Mark Tully, the renowned journalist, author, and Indophile, has passed away at the age of 90. He spent a lifetime in India as a journalist, mingling with its people and telling their stories.
Association for Democratic33 per cent of 4,092 sitting MLAs were non-graduates.
A delegation of the National Commission for Women (NCW), led by its chairman Vijaya Rahatkar, met with riot-affected women in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, assuring them of safety and demanding an NIA probe into the recent communal clashes. The women narrated their harrowing experiences and demanded permanent BSF camps in select areas of the district. The NCW team also visited relief camps in Malda district and assessed the condition of women affected by the violence.
The protesting doctors said they would not work in the Outpatient Department but would partially work in emergency and essential services.
Justice Rajasekhar Mantha directed the chief secretary of the West Bengal government to ensure one percent reservation for transgenders in all public employment.
The 61-year-old feisty leader, who had single-handedly wrecked the red bastion in West Bengal in 2011, was unfazed by the Left-Congress alliance ahead of the assembly polls.
'The Bengali middle class, who never fully embraced Mamata Banerjee's policies, are now expressing their deep-seated frustration by spilling out on to the streets.'
The Supreme Court granted regular bail to former TMC youth leader Kuntal Ghosh in a corruption case linked to the West Bengal primary school recruitment scam. Ghosh, who has been in custody for 19 months, will be released from jail after being granted bail in the money laundering case linked to the scam on November 20. The court said it was not likely that the trial would be completed in the foreseeable near future.
The West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) on Friday said it would abide by the Supreme Court directive and soon initiate the process of conducting fresh exams for all teaching and non-teaching candidates, who took part in the now-invalidated 2016 job recruitment exercise.
'Mamata needs to address the anger and resentment among various sections of the Hindu community because low-scale communal violence has always paid richer electoral dividends for the BJP.'
Agitating junior doctors in West Bengal resumed their indefinite 'total cease work' on Tuesday to press for various demands, including ensuring their safety and security at all medical establishments.
The rally was not allowed to proceed towards the South Calcutta Law College, where the 24-year-old student was allegedly gang-raped by three men, including an alumnus of the institute, on June 25.
The CMs with lowest assets are West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee with assets worth over Rs 15.38 lakh, Omar Abdullah, CM of Jammu and Kashmir, with assets worth over Rs 55.24 lakh, and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, who has assets worth Rs 1.18 crore.
Opposition-ruled states warn of steep annual losses; Centre assures higher consumption will offset revenue hit.
Two teachers-cum-Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in Madhya Pradesh died of illness while conducting voter list surveys. Relatives allege heavy workload and pressure to meet targets as the cause. A third BLO is missing.
The Supreme Court of India has invalidated the appointment of 25,753 teachers and other staff in West Bengal's state-run and state-aided schools, deeming the selection process "vitiated and tainted." The court ordered the state government to conduct a fresh selection process within three months. The decision comes after a Calcutta High Court verdict in April 2024, which also annulled the appointments. The apex court, while upholding the high court's order, made some modifications, including exempting disabled employees from returning their salaries. The case stemmed from alleged irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process by the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC), involving OMR sheet tampering and rank-jumping. The Supreme Court had previously termed it a "systemic fraud." Former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee and Trinamool Congress MLAs Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha are among the accused being investigated in the recruitment scam.
Budget 2026 sticks to fiscal discipline, shuns populist measures despite five key state elections coming up, but ends up rattling stock markets with a higher transaction tax on derivatives trading.
The partition of Bengal in 1905 split more than a province, it touched people's hearts and awakened India's fight for freedom.
Villagers alleged that a seven-month-old child was snatched from her mother's lap and thrown away by miscreants in Sandeshkhali.
Devesh Pankaj Bhaiya from Jalgaon and Sandeep Kuchi from Hyderabad won gold medals while Debadatta Priyadarshi from Bhubaneshwar and Ujjwal Kesari from New Delhi secured silver at the International Chemistry Olympiad 2025 in Dubai.
The Centre has rejected claims that the new definition of the Aravalli range will allow large-scale mining, asserting that 90 per cent of the region will remain protected and citing a Supreme Court-ordered freeze on new mining leases.
The re-appointment of the vice-chancellor of Calcutta University, which was also challenged in the PIL, has already been set aside by the high court and upheld by the Supreme Court.
It was stated that Mishra was very influential in the conduct of the day-to-day affairs of South Calcutta Law College, of which he is an alumnus.
Heavy rainfall across North India leads to fatalities, structural damage, travel disruptions, and school closures. Eastern states brace for more rain.
A parliamentary panel has criticized the Indian government for withholding funds from states that have not agreed to implement the PM SHRI schools scheme, calling the reasoning behind the decision "not factual or justified." The panel has recommended the immediate release of pending funds to states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal, which have been significantly impacted by the delays.
President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday approved 139 Padma awards including seven Padma Vibhushans, 19 Padma Bhushans and 113 Padma Shris.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra said it will hear the matter on May 6.
'Previously, contributing only 25 per cent of material costs, states now face burdens of 40 per cent to 100 per cent of total costs, ensuring poorer states will curb project approvals, directly stifling work demand.'
The Calcutta high court on Monday declared as null and void the selection process of State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST) in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools, ordering cancellation of all appointments made through it.
Nayagam PP, founder of Edujob360, offers a list of the top entrance exams, their timelines, eligibility criteria, exam patterns and preparation strategies to help you plan the year ahead.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has distanced itself from controversial remarks made by its senior leader and West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim regarding the Muslim percentage in the population. Hakim, in a speech, had claimed that Muslims constitute 33 per cent of the population in West Bengal and 17 per cent nationwide, adding that they could become a numerical majority if they empower themselves. The party issued a statement on Monday condemning Hakim's remarks, asserting that they do not reflect its ideology and commitment to communal harmony. The remarks have sparked a political storm, with the opposition BJP accusing Hakim of attempting to stir communal sentiments. Hakim later clarified that his remarks were misinterpreted and that he was advocating for the empowerment of minorities through education and skill development. However, the controversy has caused ripples within the TMC and complicated the party's messaging.
The Trinamool Congress on Thursday refuted accusations of a police cover-up by the parents of the woman doctor who was allegedly raped and murdered, insisting that a newly surfaced video contradicts their claims by showing the family previously satisfied with the investigation.
'We kept importing educational models from outside that had no connection to our cultural and intellectual strengths.'
rediffGURU Chocko Valliappa offers crucial career advice to engineering aspirants.
Ending the logjam persisting for 42 days in the wake of the rape and murder of a young doctor at RG Kar hospital, the agitating medics withdrew the 'cease work' after holding a march to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office in Salt Lake in Kolkata from the state health department's headquarters, where they had been demonstrating for over a week.
The agency seized documents like answer sheets, OMR codes, hand-written notes related to IDs and names of candidates apart from their education certificates, the sources said.
The governor had opened a 'Peace Room' at the Raj Bhavan to address violence-related complaints from people in districts during the recently held panchayat elections.
The protests by resident doctors at government hospitals in several states across the country ended on Thursday as major doctors' bodies called off their 11-day strike over the rape-murder of a trainee medic in Kolkata after the Supreme Court made an appeal to them to resume work.
M A Baby faces several significant challenges: Helping the CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front secure a third consecutive term in Kerala's 2026 assembly elections, and regaining ground lost in the party's traditional strongholds of West Bengal, Tripura, and other regions.
A senior official from the state's higher education department said all necessary arrangements had been made to ensure that she could "write her papers feeling safe and secure".