West Bengal is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of 88,752 km2 (34,267 sq mi) as of 2011. The population estimate as of 2023 is 102,552,787. West Bengal is the fourth-most populous and thirteenth-largest state by area in India, as well as the eighth-most populous country subdivision of the world. As a part of the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent, it borders Bangladesh in the east, and Nepal and Bhutan in the north. It also borders the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, Sikkim and Assam. The state capital is Kolkata, the third-largest metropolis, and seventh largest city by population in India. West Bengal includes the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region, the Ganges delta, the Rarh region, the coastal Sundarbans and the Bay of Bengal. The state's main ethnic group are the Bengalis, with the Bengali Hindus forming the demographic majority.
Bihar is a state in Eastern India. It is the third largest state by population, the 12th largest by area, and the 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Bengal to the east, and Jharkhand to the south. Bihar is split by the river Ganges, which flows from west to east. On 15 November 2000, southern Bihar was ceded to form the new state of Jharkhand. Only 11.27% of the population of Bihar lives in urban areas as per a 2020 report. Additionally, almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, giving Bihar the highest proportion of young people of any Indian state. The official language is Hindi, which shares official status alongside that of Urdu. The main native languages are Maithili, Magahi and Bhojpuri. But there are several other languages being spoken at smaller levels.
Bhojpuri is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Bhojpur-Purvanchal region of India and the Terai region of Nepal. It is chiefly spoken in eastern Uttar Pradesh, western Bihar and western Jharkhand in India as well as western Madhesh and eastern Lumbini in Nepal. It is an eastern Indo Aryan language and as of 2000 it is spoken by about 5% of India's population. Bhojpuri is a descendant of Magadhi Prakrit and is related to Maithili, Magahi, Bangla, Odia, Assamese, and other eastern Indo-Aryan languages.
All India Radio (AIR), also known as Akashvani or Akashbani, is an Indian state-owned public radio broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. It was established in 1936. It is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, an Indian television broadcaster. Headquartered in the Akashvani Bhavan building in New Delhi, it houses the Drama Section, the FM Section, and the National Service, and is also home to the Indian television station Doordarshan Kendra, (Delhi).
Darbhanga is the fifth largest city and municipal corporation in the state of Bihar in India, and is considered an important city in North Bihar. It serves as the headquarters of the Darbhanga district and the Darbhanga division. It is held that the name Darbhanga has been derived from Dwar Banga or Dari – Banga, meaning the 'door of Bengal'.
Bagdogra is a settlement in the Naxalbari CD block in the Siliguri subdivision of the Darjeeling district, in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the Greater Siliguri Metropolitan Area. Bagdogra is well connected by air to six major cities of India – Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai through the Bagdogra Airport. The Bagdogra railway station is also well connected.
Rituparno Ghosh was an Indian film director, actor, writer and lyricist. After pursuing a degree in economics, he started his career as a creative artist at an advertising agency. He received recognition for his second feature film Unishe April which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film. Having won 19 National Awards, along with his contemporaries Aparna Sen and Goutam Ghose, Rituparno heralded contemporary Bengali cinema to greater heights. Ghosh died on 30 May 2013 in Kolkata after a heart attack. Ghosh was also one of the openly homosexual personalities in Indian cinema.
Rahul Sankrityayan was an Indian author, essayist, playwright, historian, scholar of Buddhism who wrote in Hindi and Bhojpuri. Known as "father of Hindi travel literature", Sankrityayan played a pivotal role in giving Hindi travelogue a literary form. He was one of the most widely travelled scholars of India, spending forty-five years of his life on travels away from his home in locations like Russia, Tibet, China, Central Asia, etc.
Prosenjit Chatterjee is an Indian actor and producer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading actors in modern Bengali cinema. He predominantly works in Bengali cinema. He is the son of veteran Bollywood actor Biswajit Chatterjee.
Vivekanad Sharma was a Fiji Indian politician and religious worker but is best known for his promotion of the Hindi language in Fiji and abroad.
Greece–India relations are the bilateral relations between India and Greece. Greece has an embassy in New Delhi. India has an embassy in Athens. As of 2023, the relation between the two countries is closer than ever and is considered historical and strategic by both parts.
India and Indonesia established diplomatic relations in 1951. Both countries are neighbours, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Indonesia along the Andaman Sea.
Tota Roy Chowdhury is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Bengali and Hindi cinema. He is also known for his versatile acting performances, fitness, martial arts and dance moves. His notable roles include Feluda in the web TV series Feluda Pherot based on Satyajit Ray's Feluda series, Chandon Chatterjee in Karan Johar's film Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani and Rohit Sen in Star Jalsha's daily soap Sreemoyee.
Khaled Choudhury was a theatre personality and artist of Bengal. He worked for various directors of both Bengali and Hindi plays, including Sombhu Mitra, Tripti Mitra, and Shyamanand Jalan in various capacities — creating the Stage, sets and costumes and later as music director. He was a bachelor. He has been awarded the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to theatre in India's Republic Day Honours List on 26 January 2012. He died on 30 April 2014 in Kolkata.
The ASEAN – India Commemorative Summit was an international meeting which India hosted to mark the 20th anniversary of the ASEAN – India dialogue relations and 10-years of its summit level partnership. The summit was held from 20 to 21 December 2012 in New Delhi, India. The India-ASEAN relationship was elevated to a "strategic" partnership at the 2012 meeting.
Prosenjit Chatterjee is an Indian actor, producer and television presenter, who works predominantly in Bengali and Hindi language films. He debuted as a child actor in the Hrishikesh Mukherjee-directorial Chotto Jigyasa, for which he has won the Bengal Film Journalists' Association – Most Outstanding Work of the Year Award. After a string of films where he acted as a child actor, he made his debut as a lead actor in Duti Pata, which was a critically and commercially unsuccessful.
Mrityunjay Athreya is an Indian author, educationist and management advisor, widely regarded as one of the founders and pioneers of Indian Management movement and education. A former professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, the London Business School and the Strathclyde Business School, Scotland, and a known speaker at various international forums, he is the founder of Sampradaan Indian Centre for Philanthropy, a non-profit non governmental organization, serving as a platform for charity initiatives by high-net-worth individuals. The Government of India honored him, in 2014, by bestowing on him the third highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan.
Stories by Rabindranath Tagore is a 2015 Indian Hindi television series which aired on the Epic channel. It is directed by Anurag Basu.
Total length of road in West Bengal is 92,023 kilometers. Among these national highway are 2,377 kilometers, and state highway 2,393 kilometers. The road density of the state is 103.69 kilometers per 100 square kilometers ; the national density is 74.7 kilometers per 100 square kilometers. The average speed of the road in the state is between 40 and 50 kilometers/hour. The speed in the village and urban areas is between 20 and 25 kilometers/hour. This is the main reason the road is low and lack of maintenance. The total length of the railway line in the state is 3,825 kilometers. Indian Railways' Eastern Railway zone and South Eastern Railway zone Headquarter are located in Kolkata. The railways on the north side of the state Under the Northeast Frontier Railway. Kolkata Metro is India's first underground metro rail service. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, part of the Northeast Frontier Railway, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
