Re-bundling Britain’s Railways

LAST week saw the announcement of a momentous reform of Britain’s railway system. While the term “reform” under the neo-liberal policy framework these days connotes increased privatisation and deregulation, the UK government under prime minister, Boris Johnson has gone the other way. The UK government released a white paper based on an official review set up in 2018 led by businessman Keith Williams, former head of the now privatised British Airways.

Two Agonising Years of Devastation

THESE two years since the Modi-II government was re-elected saw the consolidation of the process, with renewed vigour, put in motion seven years ago, post-2014 elections, of the realisation of the RSS project of converting India into their conception of a rabidly intolerant, theocratic, fascistic “Hindu Rashtra”. This was its declared objective on it’s founding in 1925.

The Missing Govt in Dreadful Period of Crisis

India BurningHow rampant privatisation led India to a massive disasterThe Indian NeroLeaders leave Indians to die in hands of private sectorThe Indian DisasterNeo-liberal policies leave citizens gasping for breathTODAY(May 8th), I got a call from one of my state cadre (Himachal Pradesh) IAS officers posted in Delhi. The call was mainly to check each other’s well-being owing to the present pandemic. One of the points the person narrated is the extremely precarious situation prevailing in the country.

The River of Sorrow and the Naked King

GANGA and Yamuna, the rivers that give birth to extensive plains of north India, have been more of a cultural entity than mere geographic bodies for the people of India. It is easy to talk about Ganga in different contexts, but understanding the river and the special place it has in the conscience of the country, is as complex as understanding India.Jawaharlal Nehru, in his last will said: “The Ganga, especially, is the river of India, beloved by her people, round which is intertwined her racial memories, her hopes and fears, her songs of triumph, her victories and her defeats.

Pandemic Exposes the BJP Govt’s Governance Model

INDIA is no stranger to shortages, but there was one shortage nobody would have dreamt of in their most horrific nightmare – shortage of space and firewood at cremation grounds and burial grounds. And yet, that is a spectacle that has become routine in several cities across India. Families of those who had lost their loved ones waited for hours in queues to cremate their dead and paid astronomical sums to buy the firewood needed to do so. Many were cremated outside the crematoria.

Vaccine Supplies: The Elusive Second Dose

IN the months of May and June, India will need to administer at least 125 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as second doses alone. The upper limit of manufacturing capacity in the country is about 75 million doses per month. By most accounts, the actual production is less than this. For the month of May, so far only 41 million doses—or a little more than half—have been procured, or are available for procurement. It is clear , therefore, that India faces a severe shortage of vaccines even to cover second doses, and this shortage is likely to continue for the next few months.

A Caring World Needs a Sharing World to End the Covid-19 Pandemic

AFTER three months of dithering, the Biden administration has supported South Africa and India’s move in WTO for a temporary waiver of patent rights on Covid-19 vaccines. This had the overwhelming support of countries and public health groups in the world. The opposition is now from EU countries, which had earlier tried to portray themselves as more progressive than the US. Under Trump, that was not difficult.

As Modi Govt. Gropes in the Dark, Courts have been Helping in Covid Crisis

“YOU are driving people into the jaws of death.” “You are painting a rosy picture, not in touch with ground reality.” “You should be booked on murder charges probably.” “What were you doing for the past 10-15 months?” “Are you living on Mars?”These are some of the observations of various high courts in India directed towards governments and other authorities in the past few weeks.

May Day 2021 – Working Class Fights for Defense Against Deadly Pandemic

Besides thousands of lives lost, working people are faced with a dark future as earnings dwindle and a hostile government tries to crush their voices.ON this May Day, working class of India is reeling under the brutal onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic which has so far taken over lives in India and affected a staggering number of person since last year. While the deadly disease can affect anybody, it has had the most catastrophic effect on poorer sections of society.

Bill Gates, the White Man’s Burden and Modi Govt’s Vaccine Debacle

THE incompetence of the Modi government is starkly visible in its handling of the current crisis. It fares even worse on the vaccine front. Its belief in the ideology of free-market capitalism is that the market will magically produce whatever we need. This is why it starved the seven public sector vaccine manufacturing units (Down To Earth: COVID-19 vaccines: Waiting for advantage India, 17 April 2021) of any support. And, it also gave the public sector vaccine, Covaxin, developed by ICMR and National Institute of Virology, to a private company, Bharat Biotech.

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