ON December 2, 2024, Sarbananda Sonowal, the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, presented the Coastal Shipping Bill 2024 in the Lok Sabha. The bill aims to promote coastal trade using Indian-flagged vessels owned and operated by Indian citizens for commercial needs. The bill also grants the director-general the authority to issue licenses, taking into account factors such as the crew's citizenship and the vessel's building requirements and aims to create employment opportunities for Indian seafarers and promote the growth of shipbuilding in India.

TWO days after the BJP leaders waxed eloquent about protecting the Constitution in the debate in the Lok Sabha to mark the 75th anniversary of the framing of the Constitution, the Modi government has introduced a Constitution Amendment Bill, which seeks to damage the Constitution and the federal structure within it.Two Bills were introduced – The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill and The Union Territories Laws Amendment Bill – which seek to ensure simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and all the legislatures of states and union territories. The Constitution Amendment Bill amends three

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) organised a meeting of young workers in the organised sector on December 9, 2024, at HKS Surjeet Bhawan, New Delhi. The meeting aimed to strengthen trade union movements in organised sector industries by empowering young cadres. This initiative is crucial to resist the onslaughts of finance capital and reorient the organisation to address contemporary challenges.The young workers meeting was presided by K Hemalata, President, CITU and the approach paper was placed by Tapan Sen, General Secretary, CITU.

IN preparation for the 24th state conference of the CPI(M) scheduled for  January 29-31, 2025, the primary unit and local committee conferences have been successfully completed. Currently, the sub-divisional and district-level conferences are going on across the state.Prior to the commencement of the primary unit conferences, a set of guidelines, based on the framework prepared by the Polit Bureau and aligned with the state’s political and organisational situation, was circulated across all levels of the Party.

AS the rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (Syria Liberation Committee) seized Damascus, Syria’s capital, on December 7, 2024, the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad boarded a flight to Moscow, Russia. It was the end of the rule of the Assad family that began when Hafeez al-Assad (1930-2000) became president in 1971, and which continued through his son Bashar from 2000 – a fifty-three-year period of rule.