GN Bureau | May 2, 2015
Here are five special stories you must read this weekend
International Labour Day
Shramev Jayate (Labour Prevails), the slogan coined by prime minister Narendra Modi, is not as seductive as Karl Marx’s exhortation, “Workers of the world unite”. But the essence of both emphasises the ultimate triumph of the proletariat as sine qua non for the evolution of a new political order. Is labour recognised as an input as critical as capital and treated on a par?
READ: Marxism Modified
The labour has been pushed to the margins after liberalisation. This crisis should be an opportunity for trade unions to revive themselves
READ: Just another day in the life of the worker
Conversation with author Tarek Fatah
After ‘Chasing a Mirage’, and ‘The Jew Is Not My Enemy’, Fatah has come out with his third book, ‘The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State’ (Kautilya Books, New Delhi), and ahead of its launch he interacted with the editorial team of Governance Now on Thursday
READ: The trouble with Islamic State
Punjab drug problem
Punjab possibly has everything a state can ask for, maybe too much. For a majority of its youth is getting wasted from rampant drug abuse. They are the future of Punjab but their present is mired in smack and heroin. Not only is the youth fast turning irrelevant in terms of Punjab’s progress, signs of a greater worry reflect in the state’s weakened backbone – the gradual demise of countless youngsters from drug overdose. This grim reality has created an unfortunate irony – the state has everything, yet nothing.
READ: The story of a lost generation
Nepal Earthquake
From political leaders to business entities to common people, all played insensitive fools by making stupid comments on the tragedy that devastated the neighbouring country. While social media helped families and friends of those affected by the earthquake connect with them, it also played a spoilt brat, showing little restraint in its reactions
READ: It is a tragedy, stupid
Missing girl child
More than 1,27,71,043 girls are missing in India. These girls have not vanished overnight but were killed in the uterus between 2000 and 2014. This is almost half of the total sex selective abortions across the globe in this period and also the highest in the world followed by China and Pakistan. Around the world, as many as 2,45,61,345 girls disappeared before birth in the last 14 years
READ: The data about the missing girl child
India’s Economic Survey 2025–26, tabled in Parliament on January 29, delivers a candid and confident assessment of the economy at a turbulent global moment. Growth remains robust at 7.4% in FY26, driven largely by domestic demand and macroeconomic resilience. Yet the Survey is equally clear-eye
India’s GDP growth for FY26 is estimated at 7.4 per cent driven by the double engine of consumption and investment. This reaffirms India’s status as the fastest-growing major economy for the fourth consecutive year. This was highlight of the Economic Survey 2025-26 tabled by the finance ministe
Before environmentalism had a name, it had martyrs. ‘Bishnois and the Blackbuck: Can Dharma Save the Environment?’ by Anu Lall tells the remarkable story of a community that turned faith into the world’s longest-running conservation practice.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar and five others were killed Wednesday morning after a private aircraft carrying them crashed while landing at Baramati airport in Pune district. No one on board survived the accident, officials confirmed.
India on Tuesday concluded the largest Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in its history with the European Union. “It is a happy coincidence that on the 27th day of the month, India is entering into this FTA with the 27 Member States of the European Union,” prime minister Narendra
India’s capital expenditure on infrastructure expansion has crossed 3% of GDP, reflecting the country’s push to accelerate economic growth through investments in railways, highways, ports, power plants and airports. However, many of these large, long-lived and geographically fixed assets are be
