Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair an all-party meeting on January 30 during which the government will put forth its legislative agenda for the Budget session of Parliament, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said on Wednesday. He said the meeting will be held virtually and an invitation has been extended to floor leaders of all parties.

An all-party meeting is a customary procedure before the beginning of every session of Parliament to ensure its smooth functioning. However, this time it is being held a day after the session starts on January 29.

“The all-party meeting will be held on January 30, where the government will put forth its legislative business for the Parliament session and would also listen to the opposition’s suggestions,” Joshi told PTI.

The Budget session of Parliament is starting from January 29 and will be held in two parts.

The first part will conclude on February 15 and the second part will be held from March 8 to April 8.

Parliament will sit in two shifts with Rajya Sabha in the morning and Lok Sabha in the evening.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday chaired a high-level meeting of top government officials for holding the Budget session amid the pandemic.

Mean-while, India, one of the world’s leading drugmakers, on Tuesday said it will provide COVID-19 vaccines under grant assistance to Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, and Seychelles from Wednesday, and that shipments will be sent to Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Mauritius as well on receipt of necessary regulatory clearances.

In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India is deeply honored to be a “long-trusted” partner in meeting the healthcare needs of the global community and that supplies of the vaccines to several countries will commence on Wednesday, and more will follow in the days ahead. India is one of the world’s biggest drugmakers, and an increasing number of countries have already approached it for procuring coronavirus vaccines. 

With 10,064 fresh coronavirus cases, India saw the lowest surge in the daily cases in nearly seven months on Tuesday. The country has logged 1.05 crore cases since the beginning of the pandemic and over 1.02 crore people have already recovered, the government data shows. A total of 3.8 lakh people have been vaccinated since the rollout of the coronavirus vaccines three days ago, the government said on Monday