After weeks of debate on key issues, the Winter Session has entered the final week.
Lok Sabha adjourned till 2 pm amid protests by the opposition over the VB-G RAM G Bill.
Amid ongoing Opposition protests, the Centre introduced the VB-G RAM G Bill to replace MGNREGA, with several Opposition members in Lok Sabha opposing the bill at the introduction stage.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Bill, 2025, while Opposition MPs opposed bill on the grounds that it has been titled in Hindi, contravening the House rules.
Chairman CP Radhakrishnan opened the 12th day of the Winter session by remembering the 54th anniversary of Vijay Diwas, which resulted in the birth of Bangladesh. The House paid respects to the martyrs during that time.
Opposition members asked who the Prime Minister was during that time, but did not receive a reply.
Question Hour is underway in Lok Sabha with members raising questions on the allocation to states under MGNREGA and its utilisation. The Centre is expected to introduce a Bill replacing MGNREGA with the Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, the VB-G Ram G Bill.
Opposition leaders held a protest inside Parliament premises over MGNREGA name change.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra questioned the need to change the name of an existing bill.
"I don’t understand this obsession with changing the name. It involves a lot of expenditure. I don’t understand why they are doing it unnecessarily," she said.
The MP also pointed out that the new bill weakens the people's right to employment, previously guaranteed under the MGNREGA.
"The way they have added two or three things in this bill, it seems from the outside that they have increased the number of days. Have you increased the wages?”
Congress leader BK Hariprasad criticised the Centre over reports of renaming the MGNREGA.
Hariprasad accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of failing to provide employment to the rural poor.
"The man who has completely failed in providing employment for the rural poor, it is only MNREGA that is providing employment for the rural poor. Apart from changing names, this Mogambo has nothing on his record that he has done anything for the poor of this country," he said.
Opposition MPs meet Speaker to express concern over the sudden inclusion of the Atomic bill as supplementary business for discussion in the House.
The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Bill, 2025 (SHANTI) seeks to "promote and regulate the safe, secure, and responsible use of nuclear energy and nuclear technologies in India, with the overarching objective of leveraging nuclear science for public welfare and national development."
The Congress on Tuesday took a dig at the Central government over its reply to a question in the Lok Sabha that no documents related to Jawaharlal Nehru were missing from the Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML) during its annual inspection.
Congress asked whether the Centre will apologise for the PMML's earlier stance seeking to recover a collection of Nehru's private letters currently held by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.
In September, Rizwan Kadri, a member of the Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML) Society, had said he had written to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi to allow physical or digital access to private papers related to former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru that are in her possession.
Sharing the reply of the government in the Lok Sabha, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, “The truth was finally revealed in the Lok Sabha yesterday. Will there be an apology forthcoming?”
The truth was finally revealed in the Lok Sabha yesterday. Will there be an apology forthcoming? pic.twitter.com/lRNoT4Ns6X
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) December 16, 2025
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Bill, 2025 in Lok Sabha, a proposed legislation aimed at amending major insurance-related laws to strengthen the country's insurance framework.
The Bill proposes amendments to three core pieces of legislation: the Insurance Act, 1938, the Life Insurance Corporation Act, 1956, and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999.
The proposed amendments are designed to accelerate growth, enhance policyholder protection, and bring greater transparency and ease of business to the industry.
FM introduces Insurance laws (Amendment) Bill 2025; proposes 100% FDI in Insurance sector
— ANI Digital (@ani_digital) December 16, 2025
Read @ANI Story | https://t.co/De0tzW9t7z #LokSabha #Sitharaman #InsuranceBill pic.twitter.com/IrxOhj88Cm
Opposition MPs opposed The Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Bill on the grounds that it has been titled in Hindi, contravening the House rules. TMC MP Saugata Roy said the name of the bill is similar to BJP slogans and opposed the ‘Hindi imposition’ via Bills.
"We are going backwards in insurance sector. This is giving private players the ultimate say in insurance and will hamper India’s govt insurer LIC," Roy said.
Congress leader P Chidambaram had earlier slammed the "increasing practice" of the government using Hindi words in the titles of the bills and said the change is an “affront” to the non-Hindi-speaking people.
The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed a resolution to refer a bill to set up a 13-member body for regulating higher education institutions to a joint committee of Parliament.
The proposal was moved by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and it was approved by voice vote in the House.
While introducing the bill on Monday, the government said it would like the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill to be sent to a joint panel of both Houses.
According to Tuesday's resolution, the joint committee will comprise 21 members of the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.
The proposed committee will submit its report by the last day of the first part of the Budget Session, 2026.
Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan moved a motion in the Lok Sabha to introduce the VB-G RAM G Bill, which seeks to overhaul the existing framework for employment generation in rural areas.
