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KOLKATA: Time was when Trinamool Congress stood on firm organisational foundations all over West Bengal with each and everyone of its leaders and activists looking up to party supremo Mamata Banerjee for helming them to electoral triumph. But the days when none dared to question Banerjee's leadership seems to be over as TMC is beset with organisational chaos post a landslide BJP poll triumph.

KOLKATA: Now that a “double-engine sarkar” is in the driving seat in Bengal, strong expectations have been roused about a revival of a long-hibernating economy of the state. The background is that once, almost beyond the living memory of the newer generations, Bengal was in the forefront of the nation’s economy.

On April 13, 2026, a demonstration led by garment factory workers in the Gautam Buddha Nagar district of Noida turned into a violent protest leading to fraught public order in several areas of the city. There were reported incidents of stone pelting, clashes between workers and police personnels, vehicles being set on fire, physical violence, amongst others. A large number of workers from several industrial establishments in Noida had gathered to protest for their long pending demand of wage hike and better working conditions.

Despite several orders and recommendations of the Supreme Court and the Parliamentary Standing Committee, the Union Government did not structurally reform the National Testing Agency (NTA), and also did not take appropriate actions that helped the education mafia of the country to strengthen its grip over the agency. In the name of taking “tamper-proof exams” for much needed “education reform”, NTA is earning hundreds of crore from students, while by continued paper leaks education mafia is earning huge money. What surprises even more is the India’s Education Minister’s contemptuous statement on his not implementing parliamentary panel’s recommendations on the ground that there were opposition members in the committee. What is then behind it – an arrogance of his government, some people’s financial interests, or something else?

India’s stock markets have seen panic before. They have survived wars, sanctions, pandemics, banking collapses and political earthquakes. But the latest selloff triggered by the Iran-linked oil shock has exposed something far deeper and more structural inside Asia’s third-largest economy: India’s extraordinary vulnerability to imported energy.

In a significant development in the sphere of India-China economic cooperation, China has offered its assistance to India in dealing its energy security challenge in the context of the present US war in Iran and crisis in oil shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. IN a commentary in the official organ of the Chinese Communist Party Global Times, the view has been expressed that India can depend on the supplies from China in the areas of equipment and machinery related to renewable energy generation to bring down its dependence on energy imports.

It is deeply painful to witness the defeat of Left and Democratic Front (LDF), the only government led by the communists in the state of Kerala. Even more distressing is the growing marginalisation of the voice that has consistently spoken for the downtrodden — the working class, agricultural labourers, small farmers, students, youth, women, Dalits, minorities, and other vulnerable sections of society.

India’s continuous hesitancy to curb the retail oil consumption pattern despite a worldwide surge in fuel prices is inexplicable, if not unacceptable. The government, the biggest benefactor of large domestic fuel use by way of imposition of levies close to 50 percent of the retail oil prices, is not prepared to ration fuel consumption despite the fact that the country is nearly 90 percent crude oil import dependent. Last Friday, India's state-run fuel retailers raised petrol and diesel prices for the first time in four years by a little over three rupees per litre to recoup some of the losses incurred by oil marketing companies due to higher global crude oil prices. The country is one of the last major economies to raise retail fuel prices following the disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz by the war started by US-Israeli attacks on Iran. Most of the countries have already raised domestic oil prices. Others have adjusted local fuel subsidies to control the retail cost.

Though the April retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose only a little to 3.48 per cent from the March inflation 3.40, and year on year food inflation based on Consumer Food Price Index to 4.20 per cent from 3.87, which is still within the tolerable limit of 2-6 per cent, situation is likely to change for the worse within weeks. Wholesale inflation is rising sharply, and it will soon go beyond the ability and capacity of the Union government to prevent passing it to the consumers, which it has been doing in the last three months, chiefly on account of the elections in states.

The Congress Party faced major challenges within its ranks while choosing the Chief Minister of Kerala, a process that took 11 days and was crucial in settling disagreements among various party groups, demonstrating the importance of internal consensus for unity.