-The Economist West bengal’s populist chief minister is doing badly. Yet she typifies shifts in power in India BUYER’S remorse is common enough in the dusty markets of Kolkata, a delightful if crumbling great city, once known as Calcutta and still capital of the state of West bengal. Those who buy cheap plastic goods or plaster-of-Paris busts of Rabindranath Tagore, Bengal’s cultural hero, may come to regret their haste. Likewise, many who...

-The Hindu Even as political cartoons have come under attack from some unamused politicians — triggering debates on the purpose and importance of cartoons and freedom of speech — the annual award list for the cartooning contest held in the memory of political cartoonist Maya Kamath was announced. Winners all A Pakistani cartoonist, an acclaimed caricaturist from Bangalore and a Delhi artist finished at the top of the contest, which drew a total...

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board is facing the wrath of a Muslim women's group, which has vowed to stop the maulvis from demanding a rollback of compulsory registration of marriages. Ahead of its proposed general body meeting at Mumbai, where the apex Muslim law body is to formally make its demand to the Centre, Muslim women are preparing to fight "gender excesses" by maulvis.  The Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan...

-CNN-IBN West bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has come up with yet another bizarre advice. She is now advising people on what television channels they should watch. Addressing a gathering in North 24 Parganas, she told people to stop watching certain news channels and switch to entertainment channels instead. She told her cadres to avoid some TV channels and listen to music instead. She also criticised a section of the media for...

The Centre has cited three shortcomings in the implementation of the rural job scheme in Bengal and linked the next instalment of grant to the resolution of the problems. In a letter sent to chief minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday, Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has identified the critical areas as low completion rate of works, delay in e-transfer of wages and inadequate action on complaints of irregularities. “Let me make it...