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ILO Governing Body concluded its 349th session (30 October - November 9) at its headquarters at Geneva in Switzerland with a number of potentially far-reaching decisions on the future of work. Endorsement of the proposal to establish a Global Coalition for Social Justice and adoption of a new Global Strategy on Occupational Safety and Health 2024-2030 were among the several key decisions. Discussion on right to strike and related issues in two special sessions on November 10 and 11, especially after the conclusion of the Governing Body meet on November 9 is not less significant, since its outcome can potentially make or mar the future of well-being of workers.

In a time marked by political discontent in Jammu and Kashmir, triggered by the loss of statehood and abrogation of Article 370, the BJP is trying to reshape people’s perception of the party. Leading that charge mechanism is a group of highly educated Muslims in —Farida Khan, Darakhan Andrabi, Hina Bhat, Parvaz Chauhan, and Ramisa Rafiq Wani. Their work stands out in comparison with the party’s male leaders in the union territory, who are busy bickering and framing factions.

The Supreme Court strictures against the Punjab governor for sitting over the bills passed by the state assembly by questioning the validity of the house session that passed those bills are a verdict against what has come to be regarded as the standard operating practice of the Union home ministry to use governors for political ends.

Politics makes strange bed fellows. But eyebrows were certainly raised when Subhendu Adhikari, a state leader of BJP which makes no secret of his outfit's affinity for Hindutva recently spoke of supporting a representative from another political outfit at Lok Sabha constituency of Diamond Harbour to defeat Trinamool Congress's Abhishek Banerjee.

The way the lay of the land lies, courts have the last word and among the courts, the Supreme Court. So, it’s a “big victory” for the AAP government and a lesson for the Punjab Governor who had withheld consent to four bills passed by the Punjab assembly while also ruling an entire assembly session invalid. The top court said the Punjab Governor’s refusal to give assent to the bills and ruling the session invalid had "put the parliamentary form of government in peril".

The Lok Sabha Ethics committee has made Mahua Moitra a martyr. The indiscreet decision proves beyond doubt that the personal and political life of an individual daring to raise an accusing finger towards Narendra Modi and his tycoon friend Gautam Adani would have to face the wrath of the combined establishment.

In an economy like ours where the work-force is not neatly divided into “the employed” and “the unemployed”, and instead there is massive and growing casualisation of work, measuring unemployment is a tricky business. It necessarily means asking a person how much work that person got over a certain period in the past, because of which the unemployment measure varies depending on what period is taken into account and how much work over this period is taken to constitute employment. The National Sample Survey accordingly has three different concepts: usual status, weekly status and daily status; the NSS however, apart from conceptual issues relating to its definitions, carried out its large sample survey every five years while its annual survey was based on a much smaller sample, because of which it gave at best annual figures.

Election campaigns are at peak in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh going to polls on November 17 in the second phase, and only five days are left for the chief contestants – the Congress and the BJP. As of now, Congress seems to be maintaining its lead in both the states. BJP in Chhattisgarh is trying hard to recover its lost ground, while in Madhya Pradesh it is struggling to retain its power.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been campaigning against the Opposition’s INDI-Alliance for as long as the alliance has been in existence, i.e., since July of this year. That should answer the question, is the ruling BJP worried about what the INDI-Alliance could do to it in the 2024 general elections? Also, the Prime Minister has been laying extra stress on rooting out corruption and eradicating dynasty and appeasement from the fabric of India since the day of the announcement of ‘INDIA’.

On November 3, 2023, New Delhi woke up to a thick layer of toxic smog, as IQ Air a Swiss-based air quality technology company, specializing in pollution and monitoring natural resources put the city’s air quality index (AQI) at611 in the ‘hazardous’ category. A reading of 0-50is considered good. Anything between 400 and 500is unhealthy. Schools across the city have been shuttered and construction activity halted as the city was declared the world’s most polluted city. Although this is a recurring annual event in North India (now joined by Mumbai) at the beginning of winter, both Union and state governments are resorting to short-term measures instead of finding long-term solutions.