FORMER Reserve Bank governor Raghuram Rajan has come out openly against the Indian government’s measure of demonetisation of currency notes in November 2016, in a speech delivered recently at the University of California at Berkeley. Since Rajan is an economist of repute, and has been an important economic decision-maker in the country, his criticism of demonetisation is to be welcomed: it adds considerable weight to the voices that have been raised against this wanton and despotic measure of the Modi government.

IN 1844, in his first work devoted to providing a economic and philosophical basis for Communism, the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Marx had written, “man is the highest creature for man, and it is therefore necessary to overthrow all conditions in which man is a debased, an enslaved, an abandoned, disdained creature”.

AT a time when the entire officers and workers of BSNL are engaged in continuous struggles against the pro-Reliance Jio and anti-BSNL steps being taken by the government, BSNLEU, the biggest trade union of BSNL, has conducted its 9th all India conference at Mysuru. The conference which was held from December 17-20, 2018, has taken many important decisions to defend BSNL and the future of the employees.INAUGURAL SESSIONThe four-day conference got kick-started with a colourful cultural programme, followed by the hoisting of the national flag and the union's red flag.

THE All India Lawyers Union, in a statement issued on December 22, has strongly condemned the draconian measures by the central government in authorising ten central agencies to intercept and monitor all data contained in any computer. This is an intrusion in the right to privacy.Justifying the order, the government cites earlier similar order of 2009 issued by the then government.

AS we reach the end of 2018, it will go down as the year in which the all-round failure of the Modi government on the economic front and the consequent burdens on the people became glaringly evident; the year also sharply brought out the cronyism and corruption of the regime; it also exposed the disruptive agenda of the Hindutva forces in seeking to subvert the constitution and the fundamental rights of citizens. The greatest failure of the Modi government was in dealing with the economy.  The agrarian crisis deepened causing widespread distress for the farmers and the rural poor.