IN the early 1940s, the Communist Party was present mainly among a few urban non-tribal people in Tripura. During this period, after the conclusion of Second World War, twelve educated tribal youth came together to form Janasiksha Samiti (JSS, Mass Literacy Association) on December 27, 1945. The objective of the JSS was to not only campaign for literacy, but also to struggle against exploitation, various social ills and superstitions prevalent in the tribal society. It also took up the issue of black marketing and hoarding that were rampant during the war years.

INDIVIDUAL stories of suffering and of heroism often reflect a wider social reality. There have been many such in this period of lockdown.Jyoti Kumari, a 15 year old dalit girl cycled 1200 km from Gurgaon to Darbhanga with her ailing father riding pillion to take him home. In an interview she said that her mother had mortgaged whatever little jewellery she had to buy them the cycle as there was no other way they could get home.

AFTER the failed lockdown and rising numbers of Covid-19 cases, the Modi government, which declared an emergency under the Disaster Management Act, seems now to have given up. We are seeing rapidly rising numbers in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai, which together have about 40 per cent of the new infections in the country.

THE Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) is a burning issue of the banking Industry. The central government has been claiming that IBC would be an effective law to recover the NPA of the large borrowers.  But the present experience seems to prove otherwise and due to that, the additional NPA in the current financial year is feared to increase astronomically. The issue of bad loan has been in existence from the time the financial institutions started lending.

ON June 1, Food Corporation of India had 10.4 crore tonnes of foodgrains. Never before has the government hoarded such a large quantity of foodgrains. This is 83.3 lakh tonnes in excess of what the government needs for operational and emergency requirements. The All India Kisan Sabha, in a statement issued on June 24, has said that it is criminal to hoard such a large quantity of grains during a crisis such as the present, when hunger and food insecurity affects a vast majority of people in India.