THE rupee’s exchange rate has now crossed ninety-six to a dollar; and there is still no sign of its downward slide coming to a halt. There is talk of its crossing a hundred in the coming days; it is the worst performing currency in Asia at this moment and among the worst in the entire world. The Modi government has blamed the West Asian war for the rupee’s slide, but while there can be no doubt that the war has had a serious adverse effect...
THE Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways announced in end-April new rules governing the use of significantly higher proportions of Ethanol in petrol blends for automobiles than the presently mandated 20 per cent ethanol blended petrol (EBP 20 or E20). This paves the way for introduction of blends such as E28 or E85 as well as E100 or pure ethanol. The promulgation has been followed by a rapid-fire chorus of statements from other Ministries such as Petroleum, Power and Industry,...
THE Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was perhaps the most consequential legislation enacted in post-independence India. It did not just provide for a transfer towards the poor; it did not just set up a scheme of employment creation like the earlier “Food for Work” programmes had done; it recognized, no matter in how limited a form, a right to employment. Under the MGNREGA employment up to a maximum of 100 days per household had to be provided on demand....
THE results of the recent Assam Assembly elections have once again brought the BJP-led alliance back to power with a clear majority. From the perspective of seats won, this victory is undoubtedly significant. However, a deeper analysis of the election outcome reveals that this verdict is not merely a straightforward expression of overwhelming public support. Rather, it reflects the complex and contradictory political reality prevailing in Assam today.
PRIME Minister Narendra Modi has made a desperate appeal to the working people of India calling for drastic cut in use of various essential commodities including fuel, edible oil and fertilisers. There has rarely been such a telling admission of incompetence, abject failure of governance and foreign policy by any Prime Minister in recent times. Coated with the paint of “national interest” and termed as a “...
The BJP-led Union Government has once again cheated the farmers of India by declaring a paltry increase in Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for the Kharif season of 2026. This is in no way commensurate with the massive increase in the costs of inputs like seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, diesel, petrol, electricity, and water, especially in the context of the West Asian crisis.
THE scenes unfolding in Beijing were carefully choreographed, yet politics can never be reduced to mere spectacle. When US President Donald Trump travelled to China for his summit meeting with Xi Jinping, Western media, as it often does, fixated on spectacle: lavish banquets, honour guards, theatrical gestures that were designed to flatter the US president. Yet beneath all this ritual lay another reality,...
Workers in a former Air India subsidiary, AIESL and now a PSU under the Ministry of Civil Aviation are on a sit-in in front of their MRO facilities in Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Nagpur for the last five days against the brazen anti-worker policies of the management. Air India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL) operates major Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) facilities across India, servicing narrow-body...
THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the Union government’s decision to hike the prices of petrol, diesel and CNG. The hike of ₹3 per litre in petrol and diesel and ₹2 per kg in CNG will impose more burdens on the working people already reeling under inflation, unemployment, stagnant wages and deepening economic distress.
The Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) is appalled at the recent remarks of CJI Surya Kant regarding unemployed youth of the country. He reportedly said, to a lawyer arguing before him, that many unemployed people today are cockroaches. The CJI reportedly opined that, “There are already parasites of society who attack the system and you want to join hands with them? There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment and don’t have any...
Polit Bureau StatementsCPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statements
Condemn BJP Government’s Disgraceful Position on Venezuela |
