Insurance Bill may pass test in Rajya Sabha today

New Delhi, March 12, 2015 (Agencies)   A bill that seeks to raise foreign investment in the insurance sector will be taken up in the Rajya Sabha today and is expected to sail through following the government's pact with the opposition on key legislation.

The government, which is in a minority in the upper house of Parliament, has agreed to the opposition's demand to send the mining and coal bills for review to select committees that will submit their reports by March 18, in time for the bills to be taken up for passing.

The Congress and other opposition parties, sources say, will allow the passing of the Insurance Bill but with amendments. The bill seeks to increase Foreign Direct Investment in the sector from 26 to 49 per cent. Sources say leaders of various parties met with senior union ministers Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu to come to an understanding.

The government needs to have six ordinances, including the Land and Mines ordinances, ratified through bills by both Houses in this Parliament session or they will lapse.



The bills are vital to the government's reforms agenda; the industry is getting increasingly impatient to see the Narendra Modi government walk its talk on economic reforms.

Each will clear the Lok Sabha, where the BJP-led National Democratic Front government has a big majority. But in the Rajya Sabha, it is the Opposition that dominates.

On Tuesday, when the Lok Sabha passed the controversial land bill, the Congress and some other opposition parties had walked out, signaling that they are united in their resolve to not let key reforms pass the Rajya Sabha test. The government made nine amendments to its land bill in an attempt to placate critics who have called the land ordinance "anti-farmer."

The bills that the government wants to push through Parliament immediately are the Land Acquisition Bill, Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, Insurance Laws Amendment Bill, The Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill 2015, Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill and Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.