At least 24 new bills are listed for discussion — and possible passing — in the Lok Sabha for the monsoon session that begins this Monday. These include the Registration of Press and Periodicals Bill that aims to regulate digital media for the first time in India.
Digital news publishers will have to apply for registration and will be required to do so within 90 days of the law coming into effect. The proposed new law is to replace a British-era act that regulates newspapers and printing presses.
In the “business expected to be taken up” in the July 18-August 13 session — submitted by the government to the Lok Sabha secretariat — there is also a Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, which will “rationalise government role and increase members' participation”.
Cooperative bodies are a focus area for the BJP-led NDA government. Home Minister Amit Shah was given the newly created Cooperation Ministry by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July last year. The amendment bill aims to give more “functional autonomy” to cooperative societies “to raise resources more effectively”.
Bills to form a National Dental Commission — repealing the Dentists Act of 1948 — and to set up a National Nursing and Midwifery Commission (NNMC) — repealing the Indian Nursing Council Act of 1947 — are on the agenda, too. Another bill is to turn the NITIE in Mumbai into an Indian Institute of Management, joining an elite list of IIMs.
Further on the education front, there are bills for central universities — one for conversion of National Rail Transportation Institute into Gati Shakti Vishvavidyala; the other for establishment of a Central Tribal University in Telangana.
AdvertisementBesides the 24 new bills, the list includes five that have been introduced earlier.
Four of these were sent to committees for re-discussion, reports of which are now in. Those are the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill and National Anti-Doping Bill from last year, and the Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill and the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill from 2019. The Indian Antarctic Bill, 2022, was introduced in April but couldn't be passed, nor was it sent to any committee.
