KERALA has received international recognition for its effective prevention measures against Nipah virus outbreak. The Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore honoured Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Health Minister K K Shylaja for the government’s efforts in curbing the outbreak.Noted bio-medical scientist and co-founder of the institute Dr Robert C Gallo presented awards to the chief minister and the health minister.Dr Robert Gallo, who was part of the scientific team that discovered the HIV, along with other scientists in the institute held talks with the Kerala delegation.

MORE than a year since the government failed to implement minimum wages in Delhi, members of eleven trade unions including major ones like CITU, AITUC and INTUC have decided to go on strike on July 20 pressing for their demands. A formal notice was given to the chief minister and the lieutenant governor of Delhi on June 27.While the minimum wage of workers in Delhi is declared to be Rs 13,896 by the government on March 3, 2017, it has not been implemented yet. Most of the workers are denied minimum wage even as they are forced to work for more than 12 hours a day.

THE Bahujana Left Front (BLF) held ‘Mahadharnas’ at district collectorates in Telangana on June 26-27, highlighting the problems of the people that had come to light during a one-month-long house-to-house survey conducted by it in all villages in the state, and demanding that the TRS government solve them.The police not only created hurdles to obstruct participation of the people in the rallies and Mahadharnas, but also imposed prohibitory orders and arrested several leaders and hundreds of people when they tried to lay siege at the collectorates.

THE people of Kerala, particularly student community, have emotionally bid adieu to a young student who aspired to become a scientist. Abhimanyu was killed by a terror squad belonging to Campus Front, a student outfit of an Islamic Terror group. Abhimanyu, an SFI leader who belonged to a remote hamlet of Vattavada in high range district, Idukki was stabbed to death at 12.30 am on July 2.  Just 20 years old, Abhimanyu was a staunch fighter of SFI and a brilliant student at Maharajas College, who became the victim of communal elements, who has recently spread in certain campuses of Kerala.

ON July 2, the state of Tamil Nadu witnessed massive protest actions involving more than 20,000 cadres belonging to CPI(M) Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, Thamizh Puzhigal, Adhi Thamizhar Peravai, Adhi Thamizhar Katchi, Thanthai Periyar Dravida Kazhagam, Diravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam and  65 other Dalit, Periyarist, Minority welfare organisations functioning at state, district and local levels.