Cabinet nod to NRI proxy voting, no-detention policy

The Cabinet on Wednesday cleared a proposal to extend proxy voting to overseas Indians by amending electoral laws, a senior government functionary said.

For overseas Indians, the Representation of the People Act needs to be amended to include proxy voting as other means to cast their votes. While NRIs and overseas Indians are free to cast their votes in constituencies where they are registered, according to the proposal, they would also be allowed to use the option of proxy, which as of now is only available to service personnel.

The Cabinet also approved the scrapping of the no-detention policy in schools till Class 8. It also gave its nod to the Human Resource Development Ministry’s plan of creating 20 world-class institutions in the country.

An enabling provision will be made in the Right of Children for Free and Compulsory Education Amendment Bill which will allow states to detain students in Class 5 and Class 8 if they fail in the year-end exam. However, the students will have to be given a second chance to improve via an examination before they are detained.

In another move, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave ex-post facto approval for a pact signed by India and other BRICS nations for setting up of an agriculture research platform.

In October last year, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for setting up agriculture research platform (ARP) was signed by foreign ministers of BRICS countries in the 8th BRICS Summit held at Goa, an official release said.

“The Centre will promote sustainable agricultural development and poverty alleviation through strategic cooperation in agriculture to provide food security in the BRICS member countries,” it said.

BRICS-ARP will act as a global platform for science-led agriculturebased sustainable development for addressing the issues of world hunger, under-nutrition, poverty and inequality, particularly between farmers' and non-farmers' income, and enhancing agricultural trade, biosecurity and climate resilient agriculture, the statement added.