STEPHEN Hawking would turn in his grave if he were to get to know the contents of the Draft Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilisation and Welfare) Bill. Had he been a resident of Uttar Pradesh, in one stroke, he would have become persona non grata.Nearer home, Noida CITU leader Ramsagar has three children. Both the oldest and youngest are deaf. Ramsagar was bemused when told that once legislated, parents like him would not be seen in contravention of the two-child norm that the bill seeks to impose.That is precisely what Sec. 15 of the bill would do, if enacted.

FROM July 22, 2021, the SKM-led parallel kisan sansad (farmers’ parliament) began amidst great determination at Jantar Mantar in the nation’s capital New Delhi. It will continue till August 13, on all working days of parliament.

IN a letter written to director general of the International Labour Organisation, Geneva, on July 24, 2021, Tapan Sen, general secretary of CITU requested the intervention of the ILO against the move of the Indian government to ban industrial actions by civilian workers of defence production organisations.He asked the director general to recommend the government of India to withdraw a bill which has draconian provisions against the workers going for an industrial action.

THE space race was once between the Soviet Union and the United States. It is now – on the surface – between the three billionaires, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson. Two of them rode their sub-orbital flights, meaning that they cannot be considered as space flights as they did not reach a stable orbit around the earth. Branson’s ambitions are limited, more for a market for developing the exotica of space tourism. Elon Musk and his SpaceX have been playing for the long haul, with a series of rockets and launches including to the International Space Station.

COVID pandemic has exposed the hollowness of the urban development trajectory in India. Since the last few decades especially after the economic reforms in the 1990s the city development models have been for-profit maximisation through privatisation of utilities, monetisation of land and corporatisation for capital intensive technologies. In this process, the organised strength of the working class has been weakened and more informalisation has crept in.The first urban commission in 1988 visualised the city’s development linked with manufacturing and industrialisation.