THE Modi government has laid out one more plan to “clean” the books of banks, especially public banks, by helping them get rid of Rs 2 lakh crore of loans gone ‘bad’. It has announced the creation of two institutions for the purpose. The National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL), or the “bad bank” in popular parlance, will take over the bad assets of the banks. The Indian Debt Resolution Company Ltd (IDRCL), armed with the necessary expertise, will ‘...
THE International Monetary Fund has announced a fresh issue of $650 billion Special Drawing Rights in August which would be distributed among member countries in proportion to their IMF quotas. This amount is less than what had been demanded by many, which was a trillion dollars, but it does represent a small temporary comfort for the heavily indebted third world countries.
THE New York Times (NYT) has recently published an article (September 14, 2021) detailing how politics overrode science in India's deadly second wave. It is based on the struggle of a young scientist, Dr Anup Agarwal, who sought to warn the top scientific and health agency Indian Council of Medical Research, of a second wave and that a policy based on the so-called Super Model would prove a disaster for the...
MASSIVE countrywide preparations are on in almost all states to ensure the success of the September 27 Bharat Bandh call given by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), and supported by Left and other opposition political parties, all central trade unions, and numerous organisations of employees, teachers, traders, transporters, agricultural workers, women, youth and students. The Bharat Bandh has been called to coincide with the completion of ten months of...
THE sensible, peace-loving and democratic-minded people of the entire country got thunderstruck to see the fangs of ferocity that the BJP’s organised gangs exhibited in Tripura on September 8, 2021. In broad daylight on that day, 43 offices of the Left parties, mostly of the CPI(M) including its state committee, have been raided, ransacked, looted and set on fire by the organised gangs of the ruling BJP. All the offices were...
IN the backdrop the Bharat Bandh on September 27 to create pressure on the government to concede to the legitimate demand of our annadatas, in West Bengal the party and all mass organisations have embarked on a dedicated mission of making the bandh a grand success.
IT was a famous victory. The four day long gherao by thousands of farmers led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) of the Karnal Mini Secretariat in Haryana, which began on September 7, 2021, ended on September 11 after the BJP-JJP state government was forced to accept the farmers’ demands. The Khattar government agreed to suspend SDM Ayush Sinha, IAS, the official who ordered the ‘breaking of farmers’ heads’ on August 28. A...
THE impact of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan is slowly being felt on geo-politics. NATO allies of the US, mostly from Europe, felt betrayed by the US decision, as they were not consulted. Rubbing salt over these injuries is the announcement of a new defence arrangement between the US, UK and Australia, termed as AUKUS. Coincidentally, within a day of the announcement of the AUKUS, the EU had come out with its own strategic document on the...
FOR the Communist Party, a conference at any level is not an event where people assemble only to hear leaders deliver speeches and then disperse. A conference is an event that involves, for the period since the previous conference, free and frank discussion of the political-social situation as it has evolved, the tasks carried out, the experience gained, the advances made, the setbacks encountered and the contributions of the concerned comrades in...
