THE recent announcement by the union ministry of converting a part of what Vodafone-Idea (VI) owes to the government into its shareholding, is another step in the long story of crony capitalism and so-called reforms in the telecom sector. The government has taken a 35.8 per cent shareholding in VI to reduce the two hundred thousand crore rupees that VI owns the government, and postponed payments of the rest for four more years.

THOUSANDS of anganwadi workers and helpers in Haryana have been on strike for almost 40 days.  This movement, which started under the leadership of the joint coordination committee(JCC) headed by three unions, continues despite the rain and bitter cold, the workers and helpers are on strike.HOW DID THE MOVEMENT START?A joint meeting was convened on November 22, bringing the three anganwadi unions on a single platform on their issues.  The CITU affiliated unions account for half of the workforce in the state among anganwadi workers.  A JCC was formed in the meeting with the

WORLD Inequality Report 2022 underlines the sharp divide between the rich and the poor that occurred as a result of neoliberal policies pursued by global capital using the hegemonic and asymmetric architecture of global institutions. The report clearly shows how the class divide has become relatively more important than the regional divide in determining global inequality. This simply tells that in today’s world where one is born and brought up has relatively less impact than in which class the person belongs to in explaining relative earnings and wealth status.

THE Delhi Union of Journalists(DUJ) in a press note issued on January 11, stated that in the controversy surrounding the prime minister’s visit to Punjab, an investigation into a secret app that spams and trolls thousands has gone ignored by the big media.  Painstaking investigation of the app Tek Fog, by two technical researchers for The Wire, reveals how technology is being used to pursue a political agenda and target people, including journalists.The statement mentioned the Tek Fog app is designed to “highjack the ‘trending’ section of Twitter and ‘trend’ on Facebook….to ‘auto-retweet’ o

IT is true that the history of public education has been fraught with neo-liberal, authoritative and regressive attacks on the promises of secular, scientific and accessible education in this country. It has been, however, at its core, also a history of continuous student struggles fought not just against these attacks but for an equal and just society. The debarring and imposition of fine on 11 students of Pondicherry University over protests against fee hikes are a reflection of this same anti-student sentiment.