Bengal is a historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Bengal proper is divided between modern-day Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. The Indian states of Assam, Jharkhand and Tripura have a sizeable Bengali population. A large Bengali diaspora exists across the world. Bengali is the sixth-most spoken language in the world.
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.
Kolkata is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, 80 km (50 mi) west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary financial and commercial center of eastern and northeastern India. Kolkata is the seventh most populous city of India with an estimated city proper population of 4.5 million (0.45 crore). It is the centre of the Kolkata Metropolitan Region, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world with a population of over 15 million residents. Kolkata is the de facto cultural capital of India and historically and culturally significant city in the historic region of Bengal. It is the second largest Bengali-speaking city in the world. It has the highest number of Nobel laureates among all cities in India.
State Bank of India (SBI) is an Indian multinational public sector bank and financial services statutory body headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. SBI is the 48th largest bank in the world by total assets and ranked 221st in the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest corporations of 2020, being the only Indian bank on the list. It is a public sector bank and the largest bank in India with a 23% market share by assets and a 25% share of the total loan and deposits market. It is also the tenth largest employer in India with nearly 250,000 employees. On 14 September 2022, State Bank of India became the third lender and seventh Indian company to cross the ₹ 5-trillion market capitalisation on the Indian stock exchanges for the first time. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has identified the SBI, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank as Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs), which are often referred to as banks that are “too big to fail”.
Modern banking in India originated in the mid of 18th century. Among the first banks were the Bank of Hindustan, which was established in 1770 and liquidated in 1829–32; and the General Bank of India, established in 1786 but failed in 1791.
The Bengal School of Art, commonly referred as Bengal School, was an art movement and a style of Indian painting that originated in Bengal, primarily Kolkata and Shantiniketan, and flourished throughout the Indian subcontinent, during the British Raj in the early 20th century. Also known as 'Indian style of painting' in its early days, it was associated with Indian nationalism (swadeshi) and led by Abanindranath Tagore (1871–1951), but was also being promoted and supported by British arts administrators like E. B. Havell, the principal of the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata from 1896; eventually it led to the development of the modern Indian painting.
The Bengal Renaissance, also known as the Bengali Renaissance, was a cultural, social, intellectual, and artistic movement that took place in the Bengal region of the British Raj, from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. Historians have traced the beginnings of the movement to the victory of the British East India Company at the 1757 Battle of Plassey, as well as the works of reformer Raja Rammohan Roy, considered the "Father of the Bengal Renaissance," born in 1772. Nitish Sengupta stated that the movement "can be said to have … ended with Rabindranath Tagore," Asia's first Nobel laureate.
The culture of Kolkata concerns the music, art, museums, festivals, and lifestyle within Kolkata. It is the former capital of India and, as of 2021, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Geir Heierstad writes that Bengalis tend to have a special appreciation for art and literature.
The Bank of Calcutta was founded on 2 June 1806, mainly to fund General Arthur Wellesley's wars against Tipu Sultan and the Marathas. It was the tenth oldest bank in India and was renamed Bank of Bengal on 2 January 1809.
Amiya Kumar Bagchi is an Indian political economist.
Calcutta Club is an elite gentlemen's club located on Lower Circular Road in Kolkata, India. It was established in 1907 and the first president of the club was the Maharajah of Cooch Behar, Sir Nripendra Narayan. The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII of Great Britain, was among the first royal guests to visit the club when he was invited to a lunch on 28 December 1921. First prime minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru visited the club in 1961. The club has always maintained distinguished members from every community - from Maharaja of Coochbehar to Maharaja of Burdwan, Maharaja of Darbhanga, Nawab Sir KGM Faroqui of Ratanpur to Bhupendra Nath Bose, President of the Indian National Congress to Indian economist and philosopher Amartya Sen. Internationally acclaimed artists like Gaganendranath Tagore and Abanindranath Tagore were regular visitors to the club, as was Oscar award-winning legendary film-maker Satyajit Ray, longest-serving chief minister of West Bengal Jyoti Basu. In 2007, 11th president of India Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam visited the club to launch the centenary scholarship fund. Other notable visitors to the club include prominent Indian artists and celebrities such as Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri. Today Calcutta Club stands as an iconic landmark in Kolkata and represents the elite Bengal with rich history and culture, and also referred as "The Grand Duke of all Clubs".
Nepal SBI Bank Limited (NSBL) was the result of the first Indo-Nepal joint venture in the financial sector sponsored by three institutional promoters, namely State Bank of India (SBI), Employees Provident Fund and Agricultural Development Bank of Nepal through a memorandum of understanding signed on 17 July 1992.
Rajkissore Dutt was a 19th-century Indian businessman, who is most notable for perpetrating a major fraud against the Bank of Bengal, which is one of the predecessors of the State Bank of India.
The Union Bank was a bank founded in the year 1828 in British India by Prince Dwarkanath Tagore. The bank was the fourteenth oldest bank in India.
Dipankar Basu was an Indian career banker who served as the fifteenth Chairman of the State Bank of India.
G. G. Vaidya was an Indian career banker who served as the nineteenth Chairman of State Bank of India.
The Government Savings Bank (1833) was an Indian bank founded in 1833 in British India and operated until it was liquidated in 1843. The bank was the fifteenth oldest bank in India.
FinTech Hub is a financial, commercial centre and business district located in the CBD of New Town city, which lies outskirts of Kolkata under its metropolitan area in the state of West Bengal, India. The hub has the presence of a large number of banking, financial companies and legal institutions. Many major companies have their headquarters, offices and training centres operational or under construction.
Boat Museum is a public museum that is solely dedicated to the documentation of the history of boats in the Bengal region. Located in the Institute of Cultural Research in Kankurgachi, Kolkata, the museum is a rare initiative that aims to preserve the memories of Bengal's riverine past. The museum has been referred to as India's first museum dedicated to understanding boats, indigenous boat-making, and their heritage. Adjacent to the Boat Museum is the Puppet Museum, Kantha Museum, and a collection of tribal artefacts.
