Daily Bulletin: Winter Session of Parliament to begin today, BJP set to push Citizenship (Amendment) Bill; Justice SA Bobde to take oath as CJI today; day's top stories

Winter Session of Parliament to begin today: Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, Personal Data Protection Bill on legislative agenda The Parliament's Winter Session starting on Monday is expected to witness much heat as the Opposition looks to corner the Union government over issues such as the economic slowdown and the situation in Kashmir while the Modi dispensation seeks to push through the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, a key part of the BJP’s ideological agenda. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his customary remarks at an all-party meeting held on Sunday, asserted that the government is ready to discuss every issue and exhorted everyone to make the upcoming session as productive as the Monsoon Session, when Parliament gave its nod to the bifurcation of the then state of Jammu and Kashmir and nullifying Article 370, besides several other important bills. The government has listed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, a key BJP plank which is aimed at granting nationality to non-Muslim immigrants from neighbouring countries, for passage. The Modi government introduced the bill in its previous tenure but could not push it through due to vehement protests by Opposition parties, which criticised the bill as discriminatory on religious grounds. [caption id=“attachment_7036421” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Parliament. PTI[/caption] The second ordinance, also issued in September, banned the sale, manufacture and storage of e-cigarettes and similar products. Other key bills such as Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, Anti Maritime Piracy Bill 2019 and Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019 are among the 47 items expected to be taken up during the House proceedings. Justice SA Bobde to take oath as CJI today Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde , the second senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, has been appointed as the 47th Chief Justice of India and will take oath as the CJI on 18 November. Incumbent CJI Ranjan Gogoi had sent a letter to the Centre recommending Bobde as his successor. President Ram Nath Kovind will administer the oath of office of Chief Justice of India to Justice Bobde at 9:30 am. Justice Bobde will have a tenure of about 18 months. Justice Bobde, has had a long career in the apex court, first as a lawyer, then as a Supreme Court judge after his elevation in 2013. Born on 24 April 1956 at Nagpur, Maharashtra, Bobde hails from a family of illustrious lawyers. He is the grandson of a lawyer and son of Arvind Bobde, a former advocate-general of Maharashtra and a staunch Congressman. His  elder brother, who passed away in 2016, was also a Supreme Court lawyer. He passed his BA and LLB degrees from Nagpur University and got enrolled in the Roll of the Bar Council of Maharashtra in 1978. Maharashtra govt formation: Sharad Pawar, Sonia Gandhi to meet today to discuss alliance with Shiv Sena The meeting between Congress president Sonia Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar which was earlier slated to take place on Sunday will now take place on Monday . The meeting has been arranged to discuss a possible alliance with the Shiv Sena to form a government in Maharashtra. The NCP has meanwhile called a meeting of its MLAs in Pune on Sunday. Allies Congress and NCP have already worked out a common minimum programme (CMP) with the Sena for the government. Sources in the Congress and NCP said the draft CMP and allocation of portfolios between the three parties will be discussed in the meeting. The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress are busy discussing the nitty-gritty of government formation in the state which is under President’s rule since 12 November after the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance fell apart over the issue of sharing of chief minister’s post. “Sonia Gandhi and Sharad Pawar will meet on Sunday evening to discuss the issues pertaining to government formation in Maharashtra,” an NCP source said. Odd-Even rule in Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal to take final call on extension of scheme today Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said a final call on extending the odd-even scheme would be taken on Monday as the air quality is expected to improve in the next two-three days. “We do not want people to undergo unnecessary inconvenience,” Kejriwal said at a press conference on Friday. “Air quality is predicted to improve over the next two-three days. A final call on extending the odd-even scheme will be taken on Monday,” he said. The road-rationing scheme rolled out on 4 November, ends on Friday. “The residents cooperated very much in implementation of the scheme. There were 250-300 challans every day, which are very less considering the population,” he said. After almost five consecutive days of choking on toxic air , Delhi and neighbouring National Capital Region on Sunday woke up to some respite with the Air Quality Index (AQI) improving to “poor” category from “severe” category on Saturday. The overall AQI in Delhi stood at 254 at 9 am on Sunday, rising to ‘poor’ category on Sunday, as compared to 412 on Saturday. The AQI in Faridabad was 228, Ghaziabad 241, Greater Noida 192, Noida 224 and Gurgaon 193. Govt considering reintroducing restrictions on royalty payments for tech transfer The government is considering to re-introduce restrictions on royalty payments for technology transfer in view of excessive outflow of such funds to overseas companies, sources said. A proposal in this regard will soon be circulated by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) for inter-ministerial consultation, sources said. According to the proposal, limits could be imposed on royalty payments in case of technology transfer or collaboration involving foreign entities either directly or indirectly through any firm in India. A similar proposal was mooted by the department last year. That time it had proposed that royalty payments should be capped at four percent of domestic sales and seven percent of exports for the first four years, and for the next three years, the limit should be three percent of local sales and six percent of exports. With inputs from agencies