Cuba prepares to begin post-epidemic recovery

Cuba is preparing to enter the first stage of recovery, with a view toward maintaining control of the COVID-19 epidemic within the country, achieved as a result of “the work of all institutions and our people’s participation as an active element in the battle,” noted President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, presiding an extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers, June 10, led by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, where the plan of measures to be implemented in the three phases of the first stage of the country's recovery was presented.As the President reported, this meeting of the high

Crushing Burden of Petrol-Diesel Price Hikes

THE petrol and diesel prices have been hiked daily for eleven successive days from June 7 to 17. By these hikes, the retail price of petrol has increased by Rs 6.02 per litre and diesel by Rs 6.40 per litre. These daily hikes by the oil companies, at the behest of the government, have come at a time when the economy is contracting and demand is at an all-time low with unprecedented levels of unemployment and loss of incomes and livelihoods.The Modi government’s policy of making petrol and diesel costlier is actually taking away money from people’s hands at a time when they desperately need

With Covid Surge, Amit Shah Starts Blame the Opposition Game

WITH more than 3.5 lakhs infected with Covid-19, India is already among the top four countries in the world affected by the pandemic. But that is not all. When we look at a pandemic, we need to look at not just the total infected, but the speed with which the infections are spreading. India now has the third highest number of daily deaths and new cases, again confirming the speed at which the Covid-19 pandemic is moving in the country. This is unlike other countries, where lockdowns flattened the curve, and then brought down the number of new infections.

CITU Supports Coal Workers’ Strike against Privatisation

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions, in a statement issued on June 18, has welcomed the joint decision by all the federations and unions of workers to go for three days countrywide strike from July 2-4, 2020 in all coal mines and establishments in the country demanding scrapping of the government decision to allow commercial mining of coal by private sector including foreign entities, separating CMPDIL from Coal India Ltd and the move to privatise public sector coal mining companies in the process. CITU has been voicing its vehement opposition to the destructive decision of the government of

Assam Gas Blowout & Fire: Harbinger of Ecological Disaster in NE India

PSU Oil India Limited’s (OIL) natural gas Well No.5 in its Baghjan Oil Fields in Assam’s Tinsukhia district in Eastern Assam, less than a kilometre from the ecologically rich and fragile Dibru-Saikhova National Park and Biosphere Reserve with several other ecological hotspots in close proximity, suffered a blowout ie, an uncontrolled release of natural gas, on May 27, 2020, throwing up huge quantities of gas at high pressure into the air.

A Stock Market Boom amidst a Real Economy Crisis

SOMETHING very odd is happening in the United States. The coronavirus toll keeps rising with no end in sight. The economy has virtually collapsed with more than 40 million people filing for unemployment. Thousands are out on the streets protesting against the rampant racism that marks that society. Relations with China have reached a nadir. Altogether, as philosopher Cornel West put it, the US is showing every sign of being a “failed social experiment”. And yet there is a veritable boom in the US stock market.

Despite the Pandemic No Will to Public Health in India

IT is extraordinary that the current pandemic has not brought forth a wave of support for enhancing India's public health infrastructure. While a section (only a section, mind you) of the intellectual class, and some leading figures of industry and commerce, have expressed their support for the idea, the extent to which the idea has not caught the public imagination is truly surprising. Surprising because everywhere else in the world, public health has become a real demand, echoed widely by many sections of public opinion.Why is public health not yet a demand in India?

US Aims to Split Russia-China Tie-up

THE American strategic community is worried about China but it is more worried about the Sino-Russia combine. The American realists are pursuing two different strategies to deal with the two Eurasian powers. They are proposing an offensive-realist paradigm to confront China and realist restraint theories to appease Russia.Take for example, John Mearsheimer. When it comes to China, he says that the US must maximise its global power and seek the establishment of full hegemony in the Indo-pacific region to protect itself “against the intrinsic anarchy” of the international system.

The Myth of ‘Gujarat Model’ and its Implosion - II

IT is estimated that more than 6000 NRIs had come to attend the ‘Namaste Trump’ event. Nobody has gauged. Only on March 5, the screening at the airport started. The large number of private health facilities was refusing to cooperate with the government. While the state health secretary informed the media that there is no epidemic and the Epidemic Act has only been invoked for legally empowering the administration, this was not invoked to address this problem. The testing was low; the frontline health workers were denied PPE and other necessary gear to insulate them from infection.

Imperialism and India’s Food Economy

THE tropical region can grow a variety of crops which either cannot be grown at all, or for much of the year, in the cold temperate regions of the world where metropolitan capitalism is located. These include beverages, fibres, vegetables and fruit, and a variety of cereals and oil-crops.

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