The Declining World Foreign Exchange Reserves

IF one adds up the foreign exchange reserves of all the countries in the world, including under the term “reserves” what these countries hold in the form of gold, US dollars, other reserve currencies, Special Drawing Rights of the IMF, and also liquid assets such as short-term Treasury Bills of the US government, then the total sum in August 2014 came to $12.03 trillion. Nearly two-thirds of this amount is held by developing countries whose reserve accumulation started increasing after the Asian financial crisis of the late nineties.

Pachhwara Coal Mines: A Tale of Disguised Privatisation,Corporate Malpractice and Exploitation of Adivasi Peasants

IN line with the policies of liberalisation adopted in 1991, successive governments since the early 1990s have sought to subvert nationalisation of coal through disguised privatisation. This has been done in many ways. The mining capacity of public sector coal companies has been severely reduced through retrenchment, incentivising early retirements and imposing controls on recruitment. Consequently, public sector coal companies have been forced to increasingly carry out mining by sub-contracting operations to private contractors.

AFSPA Withdrawn From Tripura

THE government of Tripura has decided to withdraw the section 3 of AFSPA from the state. This decision was taken in the meeting of the state cabinet held on May 27. Chief minister Manik Sarkar made this announcement at a press conference at the civil secretariat. Prior to this decision, the act was in force in the 24 police station areas and in parts of six police station areas. In view of the severe extremist problem the section 3 of the act was brought into force in the state on February 16, 1997 and was operational in two-thirds of the police stations of the state.

CPI(M) General Secretary Meets Bangladesh PM

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury met prime minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina at Dhaka on May 29. He was accompanied by CPI(M) Central Committee member Gautam Das. During the meeting that lasted for more than 40 minutes, Sheikh Hasina thanked the CPI(M) for its endeavour in the successful endorsement of the Land border agreement in the Indian parliament. Yechury noted that the problem was longstanding and all the political parties have helped towards its resolution.

WEST BENGAL: Statewide Road Blockade by Kisans

THOUSANDS of peasants forced a shutdown of traffic in district headquarters for hours in West Bengal protesting against the policies of the TMC government and the Land Acquisition Bill of the Modi government.Peasants in West Bengal are passing through an acute crisis for years now. They have been forced to go for distress sale of their produces, both rice and potato, for consecutive years. In the absence of public procurement, the peasants have sold paddy at much less price than their production cost.

Keep Land Ordinance in Abeyance

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement May 31

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the decision of the union cabinet to once again promulgate an ordinance on the land acquisition issue. This BJP government has failed twice in the past to sustain this legislation by getting parliamentary approval.

Abandoning Palestine for Israel

THE External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Israel at a mutually agreed date. This will be the first time an Indian prime minister visits Israel. The significance of such a visit would be that the close strategic relationship existing between the two countries will be given an official stamp. As some commentators have put in, Indo-Israeli relations will be “coming out of the closet”.

Brutal Attack On Dalits In Rajasthan Village

THREE dalits were killed on May 14 in Dangawas village of Nagaur district in Rajasthan and thirteen were seriously injured, among whom are six women in an attack unleashed on them by the dominant upper caste, the jats. The attack took place over the 23 bigahs of land of dalits which was forcefully possessed by jats since long. As rightful claimants of that land, dalits built huts in the farm land. The jat community called their caste panchayat on May 14, and pressurised the reluctant dalits to attend their panchayat.

‘Conspiracy to Lit Communal Fires’

THERE is an ongoing, multi-pronged attack on the people of the country ever since the NDA government led by Narendra Modi has assumed office at the centre said Padma Shree award winner and prominent anti-communalism activist Teesta Setalvad. She warned that as there is real possibility of people getting involved in resistance movements, the Hindutva forces are planning to lit communal fires in order to divide them and divert them from resistance.

Warning Bells for India’s Public Higher Education1

INDIA’S higher education is going through a tumultuous period. A series of hastened ‘reforms’ are putting the very foundations of our public higher education at the brink of collapse. In last November, UGC had sent guidelines forcing all universities to implement the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) from the 2015-16 academic session. It has now been followed by a ‘Make in UGC’ approach of preparing centralised syllabi for undergraduate courses, with universities being given just 20 percent deviation while preparing their own syllabi.

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