IN its meeting held at the Singhu border on July 14, 2021, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) announced detailed plans of its parliament protest marches. From July 22 onwards, on every day of the monsoon session of parliament, batches of 200 farmer volunteers and leaders shall march towards Parliament House in a peaceful manner following the guidelines of discipline laid down by the SKM.

LAST week, Richard Lewontin, a dialectical biologist, Marxist and activist died at the age of 92, just three days after Mary Jane, his wife of more than 70 years had passed away. He was one of the founders of modern biology that brought together three different disciplines -- statistics, molecular biology and evolutionary biology -- together what today marks the discipline. In doing so, he also battled not only crude racism masquerading as science, but also what science really is.

THE situation on the ground in Afghanistan is changing fast. With the US troop withdrawal more or less complete, the last few weeks have seen the Taliban advancing all across the country.  The Taliban have claimed that 85 per cent of the territory is now under their control.

THE joint platform of Central Trade Unions (CTU) and Sectoral Independent Federations and Associations, in its meeting held on July 8, reiterated its support to the defence production employees, protesting the central government's policies to privatise defence production sector and ordnance factories network.The CTUs noted with concern that, simultaneously, a substantial part of the defence-related production is being outsourced to the private sector, both indigenous and foreign, permitting 100 per cent FDI.

THE creation of a separate ministry for cooperation at the centre with Amit Shah as the first cooperation minister of India raises a number of uneasy questions with respect to country’s federal structure and development of cooperatives. Cooperatives is a state subject as per Schedule 7 of the constitution. So far cooperatives have been under the regulatory control of registrar of cooperatives of different states. There are a few hundred multi state cooperatives (MSCs) in existence. But the numbers are too small to warrant a separate ministry at the centre.