India Today

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Two men whose actions directly impact the lives of nearly two billion people. With that baseline, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US president Donald Trump could have been in the elite shortlist for Newsmaker of the Year 2025 individually. Why choose...

LEAD ESSAY

My first day at a magazine no one had heard of, in fact did not even exist, was in response to a walk-in interview for a proposed publication. I was a writer, born, but not yet bred. The interview was at the Connaught Place office of V. V. Purie, an...

NEW-GEN LEADER

ON THE EVENING OF DECEMBER 14, a short message from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national media office announced Nitin Nabin, the low-key minister for public works in the new government in Bihar, as the party’s ‘working president’, a preliminary...

Air Pollution: Why Delhi Has Failed

‘CAN’T ARM-TWIST INDIA’

On the eve of his visit to India, VLADIMIR PUTIN gave an extensive 100-minute interview to India Today Group TV channels at the Kremlin. The 73-year-old Russian president deftly fielded every question put to him. The most significant ones discussed his...

MANIPUR THE TRAGIC DIVIDE

TWO YEARS AFTER BRUTAL VIOLENCE, THE STATE REMAINS SPLIT INTO MILITARISED ETHNIC ENCLAVES. WHAT CAN BE DONE TO RESOLVE THE PROTRACTED CONFLICT. AN ON THE SPOT REPORT

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Political importance is always challenging to quantify, but Bihar will rank among the most significant recent victories for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Its magisterial sweep, with 202 seats in a 243-member assembly, gives it an 83 per cent...

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Their back stories tell you just how many boundaries and ceilings they each had to breach to get to the pinnacle of white-ball cricket. Shafali Verma disguised herself as a boy to play cricket in the rough-neck country of Rohtak, Haryana. Amanjot Kaur,...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

India is not short of dynastic stories, but this one carries a special note of fascination. For, Tejashwi Yadav, the protagonist, is the son of Lalu Prasad Yadav, who was a mould-breaker in terms of his personality as well as his politics. Tejashwi was...

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Back pain was once a problem associated with middle age and the later stages of life. Not anymore. Across today’s India, it’s becoming a creeping epidemic that is getting younger by the day. People in their twenties and thirties are showing up at spine...

“I WOULD LIKE TO STEP ON THE MOON”

ASTRONAUT SHUBHANSHU SHUKLA SPEAKS ABOUT HIS PATHBREAKING JOURNEY INTO SPACE AND HIS PLANS AHEAD

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

After a nearly year-long lull, India has a major state election at hand again. The big stage this time is Bihar and the stakes go well beyond who controls its 243-seat assembly. The contest has taken an intriguing turn with a trio of protagonists: the...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

For a country on the vanguard of the software revolution, India has curiously stayed a few light years behind the hardware architecture that supports it: semiconductor chips. India imports 95 per cent of its annual requirement of 19 billion chips,...

WHY IS IT HAPPENING?

HOW WE CAN BUILD RESILIENCE

VICTIMS OF TRUMP TARIFFS

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Gauging the public mood is a fascinating task in vexed times like these. From geopolitics to national politics and the economy, every realm of India’s collective life seems to be colliding into the next. Each is now coated with a sense of crisis that...

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

India won its political independence in 1947, but economic independence in terms of prosperity for the masses of Indians is still work in progress. More than the large corporations, the real momentum will come from the fundamental transformation of the...

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The information technology industry has been one of the remarkable success stories of the Indian economy. From $30 billion in 2005-06, it has grown to $282.6 billion currently, contributing 7 per cent to the country’s GDP. It thus became one of the...

Dealing with the Trump Shocker

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

For decades, the Indian middle class parked most of its savings in fixed deposits, gold or real estate. These investments may have brought lower returns, but were seen as low-risk comfort zones. Investing in shares was reserved for the bold, the...

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Dharavi and Gautam Adani. The pairing is instantly dramatic, a study in stark contrasts. One is among the world’s largest slums, the other one of its wealthiest men. In November 2022, the fortunes of the two became entwined as the Maharashtra...

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Kim Namjoon! Kim Seokjin! Min Yoongi! Jung Hoseok! Park Jimin! Kim Taehyung! Jeon Jungkook! These are not names one might expect to hear chanted in India, and would doubtless leave most of our population baffled. But there’s a swelling cohort in our...

