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The rainbow-emblazoned corporate swag has been ordered, the gay and lesbian employees dispatched to New York. The floats are all designed and constructed, ready to roll down Fifth Avenue—colorful billboards advertising just how LGBT friendly T-Mobile, MasterCard, TD Bank, Delta Air Lines, and other sponsors are these days.

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

28th June, 2019 marked the 50 years of the infamous riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York, where on 28th June, 1969, the New York police personnel had barged into a gay bar called Stonewall, and had mercilessly beaten up lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, which then sparked off one of the first and biggest demonstrations by the queer community in the USA against police atrocity, and homophobic laws. To mark the occasion, ‘pride’ is celebrated in the month of June every year all over the world. In 1969, the world was just waking up to queer rights and activism. Britain had just decriminalised homosexuality in 1967, though the age of consent for gay men was still higher than the rest of the population, i.e., 21. Most of the European and United States had anti-sodomy laws, while the post-colonial Asian and African countries had happily retained the colonial law on sodomy. In fact, adult homosexual acts finally got decriminalised in all the States of the USA only in 2003! Just 16 years back!

Difficult fiscal situation gave little head room to the new Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to provide much needed stimulus in her maiden budget July 5 to pump prime the slowing economy. Sitharaman like most finance ministers is in an unenvious position as she will have to resort to a tight rope walk to kick start the economy at a time domestic demand is low, macro-economic fundamentals not so strong, global economy slowing, exports slowing down besides widespread farm distress and difficult monsoon year.

After an year long embroilment in trade tiff, embracing tariff war and export subsidies, Modi-Trump summit, on the sideline of G-20 summit in Kobe, became a game changer. It set up a tone for readjustment rather than retaliation. Till now, USA was a staunch accuser of India’s high tariff, saying it Tariff King and alleged India’s export subsidies as WTO non-compliant. Trump’s bully abrogated GSP (Generalized Preference Scheme) benefits, alleging India as one of the causes for USA trade deficit. India enjoys trade surplus with USA.

An intensive power struggle is going on between the old guard and the young Turks in the Congress even as the party is struggling with an unprecedented leadership crisis after a humiliating defeat in the recent Lok Sabha polls. Congress President Rahul Gandhi has plunged the party into a further crisis by resigning and sticking to his decision so far.

The Communist Party USA elected two new leaders with deep connections to the labor and democratic movements as co-chairs at its 31st National Convention in Chicago. Rossana Cambron, a Mexican-American woman from Los Angeles, and Joe Sims, an African-American man from New York, were picked to lead the 100-year old party into its second century.

In the era of globalisation and trade, the issues of farmers and agriculture have assumed the centre stage of global economy. There is no denying the fact that negotiations in the multi-lateral forum, World Trade Organisation (WTO) have been stalled primarily due to agriculture. The developed countries continue subsidise their farmers and agriculture, directly or indirectly, in a big way to the disadvantage of the farmers in the Third World. While the developing countries are asking for a level playing field and disciplining the subsidies, the rich countries are not yielding to give up their illegitimate sway over the global economy. They have become more protectionist in trade instead liberalising global trade in an effective manner.

India has a work force of about 54 crore people. Despite that they are engaged in the productivity and development of the nation, they remain marginalized. Since most of them are in unorganized sectors they are devoid of any social security benefits. Those in the government departments and public sector enterprises, who are covered under social security, are only about 3%. Among the rest work force small number are in formal economy and vast majority, 93%, are in the informal economy. Other than Government and public sector employees, only about 11% of the total work force is covered under the social security schemes.

The BJP has found in hyper-nationalism a surefire winning mantra. It is clear that in all the forthcoming elections, the party will beat the patriotic drum to race ahead of its rivals. The obvious advantage of proclaiming loyalty to the motherland is that the claim cannot be effectively countered.