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By:

Kiran D. Tare

21 August 2024 at 11:23:13 am

Bengal’s Ludwig Erhard

For decades, Swapan Dasgupta made a career of diagnosing India’s political ailments. As a columnist, editor, author and public intellectual, the erudite and scintillating Dasgupta dissected challenged orthodoxies and defended the intellectual traditions of the Indian Right. However, following his new appointment as the new Finance Minister of a West Bengal in economic doldrums, he perhaps faces the most demanding assignment of his career. His supporters however are confident that if there is...

Bengal’s Ludwig Erhard

For decades, Swapan Dasgupta made a career of diagnosing India’s political ailments. As a columnist, editor, author and public intellectual, the erudite and scintillating Dasgupta dissected challenged orthodoxies and defended the intellectual traditions of the Indian Right. However, following his new appointment as the new Finance Minister of a West Bengal in economic doldrums, he perhaps faces the most demanding assignment of his career. His supporters however are confident that if there is anyone most suited to sort out Bengal’s messy economy, it is Dasgupta. His appointment following the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ascent to power in Bengal after overthrowing Mamata Banerjee’s TMC regime is among the more intriguing political transitions in recent Indian political memory. India has seen journalists cross into politics before. M.J. Akbar moved from the newsroom to the Ministry of External Affairs. Arun Shourie, one of India’s most formidable investigative journalists, became a reform-minded minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government. Others, from Manish Sisodia to Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and Chandan Mitra, have made similar journeys. Yet Dasgupta’s case is distinctive. Unlike many journalists-turned-politicians, he was never merely a ‘reporter.’ Whether in debate or through his prolific and trenchant writings, he has always been an intellectual combatant, a scholar of political ideas with a sweeping knowledge of world history by which he leavens those ideas. Dasgupta has always been one of the most articulate exponents of modern Indian conservatism. Educated at La Martiniere College in Kolkata, St Stephen’s College in Delhi and later the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where he earned a doctorate, Dasgupta cultivated a reputation for formidable scholarship. His books, including Awakening Bharat Mata: The Political Beliefs of the Indian Right and The Ayodhya Reference, revealed an uncommon ability to place contemporary political disputes within a broader historical and ideological framework. For his supporters, he was among the few intellectuals capable of articulating conservative ideas in a language usually dominated by the Left. To critics, he was a sophisticated polemicist. Yet, even his opponents seldom questioned the breadth of his reading or the sharpness of his arguments. However, the challenge facing Dasgupta now is no longer intellectual but administrative. The Bengal he inherits bears little resemblance to the state that once led India in industry, commerce and scientific innovation. As he himself quipped in trademark fashion with a sharp historical analogy, the state’s economy resembled postwar Germany. The figures are sobering. West Bengal’s state debt has ballooned to around Rs. 8 lakh crore during the TMC regime. Thousands of companies have relocated or curtailed operations over the years amid a hostile investment climate. The new BJP government has inherited not merely a fiscal challenge but a crisis of confidence. “We are left with a near-bankrupt treasury,” Dasgupta said. Equally troubling, in his view, is the erosion of trust among investors and entrepreneurs. Bengal’s relationship with business has been uneasy to say the least. First the long night of the Left, followed by the TMC’s anti-business, appeasement brand of politics has ensured that the scars of industrial disputes and land controversies remain fresh. In this dire situation, reviving private investment will require convincing businesses that Bengal has changed. In this respect, Dasgupta’s strengths may prove unexpectedly useful. Throughout his career he displayed an ability to engage with ideas, institutions and stakeholders across ideological divides. His early moves hint at a broader vision. Rather than confining pre-budget consultations to Kolkata, Dasgupta shifted the Finance Department’s attention to Siliguri in a moved suffused with deliberate symbolism. North Bengal has long complained of neglect by governments centred on the state’s southern districts. By engaging tea producers, agricultural interests, tourism operators and local business groups, the newly-minted finance minister appears eager to demonstrate that economic revival will not just be a Kolkata-centric project. That said, debt servicing consumes a substantial portion of state revenues. Welfare commitments are politically difficult to unwind and infrastructure deficits remain significant. While public intellectuals excel at identifying problems, governing demands compromises and the acceptance of imperfect solutions. Still, Bengal’s new finance minister possesses as fine an appreciation of history than any Indian politician around. He knows that states decline not just because economic mistakes but because they lose faith in their future. Restoring that confidence may be the central task of his tenure. For years Swapan Dasgupta chronicled India’s political story from the sidelines. Now he finds himself at the centre of one of its most consequential state-level experiments. Whatever the outcome of his tenure, few would deny that Bengal’s finances have acquired perhaps their most learned custodian in decades.

