Vol. XLIX No. 07 February 16, 2025

The Delhi Election Results

THE BJP has won the Delhi assembly election with a tally of 48 seats, polling 45.6 per cent of the vote. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 22 seats getting 43.6 per cent of the vote. The difference between the two was only 2 per cent but it translated into 40 seats more for the BJP. The Delhi assembly election results are being viewed...

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The Inhumanity Engendered by Capitalism

GEORG Lukacs, the renowned Marxist philosopher had once remarked that “even the worst socialism was better than the best capitalism”. That remark made in 1969 and repeated in 1971, no doubt on the basis of Lukacs’ perception of actually existing socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe with which he was familiar, had been treated sceptically even in Western Left circles at the time. But the entire recent episode of deportees from the United States,...

DeepSeek's Deep Shock to the US AI Behemoths

THE tech world was shocked when a little-known Chinese company released an AI model called DeepSeek that appears to match the Open AI's most advanced models while spending a small fraction of its cost. The tech world has been buzzing for the last month with leading the US tech investors first following Nvidia's performance with bated breath and then bemoaning that the AI's Sputnik moment – DeepSeek's AI models – had wiped nearly a trillion...

TN: CPI(M)-led Movement Defeats Corporate Mining in Madurai

IN a historic victory for people's movements, the Union Ministry of Mines announced on January 23, 2025, the complete cancellation of the tungsten mining project in Melur, Madurai. The decision followed a meeting between Union Minister G Kishan Reddy and a delegation of farmers, acknowledging the need to protect the Arittapatti Biodiversity Heritage Site and its cultural significance. This triumph marked the...

Anti-Poor Budget Tailor-Made For Corporates and the Rich

THE Union Budget 2025-26 maintained a consistent and brazenly pro-corporate and anti-people, approach while presenting a deceptive facade of pro-people and pro-growth initiatives. The government, true to its pro-corporate bias, chose to ignore the stark findings of its own Economic Survey released just a day earlier.

Kerala Budget 2025-26: A Progressive Vision For a Sustainable and Inclusive Future

THE Kerala Budget for 2025-26, presented by Finance Minister KN Balagopal, unfolds a bold and comprehensive vision for the state’s future – a roadmap that combines progressive growth, social justice, and environmental responsibility. In the face of persistent fiscal challenges, the budget emphasizes the importance of people-centric policies, sustainable development, and the...

India’s Demographic Dividend and Economic Stagnation: A Structural Crisis

INDIA boasts the world's largest workforce, with 420 million young people making up 29 per cent of the population. The working-age population (15-65 years) accounts for approximately 68 per cent of the total population, a demographic advantage that began to emerge around 2005-06 and is expected to continue until 2055-56. Despite this, the Indian economy is showing signs of...

'Emperor' Trump and Imperial US Expansionism

TRUMP is back. His foreign policy announcements, or rather, interventions, clearly show his intentions. What were imagined as statements made by a maniac are now turning out to be pronouncements made with all due seriousness. The real meaning of making ‘America Great Again’ is now becoming crystal clear. Trump started his first day as president by signing many executive orders, one among them is renaming the Gulf of Mexico as Gulf...

The Week in Parliament

THE Budget Session of Parliament began on January 31 with President Droupadi Murmu's address to a joint sitting of both the Houses. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for 2025-26 on February 1. Overall, the budget was disappointing as people had high expectations from it. There is nothing in the budget for the general public. The expectation that the budget would strengthen the public sector and help generate more employment in the country has not materialised....

Corporate Aggression Forces Working People To Unite for Counteroffensive

THE political situation at the all India level has been increasingly influenced by the main contradiction between capital and labour and the consistent corporate efforts to intensify the exploitation of the two major producing classes – workers and farmers. The concrete steps taken by the NDA-3 government to impose the four Labour Codes and introduction of the National Policy Framework on...

West Bengal's Education Crisis: SFI Leads Protest March

“WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high…” Rabindranath Tagore's vision of free knowledge is contradicted by the current education system, which under capitalist rule, controls knowledge to benefit the ruling class. The National Education Policy (NEP), the RSS model, excludes the poor and indoctrinates others to serve corporates and Hindutva ideological interests.