THE president’s address to the joint session of parliament, the first after the Lok Sabha election, was expected to spell out the vision and priorities of the second Modi government.  But President Ram Nath Kovind’s speech was sparse in detail and more went unsaid than said. It is clear from the speech that the ruling party sees the “New India” as radically different from the India before 2014.  The RSS notion of a Hindu nationalist Bharat underpins their vision of a ‘New India’. The president refers to the mantra of ‘sab ka saath sab ka vikas’ relating to the previous term of the

ONLY about 22 per cent of women of working age (defined as 15 years of age or more) were gainfully employed; unemployment among women has doubled and women’s wages/salaries languish at half to two thirds of what men doing similar jobs get. These are some of the shocking revelations contained in the recently released report of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for 2017-18, carried out by the government.

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions, in a statement issued on June 21, has opposed the privatisation measures incorporated in the 100 days Action Plan proposed by the ministry of railways with the approval of the minister of railways. The railway board has directed that immediate action be taken to implement the action plan by August 31, 2019.The action plan proposes operating private passenger trains. Within 100 days, two passenger trains will be offered to IRCTC which would provide ticketing and on board services.

THE extended executive committee of the Trade Union International of workers in agriculture, food, commerce and allied industries met in Paris on June 5-7, 2019. 39 members from 22 countries took part in the discussions. Suneet Chopra,  AIAWU joint secretary and executive committee member of TUI and V S Nirmal, (national secretary, BKMU) who was present on behalf of Nagendranath Ojha, attended the meeting. The discussion was centred on continuing the work and decisions taken in its secretariat meeting in Havana from January 18-20, 2017 followed up by the Lisbon meeting in April 2017.

THE All India Democratic Women’s Association, in a statement issued on June 26, expressed its heartfelt condolences on the sad demise of Primila Loomba, one of the veteran leaders of the women’s movement in India. She was 94 years old, born on December 24, 1924.Primila Loomba, fondly called as Pimmi studied in Lahore and graduated from Kinnaird College. She and her friends were drawn to the progressive students union which was active in the anti-imperialist struggle. Her family migrated to India after partition.