Washington: The landmark immigration bill, which offers a path to citizenship for more than 11 million - including over 260,000 Indians - undocumented immigrants and increasing H-1B visas today passed its first legislative test.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on the fifth day of its deliberations that included 300 amendments to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill - Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act - passed it by 13-5 votes.
The bill passed through the key Senate committee only after lawmakers reached a deal on H-1B visa expansion plan. The bill (No 744) now goes to the Senate for approval - which is expected to witness another round of negotiations and tough bargaining. It needs 60 votes to pass the 100-seat Senate.
Welcoming the passage of the legislation, US President Barack Obama said that it is largely consistent with the principles of commonsense reform he has proposed and meets the challenge of fixing the broken immigration system....
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12:16 PM, May 22, 2013
Washington: In a "major breakthrough", two influential American Senators on Tuesday reached an agreement on the contentious H-1B visa expansion plan, which Congressional aides said is a compromise between the demand of the tech-industry and the concerns of the labour unions. The deal reached between Democratic Senator Charles Schumer and Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, covers eight amendments sponsored by the latter to make the process for granting H-1B visas more...
11:40 PM, May 21, 2013
Washington: President Barack Obama urged the president of Myanmar on Monday to take steps to halt violence against Muslims in his country and move ahead with economic and political reforms. Thein Sein became the first head of Myanmar to visit the White House in 47 years, and he and Obama sat down for talks in the Oval Office. Obama said the Myanmar leader had assured him that he intends to...
06:21 AM, May 21, 2013
Berlin: Germany has approved new measures to rein in high-risk financial business of banks and to decouple them from retail banking as part of a comprehensive reform to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis five years ago and to minimise the costs for taxpayers if banks were to be bailed out in the future. The Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, on Friday voted with the majority of the...
07:40 AM, May 19, 2013
Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping has taken charge of drawing up ambitious reform plans to revitalise the economy, sources close to the government said, shunning policy stimulus for fear it could worsen local government debt and inflate property prices. A consensus had been reached among top leaders that reforms would be the only way to put the world's second-largest economy on a more sustainable footing, said the sources, who are...
06:30 AM, May 17, 2013
Washington: A ghastly video posted online shows how barbaric the Syrian civil war can be. A rebel fighter is seen carving into the body of a Syrian government soldier, cutting out his heart and liver, putting the heart in his mouth and taking a bite, CNN has reported. "I swear to God we will eat your hearts out, you soldiers of Bashar. You dogs. God is greater! Heroes of Baba...
11:20 AM, May 15, 2013
In their book Flight of the Buffalo, corporate gurus James Belasco and Ralph Stayer beautifully state the politics of change when they say, "change is ...
12:59 AM, May 07, 2013
Washington: US President Barack Obama on Tuesday said that the country's immigration reform, currently underway, should be able to attract "the best and the brightest" people from across the world "in a legal fashion". "We should make sure that we are cracking down on employers that are gaming the system", Obama said at a White House news conference. "We should make the legal immigration system work more effectively so that...
11:05 PM, Apr 30, 2013
New Delhi: With the Lok Sabha passing the Finance Bill and Demands for Grants for various ministries, Government on Tuesday said it will continue with its efforts for passage of other bills on food security and land acquisition, which are "equally important". "I don't think it is correct to say that with the passage of Finance Bill, the government's concerns are over or its interest is over. All other bills...
03:42 PM, Apr 30, 2013
New Delhi: Despite the political deadlock over the coal scam, the key Finance Bill is likely to be passed in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. A temporary truce has been achieved between the government and the opposition to pass the money bills. The crucial Finance Bill can't be delayed beyond Tuesday as per the rules. Government has to pass all money bills within 75 days of the Budget speech. After being...
07:19 AM, Apr 30, 2013
New Delhi: A Parliament deadlocked yet again over corruption scandals threatens Finance Minister P Chidambaram's ambitious reform agenda, dealing a harsh dose of political reality on the heels of his North American roadshow to sell the India story. Two long-stalled reforms - one to lift the foreign ownership cap in insurers to 49 per cent from 26 per cent and another that would simplify land acquisition for factories - were...
08:38 AM, Apr 29, 2013
New Delhi: Committing to carry forward the economic reforms programme in the remaining term of UPA-II, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the government will take more executive actions in the next two to four months and sought cooperation of the main opposition party to push through important bills in Parliament. Ruling out early elections, the Minister said the government would last for 13 months more and would continue...
12:15 PM, Apr 24, 2013
Washington: Amidst Congressional debate on the comprehensive immigration reform, a top US Senator has accused big Indian IT companies - TCS, Infosys and Wipro - of abusing the H-1B visa system. "There are some specific abuses of H-1B," Senator Richard Durbin, said during a Congressional hearing on immigration reform by the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, during which the lawmakers discussed threadbare the H-1B visa issues. In fact, Senator...
01:32 PM, Apr 23, 2013
Can electoral and police reforms bring about change in state of women's safety in India? Dr Kiran Bedi, former IPS officer and now a prominent social activist, shared her perspective in an interaction with IBNLive readers. Q. Just a few days ago when a conference on police reforms and public order was called by Union Home Minister, only 7 Chief Ministers chose to attend with the big names of Narendra...
07:13 PM, Apr 22, 2013
Boston: Vowing to deliver on the fiscal roadmap, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has expressed confidence that elections are not a hitch in carrying out reforms including fuel price adjustments. Addressing an investor meet hosted by Citi Group in Boston, he said while fiscal deficit will be reduced by 60 basis points each year, the current account deficit (CAD) will be narrowed by raising exports. Citi said in a note after...
06:16 PM, Apr 17, 2013
New Delhi: Police need to be provided a better working environment that is "insulated from pulls and pressures", Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said Monday as he pitched for police reforms. Addressing a chief minister's conference to discuss a report on public order of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission here, Shinde said: "Public order and police today in India are facing challenges; with the ever changing social landscape and the...
12:35 PM, Apr 15, 2013
Washington: An influential professional body of Indian-American doctors on Friday appealed to US lawmakers "not to ignore" physicians from the comprehensive immigration reforms, arguing that America faces shortage of doctors. During its day-long activities at the Capitol Hill, members of the powerful American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) - which is a national representative's body of thousands of Indian-American doctors - met Congressmen to press for their points....
10:06 AM, Apr 12, 2013
What would Chanakya do if confronted with the various crises that beset contemporary India? Using this question as the starting point for his new book, celebrated writer and thinker Pavan K Varma has drawn up a practical and detailed plan, modelled on the Arthashashtra, to bring about reform and change in five key areas that require urgent attention governance, democracy, corruption, security, and the building of an inclusive society. Whether...
06:17 PM, Apr 02, 2013
Four private dailies hit the newsstands for the first time in almost 50 years in Myanmar on Monday, but many others failed to appear, hamstrung by poor financing, archaic equipment and a dearth of reporters. ...
06:45 AM, Apr 02, 2013
BJP on Monday said it is open to all steps by the Election Commission for electoral reforms, including making public all donations to political parties, and maintained it will abide by any change in rules the poll panel seeks on the issue. Asked about reports that the Election Commission and the government have differences over making it mandatory for political parties to declare all donations before it, BJP says it...
03:10 AM, Apr 02, 2013
