FEATURE STORY
The Calcutta High Court cleared the way for the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of Trinamool Congress to hold its annual Martyrs’ Day programme on July 21 at a new venue near Birla Planetarium after refusing to permit the gathering at its traditional site in front of Victoria House.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP chief SunetraPawar faces a test after her leadership came under question, with senior leader and NCP national secretary Sachchidanand Singh challenging her election as the party president.
Former Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha MPs Sushmita Dev, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Prakash Chik Baraik joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kolkata on Thursday.
The highly anticipated arrival of exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin in Kolkata next month is shaping up to be far more than a routine literary homecoming. For the newly installed, first-ever BJP-run government in West Bengal led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, the event has morphed into a masterfully orchestrated, high-stakes political offensive. By rolled out the welcome mat for Nasrin to headline an anti-fundamentalism event at Rabindra Sadan on August 1, 2026, Adhikari intends to score decisive, long-term points over his two iconic predecessors. The saffron camp is systematically using the visit to indict the late Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s Left Front dispensation—which ignominiously forced Nasrin out of the state in 2007 after violent street rioting overwhelmed the Kolkata Police—while simultaneously exposing Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) for executing a quiet, two-decade-long exclusion of the author out of intense anxiety over minority blockades. Just two months into assuming the state’s highest office following a landslide election victory, Adhikari—often labeled “illiberal” by fractured opposition circles—is seizing this “sitter” of a cultural event to aggressively showcase a resolute, no-nonsense administration that strictly guarantees the rule of law under the party’s signature poll pledge: “Bhoi noi Bhorsa chai” (Not fear, but assurance).
Indian equity benchmarks wrapped up a highly indecisive trading session on Thursday, July 16, 2026, as a steep, earnings-induced crash across insurance heavyweights completely erased an early IT-led opening breakout. The BSE Sensex finished effectively unchanged, gaining a microscopic 1.44 points to settle at 77,186.87, while the NSE Nifty 50 marginally shed 5.75 points to close the gate at 24,072.75. Intraday trading desks absorbed early tailwinds from HSBC upgrading India to ‘Neutral’ and hiking its year-end Sensex target to 84,000 on the back of resilient $1.6 billion July foreign fund inflows. However, the initial momentum—which saw Nifty scale an intraday high of 24,186—was entirely compromised after ICICI Lombard plunged 10.5% to a two-year low on a severely downcast earnings commentary, pulling down the broader banking and financial index by 0.5%. Defending the floor, defensive IT counters showed signs of stabilization with Wipro advancing 1.8% ahead of its Q1 cards, further supported by structural cheer as India-UK Free Trade Agreement corridors saw their inaugural duty-free jewelry dispatches leave local shores. Yet, aggregate trading volumes remained intensely restricted as Brent crude trended precariously around $85 a barrel, keeping retail risk appetite strictly range-bound as the U.S. Navy maintains an active defensive blockade against Iranian maritime movements in the Strait of Hormuz.
The ultimate football fairy tale is set for Sunday. Reigning champions Argentina pulled off a dramatic late comeback against England to book their spot in the 2026 FIFA World Cup final, where they will face a dominant Spain side in New Jersey.