UNDER the present regime, when a myriad socio-economic and political challenges confront the people of India, developments in the "domestic sphere" are often put on the back burner in agendas of resistance. This allows those who are in power to hijack the concept of "nari shakti" and make claims of "women-led development" even as they keep intact an entirely regressive approach to women in the "domestic sphere".

PUNJAB is facing one of the worst floods in recent decades. While all 23 districts have been affected, the situation is most severe in Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Amritsar, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Kapurthala, Tarn Taran, and Hoshiarpur. According to recent reports, the 2025 floods in Punjab are being described as the worst since 1988, causing large-scale devastation.Approximately 1.62 lakh hectares (around 4 lakh acres) of agricultural land have been submerged, severely damaging crops such as paddy, maize, cotton, and vegetables.

CPI(M)  Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on September 6, 2025CPI(M) expresses deep concern at the extraordinary situation of floods and landslides in North India. Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi are reeling under heavy rain, floods and landslides. CPI(M) condoles the loss of lives in this unprecedented calamity.Punjab has been the worst affected and all 23 districts of the state are declared flood-hit.

THE international petition on Gaza, published on September 4, and signed by more than 4,500 scientists, is unprecedented for many reasons. The signatories include some of the world’s most respected scientists and mathematicians, including fourteen Nobel laureates, five Fields Medallists, and twenty Breakthrough Prize winners. The petition states: “We are deeply distressed by the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We find it unbearable that an artificial shortage of food appears to be leading to a famine like situation.

DURING the anti-colonial struggle, many activists in India got attracted to socialism by virtue of the fact that while the capitalist world was reeling under the Great Depression and mass unemployment, the Soviet Union appeared completely untouched by it; Comrade EMS Namboodiripad was one such person and has written about it. They understood that there was something immanent to the functioning of a socialist economy that enabled it to avoid Depressions, and indeed any situation of generalised over-production, in contrast to capitalism.