FOR the first time, on two successive days, the number of new cases of the novel coronavirus (2019nCov) have dropped below 4,000 as against the earlier daily figures. The comprehensive measures the Chinese authorities have taken to slow down the transmission, along with larger availability of diagnostic kits, has now started to bite. Wuhan in Hubei province still continues to be the epicentre of the new coronavirus epidemic, with about two-thirds of the total infected in China from Hubei alone.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on February 1THE budget speech of the finance minister reveals that the government is clueless about how to address the crisis gripping the country’s economy. Instead of a coherent policy direction addressing the problems head on, what was delivered was a two-and-a-half-hour monologue in concealing the realities of a floundering economy. Despite devious attempts to manipulate data, the economic crisis showed up in the budget numbers.

ON January 30, the martyrdom day of Mahatma Gandhi, the state capital of Odisha witnessed an unprecedented march against CAA-NRC-NPR in response to a united call given by secular and progressive political outfits, social groups, academics, artists, students and youth under the banner of “We the People of India”. A peaceful gathering of more than 50,000 people solemnly reaffirmed their faith in the Constitution of India and took a pledge to uphold its all-inclusive principles and values at any cost.

Left parties – CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML), AIFB and RSP – have issued the following statement on February 4, 2020.THE Left parties will conduct a nationwide protest against the wide range of anti-people policies contained in this year’s budget which will further squeeze the livelihood conditions of the vast majority of our people. The Modi government has destroyed the Indian economy, imposing unprecedented burdens on the people.

KERALA is facing a harsh discriminatory approach from the BJP-led government at the centre. Because of this prejudiced attitude of the centre, Kerala is experiencing a serious financial crisis. The Modi government seems determined to thwart the LDF government’s development agenda by strangulating its finances.Centre-state relations are structured in an asymmetrical fashion. The centre has all the major powers to raise resources while the states are required to undertake development and social welfare expenditure that far exceed their revenue generating capacities.