What Do Farmers Want from the 2025 Union Budget?

CONSIDERING the ten earlier budgets of the BJP-led government led by prime minister Narendra Modi, there is nothing much that the farmers and agricultural workers of India can expect from the coming eleventh budget except more vicious attacks on their livelihood, made under the smokescreen of high-sounding phrases about their welfare.To put it bluntly, it is now crystal clear that all the earlier budgets of the Modi regime have fattened a handful of crony domestic corporates and international finance capital, and have squeezed all sections of the working people, farmers and agricultural wor

School Education in Crisis, Latest Government Report Reveals

RECENTLY, the Ministry of Education released reports of school education in 2022-23 and 2023-24 covering a wide range of indicators. These rather delayed reports form a series of similar reports going back to 2005. Earlier the National Institute for Educational Planning & Administration (NIEPA) used to compile these reports but since 2018-19, this task was taken over by the ministry directly. The recent reports are available at the portal of the Unified District Information System of Education (UDISE+) and school-wise details are available at the Know Your School (KYS) portal.

Savitri and Fatima – United Forever

ERASURES of historical events and even historical persons have been used to serve political and ideological ends of the powerful over the centuries. It is not a coincidence that the first great emperor Ashoka remained unknown in the land of his birth for more than nearly two thousand years after his birth. It was only after the inscriptions on the pillars that he had distributed in different parts of his empire were deciphered by James Prinsep, a British colonial administrator in 1837, that the facts of his existence and his significance became known to his fellow Indians and were soon in

Falling Enrollment of Students: A Grave Concern

THE Ministry of Education (MoE) last week released the Unified District Information System for Education Plus report making available the latest data regarding the total enrollment of students in 2023-24. The report gives the lie to the tall claims being made by the government about improvements in the education sector and reveals the stark truth that the total enrollment of students has dropped by over a crore in 2023-24 as compared to the previous years. A total of 24.8 crore students were enrolled in 2023-24 which is a drop of 37 lakh students as compared to the previous year.

Assault on Ambedkar: A Fundamental Clash of Visions

AN animated discourse is raging across the country. The discussion on the Constitution in the Rajya Sabha witnessed an outburst by Amit Shah which could be considered unthinkable even a few years back. However, RSS-BJP, having tasted blood, now believes it is high time to go for the final kill.

Corporate Takeover of Agricultural Markets

THE new National Agricultural Marketing Policy (NAMP) Framework, released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MA&FW) on November 25, 2024, has sparked widespread criticism and protests from farmers' organisations and experts alike. Following a call from the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), farmers across the country staged protests on December 23, 2024, burning copies of the Marketing Policy. MA&FW provided stakeholders with just 15 days to submit responses, which is an attempt to rush through the policy to serve corporate interests.

Amiya Kumar Bagchi

PROFESSOR Amiya Kumar Bagchi who passed away on Thursday the 28th of November was an outstanding economist and public intellectual of our time, who played a stellar role in exposing the operation of imperialism both historically and in the contemporary era.Born in a village near Behrampore in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, he was a brilliant student who went to Cambridge University, UK, on a Government of West Bengal scholarship after his Masters in Economics at Presidency College Kolkata.

Our Constitution, Besieged at 75

Those who take oath of office in its name are undermining its principlesAT the age of 75, the Constitution of India is the talk of the town. In parliamentary debates, as an issue in elections, in the speeches of political leaders across parties, it is a central point of debate. It is a tribute to the founding members who drafted the Constitution that not only has it stood the test of time, but upholding its core values has become an essential patriotic duty.This is not to say that the people of India have benefitted equally from the Constitution.

The US Bond Market and the Adani Empire

THE Adani saga continues, this time based on the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing cases of bribery and hiding key facts from investors in the US Courts.

Jharkhand: Search on for Alternative to Corrupt, Divisive Politics

Jharkhand is estimated to be the second poorest state in the country – but the dominant political parties hardly care.JHARKHAND will go to polls on November 13 and 20, 2024, to elect its sixth Legislative Assembly. Formed in November 2000, the tribal dominated state has seen 13 governments (though seven chief ministers) and three spells of President’s Rule in these 24 years.

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