WTO: The World Can Fry, But Trade Must Rule

THE world is currently smashing temperature records one after the other, with 2016 now looking very likely to be the third year in a row as the hottest year on record since 1850. Already, we have had hardly any winter anywhere in the world including the Arctic, and smashed the March all-time high temperature record by quite a margin.

BEFI Demands Changes in SBI Recruitment Policy

THE Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) has written to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and State Bank of India Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya over its recruitment policy and demanded that necessary changes be made in it so as to ensure that bona fide candidates are not left out of the process.

Acute Agrarian Distress in Marathwada Region

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat joined a Kisan Sabha campaign on the issue of acute agrarian distress in the Marathwada region in Maharashtra on April 24-25. She, along with other leaders, visited 15-20 villages and met farmers and MGNREGA workers in Aurangabad, Beed and Jalna districts. She also visited cattle fairs and cattle shelters.

Thinking Together

Our Party conferences at district/state/all India level elect steering committees to conduct the schedule of conferences. Once steering committees are formed the entire organisational power is vested in them till the new committees are elected. In view of this, my questions are: if steering committee concept is so important, why it does not at all find a mention in the Party Constitution? The word "steering committee" is completely absent in the Party Constitution at least in the web version. The conference discusses the report by district committee/state committee/CC as the case may be.

Tamilnadu: Huge Granite Scam Testifies To The Corrupt Nature of DMK, AIADMK Regimes

A KEY issue in the elections to the legislative assembly in Tamilnadu, for which polling will take place on May 16, is the monumental scale of corruption under successive DMK and AIADMK regimes. The election campaign of the alliance of six parties – DMDK led by Vijayakanth, the four parties of the People’s Welfare Front(PWF), namely MDMK, CPI(M), CPI and VCK, and the Tamil Maanila Congress(TMC) led by GK Vasan – has highlighted the issue of corruption under the regimes of AIADMK and DMK sharply and with great clarity.

Singur: Once Again at Turning Point?

OUTWARDLY calm and serene, whether or not this lush green area along the National Highway-2, popularly called Delhi highway, becomes another turning point in the political history of West Bengal or not only time will tell. But a visit to this almost entirely rural constituency in Hooghly district makes one feel that come April 30 another turn, at least in the history of this area, may be in the offing here.

Bengal: Successfully Resisting Loot of Vote, Opposition Sees Victory

MASSIVE united resistance by people to TMC’s terror and intimidation ensured that the ruling party, unlike earlier elections, was not able to carry out large-scale loot of vote in the fourth phase polling in West Bengal on April 25 when more than one crore electorate exercised their franchise in 49 assembly constituencies – 33 in North 24-Paraganas district and 16 in Howrah district.

Modi-bhai’s Bengal Mission is to Save Didi-bhai: Yechury

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi has made it a habit to go for campaigning on poll dates in areas adjoining those where polling is taking place and thus trying to influence voting through live telecast of his speeches. But in Bengal elections, he is not doing just that. People are, in fact, asking why the prime minister of the country is making so many election visits to a state where his party does not stand even ghost of a chance, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said at a huge gathering, mainly of peasants, in Namkhana in South 24-Parganas on April 23.

Ensure Free & Fair Poll in West Bengal in Last Two Phases

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury met the chief election commissioner on April 27 to relate some experiences of polling in West Bengal assembly elections so far and to underline certain urgent measures to be initiated to improve the quality of free and fair polls in the remaining two phases.

CITU Condemns Reduction In EPF Interest Rate

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions, in a statement issued on April 25, has condemned the unilateral decision of the finance ministry to reduce the interest rate on EPF to 8.7 percent from the unanimous recommendation of the tripartite Central Board of Trustees of the EPFO. This was revealed from the reply to the unstarred question no 96 dated April 25, 2016 in Lok Sabha. The CBT on February 16 had decided the rate as 8.8 percent. This decision of 8.8 percent was an interim one and some increase was expected when final decision was to be taken, as funds are available with the EPFO for this.

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