Kolkata formerly known as Calcutta is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly river, it is the principal commercial, cultural, and educational centre of East India, while the Port of Kolkata is India's oldest operating port as well as its sole major riverine port.
Under the East India Company and later under the British Raj, Kolkata served as the capital of India until 1911, when its perceived geographical disadvantages, combined with growing nationalism in Bengal, led to a shift of the capital to New Delhi.
List of famous personalities belongs to Kolkata,
- Sir Ronald Ross (1902, Medicine),
- Rabindranath Tagore (1913, Literature; first non-European to win the Nobel Prize),
- C V Raman (1930, Physics),
- Mother Teresa (1979, Peace),
- Amartya Sen (1998, Economics)