Snapshots of 2014

POLITICS
India's Rightward Shift: Narendra Modi's charisma and energetic campaign helped the BJP storm back to power. Seizing the moment, an emboldened Sangh Parivar launched the polarising love jihad and ghar wapsi campaigns. The Congress plumetted to a historic low of 44 seats, but the party reposed its abiding faith in the ineffective Rahul Gandhi. Arvind Kejriwal quit after 49 days in power prompting a nationwide backlash against the fledgling Aam Aadmi Party.

Obama Eclipsed: The House of Representatives already lost, the Democrats also ceded control of the Senate to the Republicans making it impossible for US president Barack Obama to push his legislative agenda in Congress.
Russian Roulette: Riled by Ukraine's overtures to NATO, Russia wrested the Crimean Peninsula and subsequently backed pro-Russia Ukrainian rebels. Subsequent US and EU sanctions hit the Russian economy hard.

ECONOMICS
Oil Crash: By the year-end, crude oil prices steeply fell from $110 per barrel in January to around $60. With the US stepping up shale oil and gas production and global oil demand falling, OPEC resisted the temptation to curb supplies.
Global Slump: The five-year-old Eurozone crisis continued to damage the Euro currency bloc with high fiscal deficits and poor growth prospects. Japan slid into recession, its economy contracting for two successive quarters. China recorded lower exports and India's manufacturing sector weathered a prolonged slowdown.
Reforms Push: The Modi government launched a reforms drive with changes in factory regulations, building consensus on GST, and clearing ordinances on FDI in insurance, coal mines allocation, and land acquisition legislations. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and the Jan Dhan Yojna topped the government’s economic and social sector agendas.
E-tail Boom: Investors promised e-commerce majors Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal fund infusions to the tune of $4 billion in 2014 which translated into more discounts for customers.

VIOLENCE
ISIS Crisis: The tyrannical Islamic State made rapid advances in the bloody Iraqi and Syrian civil wars, accompanied by brutal beheadings and fanaticism that put even the Al-Qaeda to shame. The violence made the nations that orchestrated these wars sit up, take notice, and adopt retaliatory measures.
Race Realities: Several rounds of protests broke out across US cities over the killing of African-Americans by white police officers. The subsequent denial of justice questioned the hype of a post-racial America that followed the Obama presidency.
Gaza's Sorrow: Over 2,100 Gazans had to die, nearly 11,000 left injured, and a lakh homeless, before Israel decided to end a 50-day war it began with the definitive aim of pummelling the defenceless, yet resolute, Gazans to submission.
Peshawar Terror: Pakistan paid with the lives of 150 schoolchildren for its warped policy of tolerating fundamentalist elements.
Bodo Aggression: The Centre's kid-gloved treatment emboldened Bodo militants to launch repeated attacks and massacre Muslims in May and Adivasis in December.

TRAIL OF DEVASTATION
Ebola Deaths: Despite 8,000 deaths, over 20,000 affected, and no vaccines or drugs available, the three West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have waged a tenacious fight against the most virulent epidemic in recent times.
Airline Crashes: The unexplained disappearance of Malaysian Airlines(MH370), the downing of MH17, and this week's crash of an AirAsia flight in the Java Sea made it a dark year for international civil aviation.

TECHNOLOGY
Hacker Menace: The international dimensions of the Sony Pictures cyber-hacking episode had governments worried over their Internet security architecture. The infamous celebrity photo leaks, allegedly through a breach of cloud servers, compounded worries over rapid technological change failing to ensure adequate privacy safeguards.
Internet of Things: The Internet of Things, a visionary interconnected world of humans and all the devices they use, came closer to reality in 2014, despite privacy and job loss concerns. Google unveiled its first fully functioning prototype of a driverless car in December. Private drones turned into popular gifts this holiday season in the US. Amazon India even announced plans to test private drone courier deliveries.