2023

by Subbiah Arunachalam and Muthu Madhan *
India was an early leader in sharing research and information for science. But it has fumbled since then.
In terms of open access to knowledge, India could have been the Vishwa Guru — the world’s teacher. As early as 2000 India was making moves to allow taxpayer-funded research to be freely available for anyone in the world to read, share and distribute. But India has squandered that advantage.
Fast forward to 2022, and much of India’s research (…)

One day the tree tired of staying rooted on the brown soil, decided to foil, the onlookers, who rushed by in the traffic of haste, leaving footprints of waste; never paying any heed to her inner beauty.
She saw her fragrant pink pistils discarded for pistols, her stamen stamped by men in boots, who climbed up constructing a security hatch, sensing a plot to kill a dignitary; all this damaged her dignity.
She stood alone, quite forlorn; stopped her offerings of flowers, shoots and (…)

The Baburnama, English (Memoirs of Babur), memoir of a poet-prince from Central Asia and the founder of Mogul empire in India , Zahiru’d-din Muhamad Babur (1483–1530), translated by Annette Susannah Beveridge from the original Turki and published in 1922. It was originally written in Chaghatai Turkish which is different from Turki. Mrs Beveridge’s version, mysteriously spiked pages of the diary between 3 April and 17 September 1528 . Mrs Beveridge was the wife a British ICS officer Henry (…)

More than 13 years after it met an inglorious end, one thing can be said with certainty about the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE): the once-feared insurgent group can never come alive again.
Occasional arrests of people allegedly linked to the LTTE trigger speculation that attempts may be on to revive an outfit which once controlled a third of all land and two-thirds of the winding coastline in Sri Lanka.
Nothing can be farther from the truth.
Whatever opinion one may hold (…)

January 6, 2023
The Brazilian news agency reported that Lula da Silva’s inauguration as the new president on January 1 for a historic third term amidst a carnival-like backdrop was attended by over five dozen foreign delegations, composed of heads of government, vice presidents, foreign ministers, special envoys and representatives of international organisations. It was the largest event with high-level international figures in Brazil since the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
The BRICS leaders (…)

[Below is an excerpt from the The Right to the City (1996) by Henri Lefebvre translated and introduced by Eleonore Kofman and Elizabeth Lebas. The original book by Henri Lefebvre titled ’Le Droit à la ville appeared in 1968]
In order to formulate the problematic of the city (to articulate problems by linking them), the following must be clearly distinguished:
I. The philosophers and philosophies of the city who define it speculatively as whole by defining the ‘homo urbanicus’ as man in (…)

PEOPLE’S UNION FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS
Condemn Torture, Demand Action
29 Dec 2022
People’s Union for Democratic Rights welcomes the findings of the report submitted by the District and Sessions Judge, Faridabad into the illegal detention and brutal torture of labour rights activist, Shiv Kumar in January 2021 by the Haryana Police.
Part of the findings ordered by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the petition filed by Shiv Kumar’s father in February 2021, the report substantiates (…)

One year of Injustice: One year of NREGA workers wage theft in West Bengal
Centre withheld over 7,500 cr funds, 2,744 cr due to NREGA workers Centre hasn’t sanctioned labour budget for 2022-23 Loss of around 4687-6842 crores of NREGA wages this FY due to stoppage of work Average days of work for the current year dropped to meagre 23 from 63.46 days (pre-covid) and 49.96 days (post-covid)
Victimisation of workers:
MGNREGA workers in West Bengal have not been paid wages (…)

Communist Party of India (Marxist)
December 28, 2022
Press Communiqué
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) met in New Delhi on December 27-28. It has issued the following statement:
Economy:
The Polit Bureau expressed its concern at the deepening recessionary conditions in the Indian economy. Notwithstanding all propaganda and claims made by the government of economic recovery, investments in augmenting India’s productive capacities are not growing. (…)

New Delhi, January 5, 2023 Dear Comrades,
January 8, 2023 marks the beginning of the birth centenary of Com. Geeta Mukerjee, an outstanding communist leader and an able Parliamentarian. She was fondly called as Geetadi all over the country.
Com. Geetadi was born on January 8, 1924 in Kolkata (Calcutta). She was married to Com. Biswanath Mukherjee on November 8, 1942 who was a legendary communist leader and secretary of the West Bengal state unit of the Party.
Com. Geetadi was student (…)