Seeking leave of the House of the introduction of the Bill, Chouhan said, “yah poora Bill Mahatma Gandhi ki bhawana ke anuroop hai, ram Rajya ki sthapana ke liye hai. (This entire Bill is in accordance with the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi, for the establishment of Ram Rajya.)”
Opposition members in Lok Sabha opposed the VB-G RAM G bill at the introduction stage, with several MPs stating their objections on various points under Rule 72.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor opposed the bill, saying Mahatma Gandhi's vision of ‘Ram Rajya’ wasn't a political move.
Priyanka Gandhi demanded that the bill be sent to a Standing Committee for further deliberations. She said, "This bill should be taken back and the government should table a new bill."
She added that, "Mahatma Gandhi was not from my family, but he was still like a member of my family. This is the emotion of the entire nation...No bill should be tabled and passed because of someone's obsession and prejudice."
VIDEO | Parliament Winter Session: Speaking in Lok Sabha opposing the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) says, "The bill should not be passed in haste, without taking the… pic.twitter.com/fczt07ReNs
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 16, 2025
Opposition leaders, including Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, protested against the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025.
The bill, which was presented in the lower house by Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, seeks to replace the existing rural employment law MGNREGA.
Meanwhile, NCP MP Supriya Sule urged the government to send the VB–G RAM G bill to Standing Committee.
VIDEO | Parliament Winter Session: Opposition leaders, including Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, protest against the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025, that seeks to replace the existing rural employment law MGNREGA. The… pic.twitter.com/3pBx1F2Jvm
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 16, 2025
Tabling the Repealing and Amending Bill, 2025 for consideration, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said, "The Modi government is trying to pull India out of the colonial mindset by abolishing British era bills."
Meanwhile, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the House will take up the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, 2025 on Wednesday.
Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’ Brien said that the purpose of the electoral roll revisions is to divide, distract and defeat, a play on the “three d’s” earlier cited by Home Minister Amit Shah - "detect, delete, deport".
O' Brien also said that in the all-party meeting, the Opposition had urged the centre for a discussion on mainly three issues: MGNREGA dues not paid to states, air pollution and SIR. However, the government wanted to have a discussion on Vande Mataram.
He added that he was grateful for the discussion to be taking place now.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Leader of the House JP Nadda said, "Modi government never runs away from discussion on any issue in Parliament."
On SIR, Nadda said the Election Commission has the power under the Constitution to verify the voters’ list from time to time.
He said the EC must ensure that no eligible voter is excluded and no ineligible voter is included in the voters’ list.
"It becomes more important for EC to hold SIR as no deletion of voters has taken place since 2010," he added.
Nadda accuses Congress, Opposition of misleading country by targeting ECI, EVMs.
Nadda accused the Congress and the Opposition of misleading the country by targeting ECI and EVMs.
"For years, responsibility of overseeing ECI work rested with a party controlled by a family, but no questions were raised," he said.
"They (Congress) ask, why this SIR? This SIR is not new, it started in Lok Sabha in 1952," Nadda added.
Nadda further said that the ECI has not received any suggesion from the Congress and has only raised disputes.
"Over past four months, attempt made to create atmosphere as if some rigging is taking place," he said.
Targeting the Opposition, Nadda said, "Creating narrative that losses happen because EC is not doing its job may appease party cadres."
"Should India function by votes of citizens or 'ghuspaithiyas' (infiltrators)," he asked.
Speaking on the tabled VB-G RAM G bill, Priyanka Gandhi said that MGNREGA was named after Mahatma Gandhi and that his name should not be insulted.
"Now the Centre wants the work to continue but is shifting the burden onto states. Poor states will not be able to afford this, and eventually the scheme will collapse," Priyanka said.
“The truth is that in the garb of changing the name of the scheme, they (Central government) want to scrap this scheme. Why do they want to change the name of this scheme?,” she questioned.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor took a sharp dig at the BJP-led Centre on Tuesday while opposing the VB-G RAM G Bill in the Lok Sabha, recalling the 1971 hit Bollywood number -- "Dekho o deewano (tum) ye kaam na karo, Ram ka naam badnaam na karo".
The MP from Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram asserted that the bill is not merely an administrative tweak but an "assault on the very spirit and philosophical foundation of this crucial programme".
“The Bill's name is not right because 2 languages have been used while one language should be used according to the constitution. Removing Mahatma Gandhi's name is not good in itself, but they used multiple languages to include 'RAM' in it,” Tharoor said, according to ANI.
"This is not a serious matter. Mahatma Gandhi used to speak about Ram Rajya and the vision of Ram Rajya and Gram Swaraj was one for him. Ram Rajya will prevail in our country when Gram Swaraj is there. We can use the name of Lord Ram in various other contexts, but removing the name of Mahatma Gandhi? This is why I said don't insult the name of Lord Ram, but they did the same."
