THE fall of Berlin on May 8th/9th in the Second World War is widely celebrated as the Victory Day as it heralded the defeat of Nazi Germany. Though the World War in the Pacific, East Asia and South East Asia continued for another four months, it was only an attempt by Japan to secure better terms of surrender, particularly for its “God” Emperor. As various historians have shown, the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not the end of Second World War, but the start of the Cold War against Soviet Union.

DAYS marked by chaos, destruction, panic and uncertainty mark the impact of Operation Sindoor in the border states of India and Pakistan. The unrest, which began on May 7, when India launched an attack targeting various terrorist camps in Pakistan, escalated on May 8 and 9, leading to widespread panic among the population residing near the India-Pakistan border. Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Punjab, being the states that share a border with Pakistan, have been in a state of unrest, followed by attacks and counterattacks by India and Pakistan for the past few days.

THE recent 100-hours of active hostilities between India and Pakistan was also the occasion for a hysterical media circus which saw all principles and ethics thrown out of the windows, to be replaced by wild and deranged claims, even wilder advice on military tactics, and euphoric celebrations that hardly resonated with most of the befuddled viewers. Presumably, the same must have been happening in Pakistan.It all started on April 22, when Pakistan backed terrorists killed 26 tourists in Pahalgam shocking the world with its barbarity.

SINCE the global financial crisis, India experienced a declining trend of investment to GDP ratio particularly due to declining investment growth in the private corporate sector. In the recent past, there has been little uptick in this ratio driven by capital expenditure undertaken by government spending. Although such high capital expenditure for successive years didn’t even ‘crowd in’ private investment. Recently the ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has conducted a survey of private sector’s current CAPEX and future investment intentions.

CPI(M) veteran leader and former all-India general secretary of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), Comrade Nepaldeb Bhattacharya, passed away at a private hospital in the early hours of May 13, at 1.25 AM. He was 73.

He had been battling kidney-related ailments and was admitted to the hospital five days earlier. His cremation took place at Muktarpur crematorium in Bhatpara on May 13th afternoon.

CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby, state secretary Md Salim, and Left Front chairman Biman Bose expressed deep sorrow at his passing.