Parliament highlights: Cong opposes bill replacing MGNREGA; Sitharaman slams Oppn over Trump's ‘dead economy’ remark

Parliament Session Live: The Congress has strongly objected to the bill on replacing MGNREGA, saying erasing Mahatma Gandhi's name shows how "hollow and hypocritical" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's gestures of paying homage to the Father of the Nation are.

Parliament Session Live: Here are key highlights from finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Lok Sabha address:

• “Every institution is raising our growth outlook for this year and the forthcoming year. There are clear expressions (from the IMF) recognising India's growth and no dead economy gets a credit rating upgrade by DBRS, S&P and R&I.”
• “So somebody said something somewhere, however important that somebody is, we should not depend on that but rely on data available within the country and also data coming from elsewhere. Rely on data.”
• "Can a dead economy grow at 8.2 per cent? Can a dead economy get credit rating upgrades?" Sitharaman said.
• “India's debt-to-GDP shot up to 61.4 per cent post-Covid, but policies adopted by the central government helped to bring it down to 57.1 per cent by 2023-24. By this year-end, I expect it to come down to 56.1 per cent”

Parliament Session Live: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman slammed the Opposition as it sought her response on US President Donald Trump's remark that India is a dead economy. Sitharaman said India is the fastest-growing major economy, which grew at 8.2 per cent in the September quarter. The minister said the economy in the last 10 years transitioned from "external vulnerability to external resilience". "Every institution is raising our growth outlook for this year and the forthcoming year. There are clear expressions (from the IMF) recognising India's growth and no dead economy gets a credit rating upgrade by DBRS, S&P and R&I," Sitharaman said during reply to the Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2025-26 in the Lok Sabha.

Parliament Session Live: Responding to the Opposition's allegations of India's economy falling, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that no dead economy gets credit rating upgrade. “Can a dead economy grow at 8.2%?” she asked as she pointed towards data indicating India's growth.

Parliament Session Live: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that every institution is increasing India's growth outlook for this year and the next year. She mentioned IMF Chief Kristalina Georgieva's praise for India's “bold reforms”. She quoted Georgieva's remark that India has proven the naysayers wrong.

Parliament Session Live: As finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted India's growth, she cited US President Donald Trump's remark that India is a dead economy. “While the global growth is 3.2%, India is growing 8.2% last quarter, becoming the fastest major growing economy,” she said.

Parliament Session Live: Lok Sabha passes first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants, seeking additional spending of ₹41,455 crore in FY26.

Parliament Session Live: There is no shortage of urea, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha on Monday. “The government will ensure its availability during Rabi season also,” she said.

Parliament Session Live: Highlighting India's growth in manufacturing sector, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while there were only two mobile phone manufacturing units in India in 2014-15, the numbers has increased to 300 in 2024-25, marking a growth of 150 times.

Parliament Session Live: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Lok Sabha that India has become net exporter in key sectors such as electronics, pharmaceuticals, engineering goods and defence. “When you are net exporter, you are exporting more than what you are importing,” she said.

Parliament Session Live:

Parliament Session Live: he Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill that seeks to set up an overarching higher education commission along with three councils has been introduced in the Lok Sabha as the government expressed willingness to refer it to a joint committee. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Bill. The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.

Parliament Session Live: As BJP's JP Nadda sought Congress's apology over remarks on PM Modi made at the ‘vote chori’ rally, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal rejected the demand. He dismissed the controversy as "baseless drama" orchestrated by the BJP to divert attention from the opposition's successful protest at Ramlila Maidan.

Parliament Session Live: The Opposition slammed the government over a bill that seeks to repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and replace it with a new rural employment law. The Opposition MPs questioned the government on removing the name of the father of the nation.

The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025, has been listed in the Lok Sabha in the supplementary list of business issued on Monday. It seeks to repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 and establish a "rural development framework aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047", by providing a statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work.

Parliament Session Live: Centre's new Act to replace MNREGA guarantees 125 days of wage employment per rural household, up from the existing 100 days, for adult members willing to undertake unskilled manual work. It seeks to simultaneously provide income security and create durable, productivity-enhancing rural assets through a nationally coordinated development strategy.

All works will be organised across four priority verticals--water security through water-related works, core rural infrastructure, livelihood-related infrastructure, and special works to mitigate the impact of extreme weather events.

Assets created under the programme will be aggregated into the Viksit Bharat National Rural Infrastructure Stack, enabling unified planning, monitoring and integration with national spatial platforms such as PM Gati-Shakti.

Parliament Session Live: The Centre has introduced the Viksit Bharat - Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin): VB-G RAM G Act, 2025, replacing the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with a modern, infrastructure-focused and digitally governed statutory system aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, news agency ANI reported.

Parliament Session Live: BJP MP Kangana Ranaut strongly condemned the remarks allegedly made against PM Modi during a Congress mega rally. Demanding an apology, she slammed into the opposition, saying that just because of the political rivalry, it's not right to wish death upon someone, further underlining that he is democratically elected as the prime minister.

Parliament Session Live: Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Bill, 2025 has been tabled in Lok Sabha

The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Bill, 2025, was introduced in the Lok Sabha. The opposition has opposed the bill.

Parliament Session Live: Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill introduced; government proposes sending it to JPC.

Parliament Session Live: The Opposition opposes the introduction of the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill, with several MPs calling for its withdrawal from the Lok Sabha.

Congress MP Manish Tewari opposed the introduction of the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill, calling it ‘excessive centralisation’ of higher education.

A bill to repeal the MGNREGA and bring a new law for rural employment -- Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025 -- is set to be introduced in the Lok Sabha.

According to a copy of the bill, it seeks to introduce the VB-G RAM G Bill, 2025, in Parliament and repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005. The bill is listed in the supplementary business list of Lok Sabha.

Parliament winter session live updates: CPI MP P Sandosh asks why the focus is on slogans when so many issues are in front of the nation.
"Why focus on slogans when 'vote chori' and people’s issues are the main concern? The rally itself was a huge success. PM Modi himself is infamous for making derogatory remarks at election rallies," he told PTI.