When Mamata Banerjee defeated the Communist Party of India (Marxist) last May after 34 years of power in West Bengal, her victory was portrayed by optimists as the beginning of a Kolkata Spring. Free of the communists’ rural thugs and urban heelers, the story went, the state would finally enter the 21st century. One year after Banerjee’s landslide, however, the new boss is looking a lot like the old one —...

In unprecedented action, a senior professor of Jadavpur University and the secretary of a housing society in Kolkata had to spend Thursday night in jail for forwarding an e-mail that contained a cartoon featuring Trinamool Congress leaders Mamata Banerjee, Mukul Roy and Dinesh Trivedi. They were charged with defamation and outraging the modesty of a woman.   Top officers in the Kolkata police confirmed that there was no parallel in the state...

The Chhattisgarh government has filed a writ petition in the Delhi high court against the Central government over Jayaswal Neco Ltd’s applications for mining leases in a case that throws light on the murky world of mining in India. The state alleges that the mid-sized steel-maker forged documents in its application to get iron ore mining leases in Rowghat in Bastar district and that the Union government directed it to consider...

-Express News Service On Wednesday, Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi lost his job for doing what two of his immediate predecessors — one of them his own party boss — could not. After 10 years, fares of passenger trains were finally increased in the rail budget that Trivedi presented, with the aim of pumping in much-needed funds into the financially ill national transport utility. Rolled out in two forms, the “fare rationalisation” models...

A visually challenged woman who cleared the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) with distinction in 2008 but was denied posting got justice after a four-year battle and the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Purnima Jain, with about 75% visual disability, has been offered an Indian Railway Personnel Services (IRPS) posting under Group B of Class I. Although Purnima is willing to take up the new job, she isn't satisfied with...