Opposition protests rock Rajya Sabha; proceedings adjourned for the day
Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day on Friday amid vociferous protests by Opposition members over the issue of Special Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar. The House could not function and both the Zero Hour and Question Hour were washed out. The House was earlier adjourned soon after laying of papers within minutes. When the House reassembled at 12 noon, there was no let up in the protests forcing the Chair to adjourn for the day. Some of the Opposition members even entered the Well and raised slogans against the SIR. The House will meet again on Monday.
The Opposition has been demanding a discussion in the House in the SIR issue and the withdrawal of the EC's exercise which has come ahead of Assembly elections slated to be held later this year. In the morning session, Deputy Chairman Harivansh said he received 30 adjournment notices under Rule 267 for discussion on SIR, alleged discrimination against Bengali migrant workers in other states, impact of the US decision to impose 25 per cent tariff on Indian imports, and mass layoffs in Indian IT sector, among others. Harviansh said that since the notices do not conform to the detailed directions imparted by the Chair, the same were declined. The Opposition was up on their feet protesting the Chair's decision, and several of them raised slogans and stood on the aisle. The Chair allowed Manoj Kumar Jha (RJD) to speak, who urged the Chair to allow discussion on SIR. Harivansh said since the matter is sub judice, he cannot allow discussion on it. "This is a sub judice matter and the rules of this House are very clear. I cannot allow (discussion)," he said, and urged the protesting members to return to their seats and called Ashok Kumar Mittal (AAP) to raise his Zero Hour mention. However, the protests continued. The Chair's repeated efforts to ensure smooth functioning went in vain, and the proceedings were adjourned within 11 minutes.
According to the agenda for Friday, besides the private members' business, the House was to take up statutory resolution for continuance of President's rule in Manipur for another six months and The Carriage of Goods by Sea Bill, 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hans India
15 minutes ago
- Hans India
Rajya Sabha adjourned till 2 pm amid continued Oppn uproar
New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 2 p.m. on Tuesday following loud protests by Opposition members after Deputy Chairman Harivansh rejected 20 notices submitted under Rule 267. Citing non-adherence to procedural requirements, the Deputy Chairman declined to admit any of the notices, triggering immediate uproar from the Opposition benches. The session began with routine business, as ministers laid papers and made departmental statements. Among those who placed documents on the table were Prataprao Jadhav (Health and Family Welfare), L. Murugan on behalf of Jitin Prasada (Commerce and Industry), Pankaj Chaudhary (Finance), B.L. Verma (Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution), and Shantanu Thakur (Ports, Shipping and Waterways). Reports from various parliamentary committees were also tabled. Priyanka Chaturvedi presented reports from the Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology. Milind Murli Deora laid the Twenty-sixth Report of the Standing Committee on Finance, focusing on India's economic roadmap amid global uncertainties. Sulata Deo submitted the Second Report of the Joint Committee on Offices of Profit, seeking clarification on the eligibility of sitting MPs for the post of Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). Geeta alias Chandraprabha presented two reports from the Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, addressing the functioning of DISHA Committees and promotion of renewable energy in rural areas. Statements on government action taken were also laid by Geeta alias Chandraprabha and Iranna Kadadi, particularly on wage rates and employment under MGNREGA. Ministers B.L. Verma, Ravneet Singh, and Tokhan Sahu made statements regarding the implementation of recommendations from their respective committees on Consumer Affairs, Food Processing Industries, and Housing and Urban Affairs. However, proceedings were disrupted when the Deputy Chairman initiated Zero Hour and called the name of Kanad Purkayastha to raise a public interest matter. Opposition members broke into loud protests, raising slogans and pressing for a debate on electoral matters, with particular focus on the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls in Bihar. The disruption grew so intense that a key announcement from the Deputy Chairman was drowned out in the din. With the House descending into chaos and order proving elusive, the Deputy Chairman was compelled to adjourn proceedings until 2 p.m.
