The parallel between happenings in 2025 and the dystopian novel 1984 is unmistakable. Between them, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping have all but created the fictional nations of Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia, imagined in George Orwell’s novel. Showing remarkable prescience, Orwell’s novel showed the three nations in perpetual conflict, but with the tacit understanding that the hostilities were only a tool to perpetuate a state of emergency, one that justified the dictatorial and totalitarian measures by rulers of the three superpowers.
That said, Trump is the undoubted protagonist of 2025. True to his impatient and megalomaniacal nature, within a year of inauguration, Trump has rewritten domestic and international politics, leaving alliances and allies of long standing in the lurch, weaponizing trade to bring the rest of the world to heel, withdrawing the USA from the Paris accord on climate change, supporting genocide by Israel and attacking Iran for no justifiable reason, scrapping USAID, deploying the armed forces to crack down on migration at the border, ordering the National Guard into US cities, terminating all diversity programmes in government, and cancelling policies supporting renewable energy.
However, the world economy adapted to Trump’s tariff shock remarkably well; new trading opportunities emerged, and the volume of world trade remaining largely unaffected. Rather, Americans bore the brunt of Trump’s depredations: “Liberation Day” tariffs in April 2025 led to a precipitate fall in stock markets, with the S&P 500 tumbling by about 11 per cent in two days, and inflation inched upwards throughout the year. Fortunately for the US, Trump’s billionaire supporters made him see reason; most tariffs were eventually lowered or postponed, and stock markets bounced back.
All said, the net effect of Trump’s antics was transitory; the world economy and the American economy, both are forecast to grow by around 3 per cent in 2025. Twenty twenty-five was a momentous year for India. Massacre of 26 innocent, unarmed tourists, in Pahalgam by Pakistani militants on 22 April 2025, plunged the country into grief. India retaliated swiftly, by launching Operation Sindoor on May 9, destroying terrorist bases deep inside Pakistan, and damaging a large number of military installations ~ all without a single aircraft or soldier stepping into Pak territory. Pakistan, armed to the teeth with the latest Chinese weaponry, and forewarned by Chinese satellites, was overwhelmed, and had to beg for peace.
The four-day war decisively demonstrated India’s military and technological superiority, with Indian missiles and drones hitting targets deep inside Pakistan with deadly precision, and preventing Pakistani retaliation by its Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) ~ an unheralded but successful air defence shield. The US and China, who supported Pakistan, had to watch their much-touted weapons eating humble pie before India’s improvised weaponry ~ reminding defence experts of the 2019 incident, when Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman, piloting a souped-up vintage Mig-21, shot down a Pakistan Air Force F-16.
Western media did all they could do to debunk a decisive Indian victory, with the US President adding his tuppence of brokering peace at the request of both India and Pakistan. The year 2025 started with the Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj, with the world’s largest gathering of an estimated 66 crore devotees. Excellent arrangements at the Maha Kumbh were marred by a stampede that cost the lives of at least 30 people, and left another 60 injured. In a related incident, at least 18 people were killed and over 15 others injured, in a stampede that broke out on February 15 at the New Delhi Railway Station. All casualties were of devotees, waiting to board trains for Prayagraj, for the Maha Kumbh.
A horrific stampede followed the Royal Challangers Bengaluru’s IPL triumph; poor crowd management at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, where lakhs of fans had thronged to felicitate the home team, led to a stampede which killed 11 people, and caused injuries to at least 50. Then there was a stampede at Karur in Tamil Nadu, where thousands of people had gathered to attend a rally by actor-turned-politician Vijay. Fans surging towards his vehicle, triggered a stampede that killed 41 people and injured over 100 others. Probably, police of all States need lessons in modern crowd management. The Supreme Court, and a number of judges of higher courts, were in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Justice Yashwant Verma, a judge of the Delhi High Court, is facing impeachment, after sacks of notes were allegedly burnt in a fire at his official residence.
Then, there have been repeated instances of the Supreme Court frequently reversing its earlier judgements ~ a trend deprecated judicially by the Supreme Court itself ~ which signals that there is no finality to the law laid down by the apex court. The most notable instance of backtracking was the celebrated Governors’ Powers Case; a bench of the Supreme Court decided that Governors were bound to approve bills within a definite timeframe, while in an advisory opinion, rendered soon after, the Supreme Court held that no definite timeline for the Governor’s approval, could be prescribed. Afterwards, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court was constrained to deprecate the growing predilection of the top court of re-visiting and overturning its own judgements.
The year also saw return of incumbent BJP governments in Bihar and Haryana. The opposition highlighted discrepancies in electoral rolls, coining the slogan of ‘vote chori’ in this context. In this background, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, in a number of States, was a much-needed step. Significantly, in 12 States, after SIR, 6.59 crore persons have been removed from the draft voters list, and around 1.87 crores have been marked as ‘unmapped’ ~ persons who will have to provide additional documents to be included in the voters list. On the economic front, rising US tariffs, an issue that is yet to be sorted out, caused much anxiety to exporters. True to the adage of every cloud having a silver lining, new trade partnerships emerged and the economy, which was forecast to drag, grew at a record rate of 8.2 per cent.
Also, belatedly, the Government bit the bullet and restructured GST and granted income-tax relief to marginal tax payers, thus spurring domestic demand. Despite lower rates, contrary to apprehensions, both direct and indirect tax collections increased. Parliament passed the “Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill,” which is aimed at encouraging private investment, and international partnerships, in the nuclear sector. Another move was the much-delayed implementation of the four Labour Codes, which will, hopefully, simplify, harmonise and modernise the labyrinthine labour law framework. A controversial law passed by Parliament was the Viksit Bharat ~ Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB~G RAM G) Act 2025, which replaces the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MGNREGA). The Opposition has objected to removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name, and moving away from a legally enforceable, demand-driven employment guarantee ~ despite higher promised workdays. While thousands of kilos of explosives were being discovered by investigating agencies in nationwide raids, using the same explosives, a terrorist detonated a car bomb near the Red Fort, killing 12 people and injuring 20 others.
Later on, the same confiscated explosives, transported to a Srinagar police station, blew up killing an additional nine people, and injuring 32 others. Enforcement agencies definitely need to coordinate and upgrade their SOPs. The year saw the Indian aviation sector coming apart, first with the tragic Air India crash in Ahmedabad which claimed 260 lives, and again with the Indigo crisis in December, which saw airfares going through the roof, and 5,000 flights being cancelled. It appears that the regulator, DGCA, had not been vigilant enough and was being led by the nose by the dominant airline, Indigo; chaos erupted, when DGCA wanted to implement the rules framed by them. We would definitely be better off if regulators are staffed by hands-on, industry experts, and not bureaucrats. Learning from our mistakes, we can hope to do better in 2026. As Alfred Lord Tennyson, had said: “Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.’
The writer is a retired Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax