WB: People’s Resistance Halts Prepaid Smart Meter Project

THE private sector-led prepaid smart metering project has been stalled in West Bengal. This marks a significant victory for the people’s movement in the state. For the first time in the past one and a half decades, the people of West Bengal were able to assert their own agenda in an organised manner and compel the TMC government to roll back its anti-people policy. It is, therefore, crucial to reflect on the content of the movement and the form in which it was carried out.

Privatising PSU Management

WITH the ulterior motive of aggressively pushing its reckless drive for privatisation of Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs), the central government has devised a notorious scheme to appoint individuals from private corporate houses to the post of Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of CPSEs.The selection of CMDs and functional Directors of CPSUs has usually been carried out by the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB), which comprises one chairperson and three full-time members.

Support the General Strike on July 9 - Eleven Years of BJP Government : Working Class at the Receiving End

THE headline of DD News on June 19, 2025 read: ‘PM Modi highlights 11 years of workforce-centric reforms, cites historic gains in jobs and social protection’.The report quoted Prime Minister Narendra Modi as saying that the union government remains committed to “the welfare and empowerment of workers,” and that “India’s workforce has remained at the heart of policy, planning, and progress over the past 11 years.”Nothing could be further from the truth. The facts, if the government chooses to consider them, speak for themselves.

Relevance of Helen Keller’s Revolutionary Legacy

THE 145th birth anniversary of Helen Keller, falls on June 27, 2025. During the celebrations, the dominant yet sanitised mainstream narrative will portray her as an inspirational figure, an icon, who, notwithstanding her disability, broke many barriers and scaled great heights. These achievements by all means are highly significant, more-so in the times that she lived in.However, these stories gloss over the fact that one of the most widely recognised figures in US history, Helen Keller, was also a political activist.

The Silence around Israel’s Nuclear Weapons

ON June 13, 2025, Israel launched what it called a “preemptive strike” on Iran, targeting residential areas and civil nuclear facilities, and its military leaders and scientists. This attack was a long-time dream of Prime Minister Benjamin Netyanyahu who had been crying wolf for over three decades about the possibility of the Iranians developing a nuclear bomb.

SC Verdict on NEP Upholds Federalism

THE Supreme Court’s dismissal in May 2025 of a petition seeking to enforce the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and West Bengal should be welcomed. The apex court rightly held that it cannot compel states to implement the NEP and may only intervene if the policy's implementation or non-implementation violates citizens’ fundamental rights.

Israel-Iran War: A Turning Point for West Asia

AS Israel attacks Iran, we are now watching a dangerous moment in West Asia. Netanyahu has been claiming for the last 33 years that Iran is close to making a nuclear bomb. He even showed the world a cartoon graphic from 13 years back in the UN about how Iran was only a few months from the bomb. Yet again, the same statement, Iran is a few months from the bomb, is being used for its war against Iran. Each time, the attempt was to get the US to join Israel in destroying Iran, not because Iran was building a nuclear weapon but to remove any possible challenge in West Asia.

The Right to Adequate Housing

THESE days, not a single day goes by without the media reporting about the demolition of jhuggis (slums), by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). Hundreds of homes are being razed across the capital. The reasons cited are all too familiar: the settlements are built on encroached land, are deemed unauthorised, and, on top of it, the courts have ordered their demolition.

Looting the Lifeline: How the Centre is Draining RBI’s Reserve Fund

THE annual report of the RBI for the financial year 2024–25, signed by Governor Sanjay Malhotra, was released on May 28, 2025. On the same day, visual and online media – and print media the following day – reported the figures related to the amount transferred by the RBI to the Government of India from its reserve fund. For FY 2024–25, the RBI transferred Rs 2,68,594.07 crore to the Government of India.

Emergency: An Era of Crackdown and Resistance

THE Internal Emergency was declared 50 years back when I was Kerala State President of the Students’ Federation of India, and a student of Political Science in the Sree Narayana College, Kollam. Within less than a week of its declaration, we defied the Emergency and carried out a protest action in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram city, right in front of the Government Secretariat, shouting slogans like ‘Emergency in the Arabian Sea’.

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