By Vedant Upadhyay
The year 2018 proved to be an extremely successful year for India in every
aspect. Being it Defense, Police, Trade and Commerce and what not.
Israeli Prime Minister brought the New Year with him by making his visit to India
along with his wife. In his visit, he addressed some business summit and also talked about the strengthening relations with India. He gifted Indian Prime Minister a mobile machine which could convert the salty water of the ocean into the drinkable one. In a deal, India signed to purchase 200,000 such machines for the benefit of the country. Internationally, Mr. Prime Minister has grown into one of the strongest leaders and has also succeeded in improving the image of the country worldwide. Last year, it was one of the few moments in the history of India when the newly elected Prime Minister of Maldives invited Indian Prime Minister to attend his oath ceremony. The ‘2+2’ talks
between India and the USA are a piece of clear evidence that India and USA jointly want to succeed. The result of which has been seen when the USA exempted India from
the sanctions it imposed on Iran.
The internal affairs of India have also been interesting throughout the year.
The three pillars of democracy gave some decisions and initiated some drives
which affected the country as a hole whether positively or negatively. The
judiciary passed some verdicts like The Aadhar Amendment Act, the verdict of
Section 377 and Section 497, i.e. Adultery, which majority of people never
thought would happen. Landmark judgments of some cases like the case of
Sikh Riots and the case of Yakub Memon reassured the people of India that
Judiciary still has a strong clutch in the system of India. Other than this,
Judiciary also justified its role when it intervened in the matter of the executive
and gave a green signal to the Modi Government to proceed with the Rafale
Deal.
On the other hand, Legislature proved its equivalency by passing the SC/ST
Amendment Bill in spite of the Supreme Court’s stay order. Other than this the
House of Commons experienced yet another incident in the year 2018. A no-
confidence motion was raised by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) which apparently
failed due to NDA’s clear majority in the house. In the Rajya Sabha as well, the
issues of Cauvery water dispute was discussed at large but the result was in
vain as AIADMK and Congress walked out of the house.
Modi Government’s different schemes like Namami Gange and Ayushmaan Bharat showed a drastic change and were seen fulfilling their purposes. Under the Namami Gange scheme of the government, the Ganga was cleaned at a stretch of 3000
kilometers and Dolphins were seen after a long time near Rishikesh. Under the
scheme of Ayushmaan Bharat, around 30,000 patients were benefitted.
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojna was declared as an unopposed scheme of the
year. There have merely been consecutive years in the history of India when
there have not been the elections. This year as well people of five states got a
chance to elect their leaders for the next five years. These states include
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Mizoram. In the
states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh; Congress managed to
gain a majority with chief ministers as Ashok Gehlot, Kamalnath and Bhupesh
Baghel respectively. The state of Telangana chose Telangana Rashtra Samiti
with K. Chandrashekhar Rao as the chief minister and the state of Mizoram
chose Mizo National Front with Zoramthanga as the chief minister. The
Bharatiya Janta Party lost power in three states. But still, 2019 is dicey as India is
heading towards the general elections.
This year was not very stable for the ‘chiefs’ of different organizations. Justice
Ranjan Gogoi was sworn in as the 46 the Chief Justice of India on 2 and October
succeeding Justice Deepak Misra. On the other hand, Mr. Sunil Arora took
charge as the 23 rd Chief Election Commissioner of India succeeding Mr. Om
Prakash Rawat. The Reserve Bank of India governor Mr. Urjit Patel also resigned
from his post stating the reason to be something personal. The new person
appointed as the Governor is Mr. Shaktikant Das. Other than this, there have
been changes in the Managing Directors and CEOs as well. Recently, Amitabh Chaudhry was appointed as the CEO of Axis Bank. Indu Malhotra became the first woman
lawyer to be appointed as a judge in Supreme Court.
The economy of India is one aspect which brings a smile on almost everyone’s
face. This year the Indian economy was ranked 6th leaving behind the economy of
France. The State Bank of India opened its UK subsidiary with a capital of 225
Million Pounds. India ranked 1 st in oil import from Iraq as Iraq happens to be
the only country to trade with India in terms of rupees. There has been a
significant increase in the number of taxpayers from 2.5 crores to 7 crores.
The defense sector of India has also developed significantly in the year 2018.
INS Arihant becomes India’s first nuclear submarine to complete its trial. It
would be deployed in the Indian Navy in the year 2020. India has also successfully tested Brahmos missile. It is a proud moment for Indians that Indian Military ranked 4 the strongest in the world with the USA at the top. A group of seven Naval lady officers successfully completed the circumnavigation. They took a round of all the oceans of the planet and returned back to India. This project was named TARINI.
On the other hand, the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs announced to build
a Sports University for the students interested in sports. Mr. Prime Minister
inaugurated the 182-meter tall Statue of Unity on 31 st October and it was open
to the public from 1 st November.
With the occurrence of several games, 2018 has been flooded with sports
events. Deepa Malik became Rank 1 in Asia in Javelin F-53 Category. In the
Common Wealth Games 2018 (CWG 2018) held in Australia, India won a total
of 66 medals wherein we managed to get 26 Gold, 20 Silver, and 20 Bronze. On
the other hand, in the Asian Games held in Jakarta, India got a total of 69
medals wherein we got 15 Gold, 24 Silver and 30 Bronze. PV Sindhu was
chosen as India’s Flag-Bearer at the CWG 2018. India won U-19 Cricket
World Cup defeating Australia. Pankaj Advani wins Asian Billiards Championship Title and Vishwanathan Anand won Tal Rapid Chess Title. India also beat Pakistan to lift the Snooker World Cup Trophy. Indian Women Cricket team was awarded as the team of the year by the International Sports Council.
Every chain has a dark side, a sad side rather. This year also we lost some
respected personalities. This year we lost Sridevi on 24 February, who was
truly an asset for the film industry. The other person whom we lost was our
former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 16 the August, just one day
after the Independence Day. He was an asset for the nation and his loss cannot
be compensated. The year took Kader Khan with it. On 31 st December, the
writer of dialogues in more than 300 films and the cast of more than 500 films
took his last breadth in Canada.
We learned a lot of good things from 2018 and 2019 is not an exception. It is very
rightly said that success is a journey and not a destination. We should welcome
every year as a fresh and a year full of opportunities and should enter in it with
a spirit to prove yourself.