AIKSCC’s Call for Grameen Bharat Bandh on 8 January 2020
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AIKSCC’s Call for Grameen Bharat Bandh on 8 January 2020

Press Release   The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), a platform of more than 250 farmer organisations, at its national convention in Delhi on 29–30 November 2019 gave a call for a Grameen Bharat Bandh on January 8, 2020, to protest the anti-farmer policies being adopted by governments.   Demands of Farmers  …

New IR Code Bill: Another Nail in the Coffin
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New IR Code Bill: Another Nail in the Coffin

Ronak Chhabra   After introducing starvation-level wages and removing protections available to the workers, the next target of the labour law codification is the trade unions and the industrial action. To tame the former and dismantle almost every possibility of the latter seems to be the objective of the reforms. This is how Prime Minister…

New Industrial Relations Law: Farewell to Job Security
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New Industrial Relations Law: Farewell to Job Security

Subodh Varma   Silently, indeed clandestinely, a major change has been brought about in the relations between employers and employees. This will affect not just crores of employees of all types—private or public sector, in industries or in services—but also future generations. Jobs are no longer going to be the same again, ever.   On…

Jharkhand: Where Is the Mineral Wealth Going?
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Jharkhand: Where Is the Mineral Wealth Going?

Subodh Varma   According to various estimates, Jharkhand has 40% of the country’s mineral resources. It has 27.3 per cent of India’s coal reserves, 26 per cent of iron ore, 18.5 per cent copper ore, besides having deposits of uranium, mica, bauxite, granite, limestone, silver, graphite, magnetite and dolomite. It also has large quantities of…

Pathetic State of Economy: Modi Govt Hides Data
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Pathetic State of Economy: Modi Govt Hides Data

Prabhat Patnaik   The National Statistical Office (NSO) has decided not to release the quinquennial survey data on consumer expenditure for 2017–18. This is because these data, leaked by The Business Standard (November 15) show a drop of 3.7 per cent in real per capita consumer expenditure between 2011–12 and 2017–18, from Rs 1,501 per…

Finance Ministry Rejected RBI’s Dissent on Electoral Bonds 
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Finance Ministry Rejected RBI’s Dissent on Electoral Bonds 

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar   The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) repeated warnings on the electoral bond scheme in bearer form having the potential to increase black money circulation, money laundering, cross-border counterfeiting and forgery were ignored by the Centre as it was more keen on protecting the identity of donors, the Ministry of Finance’s responses…

India’s Shadow Lobbies: How Business Captured the Government
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India’s Shadow Lobbies: How Business Captured the Government

Divya Guha   It has come to light that according to its profit and loss statement for the quarter ended March 2019, Tata Consultancy Services donated Rs 220 crore to an unnamed beneficiary.   This makes the infotech consultant the single largest political donor.   TCS has outdone Prudent Electoral Trust, which supplied a total…

Sinking MGNREGA
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Sinking MGNREGA

Subodh Varma It would have seemed natural—indeed, imperative—that, as India grapples with a deadly slowdown, with agricultural economy growing only at around 2% and rural joblessness hovering at a shocking 8%, the government would infuse some energy in the implementation of the rural jobs guarantee scheme (MGNREGA). This would put more money in the hands…

9 Million Jobs Lost in 6 Years, a First in Indian History
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9 Million Jobs Lost in 6 Years, a First in Indian History

Courtesy: The Wire A recent working paper published by the Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University has contested official claims on employment, showing an “unprecedented” fall in total employment from 2011–12 to 2017–18. Written by Santosh Mehrotra and Jajati K. Parida, the study says employment dropped by 9 million between these years—“for the first…

Dangerous Agreement to Sign
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Dangerous Agreement to Sign

Prabhat Patnaik (This article was written before the Indian government announced that it was not joining the RCEP. It continues to be relevant, as there is enormous pressure on the government to join the trade agreement– Editor.) On October 24–25, there were widespread peasant protests all over the country against the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership…