Counterview

Counterview News    A new report reveals that the modern workplace has fallen into a "workaround economy," where employees are increasingly bypassing official company software to piece together their own tech stacks, driven by fragmented systems and mounting cognitive overload. According to the study conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of AI productivity platform Superhuman, 75% of professionals now operate outside of fully approved tool stacks, relying on a mix of company-provided and personally selected applications to get their jobs done. The survey of 1,505 professionals highlights a growing crisis in enterprise technology: while workers remain optimistic about their tools, the friction of moving work across disconnected systems is forcing them into unofficial, often insecure, habits.

​By Vikas Gupta  ​India's official employment data is released late, revised frequently, and structured in ways that make a generational crisis look manageable. This is not a conspiracy theory; it is a systematic pattern plain to anyone who has spent serious time with the numbers.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The American Dream was popularized by historian James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America  (1931), during the Great Depression, when American corporate profits fell from 2.8 billion in 1929 to −2.6 billion in 1930. Even this decline created significant social and economic strain for working people. Corporations cut costs and restructured their operations to survive, but unemployment reached 25% by 1933, leaving millions in poverty. 

By Saurabh Thakore*  The coffee is warm. The marble beneath it is cool. By the time we settle into the morning, someone else's work is already holding our day together. The floor is clean. The entrance is attended. The lift is running. Beyond the window, buildings rise above roads carrying people towards offices, factories, hospitals and schools. For a moment, everything feels effortless. It is easy to begin the day without thinking about how it became ready, or whose hands made the room possible.

By Tings Chak   At the entrance to Xingfuli, a residential compound in Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, a bulletin board displays the names, photographs, and phone numbers of the people responsible for managing the neighbourhood. Though an ordinary bulletin board at first appearance, among the building representatives and Communist Party members is an unexpected name: Kang Jiafei, a food delivery worker who is also listed as a community ‘grid worker.’

By A Representative   A total of 125 workers have died across India between January and October 2, 2026, in incidents involving hazardous manual-entry sanitation work, including sewer and septic-tank cleaning, sewage-treatment plants, and other confined spaces, the advocacy group Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) said in a press release issued.

By Aseem Mishra*  For years, Kutch presented a striking contradiction. It emerged as one of Gujarat's most industrialised districts, with ports, mining, salt production, chemicals, engineering, steel, ceramics, textiles and large infrastructure projects, yet the district remained outside the full territorial coverage of the Employees' State Insurance (ESI) scheme. That contradiction has now formally changed. A notification issued by the Ministry of Labour and Employment on 25 September 2026 appointed 1 October 2026 as the date from which contributions under Section 29 of the Code on Social Security, 2020 would become payable in the entire area of Kutch and other previously non-implemented districts of Gujarat, with benefits under Chapter IV relating to the Employees' State Insurance Corporation to be provided to covered employees. The journey to this point, however, took several years of representations, official correspondence, a Public Interest Litigation and ...

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The “West” remains a contested idea. It is often used to describe Western Europe, North America and Australasia as if they shared one culture built on Christianity, colonial modernity and racialised capitalist progress. In reality, this claimed unity has too often rested on othering, limited democracy and a white supremacist ruling ideology.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  Southend-on-Sea, commonly known as Southend, is a historic and beautiful seaside town in southeast Essex, England, just 40 miles east of London. Its sun, sea, children's amusement park, theatres, Southend Pier—the longest pleasure pier in the world—and seven miles of sandy beaches attract hedonistic Londoners, holidaymakers, weekend day-trippers and families on weekend getaways to this historic seaside town.

By Bharat Dogra  Shankar Guha Niyogi (1943–1991) was a great trade union leader who became a legend within his lifetime, partly because of several significant victories of workers' struggles within a relatively short time of about 14 years (1977–91), but I think even more so because of his highly innovative and creative approach to working-class issues. This included many-sided integrations leading to a comprehensive approach to improving the well-being as well as social consciousness of not just the workers but of all people of the working-class belt, including particularly the surrounding villages.

By Sudhir Katiyar*  The Supreme Court's refusal to intervene in the ban imposed by multiple state governments on visits to government schools by outsiders—a response to the CJP's School Thik Karo campaign—suggests that the campaign has raised concerns within the Indian establishment. This reaction is understandable, as education serves purposes beyond acquiring basic numeracy and literacy skills.  It can be a liberating force, freeing minds from superstition and irrationality toward scientific temper. However, improving infrastructure in government schools is only a first step. Physical upgrades do not automatically improve schooling quality or reduce dropout rates, as illustrated by Delhi's experience during the AAP government.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The demonisation of Marx, Marxism, and its emancipatory logic on an everyday basis is not new. All emancipatory philosophies, philosophers, and their radical projects of social, cultural, political, and economic change face similar roadblocks. Despite all propaganda against the emancipatory praxis of Marxism, it continues to exist as a moral compass, political hope, cultural renaissance, economic alternative, and a tool of struggle against all the dominant narratives of the capitalist system.

By Vikas Gupta   India loves the photograph of a certificate ceremony. A minister on a stage. A banner bearing the word “skill.” Young people holding folders that promise a future. It is a reassuring image because it tells us the problem has a manageable answer: train the young, make them job-ready, and work will follow.

By Rajiv Shah   I was a little surprised to see how some of those whom I respect for taking a firm stand on patriarchal issues reacted to the manner in which they responded to the recent incident in Paris, in which women employees of the Eiffel Tower were asked to remain "invisible" on September 5 when 100 BAPS sadhus visited one of the world's top tourist destinations.

By Sunil Kumar*  A contract worker, Ranjit Gautam, died at Delhi University's South Campus on September 7, 2026. His death was not natural. The information that has come to light after the incident raises serious questions about the alleged gross negligence of the Delhi University administration.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak   The job posting sounds noble: “Seeking passionate self-starter. Unpaid. College credit available. Great for your résumé.” Every year, millions of young people—students, recent graduates, career-changers—sign up for positions just like it. They staff food banks, tutor children, clean riverbanks, and code for startups, all in the name of “giving back” or “gaining experience.” They are told they are volunteers. In truth, they have become entries in a hidden ledger of capitalism, where goodwill is logged as free labor and solidarity is booked as a business expense.

By A Representative   A scathing letter addressed to Gujarat's Labour Secretary has brought to light alarming discrepancies in the collection and disbursement of the Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess, with activists citing a recent Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report to demand urgent corrective measures for the benefit of the state's estimated 25 lakh unorganized construction workers.

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  The death of Professor Jason Arday has reignited public debate about racism in Britain and renewed calls for a robust anti‑racist movement capable of building a genuinely egalitarian society. Yet the path forward remains steep, not least because people of colour must themselves sustain the struggle for racial justice—and because too many institutions, including trade unions, continue to exhibit patterns of racial bias and entrenched white entitlement.

By A Representative   A 45-year-old man died after being taken into police custody in Halisahar in North 24 Parganas district, prompting the civil rights group Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) to allege custodial torture and demand an independent judicial investigation.

By Kantilal Parmar*  The repeated deaths of sanitation workers from toxic gas exposure in Gujarat are not isolated industrial accidents. They represent a continuing failure of governance, workplace safety, and respect for the fundamental human rights of some of the state's most vulnerable workers.