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The Winter Session of Parliament was heavy on the financial agenda, with several key legislations passed, including the bill to amend insurance laws, the Appropriation Bills, and the Health Security se National Security Cess Bill.
The session, which began on December 1, was adjourned sine die on Friday. During the session, 10 Bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha and eight Bills were passed by the upper House of Parliament. The two Houses passed eight bills during the session which had 15 sittings. The financial and related bills passed by the two Houses include the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Bill, 2025, the Appropriation (No. 4) Bill, 2025, the Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and the Manipur Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill, 2025. The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Bill, 2025, (SHANTI Bill), which opens up the nuclear sector to private entities, was passed by the two Houses of the Parliament. Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Bill, 2025 seeks to raise the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limit in Indian insurance companies from the existing 74 per cent to 100 per cent. The government said the move is intended to attract stable, long-term foreign capital, facilitate technology transfer, and enhance insurance penetration and social security coverage across the country. First Batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for the year 2025-26 were discussed and related Appropriation Bills were passed by the two Houses. The Central Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2025, was also passed by the two Houses. It seeks to revise the excise duties on tobacco and related products after the expiry of the GST compensation cess. The Securities Markets Code (SMC) Bill, 2025, introduced in Lok Sabha by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, was referred to the Departmental Standing Committee. It aims to modernize India's securities market framework by consolidating and replacing three decades-old laws governing capital markets. The proposed Code seeks to merge the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956, the SEBI Act, 1992, and the Depositories Act, 1996 into a single, unified statute. The Manipur Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill, 2025, passed by both the Houses, seeks to implement the further decisions of the GST Council, including a plan to consolidate existing GST rates into two main slabs of 5 per cent and 18 per cent, in Manipur. The two Houses saw heated debate on SHANTI Bill. In his reply to the debate in Lok Sabha, Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said the Bill seeks to modernise India's nuclear framework in line with contemporary technological, economic and energy realities, while retaining and strengthening core safety, security and regulatory safeguards that have been in place since the Atomic Energy Act of 1962. He underlined that the proposed legislation consolidates existing laws and upgrades the regulatory architecture by giving statutory status to the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, which until now functioned through an executive order. He stressed that safety norms, security controls over fissile material, spent fuel and heavy water, and periodic inspections remain firmly under government oversight, regardless of private participation. The Minister clarified that private entities will not have control over sensitive materials, and that spent fuel management will continue to be handled by the government, as has been the practice for decades . On liability, a central theme of the debate, the Minister said the Bill does not dilute compensation to victims. He explained that operator liability has been rationalised through graded caps linked to reactor size to encourage newer technologies such as small modular reactors, while ensuring that full compensation is available to affected persons through a multi-layered mechanism. This includes operator liability, a proposed Nuclear Liability Fund backed by the government, and additional international compensation through India's participation in the Convention on Supplementary Compensation. He maintained that supplier liability was removed after detailed consideration of global practices and advances in reactor safety, while negligence and penal provisions remain enforceable under the law . Jitendra Singh also rejected the view that the Bill signals a retreat from public sector capability, pointing to a nearly 170 per cent increase in the Department of Atomic Energy's budget over the past decade and a doubling of installed nuclear capacity since 2014. He said India's nuclear contribution to the energy mix remains modest compared to global peers, and scaling it up is essential to meet rising demand from sectors such as data processing, healthcare and industry, alongside renewables. The Bill, he added, enables responsible private and joint venture participation to bridge resource constraints, shorten gestation periods and support the national goal of 100 GW nuclear capacity by 2047, without compromising national security or public interest . Placing the legislation in a broader context, the Minister said nuclear energy has applications beyond power generation, including cancer care, agriculture and industry, and the Bill for the first time explicitly recognises environmental and economic damage within the definition of nuclear harm. With dedicated investments announced for small modular reactors and research and innovation, Jitendra Singh said the proposed law aims to create an enabling ecosystem. (ANI)
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