THOUSANDS of people marched in the streets of Kolkata on September 1, raising anti-imperialist, anti-war mongering slogans. Left parties, along with left and democratic organisations organised the huge rally which crossed seven kilometre long way from central part of the city to north.Remembering the horror of the beginning of Second World War, the rally carried 79 colourful flags. Tablos, depicting global peace, defence of the earth from nuclear weapons, contours of US-India strategic relations were there.

THE news about the economy has been continuously dismal in the past few days. All the data coming in shows that the economic slowdown has accelerated after demonetisation and the country is headed for a recession.First came Volume II of the Economic Survey which presented a gloomy picture of the overall economy. The growth rate of real Gross Value Added was 6.6 per cent for 2016-17 compared to 7.9 per cent for the year 2015-16.

POST demonetisation, an RBI study noted sharp fall in the sales and earnings of small companies with a turnover of less than Rs 25 crores. They had a fall of 57.6 per cent in sales and 122.3 per cent in EBIDTA (earnings before interest depreciation, taxation and amortisation) for the quarter ending March 2017; while big corporates with turnover of Rs 1,000 crore and above had 9.5 per cent rise in sales and 2.1 per cent increase in EBIDTA for the same period, reported Indian Express on August 27, 2017.

SINCE 1986, Coimbatore city in the state of Tamil Nadu has been witnessing communal disturbances of varying degrees.  But, they involved neither rioting nor looting. After the demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, violence erupted in the city.  Nevertheless, the situation was then contained without any further flare-up.  But, in November and December 1997, following the murder of a traffic policeman, the premier industrial city witnessed a communal conflagration unprecedented in its history.

THE forum of Telangana Mass and Social Organisations (T Mas) has given a call for holding meetings in every district of the state and forming committees at district, mandal and village levels.The T Mas forum was launched on July 4 with 271 social and mass organisations. The forum was an outcome of the ‘Mahajana Padayatra’ undertaken on the slogan of ‘Social Justice and Comprehensive Development’. It started at Ibrahimpatnam on October 17, 2016 and culminated on March 19, 2017, covering the entire state of Telangana.