Innholdsfortegnelse for 15 December 2025 i India Today

IT’S GOA’S VERSION OF THE mahagathbandhan. Luckily, it’s called GOA, or the ‘Grand Opposition Alliance’. But the mother of all alliances, an idea floated by the Congress, has run into a familiar yet unexpected hurdle: defectors. The project, meant to sink the saffron armada in the assembly election due in 2027, is undergoing its pilot run in a smaller, but no less sterner, laboratory. On November 29, the State Election Commission announced elections to the North and South Goa zilla panchayats (ZPs). A total of 868,000 people are eligible to vote. How many line up on December 20, and how many of them take a shine to this new alliance, will be clear on counting day: December 22. A PILOT RUN The polls are a litmus test for the Pramod Sawant…

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s long-delayed summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his first in four years, unfolds at a moment when US president Donald Trump is violently rearranging the global chessboard. A time when the world is sharply polarised by war, sanctions and shifting power centres, forcing nations to rethink old assumptions and quietly redraw their strategic maps. In this charged backdrop, Putin’s India visit is far more than a routine bilateral; it is a signal, to the West and to the Global South, about where Moscow believes its long-term partners lie and for India to tell the US that it cannot be bullied into submission. Both sides look to reboot their relationship. In a rare and exclusive interview to the India Today Group’s TV team of Anjana Om Kashyap and…

At 11:30 pm, a district superintendent of police’s phone rings in Chhattisgarh’s Naxal-affected Bastar division. His eyes fix on the number flashing on the screen and his expression shifts—betraying a flicker of expectation. “Woh baahar aane ko taiyyar hai (he’s ready to come out),” says the voice at the other end before hanging up. The “woh” is a high-value Naxal/Maoist who, along with 30 cadres, has agreed to lay down arms under ‘Poona Margam’ (new path), a grassroots rehabilitation programme meant to steer former insurgents back into society. And this is no isolated call. Bastar is witnessing a flurry of surrenders: 1,513 Naxals have laid down weapons this year alone. On paper, it’s a win-win for both sides—the insurgents looking for a way out and a regime pushing for peace. But…

When Sikkimese filmmaker Tribeny Rai shared the first cut of her feature directorial debut Shape of Momo with her friends, they were surprised that she had made a film about herself. Only, Tribeny wouldn’t call the film autobiographical but one that’s “deeply personal”, with characters drawn from her experiences. After all, as legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese famously said, “The personal is universal.” Tribeny’s leading lady Bishnu (pitch-perfect Nepali actress Gaumaya Gurung) is not the easiest heroine to root for. Having returned to her ancestral village in Sikkim from Delhi, she doesn’t make the best impression on her mother and sister who find her tendency to challenge the status quo and demeanour with locals off-putting. “I have been told Bishnu is too strong-headed,” says Tribeny. “You sometimes can’t sympathise and empathise with…

Just as they have for the past eight years, the ghats of Varanasi will once more ring with the verses of Kabir. The Mahindra Kabira Festival 2025, instituted by the Mahindra Group and produced by Teamwork Arts, is celebrating its ninth edition, bringing together a collective of musicians, thinkers, and cultural voices whose work reflects the 15th-century mystic’s legacy of truth, inclusivity and self-inquiry. From reflections on Kabir’s philosophy to engaging discourses, the festival offers a celebration of the mystic poet and saint. Mornings and evenings will come alive with the sounds of music, from Indian classical ragas to Carnatic music and jazz. As Sanjoy K. Roy, MD of Teamwork Arts, says, “Kabir’s words remain timeless. They heal, provoke and inspire reflection in a world that constantly changes.” Some of…

Audible India recently released the audiobook version of Amish’s latest novel, The Chola Tigers: Avengers of Somnath. The novel (published by HarperCollins India) is the second instalment of Amish’s ‘Indic Chronicles’ series of books, after Legend of Suheldev: The King Who Saved India (2020), which is also available on Audible. The audiobook has been divided into 28 chapters and is narrated by Vijayan Menon. Speaking about his latest project, Amish says, “With The Chola Tigers, I wanted to correct a misconception that is unfortunately widespread among Indian readers, thanks to colonial historians—that our ancestors only lost battles for a thousand years, this stereotype that they were weak, cowardly vegetarians. In this book, I wanted to show that, actually, our ancestors were the toughest guys of their era.” In The Chola…

