Biz Updates: Rajya Sabha approves bill to replace 100-year-old Boiler Act
New Delhi| Rajya Sabha approved a bill providing for regulation of boilers, protection of life and property of people from the threat of explosion of steam boilers and uniformity in registration. The Boilers Bill, 2024 aims to repeal the century-old Boilers Act, 1923. he purpose of this bill is to decriminalize seven types of charges and promote ease of doing business, which was approved by the Upper House by voice vote.
The Bill also provides for ensuring the safety of persons working inside the boiler. In this, it has also been said that the repair work of the boiler will be done by qualified and capable persons. According to an earlier statement from the Commerce Ministry, the bill will benefit boiler users, including the MSME sector, as provisions related to decriminalization have been included in the bill. This will promote ease of doing business.
Of the seven offences involving ensuring the safety of boilers and personnel, four major offences which may lead to loss of life and property have retained criminal penalties. Financial penalties are being provided for other offences. The ‘penalty’ for all non-criminal cases has been converted into a ‘penalty’, which will be imposed through the executive machinery rather than the courts as before.
The same provisions in the Boilers Act, 1923, existing in different places, have been compiled in one place in six chapters to facilitate easy reading and understanding of the Act. The Union Cabinet had approved this bill on 2 August this year.
The Gujarat government on Wednesday increased the maximum limit of gratuity amount for state government employees by 25 per cent to Rs 25 lakh. An official statement said that this decision has been taken by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel in the larger interest of the state government employees. Employees are paid retirement and post-death gratuity within the maximum limit of Rs 20 lakh at the time of retirement at this time. They are entitled to gratuity of up to Rs 25 lakh after the latest decision. This amount has now become equal to that of central government employees.
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari advocated building smart villages on the lines of smart cities. “We are building smart cities”, Gadkari said at the 42nd convocation of the School of Planning and Architecture… Why are we not thinking about how we should build smart villages “That’s on my mind”, he said. I am also building a smart village. 1,000 square feet plot, 500 square feet house for half a million bucks… And free electricity and water all my life Gadkari said that knowledge is very important and converting knowledge into wealth is the future of the country.
Artificial intelligence driven and ‘deepfake’ based cyber attacks are projected to increase rapidly in the year 2025. Giving this information in a recent report, it was said that during this period, sectors like health care and finance will be the biggest targets of cyber attacks. The Data Security Council of India (DSCI) and Secrite cited the new tactics of cyber criminals and AI based attacks as a major concern in the ‘India Cyber Threat Report 2025’.
According to the report, artificial intelligence (AI) will be used to commit fraud in a very vicious manner, which will be difficult to detect. This includes deepfake technology and personal attacks. According to the report, linking AI capabilities with vulnerabilities in supply chains will create new types of cyber threats. Cyber criminals will adopt AI-driven methods to carry out complex attacks.
