THE trio of anti-people economic policies, communalism and authoritarianism is ruling the country today. This trio wants to become trident. The people of the country and the Left shall have to stop this from happening otherwise it would be disastrous for the people. This was said by Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the CPI(M) and member of parliament. He was addressing a meeting at the Matu Ram Community Centre in Rohtak, on February 7 on the occasion of the birth centenary of Comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet.

ON Monday, February 8, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued its regulations barring differential pricing of data based on content. This has been welcomed widely as a step forward in keeping the internet free from capture by an emerging alliances of global internet monopolies and telcos. Indeed, TRAI's decision goes beyond what Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in the US had decided on net neutrality. Currently, the FCC is enmeshed in a variety of what are called zero rating cases, and hearing them on a case to case basis.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on February 9.THE CPI (M) welcomes the decision of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) disallowing service providers from offering or charging discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content.  The CPI(M) has always held that net neutrality is a fundamental pillar of the internet.The consultation process was conducted amid an unprecedented publicity drive by Facebook and certain other companies to sway public opinion but they failed to do so.

THE North Korean government has claimed that it has successfully tested a “hydrogen bomb” on January 5. It was the fourth underground nuclear test conducted by the North Korean government and the first since 2013. Pyongyang has been threatening for some time that it would be testing a more potent nuclear device if political and economic concessions were not forthcoming from the West. The North Korean government has been feeling increasingly threatened as the US and its allies in the region have adopted an even more militarily bellicose attitude.

IN a statement issued on February 2, the All India Democratic Women’s Association has strongly condemned the proposal made by the women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi to make sex determination compulsory with a view to curb sex selection. As she has clearly stated herself it has been made in order to absolve doctors and the “fraternity involved in medical processes”, and shift the onus of responsibility to the pregnant woman.