COP 29, the UN Climate Change Conference, started on November 11 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and is slated to finish on the 22nd. It is taking place under the shadow of significant temperature rises this summer across the globe, and the clear warning of what it means for us. It is also taking place at a time in which the US has elected a president, Donald Trump, who, among other things, is also a climate change denier and unlikely to accept any global consensus in COP 29.Global warming, even for the countries in the freezing north, is no longer in the realm of scientific debates.

A LARGE number of critical appraisals and commentaries have been written on the occasion of the retirement of Chief Justice of India (CJI), D Y Chandrachud.  This is but natural as Justice Chandrachud is considered to be one of the most consequential chief justices of the Supreme Court in recent years.

THE Kazan summit of the BRICS countries was a historic one for several reasons: first, it created a new category called “partner nations” as a step towards full membership, and accepted 13 such new “partner” countries, among whom were Cuba and Bolivia. Second, it came out against unilateral economic sanctions that the US-led imperialist powers have been imposing on countries that dare to assert their independence from imperialist hegemony. Third, it suggested a programme of reform for the International Monetary and Financial System.

Schedule of CPI(M) State Conferences

THE central government has come up with an employment-linked incentive (ELI) scheme with an outlay of Rs 2 lakh crore for 5 years in the 2024-25 Union Budget. The scheme is said to be framed to create jobs and to enable skilling the youth for employment. It consists of Rs 1.07-lakh crore Plan A, Plan B & Plan C funding to enable 3.1 crore employment generation, Rs 63,000 crore for internship programme for skilling 1 crore youth in 5 years, and Rs 30,000 crore for upgradation of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs).