6 November 2026
A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court has restrained the West Bengal State Election Commission from going ahead with elections to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
The bar holds until a single judge decides a petition challenging the way the Corporation's wards were redrawn.
West Bengal has raised the number of Kolkata Municipal Corporation wards from 144 to 209.
The Bench of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Justice Arjun Roy Mukherjee was sitting as a vacation bench.
It modified an order of the single judge, who had earlier declined to give interim relief against the delimitation.
The effect is that the civic election process stands deferred, and the challenge to the new ward map goes back to the single judge for decision.
The Court did not rule on whether the delimitation itself is valid.
Wards before:
144
Wards after:
209
Court:
Calcutta High Court, Division Bench
Why it matters for exams: Municipal elections are conducted by the State Election Commission under Article 243ZA, and the Kolkata ward figures of 144 and 209 are a fresh factual point on West Bengal.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Delimitation Redrawing of constituency or ward boundaries — The exercise of fixing the number and boundaries of wards or constituencies.
5 November 2026
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari released the West Bengal Investment Promotion Policy, 2026 in Kolkata. It takes effect from May 9, 2026, the day the first BJP government in the State took office. Help on fixed capital investment in plant and machinery is capped at 100 % for regular units, 110 % in thrust sectors or priority areas, and 120 % for a thrust-sector unit in a priority area, for up to 10 years. MSMEs get 100% of the employer EPF share back for women and transgender employees for 10 years. Certificates of intent come with a 30-day limit and certificates of eligibility within 45 days. Thrust sectors include semiconductors, green hydrogen, EVs and batteries, and defence. The policy is a shift from the Revocation of West Bengal Incentive Schemes and Obligations 2025, under which the previous government scrapped older incentives retrospectively.
In force from:
May 9, 2026
Top capital assistance:
120 %
Certificate of intent:
30-day
Why it matters for exams: State industrial policies and their incentive design (capital assistance, EPF reimbursement, MSME support) are asked in economy papers; the West Bengal Investment Promotion Policy, 2026 is the State's new framework.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSCBank
In plain words
MSME Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises — Smaller businesses classified by investment and turnover limits.
EPF Employees' Provident Fund — Retirement savings fund run by the EPFO, with employer and employee contributions.
FCI Fixed capital investment — Money put into land, buildings, plant and machinery of a unit.
Thrust sector — A sector a government picks for extra incentives.
6 November 2026
A vacation bench of the Calcutta High Court heard a plea over the feared eviction of tea garden workers and other occupants from land meant for a Land Port. The Court said that even people called unauthorised occupants of government land cannot be removed except through the procedure established by law. It noted that the State's own report accepted that the people lived on the land. The right to equal protection of law, it said, covers those in palaces and in shanties alike. The Court did not stop the project; work may go on, but any demolition or eviction must follow the law. It also questioned the use of bulldozers against people holding a dharna. The merits were left open for the regular bench.
Court:
Calcutta High Court
Project:
Land Port
Bench:
vacation bench
Why it matters for exams: Due process before eviction links to Article 21 ('procedure established by law') and Article 14 (equal protection of laws), both core Polity topics.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Land Port Integrated check post at a land border — A border crossing with customs and immigration for trade and travel by road.
Vacation bench — A bench that sits during court holidays to hear urgent matters.
Due process of law — Following the procedure the law lays down before taking away a person's rights.
4 November 2026
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari reviewed the Panchayat department's work in Kolkata. The State will fill 7,190 vacant posts in the department by April 2027, with the PSC (Public Service Commission) running the recruitment. The review also took up the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awas Yojana and the 125-day job scheme VB-G RAM G (Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin)). The Chief Minister said 65.62 lakh man-days of work have been generated under the scheme in the State so far. He said Aadhaar-based KYC checks led to the cancellation of 31 lakh fake job cards, and that ten lakh new cards have been issued. A new Panchayat department building is planned on five acres in New Town.
Panchayat posts to be filled:
7,190
Work generated so far:
65.62 lakh
Fake job cards cancelled:
31 lakh
Why it matters for exams: VB-G RAM G, the 125-day rural employment guarantee, and the role of a State Public Service Commission in recruitment are recurring scheme and Polity questions.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSCBank
In plain words
VB-G RAM G Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) — The rural employment guarantee scheme that offers 125 days of wage work.
PSC Public Service Commission — Constitutional body that recruits for State government posts.
Man-day — One person's work for one day, the unit used to count jobs created.
KYC Know Your Customer — Identity verification, here done through Aadhaar.
3 November 2026
Dooars Rani (T-138), a three-year-old tigress, was tranquilised in Assam and returned to Buxa Tiger Reserve. She had been moved from the Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar and released in Buxa as part of West Bengal's first tiger relocation project. She later crossed the Sankosh River into Assam's Raimona National Park. Forest teams from both States and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) tracked her before the capture. Buxa was declared a tiger reserve in 1983, but there were no recent reports of tigers there. The move is part of the Tiger Augmentation and Recovery Project, a West Bengal effort backed by the NTCA and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
Tigress:
Dooars Rani
Brought from:
Valmiki Tiger Reserve
Buxa declared tiger reserve:
1983
Why it matters for exams: Tiger reserves and the States they lie in (Buxa in West Bengal, Valmiki in Bihar), and the NTCA, are standard environment questions.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
NTCA National Tiger Conservation Authority — Statutory body under the Union Environment Ministry that oversees Project Tiger.
WII Wildlife Institute of India — Dehradun-based wildlife research and training institute.
Translocation — Moving wild animals from one habitat to another to rebuild a population.
1 November 2026
The 32nd Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) unveiled a new logo in black and saffron in Kolkata. It replaces the black and blue design used since 2015. The festival runs from December 16 to 23, and its opening ceremony moves to the Victoria Memorial. Ireland is the official Focus Country of this edition. Prosenjit Chatterjee, the actor, is the new KIFF chairperson, and Mithun Chakraborty is the Chief Advisor. Sandip Ray, who designed the new logo, is also directing the signature film to be shown before every screening.
Edition:
32nd
Focus country:
Ireland
KIFF chairperson:
Prosenjit Chatterjee
Why it matters for exams: Film festivals, their editions, venues and focus countries (KIFF in Kolkata, IFFI in Goa, IFFK in Thiruvananthapuram) are common general-knowledge questions.
Kerala PSCSSC
In plain words
KIFF Kolkata International Film Festival — Annual international film festival held in Kolkata.
Focus country — The country whose films a festival showcases in a special section.
Background
The Calcutta High Court has just held back the Kolkata civic elections, and the ward figures at the centre of that case come from two amendment laws of West Bengal. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2026 raised that Corporation's wards from 144 to 209. The Howrah Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2026 raised Howrah's wards from 50 to 68. The two Bills amend the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act, 1980 and the Howrah Municipal Corporation Act, 1980. They were passed at a special one-day sitting of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Minister Agnimitra Paul told the Assembly the change was needed because of the variation in population between wards. It is this redrawing of wards that the petition now before the Calcutta High Court challenges.
Kolkata wards:
144 to 209
Howrah wards:
50 to 68
Acts amended:
Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act, 1980; Howrah Municipal Corporation Act, 1980
Why it matters for exams: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act, 1980 and the Howrah Municipal Corporation Act, 1980, and the ward figures of 209 and 68, are the durable facts behind the current civic poll litigation.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Delimitation Redrawing of ward boundaries — Fixing afresh the number and boundaries of a municipal corporation's wards.
Background
A national Ayushman Bharat review has been meeting at Kolkata, and this item sets out West Bengal's own place in the scheme. West Bengal became the thirty-sixth State or Union Territory to implement Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. The scheme is the health assurance arm of Ayushman Bharat and is usually written as PM-JAY. It gives eligible families cover for hospital treatment, which they can use at empanelled public and private hospitals. The National Health Authority is the body that implements PM-JAY. The scheme runs under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. With West Bengal in, the scheme covers every State and Union Territory counted in that figure of thirty-six.
West Bengal's place in PM-JAY:
36th State or Union Territory
Implementing body:
National Health Authority
Why it matters for exams: West Bengal as the thirty-sixth State or Union Territory in PM-JAY, the scheme's full name, its implementing authority and its ministry are each standard objective-question material.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
PM-JAY Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana — The health assurance part of Ayushman Bharat, giving eligible families cover for hospital treatment.