When chemistry meets craftsmanship, the result can be unexpectedly heady. Dr. Emma Walker, Johnnie Walker’s first female Master Blender, exemplifies this fusion. A PhD in chemistry, she approaches whisky with a scientist’s precision and a storyteller’s instinct. On her recent visit to India to launch the Rahul Mishra x Johnnie Walker Blue Label festive pack, Walker spoke with India Today Spice about the evolving palate of whisky drinkers, the widening world of blends, and what luxury means in an age of experimentation. Blending Beyond Borders For Walker, collaborations like the one with Rahul Mishra are more than marketing. They are acts of creative exchange. “It’s great for us to be able to work with different collaborative partners—artists, designers, cultural icons,” she says. “We get to step into their world, understand…

In a world consumed by chaos, crowds, and the relentless tug of connectivity, solitude has become the most elusive of luxuries. And truly savouring meaningful indulgence often requires more than spending power—perhaps the nerve to abandon the map and venture beyond the familiar. Recently, my curiosity won over convenience and drew me to Chidiyatapu—a quiet peninsula at the southernmost tip of South Andaman Island. The Andaman & Nicobar Archipelago, adrift nearly 1,200 kilometres from mainland India, nearer to the coasts of Myanmar and Thailand, already feels like India’s last frontier. On its edge lies the so-called “Bird Island,” just 25 kilometres (a 45-minute drive) from Port Blair’s Veer Savarkar International Airport, but seemingly a world away from the capital’s bustle. The drive itself is a slow unfurling of emerald forests,…

Today is my Tokyo Drift moment—except that there’s no drifting. What there is a copious amount of high-speed handling, on the curlies between Tokyo and Hakone, a town famous among auto enthusiasts, for vantage point views of Mount Fuji. And today’s drive takes me 90 minutes outside Tokyo, to Hakone, for the first drive of the Mini Cooper Convertible S, replete with the roof down experience. Leaving Tokyo’s overwhelming urban sprawl behind, I pull up on the side of the road, flip a button and, in just about 18 seconds, drop down the roof (the Union Jack motif folding perfectly on the retractable roof fabric is a beautiful design touch), and cutting through the gorgeous Japanese forests leading to Mount Fuji. There are a couple of cosmetic changes on the…

THE ASTONISHING 8.2 PER CENT GDP GROWTH IN THE SECOND QUARTER OF FY26 and a revival in consumption patterns have raised hopes of the economy speeding at a faster clip this fiscal than the 6.5 per cent seen in FY25. While this is good news, questions remain: can the uptick be sustained over the next few quarters? More importantly, will it provide the boost for investment in the private sector and, in turn, create more jobs? GDP growth in the second quarter was 2.6 percent points higher, compared to the 5.6 per cent in Q2FY25 (it was 7.8 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal). “Consumption is reasonably strong at present,” Dharmakirti Joshi, chief economist, Crisil, told india today. “This year, we are seeing a story of…

ON THE RIVER-RIDDEN BORDER of North 24 Parganas, two conflicting visuals are juxtaposed. At Hakimpur checkpost, under Basirhat subdivision, groups of Bangladeshi nationals who had entered India illegally are lined up, desperate to exit. Just 35 km away, in Bongaon, thousands of Hindu refugees—dominated by the Matuas—are on the streets. The object of their ire: the same bureaucratic behemoth that has sparked the first phenomenon as it rumbles across poll-bound West Bengal. Clearly, the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is producing both predictable and deeply contrary effects. Kajal Das, a small-time Awami League activist in his native Jashore district of Bangladesh, had crossed over to India on an August night in 2024. He was escaping the anti-Sheikh Hasina agitations, fearing reprisals. Later, his elder brother Kalipada brought…

Rupesh, aka Satish—central committee member of the main Naxal group, CPI (Maoist), head of the north sub zone of the Dandakaranya special zonal committee (DKSZC) and its chief ideologue—surrendered on October 17 with 209 armed cadres. The lean, Teluguspeaking Rupesh, and DKSZC member Baji Rao spoke to Senior Editor rahul noronha in Jagdalpur’s ‘Alcatraz’, which houses high-value surrenderers, on laying down arms, misreading public mood, the movement’s future and electoral politics. Edited excerpts of the interview: Q. The past two years have seen a clear capitulation, coinciding with a shift in strategy by security forces. What weakened the Maoist movement? Rupesh: We could not adopt the right strategy, nor could we reach all sections of society. For example, during the farmers’ protest, we couldn’t do much; the problems of farmers…