Hindustan Times
15 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
No change in India's position on Taiwan
There is no change in India's position on Taiwan, with which New Delhi maintains economic, technology, and cultural ties, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, while responding to a Chinese foreign ministry readout that misquoted external affairs minister S Jaishankar as saying that Taiwan is part of China. External affairs minister S Jaishankar with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi. (AP) The readout, issued only in Mandarin after midnight Indian time following a meeting between Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in New Delhi on Monday, contained a lengthy paragraph with comments attributed to the external affairs minister. It included the line: 'Taiwan is a part of China.' There was no Chinese readout on the meeting in English. 'There is no change in our position on Taiwan. We stressed that, like the rest of the world, India has a relationship with Taiwan that focuses on economic, technology, and cultural ties,' one of the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. 'We intend to continue it [the relationship],' the person added. During Monday's meeting, Wang urged the Indian side not to deal with Taiwan, a second person said. Jaishankar responded by questioning how this would be possible when China itself is dealing with Taiwan in the same areas as India, the second person added. The people said the external affairs minister had been misquoted in the Chinese foreign ministry's readout. The remarks attributed to Jaishankar were widely reported by China's state-run media. Beijing has often insisted that New Delhi should adhere to the 'one-China' policy, contending that the Indian side has made political commitments regarding this. The people pointed out that India stopped referring to the 'one-China' policy in official documents and pronouncements since 2011, after Chinese authorities issued stapled visas to residents of the border state of Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Wang is the first Chinese minister to visit India since the end of the military face-off between the two countries on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) last October. He is in New Delhi for talks on the border issue under the Special Representatives mechanism with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. Doval and Wang are the designated Special Representatives, and the mechanism is the highest body for dealing with the long-standing border dispute. The visit has assumed greater significance as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit on August 31 and September 1 amid strains in India-US relations over the trade and tariff policies of the Donald Trump administration in the US. India and Taiwan don't have formal diplomatic relations, though both sides established representative offices in each other's capitals in 1995. Taiwan has the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center TECC in New Delhi, Chennai, and Mumbai. India has the India-Taipei Association (ITA) office in Taipei. These facilities are responsible for promoting cooperation in trade, investment, science and technology, tourism, and education. In 2023, two-way trade was worth $8.2 billion. India was the 16th largest trading partner for Taiwan. Taiwan's exports to India touched $6 billion, positioning the country as its 12th largest export market. Taiwan has emerged as key to India's ambitious plans to become a hi-tech manufacturing hub for semiconductors, smartphones, and green products. Tata Group has tied up with Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) to set up a semiconductor fabrication facility at Dholera in Gujarat. Foxconn Technology Group plays a key role in Apple's iPhone manufacturing facilities in India. In June last year, Modi responded to a congratulatory message from Lai Ching-te on his election victory by saying that he looked forward to closer ties between India and Taiwan as 'we work towards mutually beneficial economic and technological partnership'. Lai was among the world leaders who greeted Modi on securing a third term at a time when China's top leadership was yet to issue a similar message.