Background
West Bengal's entry as the 36th State or Union Territory to implement Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana puts the scheme itself in the news, so its structure is worth setting out. The scheme was launched in September 2018 and gives an eligible family health cover of up to five lakh rupees a year, with the Union Government describing it as the world's largest government funded health assurance programme, reaching more than 62 crore people. It is run by the National Health Authority, which works under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and it is delivered as cashless treatment at empanelled hospitals, of which the scheme counts more than 36,000. In West Bengal the National Health Authority signed a memorandum of understanding with the State's Department of Health and Family Welfare. The State expects to cover about 1.24 crore eligible families, a figure that rises to 1.43 crore once added groups are counted. Two groups make up that difference: roughly 3.06 lakh households of ASHAs and of Anganwadi workers and helpers, and about 15.95 lakh households with a member of 70 years or more, the latter covered irrespective of what the family earns. The Union Government's share for the State is put at nearly 1,000 crore rupees a year. Separately, a first tranche of 527.58 crore rupees has been released to the State from a resource envelope of 3,505.59 crore rupees under the National Health Mission.
Cover per family:
Up to Rs 5 lakh a year
Launched:
September 2018
Implementing body:
National Health Authority, under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
West Bengal families:
About 1.24 crore, rising to 1.43 crore
Why it matters for exams: PM-JAY is among the most asked schemes, and the examinable points are fixed: the cover of five lakh rupees a year, the launch in September 2018, the National Health Authority as the implementing body under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the additional cover for those aged 70 and above regardless of income.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
PM-JAY Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana — The hospital insurance arm of Ayushman Bharat, giving cashless treatment at empanelled hospitals.
NHA National Health Authority — The body under the Union Health Ministry that runs PM-JAY and signs implementation agreements with States.
Background
The Calcutta High Court's order holding back a Kolkata civic election turns on two legal instruments worth knowing separately from the dispute. The corporation is governed by the Kolkata Municipal Act, 1980, and the number and boundaries of its wards are set out in Schedule II of that Act, so a change in ward count is made by amending that Schedule. Under the amendment in dispute the city's ward count would rise to 209 from 144. Hearing an appeal filed by Dipu Das, a Division Bench of Justices Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Arjun Ray Mukherjee allowed it in part: the West Bengal State Election Commission may not notify a poll on the amended Schedule while the writ petition remains undecided. The Bench left the single judge's order otherwise as it stood and called its own remarks tentative. The State's defence rested on Article 243ZG of the Constitution, which belongs to Part IXA on municipalities and bars courts from calling into question the validity of a law relating to delimitation of wards or allotment of seats, and bars challenges to a municipal election except by an election petition. The State Election Commission, the authority that would notify the poll, is itself a creation of Part IXA, under Article 243ZA, which places superintendence of municipal elections with it. Those three points, the governing Act, the Schedule that carries the wards and the Article that limits judicial review of delimitation, are the durable content of this dispute.
Governing Act:
Kolkata Municipal Act, 1980
Where wards are listed:
Schedule II of the Act
Ward count at issue:
144 raised to 209
Article relied on by the State:
Article 243ZG
Why it matters for exams: The examinable content here is constitutional, not political: the Kolkata Municipal Act, 1980 as the governing statute, Schedule II as the place where wards are listed, Article 243ZG as the bar on questioning a delimitation law, and Article 243ZA as the source of the State Election Commission, all within Part IXA on municipalities.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Part IXA The Constitution's part on municipalities — Added by the Seventy-fourth Amendment, it covers municipal bodies, their elections and the State Election Commission.
Delimitation Fixing the number and boundaries of wards or seats — For a municipality it is done under the governing municipal Act, here by amending its Schedule.
Background
Rabindra Sarobar is back in the news after West Bengal minister Agnimitra Paul said the State may allow Chhath Puja at the lake. The 73-acre lake in south Kolkata is one of the city's biggest freshwater bodies and is called the lungs of the city. Migratory birds visit its lake and green park in winter. The National Green Tribunal barred Chhath rituals there to protect the lake's ecology, and the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court upheld the order. The lake is covered by a national conservation plan that funds its protection. Environmentalists say offerings, immersion material and crowds harm the water body.
Lake area:
73-acre
Ban imposed by:
National Green Tribunal
Why it matters for exams: Wetland and lake conservation, and the National Green Tribunal set up under the NGT Act, 2010, are standard environment and Polity questions.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
NGT National Green Tribunal — Specialised court for environmental cases, set up under the NGT Act, 2010.
Chhath Puja — Festival of Sun worship performed at riverbanks and water bodies.