Polling rescheduling: fresh re-voting dates appointed for affected polling booths after natural calamity disrupted election logistics.
Polling at multiple Southern Region booths was postponed due to severe rains and flooding that disrupted delivery of election material. The Returning Officer, exercising powers under the election rules, appointed fresh dates for polling: re-voting for Chennai booths S022-S034 on 18th December and re-polling for the other listed Southern Region booths on 19th December, and communicated the change to candidates and affected voters.

Patents: Rules mandate electronic filing and Indian contact details, revise fees, and create an expedited examination route with conditions.
The amendments require electronically authenticated transmission and mandate that every person and patentee furnish an Indian postal address for service, an e mail and an Indian mobile number; patent agents must send all documents only by electronic transmission. Examination procedure changes allow withdrawal of examination requests before referral, prescribe order and timelines for referral and disposal, and create an expedited examination route (Form 18A) on specified grounds subject to corroborating evidence, claim limits and affidavit requirements. Fees rules are revised with a new detailed First Schedule, limited refunds, electronic payment options and non refundability of expedited fees.

Opium poppy licensing: eligibility, quality and cultivation limits determine access to government licenses and future eligibility.
Notification prescribes eligibility and licensing conditions for opium poppy cultivation including priority to prior cultivators meeting specified yields, restrictions against illicit cultivation and tendering adulterated or 'inferior' opium as determined by Government laboratories, limits on licensed area and plot numbers with allowance for leased land, a condonable small excess cultivation margin, and forewarning provisions that minimum qualifying yields, morphine content, plough-back practices and laboratory findings may affect eligibility for subsequent licensing; licensing remains subject to Narcotics Commissioner discretion and possible selection of fields for research or straw extraction.

Commencement of Section 132: government appoints date for provisions of Finance Act to come into force.
Central Government, exercising powers under the Finance Act, 2015, issues a statutory commencement notification appointing 29th September 2015 as the date on which the provisions of Section 132 of the Finance Act, 2015 shall come into force, thereby activating the section's legal effect from that appointed date.

Commencement of Finance Act provisions: Parts I (excluding Section 132) and II of Chapter VIII come into force on 28 September 2015.
The Central Government, exercising its statutory power to fix commencement dates, designates the effective date for the provisions of Part I (excluding a specified section) and Part II of Chapter VIII of the Finance Act; the notification cites its authority under the Act and records the administrative reference and issuing official.

Public holiday: second and fourth Saturdays designated as monthly bank holidays under Negotiable Instruments Act, nationwide application.
The Central Government, invoking powers under the Negotiable Instruments Act, declares the second and fourth Saturday of every month as public holidays for banks in India, whether or not such banks are included in statutory schedules to banking legislation, and sets an operative commencement date for this monthly bank holiday regime.

Licensing authority for Calcium Carbide now vests in the District Magistrate, changing administrative licensing oversight.
The Calcium Carbide (Amendment) Rules, 2015 substitute the entry for Article 2 in the first Schedule of the Calcium Carbide Rules, 1987 by designating the District Magistrate as the authority empowered to grant licences. The amendment is made under the Petroleum Act, after publication of a draft and receipt of no public objections, and will take effect upon final publication in the Official Gazette.

Territory transfer under Land Boundary Agreement: commencement date appointed for acquisition and transfer under constitutional amendment.
The Central Government, invoking clause (b) of Section 2 of the Constitution (One Hundredth Amendment) Act, 2015, appoints the commencement date for acquisition of territories from Bangladesh and the corresponding transfer of those territories to Bangladesh pursuant to the India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement and its Protocol, thereby fixing the day on which the territorial adjustments under the Amendment and the bilateral agreement become operative.

Commencement of Constitutional Amendment: government appoints the Act's coming into force under the enabling subsection.
Under the enabling provision of the Constitution (Ninety-ninth Amendment) Act, 2014, the Central Government, by notification of the Ministry of Law and Justice, appoints the specified date as the day on which the said Act shall come into force, thereby bringing the Amendment into operational effect pursuant to the Act's commencement clause.

De-reservation of small scale industry items removes specific products from exclusive reservation, effective on publication in the Official Gazette.
The Central Government amends the existing reservation notification under the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act by omitting specified serial entries from Schedule III - List of Items Reserved for Exclusive Manufacture in Small Scale Sector, thereby removing those items from the reserved list; the amendment takes effect upon publication in the Official Gazette and follows Advisory Committee recommendations.

Insurance regulation in Special Economic Zones allows insurers to operate with Authority approval and specified underwriting limits.
Rules permit regulated insurers to operate in a Special Economic Zone with prior Authority approval, restricting underwriting to classes specified by the Authority and requiring acceptance of business to follow the Authority's SEZ guidelines; SEZ insurers may accept cross-border insurance and re-insurance and Domestic Tariff Area entities may procure services from SEZ insurers on parity with international procurement subject to SEZ Act provisions.

Exemption of specified insurance Act provisions: certain sections do not apply to Indian insurers operating in special economic zones.
Government notification exempts certain listed provisions of the Insurance Act from applying to insurers defined as Indian Insurance Companies, insurance co operative societies, or specified bodies corporate, while confirming that all other provisions of the Act continue to apply to such insurers when carrying on insurance business in a Special Economic Zone.

Provident fund investment pattern rules set category limits, rating conditions, and trustee due diligence requirements.
The investment pattern for Non-Government Provident Funds, Superannuation Funds and Gratuity Funds is modified with effect from 1 April 2015, setting category-wise limits for Government securities, debt instruments, short-term instruments, equities, and asset-backed or trust-structured investments. The framework prescribes minimum ratings, listing requirements, maturity conditions, banking prudential criteria, and sub-category caps, while also regulating fresh accretions, turnover ratio, exit on rating deterioration, arms-length investment, due diligence, trustee responsibility, and cost control in fund management.

Administrative charges for EDLI scheme set at a nominal percentage with prescribed minimum monthly charges applicable to establishments.
Determination fixes administrative charges payable monthly by employers to the Deposit-linked Insurance Fund under the Employees' Deposit-linked Insurance Scheme, 1976 as a nominal percentage of the aggregate of basic wages, dearness allowance (including cash value of any food concession) and retaining allowances, subject to prescribed minimum monthly charges for non-functional establishments without contributory members and for other establishments. The notification supersedes earlier notifications but preserves the previous determination for the specified prior period under a transitional provision.

Administrative charges for employee provident fund reduced, changing employer payment rate and minimum monthly obligations.
Fixes the administrative charges payable by employers under the Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 1952 at 0.85% of pay, subject to a minimum of seventy-five rupees per month for non functional establishments with no contributory members and five hundred rupees per month for other establishments, and supersedes the earlier notification S.O. 1437 dated 9th July, 1998 insofar as inconsistent; specifies that the earlier notification continues to apply to periods up to and including 31st December, 2014.