2023

Swami Vivekananda may be the poster boy of the Hindu right but the revered Hindu monk and philosopher was a vociferous exponent of religious unity and fiercely opposed to aggression in religion.
In numerous speeches and places, the Swami spoke highly of not only Hindu religion but also Lord Buddha, Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammad even as he disagreed with some actions of Muslims as well as Hindus.
He underlined that quarrels over religion arise from the thinking that one alone has the (…)

by Shyamika Jayasundara-Smits *
Sri Lanka entered 2022 beset by economic crisis and political upheaval. The economic crisis culminated in Sri Lanka defaulting on payment for the first time. This led to the government being completely cut off from most sources of international funding, including from official multilateral and international commercial sources.
The government’s effort to blame its debt default.
Although many Sri Lankans did not understand what default meant, the effects (…)

by Vitaliy, trolleybus driver in Khakiv
9 January 2023
I am writing to you on behalf of the trolleybus drivers of depot 2 and Saltovsky trolleybus depot in Kharkiv. For many years there have been problems with massive violations of safety regulations, labour legislation and wages in our companies. Kharkiv trolleybus drivers have the lowest wages in Ukraine, about 45 hryvnias (1.15 euros) per hour. Repeated meetings with depot managers have not produced any positive results. Workers are (…)

Letter to the Editor, Mainstream
January 10, 2023
Contracting is a standard institutional means to acquire a specified service, of a defined quality and quantity, at an agreed-on price, from a specific provider. It reduced the transaction cost of service delivery. Transaction cost is the managerial cost attributable to limited information, uncertainty, and vendor opportunism. If the transaction cost goes down through contracting services, then the economic exchange would occur. This (…)

The All India Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (AIFUCTO)
Patna /New Delhi
Dated: 12.01.2023
PRESS RELEASE
Entry of Foreign Universities: A blow to constitution. AIFUCTO decides Black badge protest program across the country on 14th Feb,2023.
The draft regulations on entry of foreign universities is a serious blow to the educational ethics enshrined in our constitution. The policy will harm, dilute and destroy (…)

Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Saturday, January 7, 2023
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly opposes the move of the UGC to facilitate foreign universities and educational institutions to set up campuses in India allowing them autonomy in determining fees and recruitment of teachers after a 90-day approval process. This will lead to creating enclaves of high fees, elitist institutions (…)

Brief Note on behalf of
Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan (BGPMUS) &
Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahyog Samiti (BGPSSS)
IN
CURATIVE PETITION NOS. 345-347 OF 2010 IN CA NOS. 3187-3188/1988
BRIEF NOTE BY SANJAY PARIKH, SENIOR ADVOCATE
1. Applicants herein - BGPMUS & BGPMSS who represent the gas victims, have filed IA Nos. 22-24 in the present Curative Petition. They were the first to approach the Hon’ble Court ( in W.P(Civil) No. 843/1988) for interim relief (…)

Reviewed by Clare Ibarra (University of California, Berkeley)
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Soviet Influence on Cuban Culture, 1961-1987: When the Soviets Came to Stay by Isabel Story Lanham: Lexington Books 2019. xiii + 231 pp. cloth ISBN 978-1-4985-8011-3 Paperback 978-1-4985-8013-7
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To date, there is very little scholarship available on what the Cuban-Soviet relationship, outside of high politics, looked like before the Soviet Union fell apart. While Cuban and Soviet historiography as separate (…)

* Awards Drama in Maharashtra | Kobad Ghandy
* Mobilisation and right to the city | Prachy Hooda
* Rammohan Roy on 250th Birth Anniversary | Jayanta Kumar Ghosal
* Mysterious missing pages of Babarnama | Sankar Ray

Letter to the Readers Mainstream, 7 Jan 2023
In the past days the media has reported on a crisis situation in the mountain town of Joshimath in the Chamoli district in Uttarakhand state in the North of India. Shifting and sinking of ground beneath the surface has caused considerable damage, hundreds of homes, public buildings, temples and roads have become danger prone having developed major cracks and fissures in walls, roofs and in the ground. There have been protests from the affected (…)