Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Reading Capital in Precarious Times | Arup Kumar Sen

  20 May 2023, by Arup Kumar Sen

  A recently published book, Marx Dead and Alive: Reading Capital in Precarious Times, authored by Andy Merrifield (Monthly Review Press, 2021; Indian edition, 2023), has gone back to Marx’s Capital to address our precarious times: “Our own corpsed reality has depressed me so much that I vowed now was the time to get back to Marx.”. The author emphasized in this reading the unfinished journey of Marx’s Capital: “Marx never wanted to finish Capital because he couldn’t see how it could ever be (…)

• Phoney Patriots, Fake Social Workers! Why the Hindutva Brigade has suddenly gone mute in case of the recent exposure of an espionage case in DRDO? | Subhash Gatade

  20 May 2023, by Subhash Gatade

  Silence speaks! Or does it so !!
  The recent exposure of an espionage case in DRDO — ( Defence Research Development Organisation) - which involves a senior scientist, Prof Pradeep Kurulkar, who was holding the position of Director, Systems Engineering Laboratory of the Research & Development Establishment (Engineers) within the organisation and was handling crucial projects related to India’s defence preparations has perhaps shaken the defence establishment.
  As per reports he had (…)

• Need for Decentralisation Version 2.0 | J.B. Rajan & T.P. Haribabu

  20 May 2023

  by J.B. Rajan & T.P. Haribabu *
  Abstract
  This paper discusses emerging role of Local Governments, especially in the context of pandemic and climate change challenges. Local Governments always had the potential to actively involve in local issues but seldom given the recognition and opportunities. Taking cues from the involvement and initiatives of Local Governments during Covid-19 pandemic, authors put forth the need for second decentralisation in the country so as to enable them to (…)

• Proposal of $9 billion to settle legal claims regarding severe health hazards of talcum powder raises wider issues | Bharat Dogra

  20 May 2023, by Bharat Dogra

  The giant pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson has recently proposed paying $ 8.9 billion dollars to settle thousands of legal cases relating to severe health problems including ovarian cancer being caused by its talcum powder products in North America.
  Health problems caused by talcum powder to small children have been a matter of concern for doctors for a much longer period in several countries, including India.
  One part, and only one part, of the concerns relate to the (…)

• US Banks Failure: Its Impact and Lessons for India | Dhameja, Dhameja, Khattar

  20 May 2023

  Banks, an integral part of the financial system, affect and are affected by the economic activities and capital formation of a country. Banks failure is common in the US as bank failures happen more often, there have been 565 banks failure in the US since the new millennium; that is an average of almost 25 per year.
  Banks in the US normally fall in three categories as, regional banks, community banks and National banks. Regional banks, are defined by the Federal Reserve, as banks with $10 (…)

• Deadly heatwaves threaten to reverse India’s progress on poverty and inequality – new research | Debnath & Bardhan

  20 May 2023

  by Ramit Debnath & Ronita Bardhan *
  April 28, 2023
  Record-breaking heatwaves in April 2022 put 90% of people in India at increased risk of going hungry, losing income or premature death, according to our new study.
  After 2022 was designated the hottest in 122 years, extreme heat has appeared early again this year with over 60% of India recording above-normal maximum temperatures for April, according to the country’s Meteorological Department. El Niño, a natural climate event that (…)

• A Woman Wrestler Speaks | Sagari Chhabra

  20 May 2023, by Sagari Chhabra

  As far as I can remember girls were protected from the eyes of Man; woe betide should someone desire you; remain invisible within the four corners of your home, hone your domestic skills, for the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. While it’s hard to digest, a woman is just a spare rib of a man’s life, it’s for him to strive, for you to adjust, it always has, and will remain thus.
  One day something snapped deep within, I walked to the sand pit and started to wrestle, revelling in (…)

• Springtime for Thai Democracy? | Patawee Chotanan

  20 May 2023

  [the below article appeared before the May 2023 elections in Thailand]
  by Patawee Chotanan *
  After years of mass mobilizations, Sunday will put the country’s electoral system to the test
  The last few years have been turbulent in Thai politics. Following the period of relative calm after the 2014 coup that overthrew popular social reformer Yingluck Shinawatra, a massive youth movement for democracy and social reform began popping up around the country, before the COVID-19 pandemic and (…)

• The Menace of “National Socialism” | Max Nettlau

  20 May 2023

  First Published in The Clarion 1 no. 5, January, 1933
  What is called “national socialism” in present Germany is in fact the ugliest type of anti-socialism. Authority and Monopoly at bay do their worst and are helped in this by the degeneration of authoritarian socialism; under such conditions, the particularly hopeless position of Germany since 1918 and the worldwide crisis setting in three years ago, aided by the callousness which countenanced Italian fascism—this morbid secretion, the (…)

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  Teachers Platform and a Peasant organisation in Solidarity with Navsharan Singh

  20 May 2023

  DTF strongly condemns ’Modi Govt driven ED’ to grill Dr. Navsharan.
  Chandigarh: May 16 [2023] Modi Govt driven Enforcement Directorate (ED) has harassed the well-known Cultural and Social activist Dr. Navsharan, by grilling more than 8 hours. Leading Teachers’ Union DTF Punjab strongly condemns the ED for interrogating her. The leaders of DTF, Digvijay Pal Sharma, state president, and Balbir Longowal, State General secretary, has told the press that Dr. Navsharan is a member of AIUFWP (…)