Kolkata trams -- now in their 150th year -- are the last to survive modernity in Indian cities, writes Ishita Ayan Dutt.
West Bengal has a 2,200 km porous border with Bangladesh over 10 districts.
'You might hate him, but it will be an honest portrayal.'
While Shah Rukh Khan was away in Dubai attending the opening ceremony of the DP World International League T20, his family was partying with Kajal Anand, who celebrated her birthday over the weekend.
Mamata Banerjee predicts the BJP-led NDA will not get more than 150 seats in the next Lok Sabha election.
ArcelorMittal could be interested in Bhushan Steel or Essar Steel, two of the five steel companies referred by RBI for insolvency proceedings.
The couple, who went back to work just two days after their wedding festivities, have quite a few films coming up.
A hotel in 1975, entry into paperboards in 1979, India's dominant cigarette maker, ITC, read the tea - or tobacco - leaves early, leveraged its enterprise strengths and stepped up the diversification agenda to create multiple drivers of growth. Some failed, some faltered, some were transformational, adding steadily to the top line. Now those efforts are making a difference: margins from non-cigarettes - FMCG, hotels, agri, paperboards, paper and packaging - are expanding and profits are kicking in more significantly than ever before.
Reluctant to campaign so far, former Bengal CM draws large crowd in first roadshow since poll dates announced.
After the Trinamool's overwhelming majority in the West Bengal assembly elections last year, the SSC scam has given fresh ammunition to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist. Ishita Ayan Dutt reports.
83% of the CEOS plan to hire more in the new year.
It was a lull period for Bollywood in August as none of the new releases could work at the box office, hope that it turns around in September.
Ranbir Kapoor's natural born talent and chartbuster karma are open secrets. What distinguishes RK from his contemporaries is his willingness to take chances in his career.
Each state has its own weak areas that need attention. Some states have already identified the gaps and sought the Centre's help. Vinay Umarji, Ishita Ayan Dutt, Samreen Ahmad and Sohini Das report.
Cricket doesn't need development. In football there are two elements - one is the game and the other is the philanthropy element. Cricket is a purely commercial decision.
UP Rs 50 billion, followed by Maharashtra, Bihar, and West Bengal which may need close to Rs 25 billion for the massive task.
Analysts said the higher capex by PSUs, along with government spending, could trigger a capex revival for the corporate sector by the second half of FY17
Whatever the outcome from the assembly elections, what's evident is that West Bengal has entered an era of identity politics, reports Ishita Ayan Dutt.
Tata Steel delivered one of its best financial performances ever in the third quarter of the current financial year, and surpassed its deleveraging target of $1 billion. In an interview, Koushik Chatterjee, executive director and chief financial officer, Tata Steel, tells Ishita Ayan Dutt that the company will continue to focus on deleveraging but profitable and value-added growth will be equally important.
In the early part of 1800, a 30-acre plot next to Fort Gloster on the banks of river Hooghly in Howrah district of Bengal was the nerve centre of industrial activity; it housed India's first steam-powered cotton mill, Bowreah Mills, which was set up by a British merchant and went on to become a hub of factories - a rum distillery, foundry, cotton yarn factory, an oil mill and a paper mill, et al. Spearheaded by Dwarkanath Tagore, the industrialist grandfather of Rabindranath Tagore, the commercial complex was possibly the first of its kind in the country. Close to 200 years later, after much ebb and flow of history, the hub is set for a resurgence of sorts.
To tide over the difficulties due to incessant shutdowns, several farmers in Maharashtra have turned into aggregators and started selling their produce without the help of mandis or agents. They have started contracting with bulk consumers like hypermarkets and co-operative housing societies to sell their produce directly.
The West Bengal CM's media equation wasn't always this bad. In the run-up to the assembly elections of 2011, she was a clear favourite.
33-year-old Abhishek Banerjee has emerged as the most visible and significant leader in the party after his pishi (aunt), Mamata Banerjee reports Ishita Ayan Dutt.
Many are testing hybrid models including getting small batches to work, rotating staff every week, introducing shifts and allowing certain functions to operate from office in small numbers.
Those who know Alapan Bandyopadhyay describe him as measured, tactical and extremely focused on achieving what he sets out to do. To many it came as a surprise that he would cut short a meeting with the prime minister.
'Everyone wants to take a vaccine. The last time a camp was held, there were 1,000 people for 500 doses. People are waiting and returning disappointed. At times, it is creating problems. The demand is much more than the supply.' Ishita Ayan Dutt reports on how the West Bengal countryside is reacting to the vaccination drive.
With the dizzying rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country, India Inc has transitioned from a wait-and-watch policy to full-on emergency mode, bringing back remote and flexi work, stringent safety protocols, and allowing only essential travel. Companies - especially in metros like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata - that had adopted a hybrid work model during the last few months when the caseload remained low, are either switching back entirely to work-from-home (WFH), or calling skeletal staff to office on select days. Take the case of cigarettes-to-hotels major, ITC, which had been on a hybrid work model over the last few months.
Sukanya Verma remembers the Boss in 30 of his underrated, overlooked gems in Hindi film music.
Naturally, the West Bengal chief minister is not leaving anything to chance, reports Ishita Ayan Dutt.
'It will take six months to one year to move to normalcy, depending on how the pandemic plays out in India.'
Mass agitations are not particularly uncommon in India. But a mass agitation led by an environment-related issue that has gone out of hand is not something that can be easily recalled.
In a deviation from the usual venue of Raj Bhavan, the event of May 27, will be held on the Red Road, one of the arterial roads in Kolkata that houses the Fort William where the Army is headquartered. And, it will remain blocked for at least five days, probably more.
'A loss of seats for the Trinamool in this election will weaken its hold in Bengal, which will not augur well before the assembly election in 2021.'
Against the backdrop of the Lok Sabha results, a much larger scale of desertion was anticipated from the TMC. 'It seems, people don't believe that the ship is sinking.'
Stars glitter at SRK's Diwali party!
'Does it mean that till the COVID-19 fight is over, the governor should be non-functional, in sleep mode, and fiddling in the Raj Bhavan while the state is burning?'
Analysts suggest making separate firms of tobacco, hotels and FMCG divisions
The change in ownership is expected to give a fresh lease of life to the company that has often been dragged by financial stress in its close to three-decade journey under the Khaitans, reports Ishita Ayan Dutt.
Pawan Ruia has finally done it, a beaming Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, then West Bengal chief minister, had said at the reopening of the 70-year-old Sahagunj factory owned by Dunlop in 2005. But with the Calcutta high court passing a winding-up order in 2013 and the Trinamool Congress-led state government passing a Bill to take over the company in 2016, the once-upon-a-time undisputed leader in the Indian tyre industry looks vastly undone. But that can hardly be a deterrent for Ruia, who has a penchant for making headlines one way or the other.