This biography marks the birth centenary of India’s most celebrated agricultural scientist, M.S. Swaminathan (MSS; 1925-2023). The author Priyambada Jayakumar, a historian by training, had privileged access to MSS; her mother and the scientist were first cousins. This brings an up close-and-personal feel to the book’s opening. The idea for the book emerged during the pandemic, as much from the frustration of being boxed in as a response to the humanitarian crisis in general and the lack of access to food in particular. MSS himself was driven to agricultural science by another cri sis—the Bengal famine of 1943. The book is broken into 10 chapters, each describing a phase of his life. The volume summarises large events, spr ead out over long periods and across multiple actors, in a way…

For many Indians, the travel calendar no longer revolves around long weekends, school vacations, or flight sales. It revolves around marathon dates. What began as a fitness habit, an early morning get together for a jog or run, has quietly become an obsession and one of the strongest, lifestyle, fitness and travel trends today. Having run across landmarks within their cities, runners now plan holidays around races both in India and abroad. At the heart of this movement are the fast-growing running clubs in every major city, which have evolved into hubs for community, networking, and even dating. Amna Ahmed, captain of Adidas Runners, sees this shift first hand every weekend during her runs around Nehru Park and Lodhi Garden. “Almost 100 people show up for our weekend sessions. People…

For those who haven’t ticked off the Northern Lights from their bucket list yet, now is the moment. This spectacular phenomenon will be at its most brilliant until March 2026 because the sun’s activity, which triggers the spectacle, is at a decade-long peak. However, instead of heading to the usual hotspots in Sweden or Finland, go off grid to remote Arctic outposts where darker skies due to dim town lights make the celestial display more dazzling. Picture watching ribbons of green and purple dart across the sky from a lakeside village deep inside the world’s happiest country, a mountain peak in a national park in Sweden, near 5000-year-old stone formations in Scotland or a beach strewn with icebergs in Iceland. So, pack those warm layers and head for a quieter…

A circular water curtain cascades around a car, creating a floating tableau of mist and machinery In an age when automotive showrooms are rapidly morphing into lifestyle statements, Toyota Kirloskar Motor has chosen a quieter, more contemplative route. Its new initiative, tem—short for Toyota Experiential Museum—opened this week inside Bengaluru’s Phoenix Mall of Asia, and it resists easy categorisation. Part cultural space, part tech-driven installation, part meditation on the meaning of movement, tem is all about the experience. Spread across 8,200 square feet on the mall’s ground floor, the centre presents itself as a “five-senses experience,” a blend of Japanese minimalism and Indian notions of mindful living. Toyota executives frame tem as an experience, a place where mobility goes beyond cars, it is a philosophy of how people navigate a…

In the pre-dawn hour, the timeless charm of Varanasi unfolds gently. The ancient city is already awake as I dodge traffic in the narrow lanes in my quest to reach the legendary Assi Ghat, whose origins are wrapped in the mists of time. I’m here to witness Subah-e-Banaras, a daily ritual since 2014, which sees the ghat suffused with the sounds of Vedic chanting, followed by a moving morning aarti, a classical music performance and a spot of yoga. This is a celebration not just of Varanasi’s traditions, but of its very spirit. I’m staying mere minutes away, at jüSTa Luxé—Kashi Parampara, an 80-year-old haveli that has recently been converted into a luxury boutique hotel for travellers seeking nirvana in India’s Eternal City. Ranged around a tranquil central courtyard, Kashi…

The BJP-led Assam government has really caught the ‘detention’ bug. After ‘Bangladeshi miyas’ and other ‘ghuspaithiyas (infiltrators)’, next up are the state’s MLAs. Cultural affairs minister Bimal Borah has proposed a ‘detention room’ at the state assembly to hold suspended MLAs, complete with tea service. This is so they don’t end up briefing the media with ‘misleading information’ as soon as they are ejected. Speaker Biswajit Daimary says the secretariat will study the idea, floated after Raijor Dal’s Akhil Gogoi was suspended (yet again). An apoplectic Gogoi called the proposal “unconstitutional”, but Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF said it like it is—the state treating elected representatives “the way it treats illegal immigrants”, a reminder of Assam’s long history of detention centres. TO S.I.R., WITH NO LOVE VOTER VAGARIES The Bengal BJP is…

