Four Global Cities to Ban Diesel Vehicles by 2025

WITH the worst of the winter pollution crisis in Delhi and other northern cities having subsided for the moment, the episodic clamour in the media, the judiciary, government agencies and among the public at large has also quietened down. No doubt it will flare up at the next peak in air pollution. Forgotten, it seems, are the short-term fixes furiously discussed then. And, in the days of instant media, nobody has the patience to discuss long-term solutions.Efforts to obfuscate the nature of the problem, and hence the determined steps required to tackle it, continue as usual.

Victory for AIPEF: SC Disallows Reliance Power from Recovering Rs 1,050 Cr from Discoms

IN a victory for the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF), the Supreme Court has disallowed Reliance Power-owned Sasan Power Limited from recovering Rs 1,050 crore from several state-owned andprivate distribution companies.A bench of Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Rohinton F Nariman on December 8 set aside the order of the Appellate Tribunal of Electricity (APTEL) asking the discoms to pay the dues to Sasan Power Limited for supply of electricity from its plant in Madhya Pradesh. Sasan Power had argued that discoms that procured electricity must pay from 31 March, 2013, when the

PUNJAB: Comrade Rattan Singh Marxwadi Chetna Kendra Inaugurated at Derabasi

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury inaugurated the Comrade Rattan Singh Marxwadi Chetna Kendra at Derabasi on December 10, 2016 at Derabasi in district Mohali, on the first death anniversary of Comrade Rattan Singh. Comrade Rattan Singh was the chairman of the state control commission for a long time.

Demonetisation – Hindutva's obscurantism In the Economic Sphere

THE traditional obscurantism of Hindutva, in the glorification of mythology as science, has had serious consequences for education in this country. Hindutva's majoritarian communalism relies in a fundamental way on obscurantism, particularly in the realm of history, and has been the source of immense suffering to the nation's minorities ever since it emerged on the political scene in its current form. But with demonetisation, a new dimension of Hindutva obscurantism has opened up before us.

Banks as Victims

IN the outcry against the disastrous demonetisation experiment of the Modi government one aspect that has not been given adequate attention is the damage it has done to the reputation and the balance sheets of the banks. Customers queueing before bank doors and ATMs seem on occasion more forgiving of the government than of the harassed bank employees, who are forced to ration out currency and offer those customers they can accommodate, less than even the maximum withdrawal permitted by the government and the RBI.

Protest against Anti-Democratic Action

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on December 11.THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the action of the Madhya Pradesh police and administration in preventing the chief minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, from attending a felicitation function in Bhopal.Pinarayi Vijayan had been invited to a reception hosted by various Malayali organisations in Bhopal on December 10.

Another Step in Military Alliance with US

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on December 9, 2016.THE Modi government has taken yet another step in entangling India in a military alliance with the United States of America.

Colombia Peace Process: On Track Again

THE rejection of the historic peace accord signed between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in a referendum by a wafer thin majority had come as a shock to most Colombians and the international community. A referendum, which was not constitutionally mandated, was held just a few days after the two sides signed the permanent cease fire agreement with much fanfare in Havana on September 26. Opinion polls had shown overwhelming support for the agreement to end the war that has been going on for more than 50 years.

Javeed Alam

EMINENT Scholar Prof. Javeed Alam who had been associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from 1970 onwards, passed away in the early hours of December 5, 2016 after a brief illness. Born in 1943 in Hyderabad he came from a family which was deeply involved in the Telangana armed struggle led by the Communist Party against the feudal oppression of the Nizam and for land distribution to the peasantry.After studying in Osmania University he had come to Delhi in 1966 to pursue his PhD.

The Deadlock in GST

WITH the passage of the constitutional amendment, it was taken for granted that there would be no further hurdles to the smooth introduction of Goods and Service Tax (GST) from the beginning of the next financial year. The Central GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST) bills were to be introduced as money bills and passed in Lok Sabha during the winter session of the parliament. Thereafter the states are to pass the State GST (SGST) bills in their respective legislatures during their budget sessions. And that would have cleared the deck for GST in the country from April 1. However, the pa

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