Table of contents for 31 March 2025 in India Today

There is much talk in India about becoming the third largest economy in the world in terms of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by 2030. This is a valid ambition that India must work aggressively towards achieving. Besides that, other factors determine whether a nation is regarded as a developed country: high human development indices straddling health and education, and world-class infrastructure that facilitates both ease of living and business. Yet there’s another layer of reality that these criteria do not capture. This week, we propose an additional method beyond GDP to gauge a country’s progress on the development path. We are calling it Gross Domestic Behaviour (GDB). Think of it as the ‘software’ layer of society that interacts symbiotically with hard material factors: an umbilical cord ties GDP with GDB.…

In the past four months, Sikhism’s three key politico-religious institutions—the Akal Takht, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)—have plunged into turmoil. This institutional flux has created a dangerous void that experts warn could embolden radical elements in Punjab’s socio-political landscape. The Akal Takht is the highest of the five seats of authority in Sikhism, with its jathedar or ordained leader holding a stature akin to the Pope in Catholicism. The SGPC, which manages key gurdwaras across Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Chandigarh, has historically appointed the Akal Takht jathedar. Meanwhile, the SAD, a dominant Sikh political party, has wielded considerable influence over both institutions. Together, these entities have shaped Sikh religious and political life for decades. The crisis began on December 2,…

The India Today Group, in collaboration with How India Lives (HIL) and Kadence International, conducted India’s first ‘Gross Domestic Behaviour’ survey to study social and personal behaviours across the country. ↘ It covered 9,188 respondents from 98 districts across 21 states and one Union Territory ↘ The sample included 50.8 per cent male and 49.2 per cent female respondents ↘ They were also split as 54.4 per cent urban and 45.6 per cent rural respondents. Since no single measurement could fully capture the diverse social and personal behaviours, the survey used multiple factors grouped into four broad themes: ↘ Civic Behaviour (participation in community activities, following public rules) ‑ 12 questions ↘ Public Safety (trust in law enforcement, personal security perceptions) ‑ 6 questions ↘ Gender Attitudes (views on gender…

Public safety is not just about crime statistics, it is about how safe people feel in their everyday lives. To capture this perception, the India Today Gross Domestic Behaviour (GDB) survey explored public attitudes on safety through six key questions—ranging from concerns about eve-teasing and safety in public transport to willingness to report violent crimes and perceptions of neighbourhood security. Kerala leads the nation in public safety, followed closely by Himachal Pradesh and Odisha, while Uttar Pradesh occupies the bottom position—a stark reminder of the regional variations in security perceptions across India. A most telling insight comes from the experience of women in public spaces—62 per cent of the respondents claim that eve-teasing is not a major issue in their areas, but nearly 44 per cent of women report facing…

Understanding social behaviour is, admittedly, not an easy task. Unlike GDP or AQI numbers that are flashed in our everyday spaces, it is difficult to quantify social responses even when established theories, mechanisms and research methods attempt to calibrate them. There is a complex web of factors that drives humans to act, interact and react within diverse social contexts: the four broad planks in the India Today Gross Domestic Behaviour survey, thus, are indicators of likely behavioural patterns and can at best be considered relative. Gender attitudes assessed in the survey predictably reflect behavioural choices over a wide spectrum disaggregated along urban/rural segments across the states and six key prompts directed to elicit ethical, informed and sane responses. What is surprising however and, happily so, is that for nearly all…

What’s it like to be Sabyasachi Mukherjee? “Tiring!” responds the renowned fashion designer. “You can’t let the ball drop when there are so many people depending on you. I’m getting old—my mind is razor-sharp but the body is failing. When there is a conflict between mind and body, you start feeling tired,” he confesses. However, on the night of the launch of décor destination Nilaya Anthology—a 100,000 sq. ft space comprising retail outlets, an art gallery and a co-working space—in Mumbai, where the Sabyasachi Art Foundation has found its permanent home, the designer seemed far from tired, enthusiastically introducing the captivating works of artist-in-residence Atish Mukherjee to the guests in attendance. Sabyasachi established the foundation in 2014 as an initiative dedicated to mentoring and empowering artists from India. “I’ve been…

