Articles by Ankita Gupta

“Trams still run on 40 routes in Melbourne with millions of users,” says former tram conductor Roberto D'Andrea, who along with his fellow conductor Tony Graham travelled from Melbourne to Calcutta in February to promote the five-day Tramjatra festival. “It is not merely a heritage ride but used daily by commuters as part of the public transit system”. Calcutta is no Melbourne. But it can boast of two firsts: The first Indian city to build a metro line. And the only city to still have functional tram lines. The Calcutta metro of course gets all the attention and money. The…

A year ago, Cyclone Amphan battered the eastern coast of India. This May, Cyclone Tauktae has whaled India’s western coast.  Amphan had fermented in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean and made landfall near Bakkhali, Bengal on the afternoon of May 20, 2020. Tauktae stirred forth from the cold waters of the Arabian Sea and shook the Gujarat Coast on the evening of May 17, 2021.  Both cyclones struck during a state of lockdown. Amphan was a Category 5 tropical cyclone, which refers to a ‘Very Severe Cyclonic Storm.’ Tauktae falls under Category 3 to 4, and is the…

It is perhaps one of the worst healthcare crises to have befallen the state of West Bengal ever, with the impasse in state-run hospitals showing no signs of resolution even as the strike by junior doctors in Kolkata and neighbouring districts enters the fifth day today. In fact, ripples of what started on the premises of the Nil Ratan Sarkar (NRS) Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata are now being felt in cities and towns across the country, with doctors everywhere expressing solidarity with their counterparts in Kolkata. According to latest reports, the Indian Medical Association has called for a…