Bengal
The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCC&I) organized a Financial Awareness Conclave – “Wealth: Inclusion, Creation, Protection & Growth” on Friday, bringing together policymakers, regulators, bankers, and financial experts.
The conclave featured a series of engaging expert roundtable discussions. The session on “Envisaging Integrated Financial Ecosystems: MSME Growth through Credit, Cash Flow & Capital”, witnessed insightful deliberations from Mr. Shams Tabrez, DGM-SME, State Bank of India, and Mr. Ujjwal Chandra, Deputy Zonal Head, Central Bank of India, on strengthening credit access and sustainable growth pathways for MSMEs
A big fight inside the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has now reached the bank. Former party treasurer Aroop Biswas has written to HDFC Bank, asking them to freeze the party’s accounts containing hundreds of crores, claiming there is a major dispute over who really controls the party.
Unearthing vital, suppressed records surrounding the legislative inception of the state, the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies (MAKAIAS) hosted a high-profile seminar titled “West Bengal: Revisiting its Past” on Saturday, June 20, 2026. Commemorating Paschimbanga Diwas—the historic day nearly eight decades ago when Bengal’s lawmakers voted to sever ties with the expanding map of East Pakistan—distinguished academics, researchers, and political leaders gathered to correct decades of distorted historical narratives. Delivering a compelling video address, West Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose, a veteran chartered accountant, meticulously detailed how the state’s creation was explicitly designed to dismantle a deep-seated conspiracy aimed at dragging the entire landmass into a theocratic state. Bose positioned Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee as the singular, far-sighted leading light who unified ideologically polarized legislators in 1947 to secure a safe homeland for Hindu Bengalis. Echoing these structural concerns, MAKAIAS Director Dr. Sarup Prasad Ghosh slammed past administrations for intentionally imposing historical amnesia on refugees, while issuing an urgent, data-driven warning regarding a sharp drop in native Bengali speakers and an active “demographic invasion” fueled by systemic illegal immigration from Bangladesh.
Taking everyone by surprise, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee hit the streets of Kolkata on Wednesday. She led a peaceful protest march in Dharmatala to fight for roadside hawkers who are losing their shops to new government drives.
Former West Bengal minister and senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Udayan Guha was arrested on Thursday in connection with a cheating case dating back to 2016. The arrest has generated significant political attention across the state, with leaders from both the ruling and opposition camps reacting strongly to the development.
The political crisis engulfing the Trinamool Congress (TMC) reached a high-voltage flashpoint on Monday, June 15, 2026, when the Lok Sabha Speaker’s office slapped TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee with a thin, two-hour ultimatum to appear in New Delhi—at the exact moment he was locked inside an 11-hour interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Kolkata. The dramatic standoff unfolds as the Mamata Banerjee-led party battles a massive parliamentary rebellion, with 20 out of its 28 sitting Lok Sabha MPs—led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar—petitioning Speaker Om Birla to recognize their formal merger with the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), effectively tilting their allegiance to the BJP-led NDA. While Banerjee was isolated from his communication devices at the ED’s Salt Lake CGO complex in connection with a 2023 primary teacher recruitment scam, an urgent email dispatch from New Delhi at 2:00 PM demanded his presence at Parliament by 4:00 PM. Sounding the alarm, fellow lawmaker Kirti Azad physically intercepted the Speaker’s secretariat, clarifying that the Diamond Harbour MP was legally detained by federal investigators and could not fly out. Emerging from the marathon grilling near midnight—which followed an 8-hour state CID interrogation the previous day—a defiant Banerjee struck an uncompromising tone to reporters, declaring that even if his opponents “slit his throat,” he would not cower down to coordinated central pressure.
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari visited North Bengal and the Darjeeling Hills on Tuesday, marking his first official visit to the region since assuming office.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out extensive, simultaneous search operations at multiple properties linked to Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA and former West Bengal minister Madan Mitra.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has announced that elections to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will be conducted by December 7, 2026, paving the way for the formation of a newly elected civic board in Kolkata.
Advertisement
