Calcutta, now known as Kolkata, glowed with the promise of progress and prosperity half a century ago, far apart from the clamor of today. It stood as a symbol of industrial might, a metropolis that spoke to the dreams of a newly sovereign country.

A voyage from Asansol-Burnpur, the twin cities where I spent my school years, to Calcutta revealed much about the industrial trajectory. The ancient national highway, the Grand Trunk Road, which ran alongside my school, St Patrick's, and my home, wound through thriving towns where manufacturing behemoths thrived--Barakar, Kumardhubi, Kulti, Burnpur, Asansol, Raniganj, and Durgapur--each a cog in the vast ecosystem of Bengal's thriving economy.

From my home on the boundary of Asansol and Burnpur, I could see the brilliance of the Indian Iron and Steel Company (IISCO) facility, which was founded in 1918. Its forerunner was the Bengal Iron Works Company, founded in 1875 in Barakar, which eventually became part of IISCO.
I grew up in an environment infused with the aroma of melting iron and the promise of intricately crafted steel. The foundries and factories that lined our road to the Burnpur Club, where I competed in debate competitions, were more than just bricks and mortar; they were the lifeblood of a society bound together by desire and enterprise.

As you drove east, the landscape changed into a montage of colliery towns such as Nirsa, Sitarampur, Jamuria, Pandaveswar, Chinakuri, and Raniganj, which were once gilded by titans like the Tatas and Bird & Company, as well as smaller ancillary units owned by Marwari, Gujarati, and Punjabi entrepreneurs. Other adjacent industrial cities with a large number of mining and manufacturing workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh included Neamatpur, Satgram, and Mugma. Westward, the voyage will take you to Bihar, including the industrial hubs of Dhanbad, Bokaro, and Jamshedpur. Following the IISCO plant at Burnpur, Durgapur's steel plants and chemical factories were the crown jewels of Bengal's industrial kingdom.

Calcutta was more vibrant than Hong Kong, Singapore, Bahrain, and Dubai.
Calcutta stood steadfast with its deep-water ports at Kidderpore Docks and Budge Budge wharves, which served as a vital hub for petroleum products. Calcutta was more than simply a metropolis back then; it was a worldwide hub, larger and more vibrant than Hong Kong, Singapore, Bahrain, and Dubai, and the largest and busiest city in India, a haven for people seeking new business opportunities.
Calcutta exuded cosmopolitanism, welcoming a diverse range of immigrants--Hong Kong Chinese, Armenians, and Iraqi Jews--each weaving their ambitions into the fabric of this thriving metropolis.

The Fortune 500 thrived here, among the busy stock exchange in B.B. D. Bagh (Dalhousie) and landmark buildings, intertwining their fortunes with Calcutta's. This metropolis had palpable meaning; it was where money could be transformed into opportunity. Bengal was frequently referred to as Germany's Ruhr belt, the dominant economic powerhouse due to vast coal and steel production.
From the Ruhr to the Rust Belt
In a cruel irony, the Ruhr belt has now become the Rust Belt of Bengal and India. When I drove from Durgapur to Asansol, there was a lot of evidence lying around. The major roadway is significantly wider, but the industrial units are closed, and the colliery towns resemble ghost towns.While Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai became world-class financial hubs, Kolkata and its surrounding industrial environment stagnated and even collapsed. Calamity laid in wait, like an early sunset over a once-bright day. The melancholy story of Bengal's collapse unfolds not only with factory closures, but also with the slow suffocating of a once-thriving entrepreneurial spirit. The dramatic transformation began by the Left Front in the 1970s and 1980s signalled the beginning of the end. Strikes, unrest, and disorder became the norm in an effort to empower labour unions, slowing industrial progress.
The collapse of the Tata Motors plant in Singur confirmed Bengal's fate as an industrial desert.Tata Motors announced its intention to withdraw from the Singur Nano project on October 3, 2008. The decision was made by CPI-M Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. However, the late Ratan Tata announced the withdrawal in response to intense, long-running demonstrations and political agitation spearheaded by Mamata Banerjee against the forcible purchase of farms for the factory. While Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee initiated the initiative to encourage industrialisation in Bengal, Mamata's agitation rendered the nearly completed facility unworkable. The Tata Nano project was subsequently relocated to Sanand, Gujarat.