Indian Express
15 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Direct US tariff impact on India's growth may be overstated for now, but high employment-intensiveness of US-focused trade sectors a looming worry
As the India-US negotiations for a trade deal are now on ice, analysts predict that the tariff impact on India's growth trajectory and on the country's corporate sector might be overstated, but risk of second-order effects from existing tariffs could be rising. A US-India trade deal, if secured, would lower these risks. A senior government official said that given the relatively low weightage of US exports in India's GDP, at under 2 per cent, the impact on the economy is perhaps overblown. Also, some key exports from India are still out of the tariff impact, including pharmaceuticals shipments. It remains to be seen if that status continues going forward, given the hard position taken by White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro, who, in a sharply-worded opinion piece in The Financial Times wrote that New Delhi was 'now cozying up to both Russia and China' and that 'if India wants to be treated as a strategic partner of the US, it needs to start acting like one'. The government official quoted above indicated that there are no talks with the US, not even any backchannel negotiations to dial down the tensions. The American negotiators' scheduled visit to India during the second half of August has effectively been put off indefinitely. The US is India's largest export market. According to rating agency Fitch, while there is only 'a minimal direct tariff impact' on Indian IT service companies and domestically focused sectors such as upstream and downstream oil and gas, cement and building materials, engineering and construction, telecoms, and utilities. If US tariffs are, however, sustained at levels significantly higher than in other Asian markets, there could be moderate downside risks to India's growth projection of 6.5 per cent in FY26, it said. This, according to Fitch, would weigh on the operating performance of more Indian companies and India's corporates could be affected if US tariffs divert supplies to other markets, which could present downside risks to the domestic price assumptions made by the rating agency for some products, such as steel and chemicals. The problem, though, is that while the tariff impact on Indian companies might be limited, the employment intensiveness of India's export sectors that are focused on the US market, including sectors such as textiles and garments, leather, gems and jewellery, engineering goods and electronics, is proportionately high, and that is a worry for policymakers. Much of these sectors are dominated by small and medium enterprises and their labour intensiveness is typically higher than corporates while their ability to cope with an external shock of this kind is way lower than big companies. Another senior government official said the impact of reforms to India's foreign trade sectors and a broader reforms push, if done well, could improve overall growth prospects. The Finance Ministry Monday notified the elimination of 11 per cent duty on cotton imports with immediate effect amid widespread fears of job losses in the textile sector due to the US tariffs. The government said that the elimination of import duty on cotton as well as Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess (AIDC) 'is necessary in the public interest' and that notification will come 'into force with effect from August 19, and shall remain in force up to and inclusive of September 30'. The textile sector is expected to be hardest hit sector due to steep US tariffs as American is a key market for Indian ready-made garment exports; its share in India's total garment exports in 2024 stood at 33 per cent, as per the Apparel Export Promotion Council. Also, a consumption push from the proposed GST cuts, if executed as planned, could also help. According to estimates compiled by New Delhi-based GTRI, labour-intensive sectors contributed over $14.3 billion to India's exports to the US in FY25, including garments ($5.33 billion), textiles and carpets ($2.38 billion), made-ups and worn clothing ($2.95 billion), leather ($795 million), footwear ($461 million), ceramics and stoneware ($1.55 billion), and wood and paper articles ($823 million). These sectors are dominated by small and medium enterprises and are major employment generators in Indian states such as Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Gujarat. The breakdown in trade talks with the US assumes significance as President Donald Trump has announced 50 per cent tariffs on Indian products — the highest on any country globally. While 25 per cent US tariffs on India have already kicked in, government officials have said the levy of another 25 per cent could come into effect on August 27. The India-US trade deal has been stuck over India's long-standing stance of protecting Indian farmers in every trade agreement New Delhi has entered into. However, the US under Trump is not only prioritising market access for its agricultural products but also renegotiating deals to get market access for it's agri products. Fitch Ratings said that while India-based corporates generally have low direct exposure to US tariffs, sectors that are currently unaffected, including pharmaceuticals, could be hit by further US tariff announcements. The risk of second-order effects from existing tariffs is also rising, which would be mitigated by a US-India trade deal, if secured. India's direct automotive exports to the US, including parts, are limited, it said, adding that America is a key export destination for Indian pharmaceutical companies. Fitch said it currently assumes 'a minimal direct tariff impact' on Indian IT service companies and domestically focused sectors such as upstream and downstream oil and gas, cement and building materials, engineering and construction, telecoms, and utilities. 'However, if US tariffs are sustained at levels significantly higher than in other Asian markets, we see moderate downside risks to our projection that the economy will grow by 6.5 per cent in FY26. This would weigh on the operating performance of more Indian companies. India's corporates could also be affected if US tariffs divert supply to other markets, including India, as this could present downside risks to our domestic price assumptions for some products, such as steel and chemicals,' it said.
