England is due to host the next football World Cup, and in preparation for this most prestigious of sporting events, the stadium in Wembley has undergone a makeover. The refurbished stadium is ready a year before the tournament is scheduled to kick off. The Football Association’s chief executive boasts that this is now the largest… Read More Ramachandra Guha: The unmaking of India
NB: Today is International Labour Day, May 1, 2021. As a tribute to India’s workers, I post a chapter from my monograph on the history of the labour movement in Jharkhand during the 1930’s. It was titled The Politics of Labour Under Late Colonialism: Workers,Unions, and the State in Chota Nagpur, 1928-1939. The ongoing kisan struggle has… Read More 1938: the year Indian workers fought for themselves
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A forum of scientific advisers set up by the government warned Indian officials in early March of a new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus taking hold in the country, five scientists who are part of the forum told Reuters. Despite the warning, four of the scientists said the federal… Read More Devjyot Ghoshal, Krishna Das. Exclusive: Scientists say India government ignored warnings amid coronavirus surge // Kapil Komireddi: Modi Fiddles While India Burns
It is time to liberate our media systems from the political and economic forces that have long subtly controlled them Monday will mark World Press Freedom Day. It’s a moment to celebrate the work that journalism does in holding power to account. It’s also a moment to raise awareness of the dangers facing journalists in… Read More Dan Hind – 1400 journalists have been murdered since 1991: Rewrite journalism to achieve press freedom
NB: The only caveat I have to make on this incisive comment refers to the (admittedly conditional) phrase: “instances that must haunt any ruler left with an iota of conscience.” Our rulers do not have an iota of conscience. Within days of the latest lockdown, the RSS general secretary was talking about anti-national forces conspiring to… Read More Suhas Palshikar: A monumental failure of governance // ‘There should be no clampdown on information, people can voice grievances on social media’: Supreme Court
Article on the US proposal for a common minimum tax on corporations and its likely benefits for India in The Hindu on April 27. It is attached here https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/an-idea-on-taxation-that-is-worth-a-try/article34417756.ece Panel discussion on reverse migration of workers during second coronavirus wave in India, organized by IMPRI on April 26. https://youtub.e/xopvAKaivV4 Article on fighting the second wave… Read More Arun Kumar: Articles and discussions on COVID and impact, Global Corporate taxation and Academic Autonomy
The pandemic has now firmly gripped many smaller cities, towns and villages where the devastation is largely under-reported. Rajesh Soni spent eight hours taking his father from one hospital to another in a tuk-tuk in Kota district in the northern state of Rajasthan on Tuesday. He couldn’t get an ambulance and the rickety vehicle was… Read More India Covid-19: Deadly second wave spreads from cities to small towns
On April 22, the Sherpa association lodged a complaint against X with the constitution of a civil party to open a judicial investigation into the highly sensitive case of the sale of 36 combat aircraft by Dassault Aviation to India in 2016. The Sherpa association, which fights against economic crime, is bringing back to court… Read More Anne Michel and Simon Piel – Rafale case: Fresh moves towards a corruption investigation
The world’s glaciers are melting at an accelerating rate, according to a comprehensive new study. A French-led team assessed the behaviour of nearly all documented ice streams on the planet. The researchers found them to have lost almost 270 billion tonnes of ice a year over the opening two decades of the 21st Century. The… Read More Jonathan Amos: World's glaciers melting at a faster pace
The selected cartoons appeared first in other publications, either in print or online, or on social media, and are credited appropriately. Alok Nirantar | Twitter https://theprint.in/last-laughs/ecs-too-little-too-late-decision-and-indias-kafka-esque-reality/647537/ Election Commission responsible for spreading Covid-19, should probably be booked for murder: Madras HC // Bharat Bhushan on the departing CJI: Good riddance Reality of Lucknow’s Covid funerals stands… Read More EC’s ‘too little, too late’ decision, and India’s ‘Kafkaesque’ reality // Reality of Lucknow’s Covid funerals stands in stark contrast to UP govt’s claims
After the truth-shower 