A Budget Whose Silences are Ominous

NO budget in recent memory has been presented at a time when the economy is in such dire straits: unemployment is so bad that there are job riots in Bihar and UP; wealth and income inequalities are among the worst in the world; millions more have been pushed into poverty because of the pandemic and the lockdown; and inflation is accelerating even in the midst of massive unemployment. There is an urgent need for a strategy that promotes economic revival, while providing relief to the poor, and contributing to an abatement of inflation.

UP: Falling Back on the Communal Agenda

AS the election campaign for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls is in full swing with the first phase of elections be held on February 10 in western UP, it has become clear that the BJP is banking solely on the Hindutva communal plank for mobilising support.The union home minister Amit Shah and chief minister Adityanath have set the tone for the BJP’s campaign, which is laced with communal dog whistles and anti-Muslim rhetoric. Adityanath began the campaign by declaring that it will be a fight between 80 per cent vs 20 per cent. This being the rough ratio of Hindus to Muslims in the state’s

Budget 2022-23: Betrayal of People’s Interests

CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on February 1THE finance minister presented the Budget 2022 in the backdrop of an economic scenario when majority of the people are facing job loss and huge cuts in real income. GDP in the current financial year is estimated to marginally cross the pre pandemic levels. The private consumption expenditure is still short of the pre-pandemic levels and industries are facing low capacity utilisation and rising inventories primarily because of very low demand in the economy.

Inequality Kills; Systemic Changes Required, Earlier the Better

Impose a 1% surcharge on the richest 10% of Indians to reduce inequalityA 4% wealth tax on 98 richest families can take care of the health ministry for more than two yearsTHE gap between the top 10 per cent asset holders and the bottom 10 per cent is 500 times in rural India but 50,000 times in urban India, reported Oxfam, five years ago.

Prices of Essential Items are on Fire – Modi Govt. is Sleeping

ALTHOUGH opinion polls are notoriously unreliable as far as elections are concerned, one of the issues all opinion polls always tend to agree upon is economic problems. Recently, a big media house released its annual ‘mood of the nation’ survey results.While political questions like who will win, or who is the best were endlessly belaboured in media, not much attention went to other key results.

Claims of Good Governance Index for J&K are not matching with ground realities: CPI(M)

WHILE reacting to the release of the 'district good governance index' (DGGI) for Jammu and Kashmir, by the union home minister, Amit Shah, CPI(M) leader Mohamad Yousuf Tarigami on Saturday, January 22, 2022, said that claims of good governance and development in J and K are far from ground realities.

The Economy on the Eve of the Budget

THE Indian economy is currently caught in a vicious spiral of inflation, stagnation, and a widening of the fiscal deficit. And this spiral is set to become even more vicious because inter alia of developments in the world economy.Even before the current omicron wave, the rate of GDP growth projected by official estimates for 2021-22 over the previous year was 9.2 per cent; but the previous year itself had witnessed a 7.3 per cent contraction because of the pandemic.

Why a Statue of Netaji Now?

THE India Gate in Delhi is an imperial monument constructed by the British government to commemorate Indian soldiers of the British Indian army who died in battlefields far from home, in Flanders, Gallipoli, Iran and elsewhere during the First World War (1914-18). Other Indian soldiers who died during Britain’s Afghan wars also had their names recorded on the monument. Later, a statue of King George V was installed under a canopy in the centre of the war memorial.Some years after independence, the king’s statue was unceremoniously removed and, since there were many suggestions as to whose

Affirmative Action Providing Level Playing Field

ON January 7th this year, the Supreme Court ruled that reservation of 27 per cent of seats in the all-India quota (AIQ) in medical colleges is not unconstitutional thereby enabling such reservation to be introduced from the 2021-22 academic session. Nearly two weeks later, on January 20, the court spelt out its reasoning in arriving at this ruling.

UP: SFI State Conference Resolves to Fight NEP

16TH UTTAR PRADESH state conference of the Students' Federation of India (SFI) was held successfully on January 22-23, 2022 in Sultanpur.The two-day state conference was inaugurated by SFI all India president, V P Sanu.

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