The Bretton Woods system institutionalized the US dollar as a global reserve currency, with the US pledging to buy and sell gold from foreign governments and central banks at a fixed price of $35 per ounce of gold. The reserve currency role of the dollar was predicated on the belief that there would not be a rush to exchange dollars for gold, that is, on an expectation of stability in the gold price of dollars, which in turn was based on an expectation of stability (at least over time, barring short-term fluctuations) in the dollar prices of commodities.

THE 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, held on September 12-13, 2026, produced a 140-point Declaration that is at once an assertion of Global South aspirations and a mirror to the contradictions of the grouping itself. For the Left, the task is neither to applaud nor to dismiss, but to read the document critically, recognising where it advances the struggle against US-led unipolarity, where it falls short, and where the Indian government's own conduct betrays the Declaration’s spirit.

THE BJP’s façade of patriotism is repeatedly shattered, and the party stands exposed time and again; yet, it persists in singing the same tune. As the English writer Samuel Johnson famously said, “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” The BJP’s conduct consistently proves this adage true.

FOLLOWING the vigorous and victorious July student struggle at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, the movement by Adivasi students in Maharashtra in August 2026 once again brought issues of education and employment, especially of the socially oppressed, to the forefront. Given the intensity of the 17-day long agitation, the state government was forced to bow down.

MODI’s narrative about him administering homeopathic medicine is largely a self-inflicted assault. Far from being a successful strategy it is proving to be a self-goal – a case of unmitigated frustration. To brand all those who have views contrary to the regime and Hindutva as “dimagi naxals” leads to only one inescapable conclusion: that all those who support Modi and his ideas are “gair-dimagi andh bhakts”.