2023

A perspective
On World Earth Day 2023, a few dozen members of the 8-billion-and-counting Homo Sapiens species, met in an insignificantly tiny spot on Planet Earth. They met at the premises of The Institution of Engineers (India), Mysore, to discuss and think about Global Warming (GW) and Climate Change (CC).
Climate Change gains respectability
EARTHDAY.ORG recognizes 23rd April as World Earth Day .
WTO, World Bank and WEF, launched “Action on Climate and Trade” to leverage (…)

On this day we commemorate not only the struggles of the working class but use the occasion to take stock of the communist movement worldwide and draw conclusions for its growth and development.
To briefly recapitulate in 1889 an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions designated May 1 as a day in support of workers, in commemoration of the Haymarket Riot in Chicago (1886). Five years later, U.S. Pres. Grover Cleveland, uneasy with the socialist origins of Workers’ (…)

2nd May, 2023
Electoral fever in Karnataka is reaching a high voltage point with the principal campaigners in all the three contesting Political Parties becoming hyperactive. Elections are often described as the festival of democracy. Yes, it appears like a festival if one looks at the banners and the head gears leaders sport. But, If we go by the negative and highly personalised attacks by senior leaders of Parties against their adverseries, what we see is the ill-will and rancour they (…)

In India land ownership is crucial for the livelihood of millions of rural poor. Even after seven decades of independence from British colonialism, the vast majority of the land is possessed by rich landed sections, although small farmers, landless poor constitute more than 80 percent of the farming community, the latter own a negligible land area. Consequently, inequalities in land ownership in villages became a major obstacle to poverty eradication and an obstacle to increasing (…)

by Ram Puniyani
Abstract
Bharat Jodo yatra of Indian National Congress led by Rahul Gandhi and supported by many civil society groups and others started on 7th September 2022 from Kanyakumari and will culminate in Srinagar on 30th January 2023. The yatra is getting tremendous response from most sections of people. It began in the backdrop of worsening social scenario where on one side the intercommunity relations took a nosedive and on the other economic plight of average people (…)

Dr S. Faizi, the eminent Indian ecologist, reminds me of the English poet Shelley, whom Matthew Arnold described as ’’ an ineffectual angel, beating in the void his luminous wings in vain."
Dr Faizi has written an article titled ’Towards an Asian Union’ published in Mainstream Weekly magazine. (http://mainstreamweekly.net/article13391.html)
In this article, he has advocated the formation of an Asian Union, patterned on the European Union, for the political and economic cooperation of (…)

by Bhabani Shankar Nayak *
Modern nation-states were established to secure citizenship rights and ensure egalitarian and democratic governance based on constitutional rules and regulations shaped by the values of secularism and science. These principles are central to governance and public administration. States and governments can manage various conflicts during the governance process for greater common good by adhering to constitutional values based on science and secularism.
The (…)

[This poem by the well-known Chilean poet Raul Zurita was written in 2019 when millions of Chileans came out on the streets to protest against social inequality and privatised education, and decimated public services. This poem was recited at demonstrations throughout Chile at that time]
We will Win, We Will Win, We Will Win
AND WE WILL HUG CRYING AND WE WILL HUG SINGING AND MY EYES WILL BE YOUR EYES AND ALL CHILE WILL BE YOUR EYES AND YOUR BLIND EYES MY LOVE, GIRL, MY BOY THEY WILL BE A (…)

Oh Lordships!
We are all dealing with
our individual traumas,
pain and growth.
Stories emerge
from our tangled roots,
blossom forth and grow;
sediments slushed and slow
of many lands and travellers
makes the water flow
towards the ultimate ocean.
How then can the learned counsel claim
with utmost devotion,
that only a biological man and woman
must be the norm;
and everyone else be shorn,
of basic human rights,
to have a family,
dignity and some space?
Your lordships,
I (…)

by S Faizi *
Europe, once a theatre of internecine wars, now has a robust European Union shaping the common destiny of its people. Although Europe is only a subcontinent of Asia as Arnold Toynbee had observed and as is visible to anyone looking at a map, we still not have a common Asian platform for economic and political cooperation. It is high time Asia had its well-mandated regional organisation to secure a common Asian future, ending the costly hostilities and political egos. We can (…)