-The Hindustan Times Democracy is in peril in west bengal, Partha Sarothi Ray alleged within hours of walking free from jail on Wednesday, after a number of intellectuals, including Noam Chomsky urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his release. Ray was arrested on April 8 for participating in a sit-in demonstration protesting the eviction of about 200 families from Nonadanga by the Mamata Banerjee administration. He was granted bail on Wednesday, after...

With regional disparities, the target of four per cent agricultural growth remains elusive The importance of agriculture in the Indian economy becomes quite clear just before the monsoons. Though other sectors contribute a greater share to the national income, more than three quarters of India’s rural population is still dependent on agriculture as the primary driver of income. India has come a long way from an era of vulnerability to food shortages...

Free travel is becoming an acceptable norm in former railway minister Mamata Banerjee’s signature train — the non-stop Duronto. Launched in 2010 during Banerjee’s tenure, the Duronto was the only Indian train that did not permit free rail travel. However, things changed after Banerjee quit as the railway minister to take charge as the CM of west bengal in May 2011. At first, MPs inched their way into the Duronto on free...

There is nothing more frightening than being frightened. Fear takes away the powers of rational thinking. It makes one pause before one performs acts that were previously considered routine. Does one forward an email containing a cartoon or a joke about a political leader who holds the most important job in the state of west bengal? As a journalist, does one dare to write an article that is critical of...

Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress appears set to open another front against the Centre - this time over the June 30 deadline for changing the delivery of cable TV to digital. west bengal government's urban development minister Firhad Hakim claimed here on Tuesday that the deadline was fixed "without consulting states".  He said the June 30 deadline would "create problems for cable operators" in the state and would mean that people would...