High traffic volumes, strong punctuality

Airport handles 148 ATMs; 20,500 passengers daily

Mumbai: The Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) has swiftly established itself as a high-capacity aviation hub, with airport officials highlighting sustained growth in passenger traffic alongside stable operational performance since its launch on December 25, 2025. The latest data indicates that the airport is currently handling more than 148 air traffic movements (ATMs), translating into approximately 20,500 passengers passing through the facility each day. Of this, around 10,500 passengers are departures, reflecting robust outbound demand while maintaining a near-balanced arrival flow.


Officials pointed out that on May 6, 2026, the airport handled 27 arrivals and 45 departures, a distribution that reflects evolving airline scheduling strategies and slot optimization. The higher number of departures on the day also suggests that airlines are increasingly using NMIA as a base for outbound rotations, particularly during peak travel windows.


A key highlight of NMIA’s performance has been its operational reliability. According to airport officials, on-time arrival performance currently stands at 96.4 per cent, while on-time departures are recorded at 86.7 per cent. These figures are considered strong for an airport still in the early months of operation, especially as it continues to scale up both flight movements and passenger throughput. Officials attributed this consistency to efficient coordination between air traffic control, ground handling agencies and airline operators, as well as the deployment of modern infrastructure designed to handle higher traffic volumes with minimal disruption.


Growth Trajectory

Officials further noted that the airport is on a clear growth trajectory, with projections made in late April 2026 indicating that NMIA could soon handle nearly 50,000 passengers daily. This anticipated jump would represent more than a two-fold increase from current levels and is expected to be driven by a combination of factors, including route expansion by domestic and international carriers, increasing passenger preference for the new facility, and the gradual redistribution of traffic from the congested Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.


The current scale of operations marks a sharp rise from the airport’s initial days. On its inaugural day, NMIA handled over 4,000 passengers and 48 flight movements, setting the stage for a phased but steady ramp-up. In the first five days of operations, between December 25 and December 30, 2025, the airport handled 26,021 passengers across 162 ATMs, reflecting encouraging early adoption by both airlines and passengers.


Officials said that the momentum gathered pace quickly in the following weeks. By early January 2026, within just 19 days of commencing operations, NMIA had already crossed the 100,000 passenger movement mark. This rapid accumulation of traffic was seen as a strong indicator of latent demand in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and the immediate need for additional aviation capacity to supplement existing infrastructure.


Steady Increase

Beyond the raw numbers, officials emphasised that NMIA’s growth story is also about efficient traffic management and scalability. The steady increase in ATMs without a proportionate decline in punctuality suggests that the airport’s operational framework has been able to absorb rising volumes effectively. The high on-time arrival rate indicates streamlined airspace management and efficient landing sequences, while the relatively lower, but still strong, departure punctuality points to ongoing refinements in turnaround times and ground operations.


Officials also underscored that NMIA is gradually emerging as a preferred alternative for both passengers and airlines, owing to its modern facilities, reduced congestion and improved passenger handling capabilities. As airlines continue to expand their presence, the airport is expected to play a larger role in regional and national connectivity, easing pressure on existing infrastructure while supporting the growth of India’s aviation sector.


In cumulative terms, NMIA’s journey from handling just a few thousand passengers on its opening day to over 20,000 daily passengers within a matter of months reflects a steep and well-managed growth curve. Airport officials maintained that the combination of rising traffic, strong punctuality metrics and ambitious expansion projections positions NMIA as a transformative infrastructure project for the region.


As traffic levels continue to climb toward the projected 50,000 daily passengers, NMIA is not only reinforcing its role as Mumbai’s second airport but also redefining traffic distribution patterns across the metropolitan region. With continued operational fine-tuning and increasing airline participation, officials believe the airport is on track to become one of India’s key aviation hubs in the near future.

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