It is situated on the bank of river Hooghly. It is a major industrial area having factories like Hastings Jute Mill, Jayashree Textiles, Aditya birla insulators (A unit of Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited), ICI, Hindustan Glass, Kusum Oil Products Ltd., Berger Paints, PMC Rubber chemicals, Shaw Wallace, Hindustan Glass, Phosphate Fertilisers, Laxmi- Narayan Cotton Mills, Bhushan Steels, Green Water Technologies Pvt. Ltd, R.S. ISPAT, Wellington Jute Mill, Fort William Industries, etc.
Rishra, as most of the Hooghly district, is also a sign of the decline of the Jute industry in Bengal after the partition of India in 1947. Rishra was home to the first jute mill in India under the British rule(the Hastings Jute Mill).
Many nationalised and private banks opened their branches in Rishra, to name a few -
from PSU category: State Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Uco Bank, United Bank of India(two branches), Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India; also Hooghly District Cooperative Bank Limited; the names of existing Private sector banks are: Axis Bank and ICICI Bank,
ATMs - 3+1 Axis Bank, 2 ICICI Bank, SBI, Standered Chartered Bank, HDFC Bank, United Bank Of India
Shopping: Khadim's, The Mobile Store, Monginis, Kathleen, 2 Amul, Samsung Plaza, Vodafone store, Rani Market, Mini Market, The Harico Group's Harico Jewellers, B.S.M. Harico Jewellers and B.S.M. Harico Textiles, BIG BEN, Gobinda Sinha POLICY STORE, 2 Felu Modak Sweet Shops, Fashion Factory etc.
Cinema: Jayanti Cinema Hall
Rishra is economically very well developed.
Rishra has about 1200 members of Maheshwari Samaj having its own Bhavan in the name of "Maheshwari Bhawan"
