Kolkata ist die letzte Stadt der Welt, in der noch handgezogene Rikschas den öffentlichen Nahverkehr ergänzen. Aber vieles deutet darauf hin, dass die Steinzeit der Mobilität bald auch dort endet.

Indien ist die größte Demokratie der Welt, doch das Beispiel Westbengalen zeigt, wie undemokratisch es in manchen Bundesstaaten zugeht. Ein Besuch.

The silicone figures are a touching version of what the Hindi language calls ‘smaran’, or remembrance

In the north of Kolkata, near Dum Dum Junction, Subimal Das and his staff of 80 work from an old factory-warehouse. Using clay, fibreglass and silicone, they construct extraordinary lifesize replicas of religious icons, cultural figures, cricketers and Bollywood stars.

But the workshop also has a popular new line: custom-made 30kg replicas of the dead, commissioned by family and loved ones.

• Group C: England, 202-7, bt Italy, 178 all out, by 24 runs

• Minnows denied by Curran and Overton in final overs

If England keep up the winning habit, perhaps in time they will get good at it. Under the lights here in Kolkata they did enough to beat Italy and secure a spot in this T20 World Cup’s Super 8s, though again without establishing themselves among the form teams of the tournament.

Harry Brook had declared he would “rather not start amazing and finish amazing than start amazing and finish bad”, and in that sense alone it is proceeding entirely according to plan. The next stage is unlikely to be so forgiving.

As Bangladesh prepares for the first election since Sheikh Hasina fled to India, Awami League figures living in Kolkata believe she can still return a hero

Back in Bangladesh they are deemed criminals and fugitives, facing charges of crimes against humanity, murder, sedition or embezzlement. But in the comfort of the crowded food courts of Kolkata shopping malls, over black coffee and Indian fast food, the exiled politicians of the Awami League sit plotting their political comeback.

More than 16 months ago, a revolution against Bangladesh’s autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina forced her to dramatically flee the country, jumping on a helicopter to India as an enraged onslaught of protesters marched towards her residence. The streets she left behind were bloody; her regime’s final crackdown on protesters in the July uprising had left as many as 1,400 dead, according to a UN report.