THE pandemic and the lockdown are certainly causing an absolute shrinkage in the gross domestic product of the Indian economy. But these tend to obscure something very serious that was happening even earlier, namely a real income decline for vast numbers of working people.

WITH the American presidential election just a few months away, Donald Trump is down in the polls. People’s trust or approval of Trump’s handling of the pandemic is at an all-time low. With more than 1,50,000 deaths due to the spread of Covid-19 pandemic caused mainly due to the profit-driven health system designed to serve the pharmaceutical industry, people’s faith in the administration has hit the rock bottom.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Brinda Karat has lodged a police complaint against Nageswar Rao, an IPS officer who is Director General of Fire Services, Home Guards and Civil Defence under union home ministry, for his tweets inciting communal hatred.  She has written to union home minister Amit Shah on July 28, regarding the same and urged him to ensure the prosecution of the officer according to the law of the land.

AUGUST 5 marks the completion of a year since the infamous steps were taken in parliament to nullify Article 370 of the constitution that provided for special status to the state of Jammu & Kashmir and the damaging legislation which dismembered the state and created two union territories – Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.  

I HAVE written about this in the past, but since bad economics comes thick and fast from the representatives of finance capital, especially the Bretton Woods institutions located in Washington DC, there is no harm in my repeating myself.

The issue relates to a fiscal deficit and has acquired urgency at present because revenues of governments everywhere in the world, including India, have declined owing to the pandemic-induced lockdown, while the need for government spending on relief and healthcare has escalated steeply, necessitating larger fiscal deficits.