CHIEF MINISTER OMAR ABDULLAH may have restored the durbar move—the entire government migrating seasonally like a pastoral herd, out of a freezing Srinagar, into warmer Jammu. But the temperature gap is high for other reasons too. The Red Fort blast of November 10 shook up not just Delhi, it’s ricocheting on Jammu-Kashmir ties too—in a way that may have national, constitutional implications. The flashpoint: a significant intake of Kashmiri students at the brand-new Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence (SMVDIME) in Katra. Tension has peaked due to two reasons. The alleged suicide bomber was a doctor from Pulwama, and all his accomplices shared his profession as well as ethnicity. Two, the college is run by the Vaishno Devi shrine board. SMVDIME got its green signal from the National…

FOR A STATE THAT WEARS ITS GENDER Development Index on its sleeve, Kerala never ceases to shock with its toxic masculinity. On November 26, it got a smooth new face—Rahul Mamkootathil, Palakkad MLA and, till recently, a rising young star of the state Congress. His profile is eye-catching: only 36, an education CV that counts a Master’s from St Stephen’s in Delhi and an ongoing PhD, assembly debutant with a record win in a November 2024 bypoll, popular legislator thereafter, the recipient of admiring newspaper profiles while being a regular orator on TV debates with a large social media footprint. That spring didn’t last long. In a season of outrage that began in August, he was first called out by women Congress members, including a former MP’s daughter. The complaints…

» The choice of Raipur—capital of the most Naxalaffected state, Chhattisgarh—as the conference venue was telling » Prime Minister Modi’s core message was a call for holistic development in regions being freed from Left Wing Extremism (LWE) » His remarks signalled that while major gains have been made against LWE, the next phase of the campaign will centre on development » Home minister Shah reiterated his claim that Naxalism would be wiped out by next year, saying it would end before the next DGP/IGP conference » Shah said 586 fortified police stations have been built and Naxalaffected districts have reduced significantly since 2014 » He noted that for 40 years, three problems—Naxalism, insurgency in the Northeast and Kashmir—had festered and the Modi regime has found lasting solutions to all of them…

Imagine a world where healing and hedonism don’t have to wrestle for attention; where indulgence isn’t just the destination but defines the journey; where escape offers the solitude of temporary detachment. It isn’t just the hankering for such improbables that lures you into the subterranean cocoon of the Imperial Spa. It is the promise of moments of rationed serenity amid the raucousness of Delhi’s daily drama. The soulful renewal begins as soon as you descend into the redesigned spa environs where a refreshing welcome drink, wafting notes of soothing music and a bespoke oil ritual. The Imperial Iconic Massage at the Moghul suite is the pièce de résistance of the upgraded spa menu that has recently been pushed up a notch. The sublime Moghul suite is a warm embrace of…

Amid the bumbling cocktail of winter’s cold embrace, the noxious grey smog and the death grip of worsening traffic, a new bar is almost like a collective sigh of relief. An expression of surrender to evenings when routines lay by the wayside; where an imagined idyll distilled pure and soulful through the prism of a perfect martini holds sway. Hey, make mine a Vespertini! The genius of Lord Vesper lies precisely in its ability to offer a curated experience made bespoke. Whether it’s the signature spirit-forward cocktails, lower in alcohol and lighter in calories; delightful bites that serve the best of seasonal ingredients or even the generous layout which unfolds in three experiential layers, guests can effortlessly transition from cosy intimate evenings to high-octane celebrations. The groundfloor bar and lounge…

The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold is not trying to reinvent the foldable wheel; it’s busy polishing the rims. After a week in our pocket, bag and on our desk, this bendy flagship feels less prototype, and more grown-up luxury toy. Design Drama Google has stopped experimenting and started refining. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold keeps the book-style look but tidies the lines. Matte frame, glossy spine and glass back feel premium, and the new gearless hinge opens with a soft hush instead of a creak. At 258 grammes and 10.8mm folded it is no feather, yet that heft buys you IP68 dust, water resistance and much more. Cinema In Your Palm The 6.4-inch cover screen feels like any good flagship, with 120Hz smoothness and 3,000nit peak brightness. Open it…