ASSERTING that the proposed airport in Aranmula in Pathanamthitta district cannot be allowed in view of environmental concerns, the CPI(M)-led LDF government started on October 30 sowing of paddy on about 56 hectares of land acquired for the project, promoted by KGS Group. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan kick-started sowing on the land as locals and farmers cheered. “The LDF government is not against establishment of new airports. We only said the airport cannot be allowed here as it will mean destroying nature and environment. We do not want an airport here.

IN Russia at last! Whichever way I look, I am filled with wonder. It is unlike any other country…From top to bottom they are rousing everybody up….This Revolution was waiting to take place in Russia for a long time. Preparations have long been in progress; countless numbers of men, known and unknown have given their lives for it, and embraced intolerable suffering.The cause for revolution is widespread, but it becomes concentrated in certain parts of the world: the skin reddens and breaks into boils in the weaker spots, even though the blood of the whole body is infected.

THERE are two major ways that the October Revolution changed the world of sciences. First, was that science and technology can be planned; it is through planning of science, technology and the industry that a backward feudal country like Russia could organise its society and catch up with the far more advanced west in only a few decades. That it could combat Nazi Germany in the Second World War was due in part to the rapid industrialisation Russia had done in the 20's and 30's.

THE Russian Revolution of October 1917 was a momentous event which opened a new epoch for the world. As we approach the centenary of the October Revolution, it is possible to look back across the course of the entire 20th century and come to a judgment about its historic significance and contemporary relevance.While it may take a longer time to arrive at definite conclusions about the historical experience of the 74 years of the Soviet Union, as far as the October Revolution itself is concerned, its historic and world wide significance is well established.

ON November 7 this year, we enter the 100th year of the triumph of the October Revolution. This event deeply influenced the course of world history in the 20th century, qualitatively shifting the trajectory of human civilisational advance.