India’s oldest Socialist Weekly!
Editor: Dr. G.G. Parikh | Associate Editor: Neeraj Jain | Managing Editor: Guddi
Four companies dominate the global grain trade and at least 70% of the market. They are reporting record profits. As food prices skyrocket and hunger rises, and with the prospect of still more supply shortages, such profiteering is clearly unjust and a sign of abject market failure.
Globally, the richest 10% of people now possess nearly 76% of the world’s wealth. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% own just 2%, according to the 2022 World Inequality Report, which analyses data and the work of more than 100 researchers and inequality experts.
The current fall in the rupee is structural in nature and hence non-transient. It has been caused by two specific factors neither of which is transient: one is a widening of the current deficit, and the other is a net outflow of finance from the economy to dollars or dollar-denominated assets.
Netaji was very clear that religion had no place in public life and could not be used to unite Indians.
The government claims that India is on its way to becoming the fastest growing major economy in the world. It has based these claims on manipulative use of data to project a rosy picture. But there are other data sets that run contrary to the government’s claims, ones the govt doesn’t talk about.
The growth at any cost strategy has been at the expense of the workers and the environment. The situation has been aggravated by the recent policy mistakes – demonetization, flawed GST and sudden lockdown. The challenge before India is not just economic but societal. Unless that challenge is met, portents are not bright for India at 75.
The political economy of the tax is particularly worrisome for two reasons. First, the tax threatens the foundational values of federalism. However, a less appreciated aspect of the tax has been the manner in which it has significantly skewed the pitch against smaller businesses.
Anecdotal evidence and data from the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey indicate that economic distress is driving women to take on any sort of work at very low salaries.
The recent and rapid depreciation of the rupee vis-à-vis the dollar does give cause for concern. The drivers of the depreciation are not all short term. If the depreciation persists, it may attract the attention of speculators who will resort to measures that accelerate the currency’s decline.
The proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill-2022 would weaken the finances of states’ power distribution companies, cripple the states’ finances, impose heavy costs on small consumers (especially farmers), and benefit only corporate houses, says the Peoples’ Commission on Public Sector and Public Services.
Janata Weekly is India’s oldest independent socialist weekly.
Ever since its founding in 1946, Janata has voiced its principled dissent against all conduct and practice that is detrimental to the cherished values of nationalism, democracy, secularism and socialism, while upholding the integrity and the ethical norms of healthy journalism. For more than seventy years now, week after week, it has continued to analyse the changes taking place in the country and the world from a socialist standpoint, and thus promote the spread of socialist ideology in the country.
Address: D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Naushir Bharucha Marg, Mumbai- 400007.
Help us increase our readership.
If you are enjoying reading Janata Weekly,
DO FORWARD THE WEEKLY MAIL to your mailing list and
invite people to subscribe for FREE!