Nikhil Madhok, Head of Originals, Amazon Prime India, has had a busy first quarter. There’s been the well-received season two of Paatal Lok (January); the moving fatherson drama, The Mehta Boys; the tale on passionate cinephiles in Superboys of Malegaon (February), and the slice-of-life comedy in Duphaiya. “The best part of my job is that typically by a Sunday or Monday, I get a call from a talent, in front or behind the camera, and they are like ‘I’ve never experienced this in my life,” says Madhok. “That one call brings so much joy. It makes the two-three years of work spent making it [show or film] worthwhile.” Madhok started out with a marketing stint in Unilever before moving to where his heart lay—in “storytelling”. He joined NDTV Imagine and…

Q. A film centred around dance…. Were you surprised director Remo D’Souza considered you for Be Happy? Not at all. I love dancing. I did a film called Naach (2004). When Remo came—I have worked with him [as choreographer] several times and seen the films he’s directed—I was excited to see what he’d offer me in terms of a story. Unfortunately, the role didn’t demand that much dancing! I hope he’ll give me the opportunity to dance for him in a dance film. Maybe if he did ABCD again? I’d audition for it. Q. You received some of the best reviews of your career for Shoojit Sircar’s I Want to Talk. Did your father give you a bouquet and a note as he does to those whose performances he’s loved?…

Rahul Gandhi has once again donned his reformist hat, this time in Gujarat, vowing to purge the local Congress of its “BJP sympathisers”. Bold words, but whether Gujarat will actually see the sacking of the 20-odd delinquents, only time will tell. Rahul might also want to spend some time on Assam where party MLAs could offer a masterclass in political moonlighting, openly cosying up to the BJP. Since 2021, Shashikanta Das (Raha), Basanta Das (Mangoldoi), Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha (Karimganj North) and Siddeque Ahmed (Karimganj South) have, at different points, publicly pledged their admiration for the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led BJP government. The last two even campaigned for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. The Congress high command’s response? Suspension and petitions to the courts and the assembly speaker. Predictably, these…

Civic behaviour is the glue that holds a society together, shaping the everyday interactions that define the quality of public life. From respecting public property to extending a helping hand in times of crisis, the choices individuals make reveal the collective character of a nation. Through 12 carefully designed questions, the India Today Gross Domestic Behaviour survey attempts to gauge public attitudes toward honesty, social responsibility and adherence to civic norms. The findings reveal a complex tapestry of behavioural patterns across states, illustrating both encouraging trends and concerning disparities in public conduct. Tamil Nadu emerges as a paragon of civic virtue, securing the No. 1 rank, followed closely by West Bengal and Odisha, while Punjab languishes at the bottom, ranked 22nd. This stark contrast underscores the regional variations in how Indians…

If public safety is a state of mind, then India’s mindscape is a collage of contradictions, paradoxes and flickering hopes. The first-ever Gross National Behaviour survey, conducted by the India Today Group in collaboration with How India Lives, sets out to quantify not just what we do, but how safe we feel while doing it. Of course, one might debate the sample size and methodology, but this survey has the potential to spark a national conversation on the conduct and civic sensibilities that define a truly developed nation. The survey reveals a nation neither wholly secure nor entirely anxious, but rather existing in a curious state of in-between—a patchwork quilt of confidence and concern that defies simple characterisation. Kerala, the verdant coastal state known for its near-universal literacy and robust social…

India, a land that prides itself on its diversity, reveals a deeply fragmented picture when it comes to acceptance and discrimination. The India Today Gross Domestic Behaviour survey explored public attitudes on social inclusivity through five key questions. While a national majority claims openness to religious and caste diversity, the data exposes entrenched biases that vary sharply across states. Kerala emerges as the beacon of inclusivity and ranks first, while Madhya Pradesh languishes at the bottom, illustrating the stark regional disparities in social attitudes across the country. Respondents in Kerala overwhelmingly reject restrictions on food habits, oppose employment discrimination and welcome interfaith and inter-caste marriages. At the other end of the spectrum, MP, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand show the most rigid social barriers, with high resistance to interfaith unions and…

