The withdrawal of the Rs 2,000 note marks the end of a sordid chapter in the demonetisation sagaTHE withdrawal of the Rs 2,000 note from circulation by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which it announced on May 19, 2023, marks the end of a sordid chapter in the tragi-comic demonetisation saga. The presence of the Rs 2,000 note in circulation was a constant reminder of the horrors of a “nation in the queue”. The note was also an object of ridicule, particularly due to bizarre claims at the time of its introduction, of a nano chip implanted in it.

THE central and state government employees have been engaged in a prolonged struggle against the National Pension Scheme (NPS), demanding the restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). The movement has gained momentum recently, with 15 lakh state government employees of Maharashtra going on strike since March 14, and 70,000 government employees in Haryana agitating, braving water cannons. The continuous efforts of the government employees' movement have brought the issue to the forefront of the socio-political discourse.

“Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks. The time during which the labourer works, is the time during which the capitalist consumes the labour-power he has purchased of him”IN 2019, the National Statistical Office of the Government of India published a report titled "Time Use in India - 2019" which ran to 2140 pages.

IN discussions about the laws and policies passed and implemented by the Modi government in recent years, one crucial similarity is often overlooked. Many of the policies, such as the farmers' law, labour laws, environmental laws, and forest act, have been modelled after those of the colonial era. This point was repeatedly emphasised during the farmers' protests, which became one of the most radical and determined movements in independent India's history and lasted for a whole year at the borders of the capital.

THE first quarter of the twenty-first century is showing many similarities with its immediately preceding counterpart (the twentieth century), especially regarding science in general, and elementary particle physics, and cosmology in particular; and regarding the latter, the literally earth-shaking discovery made by Edwin Hubble. His observations using earth-based telescope(s), of the “red shift” of light reaching us from the distant stars, showed that the universe is expanding! This has been confirmed and further examined, by probes sent into space as well as ground-based observations.