Located on the east bank of the River Hooghly, on the lower Gangetic Delta, at an elevation of about 30 feet, Kolkata or “The place of goddess Kali” is the principal commercial, cultural, and educational centre of East India. The Port of Kolkata is Indias oldest operating port and its sole major riverine port. With a total population of 4.5 million, Kolkata is the 7th most populous city of India, and the literacy rate is over 86 percent. The native and the most spoken language is Bengali. The Kolkata Metro, in operation since 1984, is the oldest underground mass transit system in India. The city comes under the Kolkata district, which is a fully urbanized district, and 40 percent of the total population is part of the workforce. Only one percent of the workers are employed in the agriculture sector, 4 percent in the household industry and the bulk 95 percent in industry and services. Prominent industrial activities are related to Steel, Heavy Engineering, Mining, Minerals, Cement, Pharmaceuticals, Food Processing, Electronics, Textiles and Jute. Kolkata has traditionally had a huge informal sector that employs more than 40% of the labor force. Kolkata initially consisted of the three villages of Kolikata, Sutanuti and Govindapur. The discovery and archaeological study of Chandraketugarh, 35 kilometers north of Kolkata, has provided evidence that the region in which the city stands has been inhabited for over two millennia. The recorded history of Kolkata (Calcutta) began in 1690 with the arrival of the East India Company which had obtained a grant from the Nawab of Bengal to trade from the citys port. By 1712, the British had completed the construction of Fort William to protect their trading factory and by 1793, the East India Company was strong enough to abolish the Nizamat or local rule and assume full sovereignty of the region. Calcutta remained the capital of the British Indian Government till 1911. As the capital, Calcutta became the first economic, socio-cultural and educational hub of the British Raj on the one hand and as a hot bed of the Indian Nationalist Movement and the Bengal Renaissance on the other. The first of the European Indologists arrived here, and Sir William Jones had established the Asiatic Society by 1784. The Imperial (Indian) Museum was born out of the Asiatic Society in the 1800s. The Fort William College was also established in the year 1800 and the focus of all these institutions was oriental cultural and religious studies and philology. By the 1850s, Calcutta had two areas: White Town, which was primarily British and centered on Chowringhee and Dalhousie Square; and Black Town, mainly Indian and centered on North Calcutta. Calcutta grew to be a highly multicultural city with Greeks, Jews, Armenians and Chinese making this city their home over time. One of Indias biggest modern day icons of humanity, compassion and service to others was Saint Mother Teresa, who established the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata.
