ONCE again, a moral appeal of extending working hours to ninety hours a week has been proposed by L&T chairman resonating the need for extending working week to 70 hours proposed by Narayan Murthy last year. Workers should work more and preferably on Sundays to achieve higher growth and be on the top of the world. This is being floated when India is one of the most unequal countries in the world. Capitalists always vouch for higher efforts from the workers while being silent on the issue of return.

THE medications Ozempic and its competitors, such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, have affected the capital and market-driven US economy in interesting ways. These Glucagon Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists (meaning they combine with  GLP-1 receptors to initiate responses),  were initially developed to combat diabetes and obesity, They are supposedly reshaping US industries, altering consumption patterns, and signalling a change in the lifestyle of some well-to-do-sections of US population; so much so that there exist articles talking of the Ozempic economy.

Republican President Donald Trump’s January 20 inaugural address in the US Capitol rotunda—a sacred space his Trumpites rampaged through four years before in the failed insurrection he ordered—was shot through with racist and imperialist language, even more than his speeches on the campaign trail. Add exploiting natural resources and you have a potent brew.Needless to say, Trump often got applause, plus some standing ovations from the right-wing Republican crowd and the oligarchs lined up behind him. The few Democrats, including outgoing President Joe Biden, clapped tepidly, if at all.

THE Electricity Employees’ Federation of India (EEFI), in a statement issued on January 20, has congratulated the electricity employees of Telangana for their ongoing struggle to achieve equal status and salaries for artisans in line with regular electricity employees.The electricity artisans of Telangana have been fighting for their conversion to permanent posts under the banner of the Telangana Vidyuth Artisans Conversion (TVAC) Joint Action Committee for a long time.

ON November 24, 2024, a meeting of the members of the Association of Indian Communists in Canada was held in Surrey, Canada. Secretary Surinder Sangha spoke on the political situation in India and shared updates about the 24th Party Congress, scheduled to be held in Madurai from April 2 to April 6, 2025.Members expressed their condolences on the passing of Comrade Sitaram Yechury.