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India is still struggling to meet the target of the National Forest Policy set 35 years ago in 1988. In 2023, it could attain a forest and tree cover of only 25.17 percent against the target of a minimum one-third (33.3 percent) of the total land area of the country to maintain environmental stability, restore ecological balance and conserve natural heritage. Since then the climate change induced environmental crisis has aggravated and it is frustrating.

As the Biden administration prepares to relinquish power next month, it may leave without accomplishing a much-discussed diplomatic goal: the normalisation of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, accompanied by a formal US security agreement with Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif securing a $7 billion package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in September was accompanied by a commitment to break Pakistan's longstanding reliance on bailout programmes. Since 1958, it has taken recourse to it 20 times. The country is struggling with a worsening unemployment crisis and a brain-drain. There are recent reports of the World Bank cancelling a $500 billion loan for a clean energy programme.

A new waste-to-energy incineration plant is set to be established in Bawana to burn 3,000 tonnes of mixed municipal solid waste daily per day. Currently, Delhi burns 7,250 tonnes of garbage daily across plants in Okhla, Tehkhand, Ghazipur, and Bawana, with plans to expand the capacity of these plants by an additional 5,000 tonnes daily.

The Democratic Party in the US has failed to earn the support of what was once its working-class base. This ought to be a moment of reckoning for the party. The anger it faces is justified and necessary to intensify pressure to abandon its tepid political strategies and overreliance on big donors who oppose large-scale redistribution and pro-worker policies. But while the party deserves a lot of blame, understanding the depth of the crisis on the Left requires a much broader analysis than finger-pointing at Democratic campaign officials and strategists allows.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘friend’, the US President-elect Donald J Trump, is set to move into White House, once again, it need not be particularly beneficial for India. If anything, Trump can be said to be “anti-India” even while remaining “pro-Modi”. The camaraderie contrasts starkly with the president-elect’s anti-India economic stance, which has already manifested in threats of retaliatory tariffs and a staunch defence of the US dollar as the global currency.

History of the Communist Party of India in the last 100 years is a glorious saga of struggles and sacrifices for our country and its people. History of our freedom movement and our progress after independence are incomplete without the blood and sweat of communists all over the country. The foundation day of the CPI, 26th December 1925 is etched in the history of India as the day when dedicated communists from all over the country gathered in Kanpur to form the Communist Party of India and the event changed the course of our freedom struggle.

India’s only decent job creation flagship programme announced in the Union Budget 2024-25 has gone out of track. Though supposed to be launched on August 1, it is now likely to be launched in January 2025, since details of the programmes are not yet ready. One of the reasons for the inordinate delay is, the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment has told the Department related Parliamentary Committee, was pendency of Union Cabinet’s approval.

The aim of all fascistic governments is to disempower the people and the Modi government is no exception. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), which promised one member in every rural household a maximum of 100 days of employment per year, was a demand-driven scheme. In a limited sense, therefore, it gave people a right to employment, not to everyone and not for as many days as a person wanted, but a right nonetheless.

The situation has gone out of hand. The tiger nurtured by the RSS has tasted blood. And RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat giving the impression he can goad the monster is nothing but a blinkered attempt to fool the people. The RSS claim that it's a cultural and social organisation is a bluff. Since its birth in 1925, the RSS has had a well-defined and mischievous political agenda: Divide society and outrage societal ethics and norms.