalled India’s rich history in atomic energy during a Rajya Sabha discussion, emphasising that key developments began decades before 2014.
Taking a dig at the Modi government’s penchant for acronyms and flashy legislative titles, he said scientific and institutional progress in the sector predates the current administration.
Ramesh noted that the first atomic energy legislation was passed on April 6, 1948, followed by the establishment of the Atomic Energy Commission on August 15, 1948, with Dr Homi Bhabha as chairman and K S Krishnan and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar as members reporting directly to the Prime Minister. He highlighted the creation of Indian Rare Earths Limited in 1950 and the Department of Atomic Energy in 1954, alongside the National Symposium on the Peaceful Application of Nuclear Energy where Bhabha outlined the three-phase nuclear power programme.
He also recounted the commissioning of India’s first nuclear reactor, Apsara, in 1956, followed by Dhruva and Purnima reactors, and the operationalisation of the country’s first nuclear power reactor at Tarapore in 1959, underscoring India’s longstanding commitment to atomic energy.
TMC MP Sagatika Ghose criticised the SHANTI Bill which was passed in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
Speaking in the Upper House of the Parliament, Ghose called the bill, the oligarch'isation' of the Indian nuclear energy system.
DMK MP P Wilson said that the Bill does not address valid safety concerns and instead dilutes the liability of the supplier.
He further said that the nuclear installations are unsafe.
He also said that the country still does not have a fully proven, fail-safe, long-term waste disposal mechanism.
“The Bill proposes expansion without first resolving this historic injustice,” he said.
He further said that the Bill undermines decades of safeguards and threatens the sovereignty of the energy policy of the nation.
He said that the bill shows that a private operator in India can walk away after paying Rs. 3000 crores while farmers, fishermen, workers, future generations and taxpayers pay the price for decades.
Meanwhile, AAP MP Sandeep Kumar Pathak said that with the bill, India is importing the private nuclear model from abroad without importing their regulatory frameworks.
He also said that those responsible for overseeing Nuclear power projects should report to the Parliament.
“In India the operators, regulators and promoters are the same people. Those doing the policing should be an independent statutory body,” he said.
YSRCP MP Ayodhya Rami Reddy Alla said that the bill does not assure benefit to States, development of or compensation to local communities.
He further said that the Bill does not clearly state how affected communities will be informed, represented or assisted in receiving compensation.
Supporting the bill, BJP MP Kiran Choudhary said that the bill seeks to end the fragmentation and policy paralysis.
"The Bill repeals old scattered regulations and replaces them with a single, unified and modern framework covering licensing, safety approvals, liability and compensation," she said.
She also criticised the Opposition for their objections to the Bill.
"The Opposition cries wolf about privatisation, but we know how to protect the country," she said, adding that there are many safeguards in place.
The Parliamentary committee examining Bills to remove the prime minister and chief ministers was granted an extension to submit its report by the last week of the Budget Session next year.
Joint Parliamentary Committee Chair Aparajita Sarangi moved a resolution in Lok Sabha seeking time to submit its report "up to the first day of the last week of the Budget Session, 2026".
The resolution was passed by a voice vote.
The Budget Session usually ends in the first week of April.
Congress MP Mallu Ravi slammed the government and Speaker for not referring the recently passed VB-G RAM G Bill to a standing or joint parliamentary committee.
Ravi said that the concerns of the Opposition MPs were ignored and condemned the removal of Mahatma Gandhi.
He further said that the party would publicly protest the bill.
Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav also criticised the government for removing Mahatma Gandhi's name.
"It shows a lack of commitment and respect for the Father of the Nation in BJP policies," he said.
In a sharp criticism of the government, Congress MP Imran Masood said that Gandhi’s vision for uplifting the poor has been "murdered".
He also claimed that the scheme has been sabotaged and that the reduction of central funding will undermine the effectiveness of the scheme.
Meanwhile, AAP MP Malvinder Singh Kang said that MGNREGA had been the biggest source of employment for the poorest sections.
Speaking on the number of workdays being increased, Kang alleged that no work will be available during the crucial 60-day peak farming season.
India is third after China and the United States in the prevalence of cancer across the world, and the country is likely to have around 2 million cases by 2040, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Responding to supplementaries during the Question Hour, the minister informed the house that the Department of Biotechnology has developed the first-ever HPV vaccine for the treatment of cervical cancer in women, and the government is working to make it available to a larger population at an affordable rate or free of cost.
"It is true that cancer incidence has increased all over the world. If you take the world statistics, we have 20 million cancer patients every year, that is around 2 crore cancer patients every year. In India alone, we have about 1.4 to 1.5 million, which is almost 15 lakh. The figure is expected to go up to almost 2 million by 2040 or so, which means nearly 20 lakh," Singh told the Rajya Sabha.
Minister of State for Atomic Energy Jitendra Singh takes part in the discussion on the SHANTI Bill in Rajya Sabha.
He said that the Bill has taken more than one year of consultations and that the government had spoken to all stakeholders.
“Technology has changed. We are now into small modular reactors. There will now be reactors that will give power in dense areas. The risk of catastrophe has now changed. This Bill is coming in because the scenario has changed,” he says.
He further said India’s nuclear plants are located far from seismic zones and there is no cause for concern.
He also said that the government is ready to welcome suggestions, apprehensions and hold discussion on the SHANTI Bill.
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh urged the government not to promote the private sector at the cost of public sector in building nuclear power infrastructure and called for encouraging available indigenous technology to boost the energy capacity in the country.
He also said that private firms cannot be the growth engine of nuclear sector as they cannot be brought over the country's PSUs.
Participating in the debate in Rajya Sabha on the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) bill, he opposed it saying there is need for further consultations before bringing such a crucial legislation.
The bill seeks to open the tightly-controlled civil nuclear sector for private participation.
Rajya Sabha passed the SHANTI Bill amid protests from Opposition.
The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, 2025 was passed despite demands by several Opposition MPS to refer the bill to a standing committee for scrutiny.
Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan presented the VB-G RAM G Bill for discussion and passing.
Several Opposition MPs, including Jairam Ramesh and Digvijaya Singh, opposed the tabling of the VB-G RAM G Bill in the Rajya Sabha when Shivraj Singh Chouhan moved to introduce it.
They demanded at least a day to read and study the Bill before taking it up for debate.
Lok Sabha had passed the bill earlier in the day.
Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge addressed the Rajya Sabha, urging members to pay attention while an MP is speaking. “I request everyone to listen first and speak only when it’s their turn, rather than causing commotion and distractions,” he said.