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

There is an unsettling resemblance between the brief trajectory of the ill-fated Dreamliner at Ahmedabad and the broader corporate narrative surrounding it. A grand arc of ambition, a sudden and unexplained loss of thrust, and then, images of...

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla may be the second Indian astronaut to go into space, 41 years after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma’s feat in 1984. But Shukla’s voyage on board the American spaceflight Axiom Mission 4 also marks a historic first step. He...

A MAKE IN INDIA SNUB

Operation Sindoor was an emphatic assertion of indigenous military prowess. Yet, a troubling contradiction emerged soon after. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which lies at the heart of India’s defence innovation, now finds...

BEST COLLEGES OF INDIA

ARTS l SCIENCE l COMMERCE l MEDICAL l DENTAL l ENGINEERING l ARCHITECTURE l LAW l MASS COMMUNICATION l HOTEL MANAGEMENT l BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION l COMPUTER APPLICATIONS l SOCIAL WORK l FASHION DESIGN

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Alot of attention these days is on the global charts India is climbing and getting close to the top. Here’s one peak we would rather not be on: India is now the world’s largest plastic polluter, according to the journal Nature. How we achieved this...

GST: Rising Cost of Compliance

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

They are not born artists or entertainers. They did not go to film school. Or learn fancy video editing and scriptwriting at an elite institute. They turned to the dross material of their own daily humdrum lives, and alchemised that into pure gold....

NUKE WAR

NUKE WAR HOW REAL IS THE THREAT

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The sixth Indo-Pakistan war ended as suddenly as it began. It came dangerously close to hitting full throttle before an uneasy truce dawned—not a ceasefire, but an “understanding”, in India’s words. That peace came in a rather curious manner, with both...

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The old adage that every state has an army but Pakistan’s army has a state is becoming self-evident in the ongoing conflict. The dastardly killing of 26 innocent men on April 22 in Pahalgam by trained Pakistani terrorists outraged the nation. There...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

With India and Pakistan going eyeball to eyeball after the Pahalgam terror attack, the threat of a military conflagration hangs over the subcontinent. This week, we focus on India’s Antagonist No. 1, General Asim Munir. Not only because New Delhi deems...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Terrorism is war by other means. It’s a war waged by cowards, especially when they attack unarmed innocent civilians. This is what happened when four armed terrorists murdered 25 tourists and one local on the green meadows of Pahalgam. In Kashmir’s...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Ihave long believed that one of the biggest obstacles to India’s economic progress is the suffocating bureaucracy Indian entrepreneurs and even foreign investors have to endure. Now, the trade war started by President Donald Trump brings new urgency to...

TRUMPING TRUMP

MONTEK SINGH AHLUWALIA AMITABH KANT SHIVSHANKAR MENON R.C. BHARGAVA BHASKAR CHAKRAVORTI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Abureaucrat’s competence, dedication or leadership has nothing to do with the shade of their skin. Yet, India’s deeply rooted bias around skin colour doesn’t spare anyone, not even those at the very top of the administrative ladder. Take the case of...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The past, in India, refuses to rest in peace. Like a restless spectre, it keeps returning to haunt the living—fuelling anger, inciting debate, and increasingly dictating the direction of our political discourse. What ought to have remained the domain...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

There is much talk in India about becoming the third largest economy in the world in terms of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by 2030. This is a valid ambition that India must work aggressively towards achieving. Besides that, other factors determine...

AGE OF ACCELERATION

Row 1, L-R, Sikkim CM Prem Singh Tamang, Telangana CM A. Revanth Reddy, Delhi CM Rekha Gupta, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, ex-US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, actor Aamir Khan, World Chess Champion D. Gukesh; Row 2, L-R, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal A.P....

WINNING THE WAR

“WE WILL END THE NAXAL THREAT BY MARCH 2026”

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Considering the significance of the liver in a person’s health, it is often treated as the stepchild to all the other organs of the body. The heart, the flamboyant workhorse of the body, gets its full share of attention, but the liver is not talked...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Call it a presidency on steroids. Since his inauguration on January 20, Donald Trump has issued 70 executive orders to date and more in the offing. The important ones are designed to rearrange the world order we have been accustomed to since World War...

