The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on February 9.THE CPI (M) welcomes the decision of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) disallowing service providers from offering or charging discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content.  The CPI(M) has always held that net neutrality is a fundamental pillar of the internet.The consultation process was conducted amid an unprecedented publicity drive by Facebook and certain other companies to sway public opinion but they failed to do so.

THE North Korean government has claimed that it has successfully tested a “hydrogen bomb” on January 5. It was the fourth underground nuclear test conducted by the North Korean government and the first since 2013. Pyongyang has been threatening for some time that it would be testing a more potent nuclear device if political and economic concessions were not forthcoming from the West. The North Korean government has been feeling increasingly threatened as the US and its allies in the region have adopted an even more militarily bellicose attitude.

IN a statement issued on February 2, the All India Democratic Women’s Association has strongly condemned the proposal made by the women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi to make sex determination compulsory with a view to curb sex selection. As she has clearly stated herself it has been made in order to absolve doctors and the “fraternity involved in medical processes”, and shift the onus of responsibility to the pregnant woman.

THE Peerless General Finance and Investment Company Ltd, a renowned and reputed savings company, had been running its business under the directions of RBI. But its business was stopped by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from 1ST April, 2011.

THE Central Kisan Committee of the All India Kisan Sabha met in New Delhi on January 30-31, 2016. The meeting was presided over by Amra Ram, president, All India Kisan Sabha. Members from 15 states attended the meeting. The CKC discussed the agrarian situation in the country and noted with concern the increasing agrarian distress and farmers suicides. It also noted that the world economic crisis is leading to further burdens for the peasantry and toiling masses and the policies of different governments are leading to increasing inequalities of income and wealth.