THE neoliberal regime has forced upon rising inequality across the world. Despite the fact that such high levels of inequality creates instability to the current state of capitalism, the irony seems to be the fact that the system thrives on the rising gap between the rich and the poor.The share of profit in national income has increased across the world together with a drastic fall in the share of wage income.

CREATING heterogeneity of labour through the production process had been the strategic objective of capital since its inception. As capital becomes more concentrated and centralised and acquires greater power it essentially produces its dialectical opposite, heterogeneous labour. In periods of capital’s ascendancy, therefore the heterogeneity of labour and its various categorisation becomes predominant and sometimes these differences are celebrated as post-modern identities that make ‘class’ invisible and irrelevant.

EMPLOYMENT in the armed forces has been one of the most desired careers for a large section of early entrants in the job market in India. Primarily because of the prestige such jobs carry and also because governments provide salaries, allowances and retirement benefits that are unmatched by any other jobs with similar eligibility. Since jobs in these segments involve life risks and often demand ultimate sacrifice in protecting the normalcy of civilian life, every government considers these jobs as extremely important and crucial for building long-term military capacity.

THE possibilities of persistent inflation seem to be looming large and a resultant contraction in demand primarily because of a cost-of-living squeeze is going to impact the growth rate, the forecast of which undergoes a downward revision in recent rounds by most rating agencies. The Russia-Ukraine war and the consequent rise in fuel and food prices are not going to cool down soon. Prices of food, metals, fertilizers and edible oil are on the rise at a global level driven by supply bottlenecks created by the war.

THE struggle to define the working day as Marx described in Capital I was a protracted and concealed civil war between the capitalists and the working class spanning for more than half a century. For capital, the consumption of labour from the labour-power shouldn’t face any limit of time. The longer the constant capital or machines put to work, the greater will be the possibility of extracting surplus value from the workers.