Srinagar, May 12 -- Howrah was once called the Sheffield of Asia. The jute mills along the Hooghly were the largest concentration of organised industry on the subcontinent. Kolkata was India's commercial capital, head office to the Birlas and the Tatas, to ITC, Britannia, Coal India, Hindustan Motors, Garden Reach Shipbuilders. IISCO at Burnpur dates to 1918, Durgapur Steel Plant to the Second Plan. In 1950-51, Bengal produced roughly 27 per cent of the country's manufacturing output. I knew that Calcutta. Before I joined the Foreign Service, one of my first jobs was at Hindustan Lever in the city, and Calcutta then was still a place where a young man arriving with his trunks could be sure he had come to where the country's commerce was c...