Venezuela: Setback for the Government

IT was always going to be an uphill fight for the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) in the parliamentary polls that were held on December 6. With oil prices hitting historical lows in recent years, the oil dependent economy of the country has not been in a healthy state. Oil accounts for 96 percent of the country's export earnings. With the price of oil sliding from $108 a barrel in June 2014 to under $30 a barrel now, Venezuela's oil income has more than halved in the last two years.

Govt Must Take Over Peerless to Protect Interests of Employees, Depositors

THE Peerless General Finance and Investment Company Ltd, a renowned and reputed savings company, had been running its business under the directions of RBI. But its business was stopped by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from 1ST April, 2011.

AIKS Expresses Concern over GM Mustard

THE All India Kisan Sabha in a statement issued on February 4, notes with concern that the minister of environment and forests is pursuing aggressively for commercial release of GM mustard without carrying out stringent bio-safety tests. The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee is meeting on February 5 to take a decision on the matter. It is to be noted that there is no stringent fool-proof regulatory regime to look into transgenics and possible impact on bio-safety and bio-diversity.

AIKS Castigates Modi Govt for Increasing Agrarian Distress

THE Central Kisan Committee of the All India Kisan Sabha met in New Delhi on January 30-31, 2016. The meeting was presided over by Amra Ram, president, All India Kisan Sabha. Members from 15 states attended the meeting. The CKC discussed the agrarian situation in the country and noted with concern the increasing agrarian distress and farmers suicides. It also noted that the world economic crisis is leading to further burdens for the peasantry and toiling masses and the policies of different governments are leading to increasing inequalities of income and wealth.

AIAWU to Hold National Seminar on Govt’s Attack on Social Welfare

THE All India Agricultural Workers Union has decided to organise a national seminar highlighting the government attacks on social security apparatus in the country. The central working committee that met at Vijayawada on January 17-18 decided to launch a two month long campaign on social security related issues throughout the country. While placing the report before the CWC, Vijayaraghavan, general secretary, said that the Indian agriculture over the last one year is facing severe crisis which has impacted the employment opportunity for agricultural workers seriously.

Threat to Minority Culture

THE recent announcement by the Narendra Modi government that Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi established by an act of parliament, cannot be recognised as special “minority institutions’ because the secular constitution of India does not permit the government to establish and provide funds to institutions of higher learning, specifically for the promotion of education and culture of religious minority communities.

15th All India Conference of SFI Concludes Successfully in Sikar

651 delegates and observers representing the 43 lakh students of the country assembled in the Kana Ram Nagar of Sikar to participate in the highest forum of the biggest contingent of the democratic students’ movement in the country. Conferences are not rituals for an organisation like ours. These are occasions to analyse our performance in the light of the tasks set by the last conference, identify our strengths and weaknesses and subsequently chart out the future tasks for the organisation, as well as, devise means to achieve it.

The Impact of Counter Insurgency Operations in Bastar

IN its judgment of July 5, 2011, the Supreme Court wrote that the “State of Chhattisgarh shall take all appropriate measures to prevent the operation of any group, including but not limited to Salwa Judum and Koya Commandos, that in any manner or form seek to take law into private hands, act unconstitutionally or otherwise violate the human rights of any person”. This landmark Salwa Judum judgment was to form the basis of all further anti-naxalite and Maoist activities in the state.

Com Dasharath Deb Birth Centenary Celebrations Culminate

A TRUE tribute to Comrade Dasharath Deb will be establishing and maintaining live links with the masses, strengthening mass struggles for a better India and better society. To achieve this, we must strengthen our own Party, CPI(M). On the basis of that we have to galvanise the Left unity and ultimately a Left and democratic unity with an alternative policy trajectory, said Sitaram Yechury, CPI(M) general secretary.

Delhi’s Municipal Woes: A Sign of Things to Come

MUCH to the shock of residents of Delhi, and also for concerned people across the country, municipal sanitation workers have again gone on strike in the national capital just months after they had carried out a 10-day strike in June last year. Even more surprising was the fact that the issues are the same – non-payment of wages. Like last year, garbage is piling up in the streets, allegations and counter allegations are flying fast and thick, the courts are involved and angry gheraos, dharnas and demonstrations are visible everywhere.

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