He further said the state governments won't be able to pay the wages and that the government did not think well about the new bill.
"Many states don't have the money to pay 40% of the wages, as per new mandates. In Kerala, the government is already broke, which means unemployment will increase if there is no money. This means the government did not think well about this and there should be a good discussion about it in the Parliament," he added.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra also criticised the removal of Mahatma Gandhi's name.
"How low will this government stoop. They are insulting our Father of the Nation. He wanted Ram Rajya, but not the kind of G-Ram-G that this government thinks of. They have tarnished the name of Lord Ram," she said.
The newly introduced Repealing and Amending Bill, 2025 proposes to scrap 71 laws, including the Indian Tramways Act, 1886, the Levy Sugar Price Equalisation Fund Act, 1976, and the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (Determination of Conditions of Service of Employees) Act, 1988.
It also seeks changes to four laws. The General Clauses Act, 1897 and the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 will be updated to revise terminology related to registered post. The Indian Succession Act, 1925 will be amended to remove the need for court validation of wills in certain situations.
In addition, the Bill also proposes an amendment to the Disaster Management Act, 2005 to correct a drafting error.
Rahul Gandhi termed the bill on rural employment an insult to the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, as he accused the Narendra Modi government of seeking to eliminate the secure livelihood of the rural poor after destroying the future of India's youth through severe unemployment.
VB-G RAM G Bill that seeks to replace MGNREGA and has become a new flashpoint with the government, as the Opposition accused the BJP-led NDA dispensation of "insulting" Mahatma Gandhi.
In a post on X, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always been opposed to the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and has been trying to weaken the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act ever since he came to power.
"The Congress will oppose any such move," he asserted.
Modi ji has a deep dislike for two things - the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and the rights of the poor.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 16, 2025
MGNREGA is the living embodiment of Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of Gram Swaraj. It has been a lifeline for millions of rural Indians and proved to be a crucial economic safety net…
The proposed National Seeds Bill 2025 will not apply to farmers and their traditional seed varieties, with provisions protecting their right to save, exchange and sell farm-saved seeds, Minister of State for Agriculture Ram Nath Thakur told the Lok Sabha.
Responding to a written query, Thakur said the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has drafted the legislation after consulting various stakeholders, including farmers' organisations, to align with current requirements.
"The provisions of the Bill are not applicable to the farmers and farmers' varieties, including traditional varieties. The Bill protects the farmer's rights in conformity with the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001, to grow, sow, save, exchange and sell farm-saved seeds," Thakur said.
He said various provisions under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, and the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001, are also available to safeguard farmers, community seed growers, and traditional and indigenous seed varieties.
The Bill has provisions for compulsory registration of all varieties sold in the market, registration of seed producers, seed processing units and dealers, and registration of plant nurseries, the minister said.
It also provides for regulation of seed sale prices under emergent situations, compulsory labelling of seed performance, and mandatory onboarding on the SATHI portal to ensure quality of seeds following nationally determined standards supplied to farmers, he added.
Thakur said the draft Seeds Bill 2025 is currently at the pre-legislative consultation phase and has been put in the public domain to elicit inputs from stakeholders, including farmer organisations.
The government has constituted an inter-ministerial committee to monitor export and import trends and recommend corrective action wherever required, Parliament was informed.
The committee includes representatives from the Department of Commerce, Department of Revenue, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Directorate General of Foreign Trade and Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics.
It monitors exports and imports regularly and takes corrective measures in consultation with various stakeholders.
"An Inter-Ministerial Committee has been constituted to consider the trends with respect to imports and exports and recommend corrective action wherever required," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasada said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
He also said that India's trade deficit with China has increased from USD 58.09 billion in April-October 2024 to USD 63.97 billion in April-October 2025, a rise of 10.1 per cent.
However, the deficit is mainly due to imports of raw materials, intermediate goods and capital goods, like auto components, electronic parts and assemblies, mobile phone parts, machinery and its parts, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, which are used for making finished products which are also exported out of India.
Climate change is increasing the workload of women and enhancing their vulnerability, particularly in rural areas, the government told the Lok Sabha.
In a written reply, the environment ministry said India's Third National Communication submitted to the UN climate body in 2023 notes that climatic extremes and climate change are magnifying the workload of women.
Recurring instances of erratic rainfall and the rising likelihood of extreme weather events can lead to loss of agricultural produce, it said.
Minister of State for Environment Kirti Vardhan Singh said that women are exposed to harvest losses, which are often their sole source of food and income.
He added that climate variability usually affects sectors traditionally associated with rural women, such as paddy cultivation, cotton and tea plantations and fishing.
As many as 4,75,814 patent applications are pending at different stages of processing as of November this year, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.
In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasada said the number of patent applications being filed annually has nearly doubled over the last 5 years on account of several initiatives taken by the government.
