Making Calcutta Great Again
1. Pick 3–4 roles and execute ruthlessly Cities that matter today do one or two things exceptionally well . What Calcutta should choose (realistic): Eastern India’s professional-services capital India’s gateway to Bangladesh + Northeast + ASEAN (soft power + trade) Mid-cost knowledge and design hub Selective manufacturing + logistics (not heavy industry) Trying to do everything will fail. 2. Rebuild the “thinking economy” (core opportunity) Calcutta’s historic edge was brains + institutions , not factories. Priority sectors: Legal services (arbitration, commercial law) Accounting, audit, valuation, insolvency Management consulting, research, ESG advisory Education services, testing, publishing, ed-tech Policy research, think tanks, development finance support Why this works: Low capital intensity Language advantage Cultural tolerance for intellectual labour Scales without massive infrastructure This is how cities like Boston ...