Vol. 2020No. 122Contemporary India
The India you were born into
Friday1 May2020
Look at 1 May 2020 sideways: theatre and performance reveals the everyday scale of a year in which the COVID-19 pandemic transformed daily life, healthcare, mobility and the economy.
Change dateThe Front Page
India confronts the COVID-19 pandemic
Public health, livelihoods and recovery shape daily life
India was responding to the COVID-19 pandemic through public-health measures, vaccination and economic recovery efforts.
India in Numbers
A snapshot of India when you were born.
In may 2020, a litre of petrol cost Loading… and a local phone call cost Loading….
Interpolated placeholder between benchmark years; replace with annual UN WPP estimate before publication. Not a census count. Source: current India population working dataset.
Prices from the month you were born, listed the way the kirana shop would have written them.
- The Hindu archive
- National archival records
- Press and public memory
04 · Sport
India on the field in 2020
Moment of the year · Multi-sport
Tokyo Olympics are postponed
The Games were moved to 2021 because of COVID-19.
202005 · Cinema & music
What India was watching and humming
The film everyone queued for that month, and the song that played from every cassette player that year.
TANHAJI
Year 2020
Film of the year · 2020
Tanhaji
Also in theatresBaaghi 3 · Street Dancer 3D · Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan · Malang · Panga · Thappad
Song of the year · 2020
"Shayad"
Also on the radio"Malang" · "Mehrama" · "Genda Phool"
$ cat science-and-technology-2020
Apps, UPI and digital public infrastructure
What science and technology looked like in India in 2020.
Digital becomes essential infrastructure
The pandemic rapidly moved work, education, payments and social interaction onto digital platforms.
Technology moves closer to daily life
Computing, communication and consumer electronics were gradually moving from specialist institutions toward ordinary homes, offices and public life.
Faces of 2020
Sonu Sood
Organized transport and relief resources for thousands of stranded migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
Adar Poonawalla
CEO of Serum Institute of India, scaling up mass production of the Covishield vaccine.
Krishna Ella
Led Bharat Biotech's development of Covaxin, one of India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine programmes launched during the pandemic response.
Ajinkya Rahane
Captained India to a Test win at the MCG after the 36-all out in Adelaide during the Australia tour.
Mukesh Ambani
Raised over over ₹1.5 lakh crore for Jio Platforms from global technology investors including Google and Facebook.
Ratan Tata
Tata Trusts committed major emergency funding for COVID-19 relief, including support for healthcare and affected communities.
09 · BEYOND INDIA
Beyond India
Before the internet put the world in our pockets, news from abroad arrived through telegrams, radios, television sets and eventually phones.
WHO declares COVID-19 a pandemic
11 MAR
The World Health Organization characterizes COVID-19 as a pandemic as the virus spreads worldwide.
2020, circled in red
The year India turned 73.