Bengal's failure is existential, not just economic.
Even when the charismatic Mamata dislodged the Left Front from power after 34 years, Bengal's slide remained rather than reversed. The failure of the Tata Motors plant at Singur essentially sealed Bengal's fate as an industrial desert. The ruin was not only economic; it was existential. A generation of budding businessmen was forced to leave their home turf for pastures new. Calcutta, long an unstoppable force, began to falter, made ineffective by its own misguided ideas.
The following emergence of Mamata-led Trinamool over the next 15 years simply confirmed this reality--a continuation of the anti-entrepreneurial zeal that had been synonymous with Bengal's political environment.

Industrial collapse worries Trinamool in 2026, as the BJP focuses on industrial revival.
West Bengal's industrial collapse has come to haunt the Mamata-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the next 2026 legislative elections. The BJP has prioritised Bengal's industrial resurgence under a double-engine government in its election strategy for the 2026 Assembly elections, with an emphasis on attracting investment back to the state. The BJP campaign, backed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, refers to TMC-ruled Bengal as the "Maha Jungle Raj," highlighting lawlessness and industrial collapse. The BJP campaign contrasts their vision of industrial expansion in places such as Gujarat with the "lost industries" of the ruling TMC, emphasising the state's potential to become a manufacturing hub.

How prolonged structural degradation exacerbates economic backwardness
Bengal faces a difficult economic situation in early 2026, marked by high social spending, huge debt, and poor industrial growth, despite its potential as an eastern trading hub. While the state's economy is expected to increase by 7.62% in fiscal year 2025-26, underlying structural issues continue to contribute to its economic underperformance in comparison to other coastal states in western and southern India.Bengal is experiencing a prolonged, structural fall in its relative economic standing. Bengal's share of India's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has steadily declined decade after decade. In 1960-61, Bengal was India's third-largest economy, accounting for 10.5% of national GDP. According to EAC-PM data, this will drop to around 5.6% by fiscal year 2023-24. Despite being a coastal state, Bengal has failed to capitalise on its coastline advantage, unlike Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.
Since the TMC took control on May 20, 2011, Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) growth in Bengal has been lower than India's national average, at 4.3% versus 5.6% (2012-13 to 2021-22).

High population density and slow growth have resulted in low per capita income. Bengal ranks 21st among all states, with a per capita GSDP nearly 20% lower than India's national average. In contrast, in 1960-61, Bengal's per capita income was 127.5% of the national average. The drop in Bengal is so significant that by 2023-24, its per capita income will be 83.7%, lower than Odisha's 88.5%.

Key factors influencing industrial growth and investment in Bengal
Manufacturing and investment results have been continuously subpar. Between 2012 and 2020, Bengal's manufacturing sector grew at a slower rate of 6.6% than the national average of 8.6%. The record has improved slightly after the COVID years, reaching nearly 8%. Complex land acquisition policies, infrastructural deficiencies, and bureaucratic delays have made it difficult for the state to attract big industrial investments. Bengal ranks worse than high-performing coastal industrial states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu in terms of ease of doing business.
Despite the high social-sector investment, social indicators remain concerning.
The HDI in Bengal lags behind those of the southern states. Bengal's Human Development Index (HDI) is around 0.65, ranking between 22nd and 25th among Indian states, much below Kerala's 0.78 and Tamil Nadu's 0.71.

The state has implemented a program that prioritises social welfare, such as expanding the Lakshmir Bhandar initiative. Approximately 45% of the budget is committed to social wages, which analysts claim covers the failure to develop a self-sustaining, productive sector.
For those of us who remember Bengal and Kolkata in their prime, the collapse is tragic. The demise of this once-mighty metropolis exemplifies the disastrous repercussions of ignoring the fundamentals of wealth generation. It serves as a clarion call to recognise the importance of supporting governance in creating an environment in which firms can grow rather than be repressed.

2026 election campaign: BJP touts restoring Bengal's glories.
The high-pitched election campaign of 2026 has become a burden on Mamata Banerjee's neck.
The BJP has used the abandoned Tata Nano plant site in Singur to represent "missed opportunities" and vowed a return to industry. A primary pledge is to create jobs in order to end forced labour migration and restore "Bengal's glory".
The opposition party has promised to stimulate heavy industry and set up investments within a year of entering power, including no acquisition of multi-crop acreage, a crucial issue in prior political disputes.BJP officials say that West Bengal has fallen substantially behind in GDP contribution and industrial output during the Left and TMC governments, and they position themselves as the party capable of reversing this trend. This economic narrative is part of a larger campaign to combat the TMC, which includes concerns about "syndicate raj" (corruption), law and order, and infiltration. The industrial pitch aims to attract young people and entrepreneurs.