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The only positive aspect about the initiatives announced by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is that the government has finally acknowledged that the economy is in crisis. However, the directionlessness of the initiatives shows that the government still does not understand what ails the economy.

Modi Government is abrogating not only labour rights in the name of labour reforms, it has not spared the labour welfare schemes either. Labour welfare cesses are being abolished and labour welfare acts are being scrapped one by one. On 8 August 2019, the government notified repeal of the Beedi Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1976. Earlier, the cess acts or welfare funds acts relating to iron, manganese, chrome, mica, salt pan, limestone and dolomite mine workers has been abolished.

On Wednesday, August 28, 2019, the Supreme Court finally took up the slew of petitions challenging the validity of the Presidential Orders dated August 5 and August 6 respectively, after 24 days of complete lockdown of 7 million people in Kashmir, and directed that these petitions would be heard by a Constitution Bench of 5 Judges, from October, 2018 onwards, since it involved substantial questions of law. While issuing notice on these petitions, the Court rejected the objections of the Central Government, which contended that this was a ‘sensitive issue having cross-border repercussions’.

Weekly Round-Up of Major Decisions of the Courts in India as also Legal Policy Developments

There have been reports of division within the Congress party about its Lok Sabha election campaign led by Rahul Gandhi with the slogan “Chowkidar chor hain” — an indirect attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for being a “thief”. Later, Rahul himself too in his resignation letter after the results had confirmed by mentioning that at times he found himself alone — pointing to the disunity among the party. However, all these disunity remained mostly behind the curtains till senior party leader Jairam Ramesh's cautious public comment not to demonise Modi everytime — as it will not benefit the party. He said that schemes like Ujjwala were successful — and to confront Modi, it is better to recognise his works that connect him with the common people.

Boris Johnson’s intention to prorogue Parliament has provoked much contrived outrage from opposition politicians and Commons Speaker John Bercow. But where have these self-proclaimed “defenders of democracy” been while Jeremy Corbyn and many progressive and labour movement figures have been demanding a genuine exercise in democracy through a general election?

Quite intriguing how could Brexit drag the Queen into the heart of Britain's political crisis. Apprehensions were already there that the Prime Minister Boris Johnson would take recourse to suspending the parliament, but his move would come so soon is really a matter of conjecture.

The first year of the second term of the Narendra Modi Government is going to witness the lowest GDP growth of 6.7 per cent in the last six years. The economic crisis has accentuated in the last two years and despite all the talk of increasing the income of the farmers and the rural poor by the BJP government, the rural income has been falling and accompanied by the pressure on urban earnings due to job crisis, is contributing to acute pressure on aggregate demand.

WASHINGTON: Lawmakers and administration officials are reportedly seeking to impose sanctions on China. They are, however, apparently having difficulty deciding which sanctions would work best, as discussions have allegedly dragged on for weeks.

PITTSBURGH: Citing his long-time support for workers and especially those forced to strike, the independent United Electrical Workers convention unanimously voted on August 26 to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., for presidential nominee of Democratic Party.