A Budget of Great Cynicism
No budget in post-independence India had been as openly cynical about the lives of the vast masses of the working people as the one presented on February 1, 2025.
“GDP-Nationalism”
Anti-colonial third world nationalism is entirely different from the nationalism that developed in Europe in the 17th century. It is best reflected in the difference between the nationalism of a Hitler, which is descended from European nationalism, and that of a Ho Chi Minh, which exemplifies anti-colonial nationalism.
The Curious Case of Strengthening Dollar, Falling Rupee
The primary cause of the rupee’s depreciation is the preference of the Indian rich to hold their wealth in the form of U.S. dollars rather than in Indian rupees. This gives rise to a persistent shift from rupees to dollars causing the rupee’s depreciation.
What Is to Be Done About Unemployment?
An increase in government expenditure financed by larger wealth and inheritance taxation provides the easiest and most direct route to the generation of larger employment in the economy.
The Nehru Development Model
The Nehru-Mahalanobis strategy as interpreted on the basis of an alternative framework constitutes, to this day, the core of any genuine anti-imperialist and pro-people development strategy in an economy such as India’s.
Upsurge of Neo-Fascism and ‘Dollarisation’
Argentina’s new president Javier Milei proposes to use U.S. dollars as the currency of his country, while abolishing its central bank altogether. This means not just maintaining a fixed exchange rate between the dollar and the domestic currency, but an abolition of the domestic currency altogether.
The Silences of the Delhi Declaration
The G-20 meeting in Delhi was occurring in the midst of an acute global economic crisis. Yet the G-20 summit did not take any initiative in the matter of overcoming this crisis, especially with regard to the external debt of the third world countries.
The FCI’s Bizarre Logic
The Karnataka government’s plan to launch its “Anna Bhagya” scheme on July 1 under which it was planning to provide 10 kg of free rice per month to each family below the poverty-line has run into problems because of the Food Corporation of India’s unwillingness to sell rice to that state.
Is What We have “Crony Capitalism”?
Fascistic elements move centre-stage only when they get the support of monopoly capital which provides them with ample money and media coverage. This happens when there is a capitalist crisis; the role of the fascistic elements in such a situation is to provide a diversion of discourse.
Probity Personified
Today, when a party that is an RSS-front organisation is in power, the need for all who love democracy to appreciate Jawaharlal Nehru’s acute understanding of fascism is particularly urgent.