Parliament Watch: LS clears banking evidence Bill; E20, EVs and gig workers in focus

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Bankers' Books Evidence Bill 2026 that seeks to provide for law relating to evidence with respect to banker’s book and align with digital banking practices. The Bill was put to vote without discussion and passed by a voice vote. It will replace the Bankers’ Books Evidence Act, 1891, a pre-independence law that allowed certified copies of bank records as evidence without producing the originals.

As per the statement of objects and reasons of the Bill, with the advancement of technology and growth of digital banking, bank records are increasingly created, stored and maintained using contemporary technology. “It has, therefore, become necessary to modernise and strengthen the existing legal framework to meet the requirements of the present banking system,” it noted.

The Bill also proposes to expand the scope of the definition of ‘bankers’ books’ to include all forms of records maintained by banks, whether in physical, electronic, digital, virtual, cloudbased or any other form. It also seeks to empower the central government to extend applicability of the proposed legislation to any entity or class of entities operating in the financial sector, subject to certain conditions.

E20 safe for use, says Gadkari

Extensive laboratory studies and field trials have confirmed that E20 is safe for use under prescribed standards. It has indicated a drop of 2-6 % in fuel efficiency. These studies also established that legacy vehicles do not exhibit any variation in performance or abnormal wear and tear due to E20, road transport minister Nitin Gadkari said in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. The minister said E20 fuel provides better acceleration, improved ride quality and approximately 30% lower carbon emissions compared to E10 fuel. Higher ethanol blends also enable cleaner and more complete combustion, resulting in near-zero particulate matter emissions and improved urban air quality, he said.

EV penetration rises to 8.26%

The electric vehicle penetration in India grew from 0.71% in FY 2019-20 to 8.26% in FY 2025-26, road minister Nitin Gadakri said, citing the VAHAN data. This is due to their lower operational cost and zero tailpipe emissions as compared with Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles, he said in Rajya Sabha.

Over 4.6 lakh vehicles scrapped

A total of 70,495 commercial vehicles and 3,96,486 passenger (private) vehicles have been scrapped at Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facilities (RVSF) as of July 31, with a total of 1,39,850 vehicles having availed discounts provided by Original Equipment Manufacturers on the basis of scrapped certificates, road minister Nitin Gadkari said.

PLFS to collect data on platform workers

The government has introduced the collection of data on digital platform workers, a subset of gig workers, in the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2026, Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation Rao Inderjit Singh informed the Lok Sabha. The survey will identify individuals engaged in platform work under the usual status approach and capture key characteristics of such employment. However, Singh said the ministry is not currently considering a separate classification of gig workers in the PLFS.