The labour Codes enacted by Parliament have little to do with labour welfare; they are apparently meant to improve ‘ease of doing business’ and to make it easy for employers to hire and fire workers.

Opposition parties accuse Mamata Banerjee of tepid response.

The Mahabodhi temple complex in Bodh Gaya, where the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment under a pipal tree, has a multi-layered history and also figured prominently in the formulation of independent India’s foreign policy.

With farmers in Madhya Pradesh rarely being able to sell soybean and other produce at MSP, they are not hopeful of getting remunerative prices now with the passing of the new legislation, notwithstanding the assurances of the Central and State governments.

The ruling coalition is up in arms against the Central farm laws, but the Shiv Sena will find it difficult to defend its support for the ordinance issued earlier.

The Sangh Parivar carries on with its project of using religion to further political mobilisation. This time its target is what it calls Krishna Janmabhoomi at Mathura.

The farmers’ protest in Uttar Pradesh, the biggest political demonstration since the anti-CAA protests, may lead to a downswing in the BJP’s political fortunes.

The three vaccine frontrunners in India are yet to enter the most critical Phase 3 trials, but the government has given a premature assurance that a vaccine will be available by early 2021, which will only give rise to a sense of misplaced hope and false security among the public.

Kerala may not be impacted by the new farm laws as much as certain other States, but it will have to face several challenges once those laws are implemented. So the State has devised a decentralised model of alternative initiatives.

Punjab witnesses massive mobilisation against the new farm Acts, which threaten to radically undermine the longstanding compact with the peasantry that enabled the success of the Green Revolution.

Interview with G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, Member of Parliament from the BJP.

Organisations of farmers, Dalits and workers come together in protest against the anti-farmer policies of the Central and State governments.

Interview with Pawan Khera, Congress spokesperson.

Farmers fear the new farm laws would divest them of the basic protection they had from the vagaries of prices and the challenges of marketing.

The new law on contract farming neither protects nor provides support to farmers, especially small farmers, to engage as free participants in production contracts.

Interview with Ashwani Mahajan, national convener of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch.

The farmers’ protest in Uttar Pradesh, the biggest political demonstration since the anti-CAA protests, may lead to a downswing in the BJP’s political fortunes.

Punjab witnesses massive mobilisation against the new farm Acts, which threaten to radically undermine the longstanding compact with the peasantry that enabled the success of the Green Revolution.

Interview with G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, Member of Parliament from the BJP.

Organisations of farmers, Dalits and workers come together in protest against the anti-farmer policies of the Central and State governments.

The new law on contract farming neither protects nor provides support to farmers, especially small farmers, to engage as free participants in production contracts.

Interview with Pawan Khera, Congress spokesperson.

Farmers fear the new farm laws would divest them of the basic protection they had from the vagaries of prices and the challenges of marketing.

Interview with Ashwani Mahajan, national convener of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch.

The new laws may have far-reaching adverse consequences for small growers, especially because they are tilted in favour of large growers and private and foreign enterprises involved in the business of agriculture.

Farmers in Punjab, the food bowl of the nation, vehemently oppose the agriculture Bills as they feel the Bills will soon make the small and marginal farmer landless.

The three newly enacted pieces of farm legislation threaten to annul a key provision of agricultural price policy in India, the minimum support price. They reflect the government’s lack of empathy for small and marginal farmers, who are among the most economically vulnerable sections of rural India.

Interview with Dr Ashok Dhawale, national president, All India Kisan Sabha.

Interview with Naresh Gujral, Akali Dal leader.

The passage of the three controversial pieces of legislation facilitating agricultural marketing threatens to pave the way for consolidation of wealth in rural India.

Interview with J. Jeyaranjan, social scientist.

The widespread resentment and agitation of farmers against the agricultural marketing Bills, which were passed in the Rajya Sabha in brazen violation of parliamentary rules, and the opposition’s concerted moves on this issue may prove to be the toughest political challenge that the Modi government has faced in its six years in office.

The State government’s decision to adopt the testing and treatment method seems to have paid off, as reflected in its increased case recovery rate. With the reopening of shops and industries and the return of migrant workers, the State appears set to return to pre-lockdown normalcy.

As India continues to be second in the global ranking of total COVID-19 cases, and the number of deaths continues to increase, questions remain about the reliability of the number of cases being captured by tests in India.

Kapila Vatsyayan (1928-2020) was a scholar-practitioner of the arts, a cultural thinker and an institution builder.

Kapila Vatsyayan (1928-2020) was a scholar-practitioner of the arts, a cultural thinker and an institution builder.