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):

1. Eastern India’s professional-services capital

2. India’s gateway to Bangladesh + Northeast + ASEAN (soft power + trade)

3. Mid-cost knowledge and design hub

4. Selective manufacturing + logistics (not heavy industry)

Trying to do everything will fail.

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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 and Edinburgh punch above their weight.

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3. Make peace with capital—and actively court it

A hard truth: capital avoids hostility and ambiguity.

What must change decisively:

• Predictable labour relations (no ad-hoc coercion)

• Clear land titling and contract enforcement

• Fast, quiet approvals (not loud incentives)

Calcutta does not need subsidies.
It needs credibility.

Bombay did not win because it was cheaper—it won because capital felt safe.

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4. Turn geography into leverage (underused asset)

Calcutta sits at a strategic junction that Delhi and Mumbai cannot replicate.

Concrete actions:

• Become India’s professional & services gateway to:

  • Bangladesh

  • Eastern Nepal

  • Bhutan

  • Northeast India

• Build trade-linked services:

  • Customs advisory

  • Trade finance

  • Cross-border arbitration

  • Logistics planning (not trucking)

Tie this explicitly to Act East Policy rather than generic “East India” rhetoric.

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5. Stop fetishising manufacturing; target niches only

Large-scale manufacturing will not return at scale.

But selective, quiet manufacturing can.

Viable niches:

• Food processing (tea, spices, nutraceuticals)

• Light engineering and components

• Packaging, printing, speciality chemicals

• Repair, refurbishment, circular economy

Use Haldia and hinterland clusters—keep Calcutta itself services-heavy.

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6. Urban reform: less spectacle, more function

Calcutta does not need:

• More flyovers

• More statues

• More festivals as economic policy

It needs:

• Reliable drainage

• Clean sidewalks

• Functional public transport

• Safe, predictable neighbourhoods

Cities regain relevance by being easy to work in, not by being dramatic.

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7. Fix the narrative (this matters more than people admit)

Calcutta’s internal story is broken.

Current narrative:

• “We were great”

• “Others cheated us”

• “Culture is our economy”

Required narrative:

• “We are useful”

• “We solve problems cheaply and intelligently”

• “If you need thinking done at scale, come here”

Narrative precedes capital.

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8. What success would realistically look like (10–15 years)

Not “next Mumbai” or “next Delhi”.

Success would be:

• Top 3 Indian city for professional services employment

• Default services hub for Eastern South Asia

• Strong net in-migration of skilled workers

• Rising private salaries without subsidies

• Quiet confidence replacing grievance

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Bottom line

Calcutta will not regain relevance by:

• Competing with Mumbai on finance

• Competing with Delhi on power

• Competing with Bengaluru on tech hype

It can regain relevance by becoming:

India’s most efficient, intellectually dense, mid-cost problem-solving city for the East.