The cast and characters that dominated our news pages in the year gone by have been more of the usual suspects — Donald Trump, Carlos Alcaraz, Nitish Kumar — and then some new ones rose to prominence, for good or for bad. We spoke not just of people, but entities and outfits that defined the year.
Here, we look at 10 of them that burst onto the scene and shaped narratives across various spheres of life.
Shubhanshu Shukla
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla enjoys a panoramic view of the Earth from the seven-windowed Cupola Module of the International Space Station. Source: X/@ISROSpaceflight
Forty one years after India’s first foray into space, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the face of the nation’s modern celestial ambitions. In June, as the mission pilot for Axiom-4, Shukla became the first ISRO astronaut to board the International Space Station. His 18-day mission included seven scientific experiments on muscle repair, algae growth and neurological responses to spaceflight, laying the groundwork for India’s ambitious Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme.
