On the Proposal for a Universal Basic Income

WITH Rahul Gandhi’s announcement recently at Raipur that his Party had taken a “historic decision” to introduce an income guarantee scheme for the poor, and with the general anticipation that the Modi government’s last budget will also announce an income support scheme in some form, at least for the “farmers”, the idea of a “universal basic income” for the Indian population is once more in the air.

Meanwhile in Tripura

AIDWA Rally Attacked in Udaypur

IN a clear symbol of frustration and fear as the people are coming out in growing numbers against the misrule of BJP led government in the state, BJP hoodlums attacked a rally of AIDWA in Udaypur of Gomati district on January 28.

Dissolution of the First International-29

THE final version of the political programme of the First International and the decisive settling of accounts with the Bakuninist anarchists came at the Congress of the International at The Hague in September 1872. Marx had been busy with the preparation of the Congress since the beginning of the year.

His appearance stirred great interest among the Congress delegates. He was also the leading personality in the bourgeois Press, and not least in the reports of police agents who had been sent to Holland to keep watch on the Congress.

Janwadi Lekhak Sangh Pays Tributes to Krishna Sobti

KRISHNA Sobti (93), eminent Hindi fiction writer, passed away on January 25, at a hospital in New Delhi. She was ill for a long time but she was mentally active and creative.

Adopt IESO Act to IT industry, KITU demands

KARNATAKA State IT and ITeS Employees Union (KITU) demanded the government to invoke the provisions of Industrial Employment Standing Orders (IESO) Act, and suitably adopt it to the requirements of the IT, ITeS and knowledge industry in the state. It demanded that the regulations of conditions of service governing the IT, ITeS, knowledge industries etc to be defined with the participation of employers and employees.

JHARKHAND: Karl Marx’s Bicentennial Birth Anniversary Celebration

A STATE-level event to mark the bicentennial birth anniversary of Karl Marx was organised in the steel city of Jamshedpur on January 21. CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat was the main speaker. The Michel John Auditorium packed to its capacity with hundreds of industrial workers, peasants, employees, students, youth, women and intellectuals.

Chemplast Workers Chastised For Joining All India Strike, Stand Ground

SANMAR Group, Chemplast (Plant III) in Mettur, Salem district, Tamil Nadu, dismissed 94 workers for joining the general strike call given by trade unions on January 8 and 9. Recently, 100 workers of the Plant had joined the CITU and despite serving prior strike notice to the management, 94 of them were dismissed and were obstructed from entering the Plant on January 10.

The Strange Spectacle of WTO Negotiations being Launched in WEF, Davos

THE US, European Union (EU) and its allies are part of a 76-country “WTO initiative” on “trade related aspects of e-commerce”. Strangely enough, this initiative was launched in the World Economic Forum at Davos, and not in any WTO fora. This “initiative” was discussed a number of times in WTO including the last ministerial in Buenos Aires in 2017, where also it was rejected. The developing countries including India had argued that without any agreement on Doha development agenda, WTO could not take up other issues.

CITU Congratulates Defence Employees for the Successful Strike

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions, in a statement issued on January 25, has heartily congratulated the defence sector civilian employees and their federations for the heroic countrywide three days strike on January 23-25, 2019 in all defence sector production, research and service establishments to defend country’s defence sector production and service network, against the onslaught of outsourcing and privatisation by the present BJP government at the centre.

Desperation of BJP all the More Evident

PM MODI is clearly rattled by reading the writing on the wall concerning the outcome of the 2019 general elections. As a result, he is doling out various excuses and reasons in order to portray the efforts for unity, that is emerging among the secular opposition for the ouster of the BJP from government, as an act of either opportunism, an act of money bags getting together or an act of sheer desperation; that it is Modi versus the rest in the forthcoming elections. Let us examine these claims of the prime minister.

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