US and Cuba: Blockade and Revolution
| |

US and Cuba: Blockade and Revolution

W.T. Whitney, Jr.   Like the sun, the US blockade of Cuba will not disappear soon. Unlike the sun, the blockade seems mostly forgotten in US government circles and beyond.  It’s persisted basically unchanged for almost 60 years. What follows is about change.   What doesn’t change is abuse handed out to anyone in public…

How Yes Bank’s Finances Quickly Deteriorated Over the Last 3 Years
| | |

How Yes Bank’s Finances Quickly Deteriorated Over the Last 3 Years

Anjan Basu   The most astonishing thing about the Yes Bank crisis is that everyone knew it was coming, and yet everyone seems to have been taken by surprise when it did arrive.   Consider the circumstances. Rana Kapoor, the private sector lender’s founder–CEO, was ejected out of his position in January 2019, after a…

Fukushima: How the Ocean became a Dumping Ground For Radioactive Waste 
|

Fukushima: How the Ocean became a Dumping Ground For Radioactive Waste 

Courtesy: Deutsche Welle   Almost 1.2 million liters (320,000 gallons) of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant is to be released into the ocean. That’s on the recommendation of the government’s advisory panel some nine years after the nuclear disaster on Japan’s east coast. The contaminated water has since been used to cool…

Economy Sliding into Stagnation
| | | |

Economy Sliding into Stagnation

Prabhat Patnaik   Changes in estimation methods have of late made statistics on the Indian economy increasingly bewildering; besides, whenever the statistics show the performance of the economy in a poor light, the BJP government simply suppresses them. Nothing however can suppress the fact that the Indian economy is sliding into a serious state of…

Harsh Mander’s Speech Which Centre Now Claims ‘Incited Violence’
|

Harsh Mander’s Speech Which Centre Now Claims ‘Incited Violence’

Courtesy: The Wire   Civil rights activist Harsh Mander has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking the registration of FIRs against BJP leaders Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Verma, Anurag Thakur and Abhay Verma for allegedly making hate speeches. In response, solicitor general Tushar Mehta on Wednesday read selective excerpts from a speech Mander made…

The Coronavirus Is Not Responsible for the Fall in Stock Prices
|

The Coronavirus Is Not Responsible for the Fall in Stock Prices

Éric Toussaint   Since the last week of February 2020, we are witnessing a big crisis in the stock markets of the Wall Street, Europe, Japan and Shanghai, and several other Asian countries. Precisely what will happen in the stock markets in the coming days and weeks is unpredictable, but it is very important to…

Coronavirus: A Disaster of Capitalism’s Making
|

Coronavirus: A Disaster of Capitalism’s Making

Ben Hillier What to do if confronted with an extremely contagious virus that medical experts say they have not seen before and don’t understand, and which is fast spreading and killing hundreds of people? a) Take precautionary measures to stop the virus spreading and prepare the health system for a potential shock? Or b) Ignore…

Lessons from COVID-19 Epidemic Database of China
|

Lessons from COVID-19 Epidemic Database of China

V.T. Padmanabhan    With cases reported from over 100 countries, corona virus disease of 2019 (covid-19) is a pandemic now.  The disease is caused by the virus called SARS-Cov-2, which is thought to have jumped from the flying mammal bats, sold at the illegal wildlife market inside the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, the…

We Are Seeing, for the First Time, a Sustained Countrywide Movement Led by Women

We Are Seeing, for the First Time, a Sustained Countrywide Movement Led by Women

Sangbida Lahiri   In this winter of discontent, in every procession, in every demonstration, in every protest—from JNU to Jamia or Aligarh to Jadavpur—the front rows are occupied by young women.   The independent nation has never seen such a sustained political agitation led by young women—vociferously, unfailingly and determinedly. Who are these protesting, shouting…

Govt Spent Most ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ Funds on Advertisements

Govt Spent Most ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ Funds on Advertisements

Courtesy: The Wire Staff   The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) on Thursday admitted that a majority of funds allocated to the much-touted Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme was spent on advertisements instead of any concrete work. Ever since the scheme was launched in 2015, prime minister Narendra Modi has sought to…