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

IN last year’s Lok Sabha election, the Narendra Modi government was nudged from its comfort zone. The catchy slogan of “char sau paar” (400-plus) envisaged a domineering majority. Eventually, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won only 240 seats, 63...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Sentiment is a crucial element for the health of an economy. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has given a massive boost to the sentiment and pockets of middle-class taxpayers with a bold step in her recent budget. Those earning an income up to Rs 12...

FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL

As the BJP comes out all guns blazing, Arvind Kejriwal finds himself with his back to the wall in his bid for a fourth term TO READ THE FULL ISSUE, LOG ON TO: www.indiatoday.in/magazine

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The 75th year of the Republic is no small milestone. The first half-century since 1950 was spent ticking the boxes of basic subsistence and getting our population above the poverty line, while amassing the firewood for economic growth. Across all...

THE BIG SQUEEZE

HIGH INFLATION, TAXES AND A WAGE SLUMP HAVE HIT THIS CRUCIAL DEMOGRAPHIC OF 570 MILLION INDIANS. WHAT BUDGET 2025 CAN DO FOR THEIR ECONOMIC REVIVAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The second coming of Donald Trump is being received across the world as an unstamped visa to an uncertain future. One thing about it is certain: Trump will unveil a radical immigration policy post haste. His chief rallying cry was how migrants are...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The birth pangs of Modi 3.0 are now all but settled, so the government can get down to brass tacks in right earnest. What are the challenges it faces in 2025? They go beyond electoral politics, or merely securing its bolts further with the Delhi and...

THE YOUNG GRANDMASTERS

The twelve months of 2024 were rife with both tumultuous and momentous events. Politically, it could not have been more eventful. Right at the start, settling three decades of turmoil, the Ram temple was inaugurated in Ayodhya. Down the middle, there...

THAT INSPIRED THE NATION

Note to the reader From time to time, you will see pages titled ‘An Impact Feature’ or ‘Focus’ in india today. These are no different from advertisements, and the magazine’s editorial staff is not involved in their creation in any way.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Just five months ago, India viewed Bangladesh as one of its foreign policy successes. That changed in August when a popular rebellion ended the 15-year reign of Sheikh Hasina, and the country became a big headache for India. The student-led coup wasn’t...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

There is always much talk about the health of the heart, and we obsess over the same recycled points every time we hear about another person dying of a heart attack. More attention should be paid to the condition of our gut. It’s a critical upstream...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

After the general election five months ago, when the mighty BJP surprised many by failing to get a majority on its own, the recent Maharashtra assembly election was the litmus test of whether its popularity was on the wane. The results dispel that...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The days are gone when cyber fraud was a cottage industry running out of nondescript towns in Jharkhand or Rajasthan. Those starred desi conmen, preying on digital novices with basic tools, and scooting with a lakh or two at most. Now, that species has...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

FROM THE The adage goes that hard work never kills anyone. Across cultures, it is seen as a virtue. The most often repeated mantra for well-being from doctors is to do everything in moderation. In today’s pause-less o ces of the 21st century, it is...

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO TRUMP

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Twenty-one years ago, we devised a reliable way to map India’s mercurial realms of power and influence. Ever since,   ’s annual ‘Power List’ has always elicited great interest among the readership. It provided a revolving portrait gallery, as it...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Politics never pauses for breath in India. Four months after the Lok Sabha election, Haryana voted in early October, along with Jammu and Kashmir. Though relatively minor assembly polls, they changed the state of play much beyond their local turfs....

THE INSIDE STORY OF A CHAMPION

HOW MANU BHAKER OVERCAME HER FAILURES AT TOKYO 2020 TO BECOME THE ONLY INDIAN ATHLETE TO WIN TWO MEDALS AT ONE OLYMPICS TO READ THE FULL ISSUE, LOG ON TO: www.indiatoday.in/magazine

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

At one glance, the two assembly election results on October 8 have the appearance of parity. But look closely, and a strong asymmetry reveals itself. What the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) takes away is in stark contrast to what has...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The world and India are not short of problems. War, regime change, elections, corruption scandals, we have all of that running in spate. What, then, is a humble laddoo, you may ask. Well, in India, anything that relates to religion is highly...

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Our brand-new highways are a matter of pride as they cover an increasing part of our landscape. A key component of our development agenda, their expansion is crucial to maintaining or even increasing our GDP growth rate. However, it has been...