THE decision by President Barack Obama to order the American military back into action in West Asia following the military advances of the Islamic State (IS) forces and the beheading of three western nationals in the region, could lead to another full scale war in the region. In the third week of September, the US House of Representatives and the Senate voted to give the American president its approval for the plan to train and arm the so-called “moderate” rebel forces in Syria, without even a semblance of a debate.

THE Modi government announces its big ticket labour market reforms. Branded as Shramev Jayate, these labour reforms have the objective of pleasing both labour and capital and removing the ‘obstacles’ to economic investment and growth. But Modi is not alone in trying to please labour and capital in one stroke. Even those politically opposed to him are arguing that labour reforms are needed and that they should be suited to address the problems of labour market rigidities which have traditionally held back economic growth.

VISAKHAPATNAM, one of the most beautiful cities on the East Coast, was devastated by Cyclone Hudhud which hit Andhra Pradesh on October 12. The devastation was unprecedented. In fact, the whole northern region of Andhra Pradesh was badly affected by it. Due to development of technology, several agencies like NASA, ISRO and IMD had warned about the magnitude of the cyclone five days in advance, but the state government was not in a position to take up relief measures even two days after the cyclone hit the state.

THIS being Jawaharlal Nehru’s 125th birth anniversary, much is being written about him and the economic strategy he pursued. The corporate-controlled media are full of articles criticising the “inward looking” dirigiste economic strategy that Nehru, along with PC Mahalanobis who was in charge of the planning process for much of the Nehru era, was supposed to have introduced.

MARKING a historic victory, the youth organisations in Kerala ended the four-day long indefinite hunger strike led by the LDYF when all its demands were approved by the state government. The Left Democratic Youth Federation, a platform of Left and democratic youth organisations had launched a massive hunger strike in front of the State Secretariat building in Thiruvananthapuram, on the burning issues faced by the youth in the state as well as the common people.