Delhi

New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) No significant or drastic mutation in strains of SARS-CoV-2 has been found in India till now, Union Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday during an interaction with his social media followers.

He also said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been conducting large-scale sequencing of nationally representative strains collected over a few months and detailed results on mutations of the virus will be available in early October.

New Delhi, Sep 21 (PTI) Rajya Sabha was on Monday adjourned for the day amid uproar by opposition members over suspension of eight MPs, including TMC leader Derek O'Brien and Sanjay Singh of AAP, for the remaining part of the Monsoon session over their "unruly behaviour" during the passage of farm bills.

The proceedings of the House were almost washed out as it could not take up any legislative business.

Earlier in the day some members managed to raise issues during Zero Hour.

New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) Rajya Sabha on Sunday passed two contentious farm bills, which have triggered protests by farmers at several places, amid uproar by opposition members.

The two bills -- Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 -- were passed by Lok Sabha on Thursday.

The House also rejected demand of several opposition parties to send the two bills to a Rajya Sabha Select Committee for greater scrutiny.

New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) Opposition parties led by the Congress criticised the farm bills tabled in Rajya Sabha on Sunday, saying they will not sign on the "death warrant" of farmers

The opposition charged that the two bills are aimed at benefitting big corporates and ending the minimum price based procurement by the government.

New Delhi, Sep 19 (PTI) The Finance Ministry on Saturday informed the Lok Sabha that no decision has been taken to discontinue the printing of Rs 2,000 denomination currency notes.

In a written reply, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur said printing of bank notes of particular denomination is decided by the government in consultation with the RBI to maintain desired denomination mix for facilitating transactional demand of public.

During the year 2019-20 and 2020-21, no indent was placed with the presses for printing of Rs 2,000 denomination notes.

New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Sunday said minimum price or MSP based procurement of agriculture crops from farmers will continue and is not related to the farm bills that seek to give cultivators freedom to market their produce.

Days after their passage in the Lok Sabha, Tomar introduced the Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 in the Rajya Sabha.

New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) National convener of AAP and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday appealed to all non-BJP parties to vote against three agriculture-related bills in the Rajya Sabha, saying farmers in the country wished so.

Earlier, Kejriwal had said his party will vote against the three bills and termed them "anti-farmer".

New Delhi, Sep 19 (PTI) Lok Sabha on Saturday passed a bill to further amend the Companies Act and decriminalise various compoundable offences as well as promote ease of doing business in the country.

The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020 seeks to decriminalise various penal provisions, permit direct overseas listing of Indian corporates and introduce a new chapter related to producer organisations in the legislation.

New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda on Sunday took oath as a member of the Rajya Sabha.

Gowda, 87, was in June elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka. This is the first time that the JD(S) leader has become a member of the Upper House since 1996.

New Delhi, Sep 19 (PTI) The farm bills brought by the government undermine the food security system, the Congress claimed on Saturday and urged opposition parties to collectively oppose the bills so that they do not become law in their present form.

Congress leader and former Union finance minister P Chidambaram said that the Congress's 2019 poll manifesto was based on foundational principles of minimum support price (MSP), public procurement and public distribution system (PDS) to ensure food security.