Year: 2010

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Karnataka

Condition of Agarbatti Workers in Bangalore

4 November 2010
A Child Worker in an Unlicensed Agarbatti Unit

The incense stick (or popularly known as Agarbatti in India) used in every devout Hindu households for religious purposes, is today a highly marketed commodity both in India & abroad. But not much thought seems to have gone into how these agarbattis are produced or manufactured. With limited infrastructure such as a wooden board, availability of raw materials & with little amount of skill, virtually any unskilled worker can make agarbatti in any household or sheds. read more

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Karnataka

Garment Industry :Special Exploitation Zone

4 November 2010
Courtesy: filipspagnoli.wordpress.com

The garment industry in Bangalore with about 1200 registered units employing over a half a million workforce and one of the biggest sources of exports in the country, but hardly is there any mention in the media on the living and working conditions of the workers who are the real makers of some of the  top brand clothing in the world. read more

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Analysis

Anti-Biotic Superbug Scandal: People’s Misery is Capitalists Profit

4 November 2010

The recent news (11th August,2010) on a study published by Lancet Infectious Diseases (“Emergence of a new antibiotic resistant mechanism in India, Pakistan and the UK: a molecular, biological and epidemiological study” by Karthikeyan K Krishnasamy et.al) on a drug resistant bacterial gene, the so called super bug, named New Delhi metallo – beta – lactamase – 1 (NDM-1), tracing its possible origins to India has raised a furor among the Corporate hospitals like the Appollo and the Indian Health ministry. read more

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Analysis

Cuba: Threat of capitalist restoration

2 November 2010

New pro-capitalist measures introduced by Raul Castro

In September 2010 the Cuban government announced a series of economic “modernisations”. Among the most significant of these was the proposal to slash 500,000 jobs in the state sector by March 2011 as a first step to reducing employment by 1 million. Licenses are to be issued by the state to allow the creation of self-employed persons (“cuentapropistas”) with the legal right to employ other employees, not just family members. read more