Kerala: Dark Realities of Malayalam Film Industry

IN a startling revelation, the Justice K Hema Committee, constituted by the Kerala government to investigate the issues faced by women in the film industry, reported that the casting couch is prevalent in the Malayalam film industry. The report begins with the following lines: “The sky is full of mysteries; with the twinkling stars and the beautiful moon. But scientific investigation revealed that stars do not twinkle, nor does the moon look beautiful.

Revisiting Controversies on Employment Figures

IT is now evident from the latest NSSO report on unincorporated enterprise that the informal sector in India suffered a big jolt in employment and value added in the past six years. The RBI has recently come out with KLEMS database latest estimates of a rise of employment from 47.5 crore in 2017-18 to 64.33 crores in 2023-24 claiming a rise of employment in the tune of 16.83 crore in the past five years. This is also backed by the fact that 6.2 crores of net subscribers joined the EPFO payroll indicating a rise in formal employment in the past five years.

WB: Gruesome Murder of Young Doctor Sparks Outrage and Protests

THE body of a young female postgraduate trainee doctor was found semi-nude and bleeding in a seminar hall at Kolkata's RG Kar Hospital on August 9 around 11:30 am. The autopsy revealed she had been raped and murdered, with severe injuries across multiple body parts.

AIKS Demands Action against Dereliction of Duty On Tungabhadra Dam Crest Gate

THE All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), in a statement issued on August 16, has noteds with concern the gross dereliction of duty leading to the 19th gate chain link of the Tungabhadra Dam breaking and inundating of nearby regions. Absence of regular monitoring and continuous inspection of the crest gates led to the accident. AIKS demands stringent action against the negligent officials and accountability of the union government.

A Lacklustre Speech

THE eleventh Independence Day Red Fort address of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was his longest so far and it was the most disappointing by his own standards. The bulk of the speech was a litany of achievements of his government beginning from Swachh Bharat to Jal Jeevan Mission to renewable energy and reforms which also included the strengthening of the banking sector. All these were encapsulated with a vague talk of a `Viksit Bharat’ by 2047.Some of the claims made about the achievements have no basis in reality. For instance, on renewable energy, he c

Every Place in Gaza, Including Schools, is a Target

IT is almost as if the Israeli army is trying to gather as many Palestinians as possible in one place and then kill them all. Ahmed Abed and his family fled the Dalal al-Maghribi school in early August after an Israeli airstrike displaced them. That airstrike killed 15 Palestinians, who had taken refuge there after Israel had bombed their homes in the Shujaiyah neighbourhood of Gaza City. The family arrived in the al-Taba’een school, a private school with an attached mosque, that sheltered 2,500 people.

On the Debate on Sub-Classification and Creamy Layer

THE recent Supreme Court judgment has once again stirred up debate on the issue of sub-classification of Scheduled Castes. By a majority decision, the Supreme Court held that the classification of Scheduled Castes is constitutional and that states have the authority to make decisions on the issue based on clear guidelines. Only one judge dissented from this majority opinion. The court has left the decision of undertaking classification to the discretion of the states.

The Pitfalls of Growth Under Unrestricted Trade

THE French economist J B Say had believed that there could never be a problem of aggregate demand in any economy, that whatever was produced was ipso facto demanded. There could of course be too many safety-pins and too few blades, but other than such micro mismatches, there could never be too little demand for the aggregate output as a whole. This assertion which is called “Say’s Law” in economics is obviously an absurdity, because if it were true then there could never be an over-production crisis.

Slow Claps for Hubris 3.0

The Lok Sabha results had raised hope of a new government that would be more federal and co-operative than what we have seen in the last 10 years. But the budget session is clear proof the Modi-Shah coterie has no such intentions. A united opposition that put up a spirited defence of democracy in parliament is heralding a new change. FOR the BJP and the Modi-Shah coterie that controls it, the results of General Elections 2024 ought to have been a sobering one.

The Bloody Rise of the West – Part I

ON Independence Day – August 15th – we generally take stock of the path we have travelled since 1947. Today, I will take a different tack and focus on how or why a handful of European countries end up controlling major parts of the world.Before the rise of colonial empires, India and China were the biggest economies in the world. That is not surprising, as probably 90 per cent of the world's economy was in agriculture.

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