Category Archives: Neo-liberal policy

100% FDI in Defence, FDI increase in all sectors – Protest by Opposition Parties

20 Monday Jun 2016

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It is a ‘monsoon’of FDI announced by the Government of India. Against all earlier guidelines, 100% FDI has been announced in the strategic defence sector.This will give free hand to the private defence companies to take over the Indian defence production.

The FDI in Civil Aviation, Single Brand Retail, Pharma and certain other sectors have been increased including up to 100%.

India has now become the playground for the MNCs, foreign banks and financial institutions. The national security concerns are ignored.

The opposition parties including Congress and Left parties have strongly opposed the new increase in FDI.

AITUC completes 95 years

31 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by in Neo-liberal policy, TU News - India

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All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) completes 95 years by today, 31st October 2015. It was founded on 31st October 1920, the first central trade union in the British India. Communists, Congressmen, Socialists – all were there in the organisation. Freedom Fighter and senior leader, Lala Lajpat Rai was its first President. Veteran leaders of various political parties were its Presidents in course of time.

AITUC was the only central trade union till 1947, when the Congress Party formed its own trade union, INTUC. HMS and BMS were formed later. CITU was formed in 1970. Now almost all political parties are having their own trade union organisation.

However, time has shown that no trade union singly will be able to settle the important issues of workers. Now all the Central Trade Unions have come together to fight for the workers’ issues on a common platform. The latest strike by the Central Trade Unions were on 2nd September 2015 on the 10 point demands which included bringing down of price-rise, Rs. 15,000 wages for contract workers, no privatisation of PSUs etc., in which more than 15 crore workers participated. The last moment withdrawal of BMS on the direction of RSS did not make much difference in the overall participation in the strike. Further co-ordinated struggles are necessary to safeguard the interests of the workers in this crucial period.

 

Postal Bank will be registered and will start work by January 2017

02 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by in Neo-liberal policy, PSU

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“The government is likely to register the postal bank by the end of the year while a pilot for payment services will be launched around January 2017.

According to sources, as per the timeline for setting up postal bank, approval from NITI Aayog will be secured by mid-October followed by public investment board’s nod by October-end and Cabinet approval in November.

“The registration for postal bank is planned be done in December and a pilot will be launched in January 2017,” said an official in the Communications and IT Ministry.

He said the bank will be an independent company with initial corpus of Rs. 300 crore and the new entity will enter into revenue sharing model with the Department of Posts (DoP).

The Reserve Bank had granted in-principle approval to 11 applicants, including DoP, in August to set up payments banks.” (Courtesy: Business Line)

Volkswagen Scandal – The way the MNCs cheat!

24 Thursday Sep 2015

Posted by in Corruption, Neo-liberal policy

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Volswagon, (VW) one of the biggest auto-maker, based in Germany is in real trouble. It has been found that the company has been cheating the government as also the customers by not putting correct emissions arrangement. The US Government has caught them flat. The company has lied to the US government that it had fully complied with the emission norms, but the government found out the cheating.

The Chief Executive Officer, Martin Winterkorn is compelled to resign. More than 1.1crore diesel vehicles will have to be again fitted and tested for emissions.

If world renowned companies like Volkswagen are cheating like this, what about others? The US government had caught them, but if it is in India, what will happen? The government officer who might have exposed the cheating will be transferred or punished. The fate of Yudhvir Malik, CEO, FSSAI, who exposed that Maggi noodles has more than permissible lead and MSG is now transferred from the post along with another officer who assisted him. The Central Government as well as the corporate houses criticised FSSAI for its findings and sudden action which resulted in thousands of crore of rupees to the company. It is not the health of the people that the Modi Government is worried, but the health and profit of the corporates!

 

BPCL gets Maharatna status – Congratulations!

11 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by in BSNL News, Neo-liberal policy

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Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), one of the big oil companies in the Public Sector, may be granted Maharatna Status in this year. It will be the eighth PSU to get the status. It will give more autonomy to the PSU. Congratulations to  BPCL and its workforce!

