BY now it is well-established by several researchers that the real wage rate in rural India, whether of agricultural labour or of rural labour in general, remained virtually stagnant between 2014-15 and 2022-23 (Das and Usami in Review of Agrarian Studies, July-December 2023; Dreze and Khera’s findings reported in The Telegraph, April 21, 2024). The price index used for calculating real wage movements in such studies is the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (...
AN investigation conducted by Israeli-Palestinian magazine “+972” has made explosive revelations about Israel’s use of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated “kill lists” to target supposed Palestinian militants in Gaza through bombing attacks that resulted in mass civilian casualties during its genocidal campaign in Gaza since 7 October, 2023. The report states that an AI computer programme called “Lavender” played a central role in the...
ON this May Day 2024, THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) extends warm fraternal greetings to the working people across the world who are fighting capitalist onslaught and to protect their hard won rights and their unity. CITU greets and congratulates the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), the only class oriented and militant global trade union, for being in the forefront in uniting the workers all over...
POLICE officials from Kerala deployed on polling duty outside their polling area are aggrieved by the fact that they are being deprived of the right to vote in the Lok Sabha elections. They were deprived of this right even during the 2021 elections to the Kerala assembly. While prior to 2021 assembly elections they could use the postal vote facility and send their ballot before the date of counting, now they can only vote at the Postal Vote Facilitation Centre on designated dates, denying...
ENCLOSED please find clippings from The Hindu, Indian Express and the Times of India – all from the front pages of their Delhi editions of April 22, 2024. (The clippings have not been reproduced here – Ed.) All these reports contain portions of the highly inflammatory speech pregnant with several innuendoes made while campaigning for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections by the campaigner in chief of the...
THE All India Kisan Sabha and Kerala Karshaka Sangham that represents the largest rubber producing state of Kerala along with rubber farmers have sought to intervene against the monopoly tyre companies that have formed a cartel against the interests of consumers and farmers. Vijoo Krishnan, AIKS general secretary, Valsan Panoli, Kerala Karshaka Sangham general secretary and four farmers representing different rubber growing regions of Kerala have filed an...
ON April 14, 2024, on the 133rd birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar, the new CPI(M) office at Ulhasnagar in the Thane district of Maharashtra was inaugurated by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and AIKS president Ashok Dhawale. A public meeting held on the occasion. Several Party members and sympathisers attended the inaugural programme. On this occasion, Ashok Dhawale felicitated the Party's Thane urban...
ISRAELI bombs continue to fall on Gaza, killing Palestinian civilians with abandon. Al Jazeera published a story about the destruction of 24 hospitals in Gaza, each of them bombed mercilessly by the Israeli military. Half of the 35,000 Palestinians killed by Israel were children, their bodies littering the overwhelmed morgues and mosques of Gaza. The former United Nations assistant secretary-general for human rights...
THERE are 53 State Road Transport Corporations (STUs) in the country. 24 STUs were formed under the Road Transport Corporations Act 1950. Seven STUs are municipal undertakings, nine are government departments and 13 are registered under Companies Act. After independence, a prolonged discussion took place on passenger transport. Alternative arrangements and efforts to provide proper transport to the people had failed and the then...
IN a recent ground report by digital news platform Newslaundry, the claim by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) that the annual income of 75,000 farmers doubled between 2016 and 2021 has turned out to be a lie. Farmers cited by ICAR, instead of doubled incomes, told Newslaundry about stagnation in their incomes due to rising costs in the...