Unlike his famous predecessor Sálim Ali, Asad Rahmani is not a household name. He does not have a Wikipedia page. And, perhaps because he is not on Instagram, the younger generation may be unaware of his immense body of work. Yet, most conservationists acknowledge Rahmani as the country’s greatest living ornithologist. His memoir, long overdue, has finally appeared in print. That it did is fortuitous, not least because the senior conservationist is in his seventies and well-placed to reflect on an illustrious career. In October 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, he had a brush with death. His book’s title, then, is apt. Living with Birds traces Rahmani’s life in ornithology and conservation, much of it undertaken with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), the prestigious organisation where he began his…

IN a nation determinedly coursing towards economic superpowerdom, one uncomfortable truth could well prove to be a dark undertow: our less-than-perfect civic conscience. India may be positioning itself to become the world’s third-largest economy, with a projected Gross Domestic Product of $7 trillion, or roughly Rs 581 lakh crore, by 2030, but its social fabric does not show such forward movement. To assess where the country stands, the India Today Group, in collaboration with data analytics firm How India Lives, embarked on a first-ofits-kind survey across 98 districts in 21 states and one Union territory asking 9,188 Indians not about their income or assets, but about decency, empathy and integrity, a measure that we are calling Gross Domestic Behaviour (GDB). And the findings are far from happy—61 per cent of Indians…

This survey comes to two important conclusions. First, most people in India know what the right thing is to do and then don’t do it. Second, the southern states, particularly Kerala, are way ahead of the North in terms of civic consciousness. This includes a host of factors covering a wide spectrum. They stretch from awareness of public cleanliness, religious tolerance, banning tobacco, neighbourhood safety and, most striking of all, gender parity. Like most surveys, one has to read this one too between the numbers, keeping in mind the many limitations that such exercises chronically suffer from. The most common one is that the very act of asking questions gives the game away and the responses then are, as if, rehearsed. The respondents are conscious that they are being judged…

How do Indians perceive gender roles in their households and society? The India Today Gross Domestic Behaviour (GDB) survey sought □ to answer this by posing six thoughtfully designed questions to over 9,000 respondents nationwide. The results on ‘Gender Attitudes’ paint a picture of a country caught between progress and persistent patriarchy. Kerala emerges as a beacon of gender parity, topping the rankings, while Uttar Pradesh languishes at the bottom. In a society where tradition often dictates gender norms, a staggering 69 per cent of the respondents believe that men should have the final say in household decisions. This sentiment is most pronounced in Uttar Pradesh, where an overwhelming 96 per cent endorse this view. In contrast, Kerala offers a progressive counterpoint, with three-quarters of its respondents rejecting this notion outright.…

The 2025 Indian Premier League will be the 18th edition of the tournament. No. 18 has an iconic connection with Indian cricket, thanks to Virat ‘King’ Kohli, who has turned the jersey number to legend status for India and his IPL franchise. This year, the marquee tournament comes at a time when a serious debate is on about whether the current Indian XI ‘is the greatest white-ball team ever’. What a difference 12 months can make. Last year, around this time, the mood was a lot more dark, questions were being asked about the players’ commitment to country and the blue baggy cap; there was criticism over the IPL taking precedence over India’s international matches, the lack of ICC trophies in the past 11 years. The concern was understandable, Indian…

In 2021, a couple of years before the terrible ethnic conflict started in Manipur, the state threw up some of the most reliable sites to see one of India’s stunning but rare pheasants. Named evocatively as ‘Nong-in’ in the Meitei language, it means ‘one who follows the tracks of the rain’. Also known as Mrs. Hume’s pheasant to the English-speaking world, it is named after the wife of the temperamental but prodigious ornithologist Allan Octavian Hume. With the help of the Maharaja of Manipur, Hume described the pheasant in 1880 and dedicated the discovery to his missus. In the intervening 140 years, it had been reliably seen only a couple of times, once notably by the late ornithologist Ravi Sankaran in the mid-2000s. So, when Harmenn Huidrom, one of Manipur’s…