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A Prout Convention was organised at 'Mahanayak Uttam Mancha', Kolkata on the 9th of September, 2007, by Proutist Universal (PU), Kolkata. Various eminent speakers spoke on different aspects of the socio-economic philosophy of Progressive Utilisation Theory (Prout), propounded by the great philosopher Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar. Three sessions were held during the convention apart from the inaugural session. The first session was on the 'Agricultural and Rural Development Policies of Prout'. The second session was on the 'Industrial and Economic Policies of Prout', and the final session was on 'Prout and Sadvipra Samaj'. During the lunch and breaks informative posters displaying the policy stances of Prout were displayed.

More than 500 people attended the Convention, which was convened by Ac. Tanmayananda Avt. on behalf of Proutist Universal.

"The possibility that the small traders and retailers, who carry out their trade from the market, might be able to get together and mobilize finances to buy or lease out the market is not even being explored. This would not only prevent the wiping out of their source of livelihood, but would also make them stakeholders in it."

The latest neo-liberal onslaught on the lives and livelihoods of working people in India is taking place in the retail sector. After agriculture, the retail sector employs the largest number of people in India. Of the 40 million people involved in retailing as an economic activity, 0.5 million are in organized retail whereas around 39.5 million people are employed in unorganized retail trade. This includes all sorts of small retailing operations ranging from neighbourhood "mom-and-pop" shops to street vendors to small farmers who travel to cities daily to sell their produce to the small-scale transporters who transport the retail goods. These 40 million adults in the retail sector roughly translates into 160 million dependents, making the retail sector the source of livelihood for approximately a sixth of India's population. The decade of liberalization, which has seen stagnation in the agrarian economy and large scale job losses in the manufacturing sector, has pushed more and more people into different aspects of retailing in absence of any other opportunities.

On the other hand, the small but burgeoning middle class in India, with immense spending power compared to the vast majority of the poor people in the country, has been eyed for quite some time by both multinational corporations involved in the retail trade and by Indian corporations which want to enter the arena sensing it to be a source of huge profits. Walmart from USA, known for its hated business practices, Metro AG of Germany and Carrefour of France have all been trying to enter the Indian retail market. As the Indian government has still not allowed foreign direct investment (FDI) in the retail sector, Walmart is trying to enter the Indian market in a joint venture with Bharti, an Indian company.

Leading the charge among Indian corporations in this field is the Reliance Industries limited, which has opened a chain of retail stores called "Reliance Fresh" in most of the major cities in India. Other Indian corporations that have gone into the retail sector are Bharti, ITC, Godrej, Big Bazaar and Subhiksha. Reliance has an ambitious agri-retail plan, variously described as "farm-to-table" or "field-to-fork", whereby it will directly source produce from the fields, route it through its national distribution centres and bring it to the urban consumers in the ambience of air-conditioned stores displaying packaged produce under artificial illumination. Being able to handle large volumes and to absorb initial losses, they can sell cheap and therefore undercut the market, pushing small vendors and groceries out of business, as happened over most of USA. ... Full story

With the goal to serve in the time of need, Amra Bengali has been active in the past and will continue to be so in the future. While communists oppress, capitalists exploit, and Hindis impose their cheap pseudo-culture on the great people of Bengal, there is a crying need today for new leadership, a new movement and a new socio-economic, political ideology to free all Bengali speaking people from their present state of oppression and exploitation and restore this rich and ancient culture to its former heights of glory. - Dinabandhu Maity

Statesman News Service, KOLKATA/ KRISHNANAGAR, Dec. 9 - Miss Mamata Banerjee has appealed to the people of Bengal to join mass fasting tomorrow to commemorate seven days of fasting by members of Singur Krishi Jami Banchao Committee.

She said the mass fasting will begin tomorrow from 10 a.m. in the morning. "I'm appealing to the people to join us in mass fasting tomorrow and arrangement will be made near our stage so that people can sit for mass fasting. You may fast for four hours or six hours depending on your health. The fast will continue till 8 p.m.," she said.

National News Service, Kolkata - 7th August 2006: A casteless, dowryless and priestless revolutionary marriage took place at Dishari (Marriage Hall) in Salt Lake City of Kolkata on 4th August 2006 with a Sanyasini in saffron robes conducting the ceremony. Two Bengali speaking persons - a boy and a girl -of different castes were united in matrimony under the auspices of Ananda Marga founded by Marga Guru Shrii Shrii Anandamurtjii. The married couple were Sri Kaushik Maity and Srimati Manidipa Hazra.

Over 150 people have been killed in the series of blasts that rocked Mumbai today.

Seven blasts took place on different railway stations in the city.

The first blast was reported at Bhayandar station near Mira Road at 6:09 pm (IST) in a local train, which left several people injured.

National News Service, Kolkata, 18 May 2006: The Communists are back. West Bengal is the only State where there is no incumbency factor, election after election. It is as if they have worked some kind of miracle and the people of West Bengal live in El Dorado.

In the last 30 years West Bengal has slid in all economic indices. In 2001 the number of unemployed registered with the Employment Exchange was 5,500,000. Today the number is 7,500,000. Is it the unemployed hordes that went out and voted for the left front?

The loss of the BJP in overall Indian elections is a clear reflection that the people of India do not support religious extremism and racism. The fact that the communists have won in two large states only speaks to the reaction of the common people at being ignored by the central neoliberal, corporation-led government. Their basic human needs are ignored. But, communism has a brutal place in history. In no country did it solve the problems of the people. Rather it led to their greater impoverization. Russia and China are examples. Both models - the neoliberal and the communist - have failed the people in all countries of the world. PROUT is a new model based on economic democracy, economic decentralization, in which neither a party dictatorship nor ruthless corporate greed gets any scope to dominate. Shrii Sarkar has said, that capitalism turns men into beggars and communism turns beggars into beasts. Both lack a moral base. The stark attribute of capitalism is that it encourages individual human greed and selfishness. Communism contains no moral base to guide the people or the leaders. And in fact, as the article points out, even the so-called communists in Kerala are in an unholy aliance with the corporations and are pushing neo-liberalism, which only further destroys the lives of the common people. Societies must have cardinal human principles that serve as guide in the manner in which policies are carried out. Without these fundamental values of morality, no economic model can succeed. PROUT puts maximum emphasis on these values as a prerequisite for the success of its economic model.

A Muslim couple from Orissa, forcibly separated by the community after local clerics issued a fatwa that they were divorced even as they wanted to live together, today told the Supreme Court that the police had not provided them protection, despite the court's orders.

• Scale of communal strikes has dropped since 2002, but periodic attacks continue
• Terror campaign aimed at causing at large-scale migration of Hindus
• Attacks will also provoke communal massacres that will lead to Muslim exodus