Parliament has passed the Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019 with Rajya Sabha approving it today without discussion. The Lok Sabha had passed the bill in the last session.

The Bill seeks to uphold the rights of people with leprosy as the disease is curable. It was to amend the Divorce Act 1869, the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act 1939, the Special Marriage Act 1954, the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956 to end the discrimination against leprosy persons in these central laws.

The Rajya Sabha also passed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Third Amendment) Bill 2019 without discussion.The National Institutes of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management Bill, 2019 was introduced in the House on the last day today.

The Indian Navy on Tuesday invited expressions of interest for strategic alliances between Indian and foreign companies to manufacture naval utility helicopters (NUH) in India, the defence ministry said. Separately, the Indian Army signed a contract with US’ Sig Sauer for 72,400 assault rifles.

The ministry said that 95 of the 111 helicopters should be manufactured in India by the Indian strategic partner. “The project is likely to provide a major boost to the government of India’s ‘Make in India’ initiative and give a fillip to manufacturing capability for helicopters in India," it added.

Lockheed Martin, Airbus Helicopters and Bell Helicopters are among those expected to participate in the bidding, the ministry said. Indian companies likely to participate in the bidding are Tata Advanced Systems, Mahindra Defence, Adani Defence, L&T, Bharat Forge and Reliance Infrastructure.

Foreign original equipment manufacturers “have been mandated to set up dedicated manufacturing lines, including design, integration and manufacturing processes for NUH in India and make the Indian manufacturing line a global exclusive facility for the NUH platform being offered," the ministry said.

The Bihar government Tuesday attached top priority to the education sector in its Budget for 2019-20 with a highest-ever allocation of Rs 34,798.69 crore with no new taxes for its citizens. Besides, the Budget also laid special emphasis on sectors like roads, health and energy.

Presenting the budget in the Legislative Assembly, Deputy Chief Minister-cum-Finance Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said the Budget of Rs 2,00,501.01 crore is Rs 23,510.74 crore more than the current 2018-19 year’s Budget of Rs 1,76,990.27 crore.

The size of the state’s budget has increased nine-fold to touch Rs 2,00,501 crore in 2019-20, from Rs 23,885 crore in 2004-05, Modi said while presenting his 10th budget in the Assembly. Except for the financial year 2012-13, the state has been presenting a revenue surplus budget consistently since 2008-09, he said adding that the state had a revenue surplus of Rs 14,823 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 21,311 crore in 2018-19 while it is expected to be Rs 21,516 crore in 2019-20.

Modi said the state government cannot impose any new taxes under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. “The increase in size of budget indicates that the state is witnessing high growth which is evident from the CRISIL report based on government data which said that Bihar registered the highest growth rate of 11.3 per cent among major states in the country in 2017-18. We expect that we will be able to maintain the high growth momentum in future too, Modi told reporters after the budget.

Reserve Bank has imposed monetary penalty of two million rupees each on HDFC Bank, IDBI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank for non-compliance of various Know Your Customer/ Anti-Money Laundering norms. 

In a statement issued from Mumbai yesterday, RBI informed that it has imposed monetary penalty of 1.5 Crore rupees each on Allahabad Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Indian Overseas Bank for non-compliance of norms related to monitoring end use of funds, exchange of information, classification and reporting of frauds and on restructuring of accounts. 

A penalty of 1 crore rupees was imposed on Andhra Bank for the same reason. 

The central bank clarified that the action is purely based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction by the banks with their customers.

The Defence Ministry has issued expression of interest to shortlist potential Indian strategic partners and foreign original equipment manufacturers for the procurement of 111 Naval Utility Helicopters (NUH). 

An official statement said yesterday Ninety-five helicopters out of the 111 will be manufactured in India by the selected Indian strategic partner. These choppers will replace the Chetak model and will be utilised for search, rescue and evacuation of casualties by air and torpedo drops. 

The multi-billion dollar proposal was approved by the Defence Acquisition Council in August last year. The project is likely to provide major boost to the government's 'Make in India' initiative and fillip to the manufacturing capability for helicopters in India. 

The original equipment manufacturers (OEM) have been mandated to set up dedicated manufacturing line, including design, integration and manufacturing processes for NUHs in India and make the Indian Manufacturing Line a global exclusive facility for the NUH platform. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the CREDAI YouthCon -19 at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi today. The theme for this YouthCon is Next Generation. He will also visit the exhibition organized by Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India, CREDAI. 

An official release said, the annual conference will bring together the next generation of real estate builders and developers to enlighten their young minds and share their thinking and approach. 

Established in 1999, CREDAI is the apex body representing real-estate developers from over 200 cities in the country.

The Budget Session of Parliament which began on 31st January will come to end today. Yesterday the Lok Sabha passed the Finance Bill, 2019 by a voice vote. 

Replying to the discussion on the bill, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal asserted that all the proposals in the bill are aimed at benefiting the middle classes and honest taxpayers. 

He appealed to the States to furnish data about farmers so that the income support under the PM-Kisan scheme is credited to their accounts at the earliest. 

However, the Congress staging a walk-out yesterday in the lower house over the Rafale deal while Rajya Sabha faced adjournment following an uproar by Samajwadi Party members after party chief Akhilesh Yadav was allegedly stopped at Lucknow airport while on his way to Allahabad.

Today being the last day of both Houses of the Parliament before the general elections, the government will try to get approval from the house on the key pending bills. 

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018 is scheduled to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha. Both Bills which were introduced and in the Lok Sabha, if not passed in the Rajya Sabha before dissolution of the Lower House will get lapsed. 

In the Lok Sabha, the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018 and The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2019 are scheduled to be taken up for discussion and passage today. 

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing federal agencies to prioritize research and development in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The plan, called the American AI Initiative, follows big investment pledges from China and other countries intended to advance and apply AI technology in fields ranging from warfighting to health care. The order directs federal agencies to make government data and computing resources more available to AI experts while maintaining security and confidentiality. The order also calls on agencies to protect civil liberties, privacy and American values in applying AI technologies, and to help workers gain relevant skills through fellowships, apprenticeships, training programs and computer science education.

In a bid to fight marine pollution, India signed a letter of intent with the Norwegian government establishing the India-Norway Marine Pollution Initiative.

The letter was signed by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) establishing the initiative with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a statement from the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) said.

"In January, 2019, the Indian and Norwegian governments agreed to work more closely on oceans by signing an MoU and establishing the India-Norway Ocean Dialogue during the Norwegian Prime Minister's visit to India in January," it said.

The joint initiative was signed by Anil Kumar Jain, Additional Secretary, MoEFCC, and Nils RagnarKamsvag, Norway's Ambassador to India.

State-owned power giant NTPC Monday said that it has signed a term loan agreement for ₹5,000 crore with State Bank of India.

"The loan facility is extended at an interest rate linked to 3-Month MCLR of the Bank. This loan has a door to door tenure of 15 years and will be utilised to part finance the capital expenditure of NTPC," a company statement said.

The loan agreement was signed by Masood A Ansari, General Manager (Finance), NTPC Ltd and Neelabh Sinha, Dy General Manager, SBI in the presence of Saptarshi Roy, Director (Finance), NTPC Ltd , Sudhir Arya, CFO, NTPC Ltd and Pradeep Kelshikar, General Manager, SBI.