WINTER SESSION - TIME TO WALK THE TALK

By Ruma Dubey

It is finally time to walk the talk.

The Winter Session of the Parliament began but had to be adjourned due to the death of two senior parliamentarians – Hemendra Chandra Singh of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Kapil Krishna Thakur of Trinamul Congress - who died since the last session. The Parliament also mourned the death of Congress leader, Mr.Murli Deora. And with so much to do on the agenda, the entire world and especially India Inc is eager to see whether the session delivers on the all the promises being made.

In the previous Budget Session, which was between 7^th July to 14^th August, a few important Bills were passed – The Finance Bill, Creation of National Judicial Appointments Commission for appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts, altered the boundaries of the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, put in place the National Institute of Design Bill which incorporates the National Institute of Design. It withdrew one Bill and introduced two new Bills. In a sense, it was indeed action-packed and not the insipid sessions of UPA times.

Today, the Prime Minister gave a wonderful speech, urging the Opposition to work together, to play a constructive role. Mr.Modi said, “In this cold weather and with a cool mind, we have to do a lot of work.”

Indeed there is a lot of work to do and there is fervent hope that the Parliament does deliver or else the euphoria and optimism built over this period of time, would fizzle out like air out of a balloon. The build-up of the over past six months is very high but even if this session fulfills some of these expectations, the feel-good factor will remain intact.

Before we look at what lay ahead in the current Winter session, a look at what happened in Budget session; that will be give us some roadmap, as to what to expect now:

• Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha sat for the overall scheduled time during the session. Whereas Lok Sabha worked for
• 104% of the time, Rajya Sabha worked for 106%.
• Over the last ten years, this session recorded the second highest productivity, the highest being 110% in the Monsoon session of 2005.
• 20 Bills were introduced and 12 including six relating to the budget were passed. Lok Sabha worked 3% and Rajya
• Sabha worked 5% more than the scheduled hours.
• 33% of Lok Sabha’s time during the Budget session was spent discussing the Budget.
• MPs upto the age of 40 years constitute 14% of the 16^th Lok Sabha. They participated in 11% of the debates in Lok Sabha. In contrast, MPs in the age group of 41-60 years constitute 58% of Lok Sabha and participated in 64% of the debates.

Well, that’s a very gratifying work record for first session. The Winter Session began today, 24^th Nov and will end on 23^rd December. Thus are 22 days of working (now only 21 as today was adjourned) and there are 37 Bills to be introduced for debate and 19 Bills are scheduled for passing. A tall task indeed. Let’s take a quick look at some of the Bills which would mean the most for the markets.

• Goods and Service Tax Bill (GST Bill):
• The Insurance Act Amendment Bill:
• Lokpal Bill Amendment:
• Labour Laws Amendment Bill
• The Apprentices (Amendment) Bill
• Textile Undertakings (Nationalization) Laws (Amendment and Validation) Bill
• The Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Bill
• The Merchant Shipping (Amendment) Bill, 2013 and also Second Amendment to the same
• The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill
• The Central Universities (Amendment) Bill
• The Payment and Settlement Systems (Amendment) Bill
• The Regional Rural Banks (Amendment) Bill
• The Indian Institutes of Information Technology Bill
• The Anti-Hijacking (Amendment) Bill
• The Repealing and Amending Bill
• The National Co-operative Development Corporation (Amendment) Bill
• The Warehousing Corporations (Amendment) Bill