What's New in India

The 2014 General Elections

General elections were held across India in 2014 to form the 16th Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s Parliament. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s primary conservative party, won the outright majority and installed their leader, Narendra Modi, as prime minister on May 26. The election had the highest turnout of any general election in India’s history, with more than 66% of India’s 814 million eligible voters coming out to vote. It was also the world’s largest election of all time.

In the months leading up to his inauguration, Modi campaigned on promises of economic reform and corruption reduction, and was heralded by supporters as a man of the people (Modi comes from a humble background, which is unusual for a prime minister). Opponents feared that the BJP has a pro-Hindu agenda that poses a threat to India’s minority groups—notably Muslims—pointing out Modi’s alleged provocation of the 2002 Gujarat Riots that resulted in the death of hundreds of Hindus and Muslims.

The Formation of Telangana

Soon after Independence, much of India was divided and merged along linguistic lines, including the princely Hyderabad State, which once occupied a vast swath of territory across South India. The Telugu-speaking parts of the state, known as Telangana, were merged with the newly formed Andhra State to form Andhra Pradesh, and certain safeguards were put into place to protect the people of Telangana from discrimination and unfair distribution of resources. Many locals felt that the protection they had been promised was not upheld; this spurred a series of independence movements that started in the 1960s and gained momentum in the early 2000s. In June 2014, the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh was officially bifurcated under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014. The state was split into a new state of Telangana in the northwest, which comprises what was once Hyderabad State, leaving the remaining areas to the south and east as part of Andhra Pradesh.

The Symbol of the Rupee

In 2010, the Indian government sent out a message about the growing strength of the Indian rupee against global currencies like the dollar and the euro by unveiling a new symbol for the rupee. With the symbol, a unique blend of the Roman "R" and the Devanagri (or Hindi) script "Ra," the Indian rupee joins the U.S. dollar, the euro, the British pound, and the Japanese yen in having a distinct identity.

As part of the process, in 2009 the Indian government announced a public competition to create the symbol, and more than 3,000 people sent in their suggestions. D. Udaya Kumar, a professor at the elite Indian Institute of Technology, sent in the winning entry; he explained that his symbol "is a perfect blend of Indian and Roman letters" and that the design was inspired by the Indian tricolors "with two lines at the top and white space between." Although the new symbol will not be incorporated into currency notes for the time being, it has been added to major scripts and used in all official communication.

Interplanetary Travel

Despite some failures, such as the loss of India's first unmanned moon orbiter in 2009, India is pursuing significant milestones in space technology, including a second lunar exploration mission in 2016–17. In 2013, India began its first interplanetary mission with the launch of the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), known locally as the Mangalyaan (Sanskrit for Mars craft), carrying five scientific instruments designed to gather and analyze data pertaining to the planet’s surface, atmosphere, and exophere. The craft entered the orbit of Mars in late September 2014, making the Indian Space Research Organisation the fourth space agency to reach to Mars.

Continued Globalization

International fast-food chain McDonald's was among the first global brands to set up base in India, way back in 1996. Over the ensuing years, they've tweaked their trademark products to better suit the Indian palate, and you won't find items like the McAloo Tikki (it has a potato cutlet in place of a meat patty), the Chicken Maharaja Mac (the Indian version of a Big Mac, with two grilled chicken patties, tomatoes, cheese, and spicy mayonnaise), or the Paneer Salsa Wrap anywhere else in the world.

A host of other international brands have since climbed on to the India bandwagon, including fast-food outlets like Domino's and Subway. International apparel brands such as Levi’s and United Colors of Benetton have long been a feature of many an Indian shopping malls, recent years have seen newer players such as Zara, Diesel, and Forever 21 set up shop across the country. In 2012, Starbucks’ launched its brand in India through a joint venture with India’s Tata Global Beverages, a division of the behemoth Tata Group. By 2014, they had more than 40 outlets across major Indian cities, all serving locally sourced coffee.

Indian Art Booms

Indian art is becoming better known in the international art market, and the works of modern Indian masters have been fetching record prices at art auctions. In 2010, for instance, veteran artist S.H. Raza's Saurashtra, a large acrylic on canvas work, was snapped up by a buyer for a staggering $3.5 million at a Christie's auction in London. The sale set a new record for the amount paid for a work of modern Indian art at auction. Other artists, including M.F. Hussain—called the "Indian Picasso" by Forbes magazine—have found favor with international collectors, and the Indian art market is expected to continue gaining recognition and renown.

Recycling

Recycling isn't new to India, by any means. Indeed, recycling has been going for many decades, with ragpickers collecting paper, plastic, and metal waste that's then sold and resold up the chain of industry. Bottles and tins have always been reused until they break; newspapers are saved and resold, or used as insulation. The recycling of cow dung for fuel, building material, and many other uses has been going on for centuries. More recently India has become a center for recycling electronic waste. The country's own rapidly growing economy generates more than 50,000 tons of e-waste, and other countries have been sending their electronic waste to India as well—despite bans that prohibit the export of hazardous waste from rich countries to poor ones. In India most e-waste is dismantled and reprocessed by hand, without protective gear to guard against toxins such as lead and mercury that are known to be harmful. Something to think about.