Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  Table of Contents - Mainstream, July 22 & 29, 2023

  22 July 2023

  * The Unfulfilled Promises of a Structurally Flawed GST: Assessing its Impact During Six Years of its Operation | Arun Kumar
  * Growth Conundrum | Govind Bhattacharjee
  * A Case Study on Working Women in Kashmir | Yasmin & Nabi
  * Life of D.D. Kosambi: Brilliant Intellectual & Humanist | Kobad Ghandy
  * Debating Hindutva | Subhash Gatade

• Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, July 22 & July 29, 2023

  22 July 2023

  Despite continued mob violence for three months in the Northeastern state of Manipur, which has led to 150 deaths, and the displacement of tens of thousands into refugee camps, not one word was uttered by the Prime Minister of India to express his condemnation and to offer sympathies to victims. And then suddenly on July 19, 2023, a video on social media of the violation of two Kuki women by a mob appeared. This is a video of violent assault by a mob from May 2023. As this video went ‘viral’ (…)

• The Unfulfilled Promises of a Structurally Flawed GST: Assessing its Impact During Six Years of its Operation | Arun Kumar

  22 July 2023, by Arun Kumar

  GST has been in operation since July 1, 2017. In the six years that have elapsed, has it fulfilled the promises that its proponents had vociferously claimed for it. It was billed as the second freedom since it was supposed to unify the `fragmented’ Indian market. That was the parallel drawn with 1947 which brought together the states to form India as a union of states. Promised Gains from GST
  GST was supposed to benefit the people by, increasing GDP by 1 to 2 per cent, reducing inflation, (…)

• The Growth Conundrum | Govind Bhattacharjee

  22 July 2023

  Measurement of the GDP is central to a modern economy and its growth is essential for the stability of governments. But the GDP growth is based on increased consumption and production that cause continuous depletion of earth’s limited resources, and the process cannot go on indefinitely. At some point in time, the world must get reconciled to the idea of low growth or no growth, and be concerned with the stability of GDP rather than its growth. The emerging economic models like doughnut (…)

• Workforce Participation and Empowerment - A Case Study of Working Women in Kashmir | Yasmin & Nabi

  22 July 2023

  by Effat Yasmin & Sumair Nabi
  Abstract:
  Based on primary data this paper attempts to study the factors that determine workforce participation and level of empowerment among women. The data has been collected through a field survey from three districts viz. Anantnag, Srinagar and Baramulla of Kashmir Valley. Working women in the education, health, and banking sectors constitute the sample of the present study. The findings reveal that given a chance to exercise one’s job preferences, (…)

• Dissenting Life of D. D. Kosambi | Arup Kumar Sen

  22 July 2023, by Arup Kumar Sen

  D. D. Kosambi is quite well-known in India and abroad for his unique contributions to the writing of Indian history. His dissenting professional life as a mathematician is relatively lesser known. Kobad Ghandy’s entry on the D. D. Kosambi Research Foundation (Mainstream, July 8, 2023) propels us to revisit his dissenting life, embedded in the narrative of his scholar-daughter, Meera Kosambi. (‘D D Kosambi: The Scholar and the Man’, RESONANCE, June 2011)
  D. D. Kosambi started teaching (…)

• Why Say No to Biodiversity and Forest Act Bills? | Soma Marla

  22 July 2023, by Soma S. Marla

  On Tuesday [25 July 2023] in the current session of Parliament Union Minister for Environment and forests introduced the Biodiversity bill amidst the opposition’s sloganeering on the Manipur issue. The content of the proposed both bills on Biodiversity and Forests dilutes conservation efforts of biodiversity and protected ( including range) forests listed in Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. New amendments will directly harm the interests of forest (…)

• Life of D.D. Kosambi: Brilliant Intellectual & Humanist | Kobad Ghandy

  22 July 2023, by Kobad Ghandy

  On his 116th birth anniversary (July 31st, 2023) we not only remember Kosambi (31 July 1907 — 29 June 1966) but seek to emulate his spirit. While most left intellectuals today are more preoccupied with building careers or absorbed in petty intrigues, one could, on this auspicious occasion, learn from DDK’s total focus on research and the interests of the people. Without such focus, discipline, and single-minded effort nothing great can be accomplished in life. We will be condemned to a (…)

• Sordid Manipur Ongoings and Modispeak | Sukla Sen

  22 July 2023, by Sukla Sen

  The Background in Brief
  In April this year, a Manipur High Court verdict, in a favourable response to a demand by the (Hindu) Meitei community — constituting the dominant majority in the state inhabiting the Imphal Valley — for a Scheduled Tribe status directed the state government to make a decision on the issue preferably within four weeks.
  The (Christian) tribal communities, inhabiting the surrounding hill areas, took fright and protested. The All Tribal Student Union of Manipur (…)

• A common thread of state complicity binding Manipur victims, wrestling champions, and Bilkis Bano | Faraz Ahmad

  22 July 2023, by Faraz Ahmad

  There are remarkable parallels between the suffering of the victims of Manipur public stripping and gangrape, the international women wrestling champions’ sexual harassment case and even the Bilkis Bano gangrape of February-March, 2002 in Gujarat. And that is the alleged complicity of the state. In each instance we find the criminal/s won’t dare to commit such a heinous crime in full public view but for the confidence of protection of the state.
  The official media in Delhi and Imphal, (…)