-The Telegraph Climate change is the defining issue of the century but is clearly on the back-burner It is not often that the secretary-general of the United Nations, arguably the world’s most visible diplomat and peace-maker, tells it like he sees it. At COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, António Guterres did just that. The planet is fast approaching tipping points in terms of greenhouse emissions and their consequences. Climate change is the defining...

-Newsclick.in World capitalism is entering a new phase in which Third World economies will witness persistent outflow of finance, even if they raise interest rates in tandem with US rates. There are two defining and portentous features of the current world economic situation. One, which is well discussed, is the world-wide increase in interest rates in response to the pervasive inflationary upsurge; it would indubitably generate recession and unemployment, which, notwithstanding all...

-The Telegraph A system without any steering control An essential characteristic of modern capitalism is that the living conditions of millions of people are determined by the whims and caprices of a handful of financial speculators; indeed, that is what ‘leaving things to the market’ really entails. Consider what is happening in India today. There is a massive outflow of finance from the country because of which the rupee is depreciating  vis-À-vis...

-The Telegraph The National Pension System is a disaster for retiring employees, says an apex body of various government unions; pension under existing scheme just 15% of that under earlier one A federation of Central government employees’ unions has written to the Cabinet Secretary to restore the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), stating that the National Pension System (NPS) is a disaster for retiring employees in their old age. The federation said a Defence...

-The Telegraph In a remarkable development, for the first time in 20 years, currency in circulation (CIC) declined during Diwali week. With the increased acceptance of digital payments in the country, over-reliance on cash is slowly fading away. Over the years, the Indian cash-led economy has now changed to a smart-phone led payment economy, says a research note.   In the report, Dr Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic adviser of State Bank...