RS passes historic women's Bill amid high drama In an unprecedented move in the recent history of the Parliament, marshalls were called in to forcibly oust seven MPs from the House to pass the bill. A lot has been said and written about this, but do not be fooled, this Bill does not empower the "Aam Aurat". Will be too glad if it does not get passed in the Lok Sabha as do not want the "Babalog" (the sons, nephews, grandsons of politicians or their friends) to be given company by "Babylog" (the daughters, nieces, wives, girlfriends and mistresses of politicians) in the parliament. Unlike, the Panchayats which are executive bodies, this kind of quota to legislative bodies is simply not done! Hasty government retreat on nuclear liability cap Bill The government has introduced in the Lok Sabha what it considers another key legislation, to cap the financial liability of company operating a nuclear power unit. The government has to speedily re-introduce the bill and get it passed if it hopes for any private participation in nuclear power. The absence of the Bill will gravely damage the Indian nuclear supplier industry. Certainly, some amendments to increase the liability of the firms are in order, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy has left us with some very cruel lessons. SC bats for electricity regulator on margins The Supreme Court has upheld the authority of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to regulate margins on resale of electricity. Cannot say much about the SC ruling in this matter, as it was predictable. In most cases the apex court has not stepped into the defined mandate of the sectoral regulators and overruled its' decisions. However, the sectoral regulator CERC in this case is resorting to very hasty regulations that are stifling the development of an electricity market. Spectrum allocation hinges on defence vacating frequencies Winning bidders at upcoming auctions for India's 3G mobile licences may not get spectrum allocations as scheduled because the defence services may not vacate the frequencies in time The institutional inertia in this matter is amazing. Indian consumer is already faced losses due to a delay in the roll out of 3G services. Sri Lanka has already a year ago started these services. Moreover, this delay will be factored in the bids, which will cause a loss to the exchequer. CERC imposes congestion charge of Rs 5.45 per unit The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has imposed with immediate effect, a congestion charge of Rs 5.45 per unit for all regions. Stiff penalties such as these may introduce Grid Discipline as well as encouraging capacity creation rather than resorting to Unscheduled Interchange for meeting huge shortages. |
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