2024

How do I know if I’m drinking enough water? From time to time media reports feature “experts” asserting that we need to drink only when we’re thirsty, and also, not to worry, we get plenty of water from the foods we eat. A similar view seemed to be the point of a couple of New York Times articles in the summer of 2015. In the first the Times pushed back against the familiar 8 glasses of water a day prescription. (“No, You should not have to drink 8 glasses of water a day,” 8.24.15) In the (…)

Eugen Sandow was an internationally famous strongman. The German-born British showman (1867-1925) toured the world challenging other strongmen and staging displays of strength. He declared himself to be a physical culturist and became the face of the physical culture movement and a pioneer of bodybuilding. Historically, the term “physical culture” is associated with displays of strength, health and fitness.
On 25 May 1904 – 120 years ago – Sandow began a tour of colonial South Africa. He (…)

by Jairus Banaji
In 1948 the Ukrainian Marxist Rosdolsky wrote a devastating critique of the

[fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEWblanc]fond noir]
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One Among You - Vol 1 The Autobiography of M.K Stalin
(Translated by A.S Panneerselvan)
Penguin Viking
2023 | 152 pages
ISBN-9780670098361
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‘One Among You’, The Autobiography of M.K. Stalin is about the first twenty- three years of his life. In the introduction the author says that it is always a pleasure to reflect on the path one has travelled and recollect the past. Everyone’s face glows when we delve deeper into (…)

* Direct Taxes, Growing Disparity & Need for Redistribution | Arun Kumar
* The Fantastic Marionette (WiP) | Papri Sen Sri Raman
* BJP’s electoral strategy: its inner contradictions | Pritam Singh
* An Overview of the Left in Spain | Martin Alonso Zarza

We are in the last lap of the 6-week long election where hundreds of millions have been voting. Within hours the last round of voting in India’s 2024 General election will get underway on June 1 and as the day ends exit polls will start coming and keep coming till the day of the declaration of results on June 4, 2024. The election campaign has been deeply polarising, and divisive and disturbingly the Election Commission of India has chosen not to take action as per due process. Some (…)

by Prof Radhakanta Barik, Prof Malik from Meerut and Dasharathi Maurya a political activist from the Eastern UP.
UP is the fourth largest state comparable to the size of United kingdom. It plays key role in the political mapping of the Indian Republic. With its eighty parliamentary seats and for the BJP it is the important state as the party got sixty seats in the last general election. In their planning of getting 400 seats in 2024 general election UP works as pivotal role. There are (…)

[rouge] ( This is a longer version of the article published in the Businessline on May 09, 2024, Titled ’Direct tax collections reflect disparities’ )rouge]
CBDT has said that net direct tax collection has exceeded its target for 2023-24. It has increased 17.7% over last year and much faster than the income increase of about 9%. Analysis of these facts is important in the light of the contentious debate set in motion by the PM regarding redistribution of wealth in the economy.
Trying to (…)

I was one day Standing in a very long line No, No In a very, very, very long line I don’t know why I was standing In this very, very, very long line.
I looked forwards and backwards And saw only a line A very, very, very long line Yes, Yes, a very, very, very long line.
And then I looked sideward And I saw people lying on the roadside Lying down in a very, very, very long line Next to this very, very, very long line.
I tapped the shoulder of the person Standing ahead of me And (…)

May 23, 2924
Parliamentary procedures have been tossed aside as an increasing number of laws are passed with little or no debate.
It took decades of people’s struggles to establish India as a democratic state. The central democratic institution of this state is its parliament. In recent years, parliament’s role has been undermined by a government with a brute majority in the lower house, the Lok Sabha, culminating in a "democratic deficit" in its functioning.
In August 2023, under the (…)