The Indian Economy on the Verge of Collapse

THE GDP growth in the first quarter (April-June) of 2020 over the first quarter of the previous year has been minus 24 per cent according to preliminary official estimates. But most knowledgeable people believe that even this is an underestimate of the actual contraction brought about by the lockdown. In fact, a former chief statistician of India, Pronab Sen, believes that the actual contraction would have been about 32 per cent.

CITU-AIKS-AIAWU Demonstrations on September 5

Below we publish reports on the nationwide demonstrations called by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the All India Agricultural Workers’ Union (AIAWU), on September 5.ON September 5, the central leadership of the CITU, AIKS and AIAWU held a demonstration outside the BTR Bhawan in New Delhi to condemn the anti-working people and pro-corporate policies of the BJP-RSS Modi regime.

Over Half of Prisoners in India Are Muslims, Dalits & Adivasis

IN a chilling indictment of the prevailing social system, a recently released government report on prison statistics revealed that just over half of all convicts and undertrials in Indian prisons are Muslims or dalits or adivasis. The share of these three communities in India’s population is 39.4 per cent according to the last Census held in 2011. But the proportion of prisoners from these communities is 50.8 per cent.These three communities are the most economically and socially backward ones in India.

Tasks Among the Peasant Masses – II

Excerpts from the resolution Tasks Among the Peasant Masses’, adopted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party in its meeting in April 1954“ONE of the important tasks of the Kisan movement is to demand the government to take measures to free the peasants from the machinations of the foreign and Indian monopolists and give protection to the peasant producers by guaranteeing economic prices for his product.“We must demand of the government guaranteed economic prices for the peasants’ produce and if the market prices fall below the minimum, the government must

Last Week’s Pro Athletes Strikes Could Become Much Bigger Than Sports

PROFESSIONAL athletes have an enormous amount of power that they put to good use this past week in a series of unprecedented strikes. But workers of all types have similar kinds of power – and could, just like athletes, use it to shut society down to fight injustice.On August 26, professional athletes in five sports leagues (men’s and women’s basketball, soccer, baseball, and hockey) did something unprecedented: they shut down their workplaces over political issues, namely racial justice and police brutality.

India’s Successful Hypersonic Vehicle Test

ON September 7, 2020, the Defence Research & Development OrganiSzation (DRDO) successfully conducted a test of its wholly indigenous Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV) which has been under development for well over a decade.HSTDV was launched aboard an Agni missile booster rocket from the APJ Abdul Kalam testing range on Wheeler Island off Balasore, Odisha, at 11:03 am.

Ideological Hostility to state intervention, BJP a tool to carry the agenda

ANKHI Das, a name, which all of a sudden became popular in the country continues to make headlines in the media. Public policy chief of Facebook for South and Central Asia, Das is known for her proximity to the BJP and also to the point how she shaped Facebook’s policy, more aligned to the BJP. Her remarks do not just limit to this alignment brought about to win the general elections in 2014 but go deeper to the ideological hostility to which she is wedded/ linked to.

HARYANA: Severe Damage to Cotton Crop

HOPES of cotton farmers of a bumper crop have been totally shattered within a span of just 10 days. The standing crop well at the stage of ball formation is badly ruined by white fly infestation in almost entire cotton growing areas of Haryana. Other Kharif crops like Guar (cluster bean), Moong (pulse) too have been hit. Guar is affected as an alternate host of white fly while Moong is affected by yellow mosaic virus of which white fly happens to be a carrier.A total of 7.37 lakh hectares were sown with cotton crop which is almost 9 per cent more than last year.

In the Face of Twin Disasters

IN the space of a few days, there have been two developments concerning the pandemic and the economy which are alarming. India became the country with the second largest number of Covid-19 cases in the world, overtaking Brazil. Preceding this came the news that in the first quarter (April-June) GDP had contracted by 24 per cent. This is the worst fall among 25 major economies of the world.The pandemic is surging and it has spread to small towns and villages. India has outstripped all countries in the daily increase in number of infections.

CITU Stands with Power Employees, Opposes Privatisation of PVVNL in UP

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) denounced the attempts of the Yogi Adityanath’s government in Uttar Pradesh to unbundle the Purvanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Ltd (PVVNL), in a bid to privatise it through the Electricity Amendment Bill 2020.The CITU said that the government’s decision to divide the power distribution system into three entities which will then have to bid for electricity distribution will lead to an increase in electricity rates, severely affecting the poor living in rural and tribal areas.The CITU also condemned the ‘vindictive attitude’ of the Uttar Pradesh Power Cor

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