The number of applications pending for examination is 4,26,948, while the applications pending for re-examination and/or disposal are 48,866.
In a separate reply, Parliament was informed that India exported goods worth Rs 1,037.
78 crore to Pakistan during May-October this year, while imported products worth Rs 57 lakh.
A total of 438 incidents of suicide and seven fratricides were reported among the personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), Assam Rifles and National Security Guard (NSG) over the last three years, the government informed Parliament.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai provided the data in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.
The data showed that the number of suicide cases declined from 157 in 2023 to 133 in 2025, while two fratricide incidents were reported in 2023, one was recorded in 2024, and there were four such incidents in 2025.
Force-wise data showed the highest number of suicides was reported in the Central Reserve Police Force (159), followed by the Border Security Force (120) and the Central Industrial Security Force (60) in the three-year period.
On resignations, the minister said a total of 23,360 personnel from the CAPFs and Assam Rifles resigned from service between 2014 and 2025.
The Border Security Force (BSF) recorded 7,493 resignations, followed by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) with 7,456 and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) with 4,137 resignations during this period.
The data shows that there have been 3,077 resignations so far in 2025, with the BSF recording the largest number at 1,157.
The government has taken various initiatives to bring down the maternal mortality rate, and it is one of the success stories of India, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel said on Tuesday.
Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, she said, "The decline in maternal mortality rate is one of the success stories of India".
Patel listed out the initiatives taken by the government under different programmes, including the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA), to provide care to pregnant women.
"So, the impact of these interventions has been that today, India's rate of decline of MMR (maternal mortality rate) has surpassed the global rate of decline," she said.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the insurance reforms brought in through a bill in Parliament will grant greater access to insurance for the people, have better regulatory oversight and ensure ease of compliance.
Moving the 'The Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Bill, 2025' for consideration of the Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said the draft legislation was aimed at bringing transparency, ease of compliance mandates and increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sector.
The minister said that the FDI limit in the insurance sector was increased from 26 per cent to 49 per cent in 2015, 74 per cent in 2021 and now proposed to 100 per cent.
Members of the ruling dispensation supported a bill to raise FDI in the insurance sector to 100 per cent, with the Opposition countering the move in the Lok Sabha, saying the past governments chose protection over profit to help all sections of society.
Initiating the debate on the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Bill, Manickam Tagore of the Congress said provisions of the bill were unsettling and could lead to people questioning the credibility of the insurance sector.
He said successive Congress governments at the Centre have given priority to "protection over profit", which the present dispensation was doing away with.
He said nationalisation helped all strata of society feel included.
Countering him, KV Reddy of the BJP, who was the first speaker from the treasury side, said privatisation has helped greater insurance penetration as competition has prompted companies to offer benefits to customers.
He maintained that FDI is not stopping local players in any way.
He opined that now insurance agents can sell policies and schemes of multiple companies as they will not be bound down by working for one player.
The bill proposes to amend the Insurance Act, 1938, the Life Insurance Corporation Act, 1956, and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government has taken a series of measures to strengthen public sector insurance companies, including infusing Rs 17,450 crore into three non-life insurers.
Speaking during the discussion on the Insurance Amendment Bill, Sitharaman underlined that the proposed law focuses on improving ease of doing business in the insurance sector. She also said the Bill provides the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) greater operational autonomy, including the freedom to open zonal offices.
Replying to the debate on the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Bill in Parliament, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said there is a strong need to spread awareness about insurance among people to improve coverage and trust in the sector.
She also said regulators have been asked to rationalise penalties under the proposed framework, adding that companies will be required to include “insurance” or “assurance” in their names for greater clarity. Sitharaman further noted that the GST Council secretariat is monitoring complaints related to GST benefits not being passed on to policyholders.
Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha on Tuesday called for tax incentives on interest earned from bank savings and fixed deposits, and proposed a dedicated Tokenisation Bill to help common citizens access higher returns through new-age financial innovations.
Speaking during the discussion on supplementary demands for grants in the Rajya Sabha, Chadha said investments in India are highly taxed and that long-term investments are often treated as short-term speculation. He argued that “patient capital” must be respected to encourage long-term domestic savings.
Pointing out that the middle class largely keeps its savings in banks, he suggested raising the tax-free limit on interest income and offering tax concessions for fixed deposits with a tenure of over five years. Chadha also pitched a bespoke Tokenisation Bill and regulatory sandbox to enable fractional ownership of assets such as real estate and infrastructure through blockchain-based digital tokens.
He described recent GST reforms as landmark but said the benefits must be fully passed on to consumers. BJP MP Govindbhai Laljibhai Dholakia said the supplementary demands for grants under the Appropriation (No. 4) Bill, 2025, focus on long-term national capacity building and reflect the government’s commitment to a developed India.