It is to be remembered that BSNL was assured of Maharatna at the time of its formation itself by then Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. It was to be granted the status by 2006, when it was having Rs. 40,000 crore revenue and Rs. 10,000 crore profit. But the government,  by cancelling the 45 million tender for mobile lines ensured that BSNL goes down. The cancellation resulted in loss gradually and BSNL was deprived of the Maharatna status.

 

Govt.to invest Rs. 8.5 Lakhs Crore for Indian Railways – MoS Finance

03 Thursday Sep 2015

Posted by in Disinvestment, General, Neo-liberal policy

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According to the Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha, the government will invest Rs. 8.5 lakh crore for the Railway Sector. The amount is being invested to change the face of the sector, the MoS stated.

The reality is something different. The government has already decided for private participation in the Railways. These Rs. 8.5 lakhs will be utilised to ‘make it easy’ for the corporates to run the railways. It is to be remembered here that the government (Airport Authority) spent thousands of crore of rupees for the modernisation  of Chennai and Kolkata Airports. Immediately afterwards, the government decided for private participation of these two profitable airports with about Rs.200 – 300 crore of investment from corporates. It was only due to the strong opposition from the Airport employees as also the public that the government was compelled to defer it.

In Railways also, the investment will be from the Government and the profit will go to the private. Why the government could not think about the investment before any private participation was thought of. It is clear. PPP means, funds from the Public and the Profit for the corporates! Of course, Modi Government has to repay the huge election funds got from the corporates and big business.

 

NTPC Chairman from Private Sector? – Part of Privatisation?

27 Thursday Aug 2015

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It is reported that the new Chairman of the Public Sector NTPC may be from the private sector. Some of the PSU Banks are also going to be imposed by private sector people. This is completely inappropriate and against the interests of the respective PSUs.

This anti-PSU policy is to be resisted and defeated.

Renault Nissan Factory at Chennai cut about 1,000 jobs

20 Thursday Aug 2015

Posted by in General, Neo-liberal policy

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The ‘Hire and Fire’ continues by the private companies. It is the auto maker Renault Nissan Chennai Factory this time. Out of the 8,000 and odd workers, 1,000 are going to be terminated on the plea low demand in the market. Further, the MNCs and Indian corporates are becoming more bold to do whatever they want, since they are confident that the Modi Government will not interfere.

The workers are not going to accept this job cut. Struggles will certainly erupt to save the jobs.

Govt. compelled to stall privatisation of Chennai and kolkata Airports

20 Thursday Aug 2015

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It is reported that the Central Government has decided to put on hold the proposal of modernisation (read privatisation) of the Airports at Chennai and Kolkata. It was earlier decided to hand over these two airports to the private companies like Delhi and Mumbai, in the name of modrnisation. There were strong protests from the employees as well as public since privatisation will result in higher charges for the passengers. Further, modernisation worth thousands of crore of rupees have already been done by the Airport Authority. By putting a few hundreds of crores, the private companies were to get the running of these two airports and huge profit.

At the same time, the government has not dropped the proposals for the ‘modernisation’ and handing over of airports at Jaipur and Ahmedabad, which have also been upgraded by the Airport Authority. These two airports are also profit-making ones.

It is interesting that neither the government proposes to privatise any of the loss making airports; nor the private companies are prepared to take them.

The government policy is that the ‘profit for the private and the loss for the public.’

Bank Unions protest posting of private CEOs

16 Sunday Aug 2015

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The Bank Unions have strongly protested against the posting of the CEOs of Public Sector Banks from the private sector. The government has now posted the MDs/CEOs  of Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda by private sector persons.

The Bank Unions say that there are sufficient efficient, qualified  and eligible persons in the PSBs and there is no need of entry from the public sector.

This is fully correct. The BJP government is making these appointments to torpedo the public sector banks.