THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions, in a statement issued on November 6, has expressed deep concern at the mass retrenchments of employees in the IT sector. IT majors like Cognizant, Infosys, and Capgemini have reportedly announced retrenchment of thousands of workers. While Capgemini has already laid off around 5000 workers, Cognizant is reported to be laying off 7000 of its workers.

AS many as 1,400 smartphones worldwide – including 140 of Indians – have been hacked. This hack used Pegasus, the software tools from the notorious hacker-for-hire Israeli company NSO or Q Cyber Technologies. The fundamental question for us, is who-dun-it? The simple question that the government refuses to answer.This is what political parties and others are asking: was it a government agency that bought the hacking tools from the Israeli company? And used it against its own citizens?

AT the Oxford Union, in a prestigious head to head debate, Sitaram Yechury opposed the motion as an Indian patriot against the suspension of article 370, the impact of the suspension in Kashmir and the manner in which it was done. The debate was held on October 29.The motion was defended by one of the vice presidents of the BJP, a former MP, Baijayant Panda.The debate attracted a lot of publicity and was surrounded by controversy before it started.

CPI(M)  Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on November 2CPI(M) strongly condemns the hacking of the phones of activists, lawyers and journalists in India with Israeli Pegasus spyware. WhatsApp itself has accepted that over 1,400 people were targeted globally including 40 from India. It might be noted that if phones are hacked, all information on the phone including WhatsApp or other encrypted messages sent using platforms such as Telegram or Signal are then available to the agency that hacked the phone.Any hacking of personal equipment such as a smart

THE state secretariat of the CPI(M) on November 5 issued a statement and stated that the anti government campaigns related to the arrest of two youths in Kozhikode is politically motivated. The CPI(M) has been opposing the imposition of UAPA act on the arrested youths. When the central government passed the UAPA bill, the CPI(M) had opposed it tooth and nail. The chief minister has already sought the report from the police on Kozhikode arrest. When LDF came to power, the CPI(M), has since then opposed the imposition of UAPA in every such incident.