Recent Current Affairs related to West Bengal

The West Bengal Cabinet has approved the ‘Bhagini Nivedita Scheme’ to provide financial assistance of ₹50,000 to unmarried women pursuing higher education. The scheme is set to be implemented in the state from January 2027.

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has announced that Kolkata will host the 5th edition of India Energy Week (IEW) in January 2027.

The event is scheduled to take place at the New Town Convention Centre under the theme “Unlocking Innovation. Securing Energy. Shaping Tomorrow.”

The Department of Higher Education under the Ministry of Education (MoE) has sanctioned the establishment of 5 Centres of Excellence (CoEs) for the study of classical languages.

The CoE for Classical Assamese will be located at Tezpur University (Assam), while the CoE for Classical Bengali will be at Visva-Bharati University (West Bengal). The Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute in Pune will host the CoE for Classical Marathi. The Central University of Odisha and the Central University of Gujarat have been designated for the CoEs of Classical Pali and Classical Prakrit, respectively.

The West Bengal government has approved a proposal by the DRDO to establish a new weapon and missile testing range at Junput village in Purba Medinipur district. Situated along the Bay of Bengal coast, the facility will be the third major missile-testing hub for the DRDO.

Existing testing infrastructures include the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Odisha (at Chandipur and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island) and the Navdurga Missile Test Range (NMTR) currently being developed at Nagayalanka, Andhra Pradesh.

The West Bengal government has launched the Ayushman Bharat - PM Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) along with the 'Mukhyamantri Swasthya Bima Yojana' to expand healthcare coverage.

It is to be noted that AB-PMJAY is a centrally sponsored health assurance scheme launched in 2018 under the Ayushman Bharat (AB) initiative. The scheme provides a health cover of up to ₹5 lakh per family per annum for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to eligible families.

Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy has inaugurated a new 84,000 cubic metre Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) Water Reservoir at the IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) in Burnpur, West Bengal.

The reservoir is designed to meet the operational water requirements of the Coke Oven Battery-10 (COB-10) facility of the plant. It is also engineered to secure water safety for the proposed 4.08 Million Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA) capacity expansion project at the ISP.

The West Bengal government has announced special financial assistance of ₹313 crore for tea garden workers in the state under the 'PM Cha Shramik Protsahan Yojana' (PMCSPY).

The iconic Jolbhora (Jalbhara) Sandesh from Chandannagar in West Bengal has been awarded the Geographical Indication (GI) tag.

This tag designates Chandannagar (Hooghly district) as the unique place of origin for the sweet, safeguarding its authentic recipe and cultural heritage.

The first Vande Mataram Camp 2026, organised by Mera Yuva Bharat (MY Bharat) under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, has concluded at Brainware University in Kolkata.

The event commemorated the 150th anniversary of the National Song 'Vande Mataram'. It hosted 150 youth delegates from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands to promote national integration, cultural exchange, and youth leadership.

PM Narendra Modi has visited West Bengal to participate in the 'Paschimbanga Divas' (West Bengal Day) celebrations held at Tarakeswar in Hooghly. The event was organised under the theme "West Bengal: Heritage, Harmony and Development".

During the visit, he also released the 23rd instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.

West Bengal has officially implemented the Ayushman Bharat PM Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), becoming the 36th State/UT to join the scheme.

This marks the completion of a 100% nationwide rollout of the world’s largest publicly funded health assurance scheme across every state and UT in India. It is to be noted that the central government has allocated ₹3,505 crore to West Bengal under the National Health Mission (NHM) for FY27.

West Bengal Gramin Bank (WBGB) has partnered with Canara HSBC Life Insurance Company Ltd to enhance life insurance coverage in rural and semi-urban areas of West Bengal. The insurance company will use the bank's network of 960 branches across the state to offer its insurance products.

The West Bengal Legislative Assembly has signed a tripartite MoU to implement the National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA).

With this, the state becomes the 33rd legislature in India to join the platform. The initiative aims to transition the state legislature towards a paperless and a fully digital ecosystem.

The West Bengal government has started the enrolment for the ‘Annapurna Yojana’, also known as the ‘Annapurna Bhandar’ scheme.

The scheme aims to empower women and support households by providing monthly financial assistance to eligible women (aged 25-60) who do not have a fixed income, government salary, or pension.

Sudhangshu Seal, a veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) leader, passed away at the age of 81.

He served as an MLA from the Jorabagan constituency between 2001 and 2004. He was elected as an MP from the Kolkata North West constituency in 2004 after defeating Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay.

The Union Government has signed reform-linked MoUs with the Union Territory (UT) of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and the State of West Bengal under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) 2.0.

The agreements mark a strategic transition in the national focus from initial infrastructure creation towards ensuring long-term sustainability, service delivery, and local accountability.

The NITI Aayog has released a policy report titled “School Education System in India: Temporal Analysis and Policy Roadmap for Quality Enhancement” in New Delhi. The report highlights that the school education system in India comprises 14.71 lakh schools and over 24.69 crore students.

The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at the higher secondary level is recorded at 58.4%. Jharkhand has achieved a 0% primary school dropout rate during 2024-25. Around 8,000 schools across the nation reported zero student enrolment, with West Bengal recording the highest number of 3,812 such institutions.

Suvendu Adhikari, belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has sworn in as the first Chief Minister (CM) of West Bengal at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata. He won from the Bhabanipur constituency, defeating the former CM Mamata Banerjee. It is to be noted that the BJP won 207 out of 294 seats in the 2026 Assembly elections. Governor RN Ravi administered the oath in Bengali on the occasion of Pochishe Boishakh (the 165th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore).

Himadri Speciality Chemical Ltd (HSCL), the largest producer of speciality carbon black in India, has commissioned the first anode material production facility of the country at Mahistikry in the Hooghly district of West Bengal.

The facility has an initial operational capacity of 200 Metric Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA). This marks the entry of HSCL into the lithium-ion battery value chain to strengthen the domestic energy storage sector.

Aronyak Ghosh from Kolkata becomes the 95th Grandmaster (GM) of India. He secured his third and final GM norm at the 23rd Bangkok Chess Club (BCC) Open 2026, which was held in Bangkok, Thailand.